Surviving Doors about to settle suit

AP via CNN ^ | Aug, 22, 2008 | no byline

[weegee]

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- The end is near for a bitter legal dispute between the three surviving members of The Doors now that the California Supreme Court has refused to take up their case.

Keyboardist Ray Manzarek and guitarist Robby Krieger are on the hook for more than $5 million after they were found by lower courts to have improperly invoked The Doors' name and images during a 2003 concert tour. After the high court declined to hear their appeal on August 13, they'll have to pay up to drummer John Densmore, the parents of the deceased lead singer Jim Morrison and the parents of Morrison's deceased wife, Pamela Courson, who died in 1974.

The case goes back to 2002, when Densmore declined an offer from the other two to go on a concert tour as The Doors. Densmore said he didn't object to Manzarek and Krieger touring and singing The Doors' songs, as long as they didn't call themselves The Doors, use the group's distinctive logo or any other Morrison-era imagery.

"You can't call yourselves The Doors because you can't have The Doors without Jim Morrison," Densmore's attorney S. Jerome Mandel said.

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"You can't call yourselves The Doors because you can't have The Doors without Jim Morrison," Densmore's attorney S. Jerome Mandel said.

Bull. The Doors carried on for 2 albums after Jim died.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Other_Voices_(The_Doors_album)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_Circle_(The_Doors_album)

I wonder if Densmore joined the lawsuit when he realized he might be put at financial risk if he sided with the band. If I recall, the threat of legal action was a factor in Stewart Copeland of The Police dropping out of the project.

And frankly I don't see how Jim's parents are due any money. The way Morrison's estate went was 100% to his wife and then 100% to her parents when she died.

[weegee]

Rock and Roll PING!

“The end is near for a bitter legal dispute between the three surviving members of The Doors now that the California Supreme Court has refused to take up their case.”

This is the end. the end. my friend...

[Revolting cat!]

Jim Morrison today (he on the right.)

[Snurple]

I found it interesting that Jims dad was an admiral in the United States Navy.

[NaughtiusMaximus]

Finito the Sixties.

[weegee]

I forgot to post that guy’s story to last Friday’s Bigfoot Found annnouncements...

[Right Cal Gal]

Especially when you consider Morrison wanted NOTHING to do with his family - he wouldn’t even see or talk to them when they came to his concerts.

“Siddons, I don’t want to see them — You hear me Siddons?”

Beach Boys went through the same thing when Al Jardine wanted to tour as “Beach Boys Family and Friends” in 2000 and Mike Love went ballistic that HE and Bruce Johnston are the only ones allowed to use the Beach Boys’ name. But you have to admit, Mike would have been embarrassed, since Al’s band had people named WILSON singing in it.

[dmz]

LOL. Yes, you can put out a record with the name the Doors on it without Jim Morrison. But without Jim Morrison, there is no Doors music. Sorry. Unassailable fact. Or my humble opinion. It’s one of those, I’m sure :-)

According to the wiki pages you linked to, even the surviving band members realize that the only thing linking Other Voices and Full Circle to the Doors was the name on the record cover. Musically, not at all.

[MrLee]

“Other Voices” wasn’t THAT bad considering....

[showme_the_Glory]

“When the music’s over, turn out the lights.........

[Right Cal Gal]

True that. Jim’s voice was what sold the records for me. I was surprised to learn that Pam and Jim were legally married. I was always under the impression that they lived as man/wife and referred to themselves in that manner, but they had never actually married.

[weegee]

The issue was whether there could be a BAND called THE DOORS without Jim Morrison. History shows that there already WAS featuring these members.

Densmore couldn't keep them from playing the songs but prohibited them from using the name "Doors" in the name of the group.

Still waiting to see Densmore sue these guys:

http://www.backdoorsman.de/index.html

Or are some "cover bands" allowed to use the name "Doors" while others are not? Who wrote the songs? Not just some of the songs.

[weegee]

I've seen Robby Krieger on his own. He sang some of the songs, his son sang some of the others. He can still play a guitar.

Densmore did a spoken word performance with his drums. I've seen footage on one of the Doors dvds. Very strange concept if you aren't Buddy Rich or Gene Krupa.

[EyeGuy]

“You can’t call yourselves The Doors because you can’t have The Doors without Jim Morrison,” Densmore’s attorney S. Jerome Mandel said.”

I guess it is a trademark or copyright issue, but it would be interesting to know if that is Mandel’s opinion, or a clean legal line.

Zeppelin never toured again as “Led Zeppelin” after John Bonham died, but that was always felt to be a sentimental decision, a hat tip to Bonham from Jimmy Page.

[dmz]

I was clear on the issues, weeg, just having a little fun with the reality that the Doors sound requires Jim Morrison on vocals. No Grateful Dead without Jerry Garcia. No Doors without Jim Morrison.

[Coronal]

Jim never did marry Pam. He was involved in a Wiccan handfasting ceremony with Patricia Kennealy, but that’s as close as he got to ever marrying anyone.

[dmz]

I don’t think the movie Apocalypse Now would have been near as dark if Robbie Krieger had been the one singing ‘this is the end, my only friend, the end’.

[weegee]

The remaining members of the Doors liked some of the new songs they wrote on those albums (some of which had been rehearsed with Jim) but they knew that they did not have the chops to be lead singer.

When they did this project, they had the singer of the Cult who had clearly been influenced by Jim Morrison (I did not go to the shows and still have not even seen the Cult live although I've listened to the albums going back decades).

They did the MTV/VH1 thing and had guest singers.

Talk had been that if they ever did some shows, they would not try to replace Jim but rather get someone who could put a new spin on it (like Christie Hynde of the Pretenders). I would've liked to have seen Iggy Pop sing it (he and his stage persona going back to 1969 seem to be Morrison inspired) and he still has energy. Plus both Iggy and Jim spent their time shacking up with Nico of the Velvet Underground.

[weegee]

I don’t think the movie Apocalypse Now would have been near as dark if Robbie Krieger had been the one singing ‘this is the end, my only friend, the end’.

Nor if it had been Robbie Benson singing:

[weegee]

Have to wonder too.

Densmore is against the use of Doors songs in advertising because it is “crass commercialism” but the placement of the Doors songs in Apocalypse Now found them fans in a new era (1980s). Especially the age of cable rebroadcasts.

Meanwhile the movie that Jim Morrison made and starred in sits on a shelf because his wife’s father (an ex-principal) keeps it off the market.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0388097/
HWY: An American Pastoral (1969)

These are business decisions. They aren’t about respect for “art”. Certainly not with the liberties they let Oliver Stoned take with their story in The Doors movie.