Just days before Jim Morrison‘s birthday on 8th December, The Doors have released the first update to their iPad app, launched earlier this year, which features drummer John Densmore and guitarist Robby Krieger‘s first appearance together in over a decade.
The below clip, exclusive to Music Feeds, is a part of the section entitled Ray Remembered and is dedicated solely to the band’s legendary keyboardist Ray Manzarek, who passed away earlier this year. Here, Densmore and Krieger sit down together for an on-camera interview and reminisce about the impact Manzarek had on the band and their own lives.
Reminding Densmore about the genesis of the Doors’ iconic use of slide on an electric guitar Krieger explains, “Remember, you brought Jim [Morrison] over to my house and that’s where I played the slide for him first and he really freaked out on that and he wanted to have it on every song.”
“And then we had the first rehearsal, where we played Moonlight Drive, and it was like magic man. We knew right then, at that point, that we had a band.”
It’s a poignant moment between the two surviving Doors members who, until earlier this year, had been involved in a litigious feud since 2002 when Krieger and Manzarek started to tour again under the name The Doors of the 21st Century.
Densmore successfully blocked the two from using the Doors name to which they responded with a $40 million counter-suit against the drummer. “That’s what you do – if someone sues you, you sue them twice as hard back and hope that they drop the suit,” Krieger told Rolling Stone. “It was a very stupid idea. We had the worst lawyers.”
The Doors app was conceived by Elektra Records founder and Warner Music exec Jac Holzman, who signed the Doors to the label in 1966, with the participation of Densmore, Krieger, the late Manzarek and the estate of Jim Morrison. The app is divided into several sections, which include hundreds of photos, videos, and interviews, all six original Doors albums albums as well as the two albums recorded after Morrison’s death when Manzarek temporarily served as the band’s singer.
The app features essays from counterculture icons including Patti Smith and Hunter S. Thompson, renowned music journalists and Doors historians such as David Fricke and Greil Marcus, and archivist David Dutkowski.
Also included is a comic book rendering of the now infamous Doors show in Miami, where Jim Morrison was accused of exposing himself during a 1969 concert. The “incident” is brought to life through drawings by artist Dean Haspiel, words by Adam Holzman, and rare audio of Morrison recorded during the show. you can also peruse Morrison’s FBI report, his Mug shot, a portion of Jim’s tongue-in-cheek testimony and his posthumous pardon issued in 2010.
The Doors app is available from the App Store on iPad for a cool $2.99.
Watch: The Doors Robby Krieger and John Densmore reunite for the first time in a decade
Watch: The Doors App official trailer
