SHAMEN'S BLUES
In July 1968, The Doors began working on their fourth album, which would eventually be titled The Soft Parade. The mood was up and down, as usual. They were the first group to record at their record label’s new Elektra Sound Recorders studio on La Cienega Boulevard, one of their favourite Los Angeles haunts. They had anticipated free studio time, but Elektra head Jac Holzman stunned them with just a 10 per cent discount.
Keyboard player Ray Manzarek summed up their displeasure: “We were the first group to record there. We were all excited at the prospects of breaking the cherry of a brandnew, state-of-the-art recording studio. And we thought it was going to be for free. Hell, Jac Holzman built the damned place with profits from Doors’ record sales. Everybody called the new facility ‘the house The Doors built’, so why shouldn’t we record for free?”
On the plus side, singer Jim Morrison seemed eager to test an unfamiliar environment. He brought in the song Wild Child, and also worked up a mellow groove about his fractious relationship with his girlfriend Pamela Courson, Who Scared You, written with guitarist Robby Krieger. The band, augmented by bassist Harvey Brooks (sometimes Doug Lubahn), an ally of drummer John Densmore, worked up a very jazzy track, Queen Of The Highway, which was shelved, but rocked up for next album Morrison Hotel in 1970. The original was the weirdest thing they ever did. There were more knockabout pieces to keep Jim positive: the Latino Sam The Sham pastiche Push Push, Morrison’s Whisky, Mystics, and (these appeared on the 2006 box set, . But in real time, July ’68 was about the present.
