Howard Smith Comments on the Village Voice
Interview
by Howard Smith
The following are Howard Smith's comments after his 1970 interview
with Jim Morrison at the Doors' office in L.A.
"....On the second floor is this office and in there is his
manager, a press agent, those kind of people, you know, at their
desks and there was Jim Morrison. It was 11:00 o' clock in the
morning and there was an engineer, setting up all the equipment and
he had a whole bunch of his comrades coming, sitting around, a lot
of voices you'll hear in the background, kinda laughing at his
jokes and joining in and everything ... his people, and also
something, I think it's on the tape, I think this comes up at a
later point, but I want you to keep this in mind: before I went
there, I had a feeling that it was going to be a tough interview. I
just kinda had a feeling that he and I didn't have the same
athatalism, that it was going to be tricky, and I said to Cilla,
who was along with me, you know, if things get really difficult
with him, I'm gonna suggest that we armwrestle ... and then I put
it out of my mind, and then you'll hear what happens about that
later on in the interview..."
The Village Voice Interview
by Howard Smith - November 1970
JM: It's nice of you to come over on a rainy day like this.
HS: I hear it never rains in Los Angeles.
JM: Uh-huh - the rainy season.
HS: I was in New Orleans once and everybody said it never snows and
it was snowing.
JM: I was in New Orleans about two months ago and I thought it was
a beautiful town, very strange, and I had a lot of fun there. Did
you have a good time in New Orleans?
HS: Oh yeah. It's the only place I've ever been that looks exactly
like it's supposed to look, you know, from all the
photographs.
JM: You know, I was thinking about New Orleans last night. There's
a bar called Bonapartes. Did you go there?
HS: No.
JM: They have a fantastic mural, done by a young artist who doesn't
live in the city anymore. It's a picture of Napoleon in exile and
he's kind of sulking in this field and there's a sword stuck in the
ground in front of him and then over to the left is the scenes from
the ... some kind of a ... you know, it's a war scene, people in
sewers and chaos and all that, you know, ghosts and shades. It's a
beautiful mural. I can't get it out of my mind actually.
HS: Have you been traveling around a lot?
No, that, that was just ... A friend [Frank Lisciandro] and I went
to Atlanta for a film festival; we had a film aired there and then
we drove from Atlanta to New Orleans.
HS: You said you had a film entered there?
JM: Yeah.
HS: What kind of film?
JM: Well, it was a little 40-minute documentary on a rock and roll
band, traveling around the States, we shot about a year ago.
HS: What do you mean, on The Doors?
JM: Yeah, it's called Feast of Friends, they showed it in the New
York Film Festival too and, so, actually it was just an excuse to
go to Atlanta and then we drove to New Orleans from there. I dig
the South.
HS: You have any scenes on the road, while travelin', you
know?
JM: No, but one thing I do remember. Atlanta has the most amazing
hotel you've ever seen. You walk in ... and from the outside it
looks like any other large hotel, you know. Then you get in and you
look up ... It goes up about 27 floors and the interior is like a
Spanish courtyard. I mean, in ... architecturally it's hollow. So
all the rooms face each other across this vast garden arena and the
elevators are like, kind of Victorian rocketships and they're
glass, and so you go up to the, you go up to the restaurant on the
penthouse level and it's completely encased by glass.
HS: What, it goes up the outside of the building, that
elevator?
JM: No, the inside, see, and so ... you get this strange sensation
- you're rising up 27 floors in this glass elevator...
HS: Mmm. When traveling around by car, you didn't have any
...
JM: Oh, somebody jumped, one time from the ... somebody jumped ...
and landed in... They have a restaurant in the middle of it, and so
he landed in that restaurant and ... I hear it was really
horrible.
HS: Did you see Easy Rider?
JM: Yeah.
HS: That's what I meant, did you have any scenes, like that at
all.
JM: No, I don't ... I think that's an exaggeration, really.. I
don't know why the South has such a reputation like, you know, but
maybe these cliches are really true after all. I never really
noticed that the South was any worse than any other part of the
United States ... Of course, I'm from there, you know, so I might
be prejudiced, but I think it's a grotesque caricature. However, it
is a strange territory, you bet.
HS: How come you don't have an accent? ...if you're from the
South...
JM: [drawling] Why, I doon't knoowww. How come I don't have an
accent, bein' from the South, and all. I watch a lot of television,
and I just, I try and obey the norm, you know.
HS: What?!
JM: That's what they, you know, people in the Midwest, in the South
and all, and they, they call it ... like the way people in
California talk, they call it 'TV talk'. You know, it's the way
people talk on television, newscasters and commercials and actors
and all that ... It's 'TV talk'.
HS: Mmm. Are The Doors gonna be performing, going on tour again
soon, or what?
JM: Well, the only thing we have planned is a gig in Madison Square
Garden for four shows, two days, around January 17th, 18th,
something like that.
HS: Mmm. Do you enjoy performing?
JM: Yeah.
HS: More than recording?
JM: Well ... I guess so ... I do. I think it's more fun, you know,
with a lot of people around. Recording studios tend to get a little
dry and monotonous. Yeah, I guess the real fun is in
performing.
[the phone rings]
HS: Wait a minute ... We're gonna have to ...
JM: You can always edit this, you know?
HS: Yeah, but sometimes when it's like right on the line, when it
seems to be ringing right from there, it's from there... I put the
receiver off.
JM: That's weird, the receiver's off and it still rings.
[Woman's voice]: Maybe you could put all the lines on hold.
HS: Yeah, could you put 'em all on hold? It seems to be ringin'
right here.
JM: Get the scissors...
HS: Do you rehearse specially for a performance?
JM: Nope.
HS: Well, how do you decide what you're gonna do - you just go
out?
JM: Well, we have a repertoire of 30 or 40 tunes and so ... We
usually plan, like, in the dressing room before we go on. We
usually plan, you know, the first 3 or 4 songs and then, after
that, we just play it by ear. So we don't really know what we're
gonna do when we go out there.
HS: Mmm. How about in the recording studio? How do you work out
what you're gonna do?
JM: Usually we rehearse a couple of weeks, a month or ... you know,
until we have a considerable amount of material and then we go in
and do it. We don't ... well, on this, on this new album it's
really strange; it went really quick, you know. We ... we went in
and we got like a song a day, which is kind of unusual. It was
funny - the first album that we did ... in about ten days and then
each succeeding album took longer and longer, til the last one took
about nine months to do and this one, we went in and we got a song
a day. It was amazing. Partly, because we went back to the original
instrumentation: just the four of us and a bass player.
HS: Why did you decide to go that way?
JM: I don't know.
HS: Mmm.
JM: Um ... I think that phrase is the most horrible phrase in the
English language - 'I DON'T KNOW' - ... It's terribly
embarrassing...
HS: When you're in the recording studio, do you ... are you aware
that you're doing a hit single at any point?
JM: No, we joke around about it a lot, but actually, we just do an
album and then, you know, every time we make a choice for a single,
it usually turns out wrong, it's usually ... and so, what we're
gonna do on this one, is just put it out. Put out the album and let
the public decide which one they like the best and then we'll
release that as a single, seems like the most realistic way to do
it.
HS: Who picked the singles before though?
JM: Well, yeah, we pick 'em, but you know. we don't ... I don't
think we really have the key to the pulse of the nation, because
we've made more mistakes than we've been right.
HS: Mmm. The underground press, I sort of felt, was the big reason
why The Doors made it so big at the beginning. I mean, aside from
the fact that you're all very good, I mean, you know, if publicity
has anything to do with it, it was that. And then, after a while,
that seemed to have changed, now generally we read put-downs of The
Doors now. Why?
JM: I think ... Oh, by the way, I remember the, the name of that
guy... It was Erich Von Stroheim, 'the man you love to hate...'
Yeah, that's ... We're ... I think we're the band you love to hate.
So I, it's been that way from the beginning, you know. We're
universally despised. I kind of, I kind of relish the whole
situation.
HS: But how did that start? Why? Why are you the band that
everybody loves to hate?
JM: Gee, I don't know! I guess, I don't know, I think it's like ...
I was just up in San Francisco for another film festival, this
'Feast of Friends,' this film. It was an audience, it consisted
mainly of young people, way under 30. You know, hip, young people,
street people, and they booed the film and I think it's ... that
... we're on a monstruous egotrip and people resent it, you know.
They hate us because we're so good...
[It is obvious that the tape starts and stops several times during
Jim's last spoken segment.]
HS: Does it bother you at all when you read put-downs?
JM: Yeah, it does. I wish they wouldn't do it, but 'freedom of the
press' and all that, you know.
HS: Mmm, you say with a nasty glint.
JM: Umm... I think maybe it will change. I think ... I think, what
it is, it's a question of longevity. It's like ... you know, it's
that old thing like a first novel. You know, they usually give the
cat a break, you know, and everybody kinda pats him on the back and
then the second one they really chop him up. And then, if he does a
few more, you know, and shows he has staying power, then, you know,
they say: well, welcome back to the fold, the human family embraces
you, and I think it'll be the same way with us. We just have to
hold out for a little while and everyone ... one day will realize:
wow, they ... they're just like old friends, they've been around
for years now, and, you know, they're part of our national psyche.
I guess we'll just, you know, accept them, you know, but now it's,
a little, you know, we're kind of in an in - between.
HS: Some of the criticism has been about the kind of music ... you
know, it seemed to have been ... I don't know ... rougher or maybe
more revolutionary at the beginning and then it seemed to have
gotten more ... I don't know ... sweeter, you know, more top 40.
Were you aware of that happening?
JM: Mmm. I don't agree with that. I ... I just think the music
keeps getting better and better. It gets more subtle, more
sophisticated, musically and lyrically. Besides, you know, if you
keep saying the same old thing over and over... I mean, it's bound
to get boring, right? Who wants to hear ... Who wants to hear
revolution 24 hours a day?
HS: No, I don't think that was it. I don't think it was just the
lyrics or something. It had more to do with ... sort of that
overall sound, in the song Hello I love you. That was one of the
ones I think you caught a lot of criticism for.
JM: You know, that song, I wrote that very early, about three years
ago. If you listen to the lyrics ... you know, maybe ... maybe it's
the arrangement... I like it:
Hello I love you
won't you tell me your name
Hello I love you
let me jump in your game...
Aahaha ... aaha,
She's walking down the street
blind to every eye she meets
Do you think you'll be the guy
to make the queen of the angels sigh...
Umm, I forget the rest of it... anyway, ... ohhh...
Do you hope to pluck this dusky jewel...
I wou ... you know, I wouldn't say that's such a bad lyric...
HS: Maybe it was the arrangement then, but, you know, it had a ...
I don't know... I remember when I first heard it and then, at the
end, end of the song, the deejay said, that was The Doors, I said:
WHAT?! No, it just didn't sound the same, or even like it. It
wasn't just that I wanted to hear more of the same, it ... There
was almost no connection...
JM: Yep, we're just full of surprises, Howard! ... Can I have some
more coffee, Kathy? You make the best coffee...
HS: What kind of music do you listen to yourself?
JM: Well, the only time I listen to music is in, on car radios,
when I'm driving around. You know, top 40 stuff ... I don't listen
to music that much. Every now and then I'll catch an act in public
somewhere. I saw, when I was in Vegas, I saw Peggy Lee and ... oh,
what was that other band, uhh ... I forget, they were ... you know,
I'll go to clubs every now and then, but I don't listen to music
that much. I'm not what you'd call a music buff.
HS: Do you read a lot?
JM: Nope, I don't read very much either. I used to ... and then I
... Life got so interesting that I didn't need to anymore.
HS: Mmm, Do you write a lot?
JM: Nope. ... I don't. I don't do much of anything, really. But I
will, don't worry. I'll get back ... in the saddle, you know. I've
just been kind of lazy lately. It's a period, it's cycles of
non-productiveness and then intense periods of creativity. So right
now I'm just soaking it all in.
HS: Mmm. Doing what though? You know, when you say, you just live,
what ... like what?
JM: Oh, I did do one thing. I, I just completed a short feature
movie, 35 mm, in color, called HWY, H - W - Y, with a few friends
of mine and we got the first (inaudible) print the day before
yesterday and it should be, should be ready next week. I think it's
quite good too. It's about 60 minutes long.
HS: What's it about?
JM: Essentially, there's no plot, no story in the traditional
sense; a person, played by me, comes down out of the mountains and
hitchhikes his way through the desert into a modern city, which
happened to be L.A., and that's where it ends. It's a very
beautiful film.
HS: Mmm. You were just in it, or were you ... What else did you do
with it, anything?
JM: There were four guys who made it, me and three other guys and
we all just kind of made it together. It started out, I had an idea
for a film about a hitchhiker who becomes a mass murderer, you
know, the kind of thing that happens every year or so. Kind of like
this zodiac character, you know, except, you know, Stark Weather
and Billy Cook, in, it happens every couple of years and so, we
went out in the desert to start shooting it - while we were out
there, the film took over and just went in it's own direction and
became something a little different, and the only thing that was
... you know, that was left from the original idea was the idea of
a hitchhiker.
HS: Do you like appearing in films?
JM: The only reason I did it, to tell you the truth, is because I
couldn't think of anyone else to do it, you know, and it was just
as easy for me to do it. I might do some films. I don't know. I'm
not that crazy about being an actor, I'd rather be a director or a
writer, something like that, but you know, if I had a chance, I'd
probably do a few films. Why not? Shakespeare was an actor, when he
first came to London, you know...
HS: Are you gonna be writing films though? You have anything in the
works?
JM: Mmm, yeah, probably the ... If I do anything in films, it will
probably be this script called Saint Nicholas, that Michael McClure
and I wrote, based on his novel The Adept, which hasn't been
published yet. It's a contemporary story about a couple of dope
dealers that go to the desert to make a score and if I, if I do
anything, that'll probably be the first project.
HS: Are you gonna appear in it also?
JM: Mm hmm, probably...
HS: It sort of sounds like the beginning of Easy Rider...
JM: Yeah, I know, but there's nothing I can do about it. This, this
story was written before Easy Rider was made, you know, and it's
just superficial similarities. It's ... I know people are gonna,
you know, call attention to that, you know, but I don't know what
to do about it, you know. It's, it's very similar to Easy Rider,
you know, in its superficial aspects. Do you know, I read in Daily
Variety yesterday, you know, Easy Rider was made for about $385,000
dollars and the estimated gross, so far ... '50 to 60 million
dollars', he said, in a religious, hushed tone... '50 to 60 million
dollars, that's quite a profit margin, m'dear...'
HS: A lot of bad movies have made that much money too.
JM: Yeah, but they, you know, but they usually cost, you know, 10
or 12 million dollars to make; this was, this is like a .. breaks
precedents all over the place, because it's the first essentially,
you know, independent low-budget feature to really clean up in the
old marketplace, it's unusual. It's gonna, it's gonna open the
scene up for a lot of people.
HS: Yeah, Dennis Hopper is on another movie already. He's gonna
shoot one in Peru, I believe.
JM: Great ... great ...
HS: Umm, about money... Have The Doors become like, wealthy
enough?
JM: Uh, oh yes, I can go into any restaurant in town and order
anything I want ... and I don't have to go to 50 cent movies
anymore either...
HS: No, if you stop now...
JM: I'll never stop!! They can't stop me!!!
HS: No, really though. If you stop now, have you made enough to
stop?
JM: Let me think ... uh ... No, I'm, I'm just so greedy, you know,
it just ... the more I can get, the better ... you know. Just aah
... I'm ... what, my ambition is to have a whole bunch of gold
bullion, is that the proper terminology? Big gold bars, you know,
I'd like to have a big gold bar, big chunks of gold, you know, just
to have around the house, and ... you know...
HS: No, look, a lot of the groups that I've talked to, they say
that they have a lot of trouble holding on to money.
JM: Well, that's their fault! They're probably spendthrifts, you
know. It's like giving whiskey to an Indian!
HS: So you don't wanna talk about money?
JM: Well sure, what do you wanna know, man? [laughing]
HS: Have you held on to your money?
JM: Uh, let's put it this way: I think with our, you know, with our
economic system, and tax structure and all that, I don't think it's
possible, ever, to just retire and never work, you know ... you
know, because the economy keeps increasing; if you drop out of the
economy, then it just passes you up you know, in a couple of years
and you're left high and dry. I don't think you ... I don't think
it's possible to retire in a capitalistic society. But I enjoy
talking about money, Howard!
HS: Obviously!
JM: But what do you wanna know, you wanna ..., you know...
HS: Oh, come on!
JM: I'll get my accountant down here and show you my bank statement
...
HS: No, but, you know, you read about groups like The Beatles, I
interviewed Mick Jagger the other day and he also said, you know,
it's almost impossible: you work and you work and where's the
money...? The Byrds one time went on a tour for 30 days, made
300,000 dollars, came back, added everything up and they had spend
300,000 dollars in about 30 days.
JM: Yeah, and look where it got 'em... I think, you know, I dig
money because ... I've always, I've always said this... money does
beat soul everytime. [background laughter] Not only that... It's a
form of communication and besides that... If, if you have ... if
you run into some good luck and you get some money, right, then I
think you should just keep pouring it back into creative ventures
... just as soon as you get it, you know, don't go out and buy a
bunch of diamond rings and stuff, you know, but pour it back into
creative ventures, you know, that are creating new things and you
can't ever go wrong, you know... [tape stops] ...Do you have any
more scintillating questions to ask me?
HS: Yeah, I wanna ask you some more things.
JM: ... Of course, you know you can't use any of this. This is just
rehearsal... for the real one.