The Doors (photo by Joel Brodsky)

By Chris M. Junior

“The Doors — Live in Vancouver,” a two-disc set of previously unreleased live recordings from June 6, 1970, will be released Nov. 22 through Rhino/Bright Midnight Archives.

This particular Doors concert collection is especially notable because it includes legendary blues guitarist Albert King performing with the band on four songs.

In other news, MTV Games and Harmonix announced Oct. 13 that they will give away three Doors songs with the Pro Guitar and Pro Bass feature (“Light My Fire,” “Riders on the Storm” and “Touch Me”) for one week starting Oct. 26 to any fan who purchases Rock Band 3 and plays online to celebrate the release of the game.

“I’m very excited that keyboards are finally a part of Rock Band,” Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek said in a statement. “It’s about time you guys got hip to the necessity of keys in rock. This is going to be great for all the gamers because it’s a lot more difficult. Rock Band 3 will require some brainwork, so … ‘Break on Through!’ ”

Tom DiCillo

By Chris M. Junior

Just as The Doors were not a typical rock band, “When You’re Strange: A Film About The Doors” is not a typical music documentary — and that’s due to the vision of director/writer Tom DiCillo.

Instead of following the typical rock-doc format and including recent interviews with band members and other notable figures, DiCillo’s “When You’re Strange” tells the story of The Doors through music and archival footage, and it’s all linked together by the narrative he wrote (with actor Johnny Depp providing the voice-over).

But this documentary is not merely a chronological repackaging of typical or played-out visuals paired with music and narration. The surviving Doors (keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger and drummer John Densmore) gave DiCillo access to the video vaults so he could make his film, which also includes rare band footage along with views of private moments and personal projects, such as outtakes from “HWY,” a film featuring singer Jim Morrison.

“The footage of ‘HWY’ becomes the spirit of Morrison, kind of wandering through the film, looking for the meaning of himself, the meaning of the band and the meaning of the time,” says DiCillo, whose TV and movie credits include “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” and “Johnny Suede.”

DiCillo took some time to talk about his experience making “When You’re Strange” (now available on DVD and Blu-ray).

You were in your early-to-mid teens when The Doors were in their heyday. When and how did you first become familiar with the band, and what made The Doors different in your eyes?
Tom DiCillo: Well, my dad was a colonel in the Marine Corps, so my brother and I didn’t have that much access to, let’s say, alternative forms of music when we were 13, 14. I was in the car one day with some friends, and we were going to a junior high school dance … and The Doors’ “Light My Fire” came on – the long version. I just couldn’t believe it. I said, “This song is just going on and on.” … That was my introduction to The Doors: It had something to do with rebellion against my father and rebellion against authority. I knew nothing about [the band], and I bought that first album.

The only thing I could tell you about that sound and what the music was about was I felt like it spoke to me [and] all of the things that were different about me and other people who liked that music.

What were you doing professionally when the call came to do a documentary on The Doors?
DiCillo: I was in the process of trying to raise financing for one of my films when the phone rang, and it was the producers asking me if I’d be interested in directing a documentary about The Doors. And as soon as the word “Doors” came out of their mouths, I said yes.

My sense about the band, even before I really got into it, was that this is an extremely cinematic journey and a cinematic story, and that’s what prompted me to say ‘yes’ right away to it. … I dove into it, and that’s what it took. For two and a half years, I completely focused on this movie. The Doors have an archive in Los Angeles, and I looked at every single piece of filmed material on the band – that took a month.

THE FOOTAGE of “HWY” becomes the spirit of Jim Morrison, wandering. Photo courtesy Rhino/Paul Ferrara

Aside from going through all of that film footage, what other research did you do, and what did you gain from it?
DiCillo: Of course I spoke to Ray, John and Robby. That was interesting, because when I first met them, I thought they would instantly see what I feel about myself, which is I’m an honest guy. I thought that they’d see that immediately and just open up to me. It was a rude shock to suddenly realize these guys have been meeting people like me for 40 years. I had to prove myself to them, and that really affected the way I spoke to the three of them.

Soon after I began cutting stuff together and showing them what I was thinking of — particularly the decision to only use the archival footage — they began to trust me. They saw that I knew a little bit about music and that it was going to be a film about all of them and not just Jim.

I spoke to Jim’s sister, Anne. I spoke to Jac Holzman, the founder of Elektra, and [Doors engineer] Bruce Botnick. I didn’t really feel like I wanted to talk to anyone further outside the intimate circle of the band than that group; otherwise, you’re just getting into opinion.

What’s the most unusual or memorable comment you’ve heard from someone who’s seen the documentary?
DiCillo: There have been a number of them, and they come from the most unexpected places. [When] the film played here in New York at the Angelika, this young African-American girl tapped me on the shoulder and said, “I have to tell you that I just loved this movie.” I said, “How do you know about The Doors?” She said, “My dad. I love this band.”

When I hear a response like that, it shows me one thing: The Doors and their music have the power to still affect people today the way they did when they first came out, and that’s pretty amazing to me. It shows you that music is timeless and keeps inspiring generations of people, and I tried to suggest that with the film. That’s why I made that decision to only use the original footage, the real stuff, and to stay there. That way, the audiences today could experience them as if they were happening right now.

DIRECTOR TOM DI CILLO was very judicious with finding footage that helped tell a story for “When You’re Strange.” Photo courtesy Rhino/Paul Ferrara

Has there been any talk about what might become of the footage that was left in the can?
DiCillo: I pretty much believe that what’s in the film is the best of it. A lot of it didn’t have sound; a lot of it had the camera swinging around and going out of focus. I had to be very judicious with just finding pieces of footage that helped tell a story.

… At one point we tried to put a bunch of images over the final credits. But they weren’t strong enough to be in the main part of the movie, so when you saw them at the end of the film, they were a real letdown. So I just decided not to put anything there.

Including them would have been like a bad encore.
DiCillo: Oh yeah, exactly.

RELATED STORIES: Read about The Doors’ Morrison Hotel,” 40 years later. Interview with Ray Manzarek.
How do Doors-related items rate with collectors?

Folksingers Peter Yarrow, Noel Paul Stookey and Mary Travers comprise the trio Peter, Paul and Mary. Photo copyright Annie Leibovitz/(Contact Press Images).

The album, which was released March 9, 2010, is dedicated to Travers, who died Sept. 16, 2009, following a lengthy battle with cancer.

The album encompasses 14 live stage performances — all but one previously unreleased — recorded during the ’80s and ’90s by Peter, Paul and Mary. It also includes jewels from their celebrated repertoire, such as their No. 1 hit “Leaving On A Jet Plane,” “Puff, The Magic Dragon,” “Blowin’ In The Wind,” and “Where Have All The Flowers Gone.”

The trio’s longtime music director and friend Robert DeCormier then combined their voices with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, performing symphonic arrangements DeCormier had created and developed with Peter, Paul and Mary over the last 30 years.

The final track on the album finds the orchestra performing Samuel Barber’s “Adagio For Strings,” an instrumental piece Mary had requested to be played at her memorial.

“When the songs and the orchestrations are combined, it’s as if two languages are being spoken simultaneously,” Yarrow says. “One is the language of Peter, Paul and Mary’s voices and the other is a commentary on, and an exchange with, the voices of the trio by the orchestra. In Bob’s hands, the orchestral instruments restate and emphasize the essence of what the trio is feeling.”

Only a few of the songs included here were ever recorded with a symphony orchestra and fewer than 30 live orchestra concerts were ever performed. In the last few years, the trio began discussing how this remarkable aspect of the trio’s musical legacy, one that few of their concert-going fans were able to experience firsthand, should be preserved. Travers was especially resolute that this project be completed. Yarrow recalls that Mary was “determined that this chapter of our creative journey be shared with the public and allowed to tell its story.”

These recordings bring the trio full circle, Stookey said.

“This feels like the last page of the photo album, where the family is all collected and everybody’s got their hair combed. It’s Peter, Paul and Mary’s legacy and a way of honoring Mary’s sensitivity to the scope and importance of the music we shared,” Stookey said.

Fourteen of the 15 tracks on “The Prague Sessions” are previously unreleased tracks; “Light One Candle” was released before.

The track listing is:

1. “Weave Me The Sunshine”
2. “It’s Magic”
3. “Some Walls”
4. “Don’t Laugh At Me”
5. “The Kid”
6. “Leaving On A Jet Plane”
7. “Light One Candle”
8. “Jesus On The Wire”
9. “Day Is Done”
10. “Puff, The Magic Dragon”
11. “Greenland Whale Fisheries”
12. “Where Have All The Flowers Gone”
13. “Blowin’ In The Wind”
14. “This Land Is Your Land”
15. “Adagio For Strings”

By  Susan Sliwicki