THE DOORS' "ROADHOUSE BLUES": STORY AND MUSIC OF A CLASSIC

 

During the recording of The Doors' fourth LP ("The Soft Parade"), which took place mostly in the first half of 1969, the group rehearsed at least three songs sung by keyboardist Ray Manzarek.

Prominent among them is a song that, although temporarily shelved, would become one of the most popular tracks in the Californian band's discography: "Roadhouse Blues".

The creative process that led to this first version probably started in the spring of '69 and was based on the famous, immediate and dusty riff played by guitarist Robby Krieger.

As mentioned above, this early version of "Roadhouse Blues" temporarily featured Manzarek on lead vocals (link here).

The keyboardist's voice will be soon replaced by that of singer Jim Morrison, who is also responsible for the musical and conceptual inspiration behind this compelling song.

However, the vocal line drawn by Manzarek in the first available version of the song will remain essentially unchanged in the later developments that we will describe.

Despite the fact that the demo sung by the keyboardist does not reach the expressive heights allowed only to Morrison, it still has the merit of giving us an unusual point of view on one of the most acclaimed and listened to songs of The Doors.

We can see that by this time the song was already practically finished, both in terms of arrangement and performance. In addition, Manzarek was already singing the almost complete lyrics that Morrison had previously conceived.

In this case, Jim Morrison's absence on vocals should not be too surprising. In fact, he was going through a period of estrangement from the rest of the band in mid 1969.

Moreover, the recording of "The Soft Parade" LP, the backdrop for the creation of "Roadhouse Blues", was one of the most tense periods in the relationship between Morrison and the other three members of the Californian quartet.

So, The Doors completed the "The Soft Parade" LP without having finished a definitive recording of the song.

A few months later (on two occasions in September '69) they sketched out a short section of it live.

In the concerts just mentioned, a snippet of "Roadhouse Blues" is sung among the improvised digressions that were often inserted into other songs; in one of these two cases it was "Back Door Man”.

Fast forward a few months to November '69, and we find the group in the midst of the recording sessions for their fifth album: "Morrison Hotel”.

At that time, The Doors recorded the official version of "Roadhouse Blues" (link here).

This time it was finally included among the tracks of "Morrison Hotel", which was released in February 1970. In addition, the track was also chosen as the B-side of the single "You Make Me Real".

Released in March 1970, one month after the release of the album, this single was a modest success (#50 in America and no trace in the UK charts).

The official version of "Roadhouse Blues" belongs to the rock-blues genre, which was quite popular at the time.

It bears important similarities to another of the band's songs, "Love Me Two Times" (included on the great September 1967 LP "Strange Days").

In fact, we can find several common elements between the two songs:

·       Rock-blues as a genre;

·       Being driven and paced by a riff capable of sticking in the mind while not yielding to market trends;

·       Again, the opening riff of the electric guitar that opens both songs by itself, only to be joined after a few bars by the electric bass and drums;

·       The dominant drum rhythm based on a technique called "shuffle".

Although it does not reach the dark, passionate, psychedelic influenced charm that animates "Love Me Two Times," "Roadhouse Blues" can be considered an evolution of it in terms of song structure.

Sometimes belittled as a "pub hymn", "Roadhouse Blues" is actually more complex and fascinating than many people might think.

The verse contains the complete structure of a classic blues (listen, for example, from min. 0.23 to min. 0.46), from which the chorus follows with enviable smoothness.

The latter, also characterized by a pronounced blues influence, is added to the refrain without weighing down the verse-chorus sequence, but, on the contrary, determining the musical effectiveness it so clearly possesses (listen, for example, from min. 1.19 to min. 1.36).

The verse-chorus sequence of "Roadhouse Blues" is very interesting because of this peculiarity and it succeeds in concentrating variety and unity over the span of just over a minute.

In addition to what has been described, there is also the middle section of the song (referred to in the jargon as "middle eight"), which is intended to introduce an additional element into the song structure for the purpose of enriching and varying the verse-chorus structure.

This middle part occupies a considerable time (listen from min. 2.10 to min. 3.07) and is itself divided into two parts.

The first part delivers an original Morrison gimmick: instead of lyrics, he ventures into his own, rowdy and simplified version of a vocal technique called "scat".

Developed in the jazz genre known as “Swing” in the late 1920s and popularized by Ella Fitzgerald in the 1930s and 1940s, this vocal technique consists of substituting made-up, meaningless words for the lyrics, often simulating the sound and progression of solo instruments.

Instead, the second part of the middle section recaptures the song's lyrics but modifies the melody, which is briefly hauled over the adventurous terrain of Rock by Morrison's deep, scratchy voice.

Finally, the song closes with a return to the verse-chorus sequence.

The construction of "Roadhouse Blues," although rather unusual, does not detract from the overall immediacy that is clearly felt when listening to it.

This is due to the well-built melodies present in the various sections, which turn this complexity into an extremely harmonious and engaging whole.

Like a sleight of hand, the range of musical factors present is thus concealed, revealing instead a sonic and stylistic cohesion that immediately grips the listener.

A few individual elements of particular importance to the song are also worth mentioning.

First of all, Morrison's voice is prolonged in space by a rather pronounced reverb.

This effect gives the whole song the vintage feel that the group clearly wanted to crate.

This intention is also confirmed by Ray Manzarek's use of a piano modified by small iron objects (placed on the strings or hammers), called a tack piano. Its sound is reminiscent of an old upright piano used in Honky Tonks and Juke Joints in the first half of the 1900s.

The electric bass is used almost constantly to repeat the riff established at the beginning by the guitar, is played by Lonnie Mack, a singer-songwriter also dedicated to rock-blues and hired here as a session man.

John Sebastian (ex-Lovin' Spoonful and friend of the band) plays the harmonica, which complements the arrangement by enhancing its typical blues charge.

The final version of "Roadhouse Blues" was performed for the first time about a month before the release of the "Morrison Hotel" LP (which included it).

In fact, in January 1970, The Doors played a series of shows at the Felt Forum in New York City, opening with this rock-blues classic to enthusiastic cheers from the audience (here is the link to the song performed during the second show of the first night).

We close this article by mentioning the lyrics, which are certainly among Morrison's simplest and most amusing.

It recounts some of the more transgressive and licentious features of roadhouses, concluding with a line addressed to enjoying life while you can: "The future is uncertain and the end is always near!"

P.S.: My book "The Doors Through Strange Days"- The most comprehensive journey ever made through The Doors' second LP, is out and available on Amazon.com!

Here’s the link:

Amazon – “The Doors Through Strange Days”