Shindig Doors
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p001_Shindig_74.qxp 10/11/2017 17:05 Page 1 THE MOODY BLUES THE POPPY FAMILY Back to the future | Out of the darkness OUR BEST OF 2017 THE STRANGE DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN INSIDE THE MAKING OF THEIR LEGENDARY STUDIO ALBUMS WITH PRODUCER BRUCE BOTNICK ALSO! ZOOT MONEY | MORTIMER | FOLK-HORROR ISSUE 74 • £5.50 MAXAYN | THE EASYBEATS | ROBERT WYATT p002_Shindig_74.qxp 10/11/2017 15:22 Page 1 welcome contents Issue 74 December 2017 Howdy Shindiggers, 60 Whilst things in the “Real World” are undoubtedly going from bad to worse, 2017 has been great for Shindig! It really does feel like we have hit our stride and maintained pace. Risky topics now feel less ominous, and quite often pieces on artists Features less associated with what was once viewed as the magazine’s forte have actually gone down best of all. It is, however, no Best Of 2017 surprise to discover readers like all manner of interesting things. Shindig!’s best of the year 21 Taste is always considered. Seeburg 1000 As it’s that feel good time of year I’d like to acknowledge The post war non-selective “industrial jukebox” 28 all who’ve written in, come to our events and tuned into the system minus rock ‘n’ roll radio show. An even bigger thank you goes out to those who buy the magazine on a regular basis. Without you Shindig! Maxayn wouldn’t exist. We appreciate your valued and continued Near forgotten psychedelic funk from the early ‘70s custom. 32 There’s no Xmas silliness in this issue as we’ve done that The Moody Blues quite enough over the past couple of years. So, without How November 1967’s Days Of Future Passed opened 38 suggesting some suitably fun sounds to get you through last the door for a legion of ambitious and progressive acts minute shopping and wrapping, we’d just like to wish you a most cool Yu l e . Of course, we do offer our annual best of Mortimer the year which may help you decide on suitable gifts for the New York’s unfortunate sons journey from The Teddy Boys to Apple 44 Shindigger in your life. And hey, why not treat that special Horror Folk someone to a year’s subscription? What better gift is there for a Late ’60s/early ’70s horror cinema’s classical and folk motifs music lover? 50 To close our 12 month celebration of 1967’s 50th The Poppy Family anniversary we look back at two key, and perhaps somewhat Vancouver ’s husband and wife’s darkly beautiful 54 known yet now overlooked albums. When was the last time semi psychedelic concoctions appreciated you listened to either The Doors’ Strange Days or The Moody Blues’ Days Of Future Passed? Some time I suspect, yet both The Doors stand the test of time and are certainly worth revisiting with In the studio with producer Bruce Botnick 60 fresh ears, especially when considering remastered editions of each record are now available. Enjoy the rest of the magazine and all of your festivities, Regulars whatever you’ll be doing. We’ll be back in the New Ye a r with a rather special celebratory issue. In the meantime, do please Shindiggin’ get in touch. We love to see What’s hot on the Shindig! turntable 4 your highlights of the year, Thoughts & Words views and thoughts on how Your letters and emails you’d like the mag to evolve. 6 It’s A Happening Thing Stay warm, merry and happy. The Easybeats, Sharon Jones, Serpent Power, Electric Eye, 8 Julian Maeso, Martha High, The Hanging Stars Happy Xmas, Happening Right Now Jon ‘Mojo’ Mills The hottest new bands 24 Editor-In-Chief Song Book Robert Wyatt’s 1972 lyrical paean to a relationship break up 26 20 Questions South coast soul legend, psychedelic saviour, rocker, 34 actor: the long and varied career of Zoot Money Reviews The best in reissues, new releases, books and live shows 71 Vinyl Art Dutch pranksters’ The Fool’s art project becomes music Shindig! listen to all music using the Teufel Kombo 62 96 and use Tidal and Roon. For more information go to Prize Crossword teufel.co.uk, tidal.com and roonlabs.com Win a copy of Numero Group’s new Acid Nightmares comp 97 3 SD74 pp03 Contents JON.indd 3 12/11/2017 15:11 SD74 Doors.qxp 12/11/2017 15:58 Page 1 BRUCE LATITUDES z z To close our 1967 celebrations, we finally spotlight , the seminal love year’s most revolutionary band who also reflected the darkness and socio-political carnage of the rest of the decade. There have been endless documents focusing on their charismatic doomed singer over the supernatural sounds The Doors produced together. explores the band’s untouchable musical legacy with BRUCE BOTNICK, the studio genius who captured their wild muse on record, with some help from guitarist ROBBY KRIEGER and late keyboard magus RAY MANZAREK z z aking rock ’n’ roll to previously unchartered planes of mystery and imagination, The Doors were the first US band to capture the seismic social changes happening in America and the volatile mood on the streets. While worshipped as cool pop stars, they became a microcosm and embodiment of young America’s rising underground resistance, providing a glorious soundtrack for when “the whole shithouse goes up in flames”, while becoming a prime target for the establishment’s paranoid retaliations. Even from where the 12-year-old me was sitting in late 1966, there was something darkly seductive about that first photo that appeared in the British music papers before a note of music had been heard. Released in January before any coming psychedelic milestones, The Doors set new benchmarks for evocative lyrics, multi- hued intelligence and studio-combusted sonic expression. Mysterious, evocative and screamingly dramatic, no band had sounded like this (or ever would), even if their moody shimmer seemed birthed in the dark heart of the blues at its blackest. The garage-rock organ tattoo of ‘Louie Louie’ had sprouted wings, jazz liberation was in the picture and the singer was a brooding shaman. That was only the start. SD74 Doors.qxp 12/11/2017 15:58 Page 2 Those were the days. Robby Krieger, Ray Manzarek, Jim Morrison and John Densmore in LA, late 1967 SD74 Doors.qxp 12/11/2017 15:58 Page 3 Sittin’ on the dock of the bay around the time of their ’67 debut hen we spoke in 2007, Ray last year’s London Fog 1966), and would ‘The End’ gained its Oedipal Manzarek beautifully summed dominate their first two albums. The band monologue one August night after (it’s up The Doors after I made a even signed to Columbia before being been said) Jim ingested 40 times the usual throwaway remark about swiftly dropped. At that time their only dose of Owsley acid. It slaughtered the Wthem seeming to fall from the ambition was to be as a big as Love, who crowd and got The Doors fired, but sky 40 years earlier. “Maybe it did, man,” ruled the Strip’s happening scene. convinced Jac Holzman, there at the mused this most affable man, whose “We had to play sometimes five sets a recommendation of Love’s Arthur Lee, to enthusiasm and energy all but melted the night at the London Fog,” Manzarek told sign them to Elektra, America’s coolest transatlantic phone lines even when me. “Night after night for virtually record label. repeating stories he’d told hundreds of nobody. We got the opportunity to do Enter Bruce Botnick, resident engineer times. “It’s possible it did just fall out of anything we wanted to fill up four or five at Sunset Sound Recorders, where The the sky! Robby Krieger plays flamenco hours. So every night we would play ‘The Doors recorded their first two albums. guitar with his fingers as he’s playing rock End’, ‘When The Music’s Over’, ‘Light Botnick was the vital studio catalyst that ’n’ roll. He’s also playing that wonderful My Fire’ and expand those things. ‘The so magnificently bottled the band’s bottleneck guitar that comes out of his End’ had originally started off as a two or infernal psychedelic magic. While Paul jugband days. Here’s the keyboard player three-minute love song and we just kept Rothchild brought his producer’s who’s out of Chicago with blues roots but playing it while Jim started adding lyrics disciplines and direction to the sessions, also studied classical music and was a jazz to it.” Bruce rolled the tape, created any effects lover. You add that dark, Slavic soul to As the counterculture revolution and mixed it together as the band played Robby Krieger’s snaky, crystalline ballooned in LA, The Doors’ reputation live in the studio, in essence like a fifth bottleneck guitar and underneath you put and crowds grew during their next member. John Densmore, this jazz drummer, who residency at The Whisky A Go Go. Now, The recent Singles box set and Strange also played in a marching band. On top of as Ray said, “There were hundreds of Days reissue, which Botnick remastered in that you float a Beat-French symbolist, people virtually every night because it was stereo and mono, are two more reasons Southern Gothic poet singing some very, the Mecca of rock ’n’ roll so we’re playing why Shindig! is here today celebrating The very interesting lyrics. Maybe it did just for a packed audience and our songs are Doors’ music rather than milking the fall together.