The Master Plan

I woke up the next morning, excited. The cover band idea still seemed like a good one. The test of any barroom idea is, if it's still a good idea in the light of morning, in the light of your hangover, it's a good idea. I'd had the idea for a couple of years but didn't know how to go about it, or as Morrison said, "I could never allow myself to rationally fantasize about doing it myself. I guess all the time I was accumulating inclination."

To put my plan into action, the first thing I had to do was find a band. That seemed simple enough, and there were plenty of bands that played the bars in any college town and Madison was no exception, but which one? The next problem seemed a little harder, I didn't know anything about music. For instance, how would I know if a particular band could play the music? Or if they could play it, did they play it well enough? It bummed me out for a few hours. I couldn't see any way around it, short of taking music classes to get that expertise. That would take at least a semester in even a survey course. I didn't have that time, I needed this as soon as possible! Then it hit me, I didn't need to! Morrison was a film student at UCLA, living on the beach and he didn't know anything about music beyond a few childhood piano lessons. I didn't even have those! On that scale I could be a bigger success than Morrison! I would solve the problem the same way Morrison had, he found Ray Manzarek and I'd find that person for me. I'd seen a lot of bands live and figured I was a pretty good judge of music. All I had to do was find a band that played well, knew what they were doing and they would work out the music problems. All I had to worry about was what Morrison worried about, the lyrics and the performance. I already had the blueprint for that. So, all I really needed to do was find the right band.

I spent the next few days working out the criteria. The highest priority I would have to find a band with a keyboard player, nothing else could recreate the distinctive sound of The Doors. I would need musicians who didn't have any long term goals towards a career of their own. Either a band that knows they're not good enough to make it, or they're on the opposite end of the spectrum, a band that had already given up its ambitions, one that had tried, didn't make it and has come to terms with that, but are willing to do anything to keep their hand in the game, and stave off having to get straight jobs for another year or two. And finally, they had to be somewhat local, so that we could have rehearsals with a minimum of logistical problems, like lugging their equipment across state, or me driving hours on end for a rehearsal.

I started by reading the classifieds in the Milwaukee area entertainment magazines listing bands and the venues they were playing. The first problem I ran into was most of the bands that advertised seemed to take themselves too seriously, listing requirements such as must have stage presence and own equipment, or no drinkers or drugs, what was the point of being in a band then? None of the bands mentioned having a keyboard player. Plenty mentioned having a lead guitar and bass player but were looking for a hard rock drummer. It also occurred to me that I needed a band that was indebted to me, or at least they thought they were indebted to me, so they couldn't get rid of me when I'd outlived whatever usefulness I had to them.

The more I looked through the listings I found they wouldn't be of much help. None of the ads listed The Doors as an influence. There were mentions of just about every band that had ever existed from Zeppelin, AC/DC, Metallica, Michael Bolton to contemporary bands like Ratt, but no Doors. Which, strangely enough, encouraged me. I knew that there was a cult following of The Doors out there. Even though The Doors had had mainstream success they were unique in the rock world in that their sound was so distinctive that no one ever tried to duplicate it. In When The Music's Over, the psychedelic roar of Robby Krieger's guitar is so original as to be trademark. Heavy metal bands used Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin as a starting point, but The Doors were a world unto themselves. Up until The Doors rock songs were about your girlfriend, your car, and surfing. After The Doors, girls were still in the songs, but it was about sex, and cars weren’t for picking up your girlfriend and cruising around, cars were vehicles to something else, somewhere darker, and suddenly rock was free to delve into subjects that up until that time had been confined to the realm of literature, death and existence.

Since the ads weren't going to be of any help, I turned to the listings of what bands were playing where. I would have to go to the gigs themselves, and scout the bands. I started by going to the local clubs to see bands, but none met the criteria I had established. Either, they weren't good enough period, they were obviously ambitious, selling their own tapes and t-shirts trying to get a following and major label attention, or they didn't have a keyboard player, you wouldn’t think finding a band with a keyboard player was all that hard, until you actually go out looking for one.

I gradually increased my search pattern until I found myself going to clubs as far as Milwaukee. There were some commonalities of all the bands I saw and talked to. One being that all the singers said they were sick and I should come to their next show and it would be better, the other was, I missed all their big shows. The second problem I ran into I hadn't anticipated, although I probably should have, was that I took to the nightlife like a fish to water. I'd always liked the excitement, the energy of the clubs, the allure of meeting women. Adventures every night provided a new opportunity. The net effect was I ended up drunk, a long way from home, and no band. I started questioning my motivations. Was I looking for a band, or a reason to go out drinking? I had decided to take a week or two off from the search to recuperate physically and psychically. I was burned out from the amount of energy I was dedicating to the search.

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Chapter VIII: Ghost Dance