A Vigil For Jim

from Rolling Stone Magazine  January 22, 2004   page 22    Issue #940

Doors visit Morrison's grave

The Doors of the 21st Century marked what would have been Jim Morrison's sixtieth birthday on December 8th with a secret gig at La Scene in Paris, treating fans to a set of songs from L. A. Woman.  "We never got to play those live," says keyboardist Ray Manzarek, "so we wanted to play them for Jim.  It was like being back at the Whisky.  It was Morrison's birthday and a full moon.   People were howling, literally howling.

Earlier that day, Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger and a swarm of fans held a vigil for Morrison at his Paris grave site in Pere Lachaise, burning a rose and a poem on the grave.  Former drummer John Densmore is involved in litigation against the band because of the reunion and did not attend the show or the vigil.

According to Manzarek, an album of new material is in the works, with the Doors enlisting Jim Carroll, Beat poet Michael McClure, John Doe of X and Warren Zevon -- who contributed a six-line stanza titled "There's a River of Madness Running Through Los Angeles" before his death last summer -- to write lyrics.

"We want to say something about the human condition in the twenty-first century, just like the Doors in the twentieth century said something about the human condition," says Manzarek.  "If it doesn't have weight to it, it's not worth doing."

(a photo of Ray and Ian, with Ray holding a familiar picture of the original band, accompanies the story)

by Colin Devenish

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1/10/04