In the footsteps of Doors

In the footsteps of Doors

On a sunny July 1st in Los Angeles my friend Mark and I decided to make the best out of currently being without work – We decided to finally go on our long talked about, long anticipated tour of Doors locations in Los Angeles.

We started off by going downtown to the edges of Skid Row to find the former location of the original “Hard Rock Cafe” which was the back cover of the Doors album “Morrison Hotel”. Below, are then and now pictures

Where the Green Apple Market is now, is where Jim and the boys went after their photo shoot for the album, which was then the Hard Rock Cafe (later, the now famous restaurant chain of the same name would adopt it as their own).

We then moved on to find the location of the old Morrison Hotel on the corner of Hope and Pico, where the cover for the album was shot. Here’s what the hotel looks like now. (Los Angeles is horrible at preserving their history).

Here is the cover of the album along with an alternate shot

The window to the left of the main entrance is the window in which the band sat in. The owner at the time did not allow them to do the photo shoot, so according to the story, when the owner turned his back to attend to a task, the band quickly scurried in, took the shot and left.

 Notice the mini blinds. Still there after 40 years???

Next we moved on to the Alta Cienega Motel on the corner of La Cienega and Santa Monica Blvds in West Hollywood. This is the motel where Jim “lived” most of the time, crashing here frequently to sleep off his benders. This is the type of motel now where a tetanus shot might be needed after staying here.

We entered the courtyard to the office…

…and asked the elderly Asian man (who we assumed was the owner) if we could take a look at Jim’s room. Apparently it was occupied so we had to settle for some exteriors…

On the street side of the room, underneath the window, someone has scribbled “Jim’s Joint”.

The entire inside of the room is covered in grafitti in homage to Jim. The room costs $74 a night to rent.

Next we headed across the street to the site of where the Doors offices were located. You can see why Jim chose this motel – short commute to work. The building where the offices were located is now a Mexican restaurant.

The band on the stairs…

Us on the stairs…

Upstairs on the inside was where the actual offices were (the downstairs was a practice/recording space). Lots happened up here…if the walls could talk…

It’s now one big open lounge. The owners were very gracious as they gave us free reign to hang out. The restaurant wasn’t even opening for another couple of hours.

And now for the money shot. When the Doors were recording “L.A. Woman” (their last album), they decided to record it here, at their offices. (All of the other albums were recorded in studios). When they started recording, they decided to fuck around and experiment. They stuck Jim in the bathroom and had him record the vocals (they thought it sounded cool). Well, here is that bathroom…

“Riders on the Storm”, “L.A. Woman”, and “Love her Madly” were all recorded in this spot.

From here we headed up to Laurel Canyon to visit the famous Laurel Canyon Country Store, and the house where Pam and Jim lived for a short while, on Rothdell Trail.

It was from the top of this house where Jim would watch over the general store, which in the late sixties was THE meeting place of the Los Angeles music scene. Frank Zappa, David Crosby, the Mamas and the Papas, and Joni Mitchell all called Laurel Canyon home. Jim wrote the song “Love Street” about this little enclave and where “the creatures meet”.

From here we headed to our last stop which was the apartment where Jim and Pam last lived before heading to Paris. Norton Street in West Hollywood.

Jim and Pam lived upstairs and during some of their many knock down, drag out fights, neighbors are said to have scene Pam throwing Jim’s poetry books out the windows onto the courtyard.

That was it for today.

Here are some pics of Venice that I took a few years earlier. One is of the building where Jim used to sleep on the rooftop in the early days of the band…

And the other is the famous mural which is located just down the Speedway in Venice Beach