Feast of Friends: An Interview with John Densmore of The Doors

The Doors funded their own documentary entitled Feast of Friends, and hired Paul Ferrara to produce it. The title comes from a Jim Morrison poem, later set to music by the remaining Doors on their 9th and final album, An American Prayer. The album was released in 1978, with the band adding a soundtrack to recordings left of Morrison’s spoken poetry seven years after he passed away in Paris. Morrison called the project “a fictional documentary”, and it gives a somewhat loose account of the strange days of the times.

Due to Jim Morrison’s legal bills stemming from his arrest for allegedly exposing himself in Miami on March 1st, 1969, the film remained unfinished and unreleased, until this month. The entire viewing runs only for a total just under 40 minutes, but is augmented by bonus footage.  This includes Feast of Friends Encore, a British TV documentary called The Doors Are Open, and a live performance of the epic song “The End” recorded for Canadian television. 

The format reminds one somewhat of D.A. Pennebaker‘s classic 1967 documentary featuring Bob Dylan as he ‘went electric’, Don’t Look Back.  There is also a bit of the unrestrained feel from the Beatles’ British TV special Magical Mystery Tour thrown into the mix. Despite Bob Dylan’s own fast paced turmoil that came to a crashing halt on his motorcycle, he had an intensely focused personal vision that seemed to be leading you somehere with a solid rock foundation. The Doors, however, seemed to be producing an exquisite catalog of music that was leading to the inevitable human sacrifice of their own Greek god, as the band stopped for performances on the incoungruous settings of the Ed Sullivan or Jonathan Winters variety programs.

Watching footage of Morrison in performance, backstage, and basically in what seems like home movies is tense voyeurism.  It is like watching a tightrope walker without a net, stoned on acid, with a charisma and lyrical talent strong enough to blind those around him into a denial on how very badly this is going to end. It is such an entrancing story set to a five star rock soundtrack that the disc is a bargain for your classic rock collection. It just leaves one with a slight feeling of guilt for enjoying watching Jim Morrison immolate himself with drugs and alcohol, with results as deadly as those of Vietnamese monk Thich Quang Duc, who set himself ablaze to try and bring an end to the war destroying his nation.  Morrison wanted the war in Vietnam to cease, and evidenty also the war raging within himself.  The Doors left the night on fire, and we are still sifting through the ashes trying to comprehend exactly what transpired in a polarized nation also engaged in warfare today. 

In scenes in the main feature and in bonus footage, Morrison has a meeting with evangelical pastor Fred L. Steigmeier.  The ‘minister at large’ is treated somewhat repectfully, but with the distrust for all authority so prevelant in the times being apparent.  With the Vietnam War raging, and The Brothers Kenedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King all being assassinated under suspicious circumstances before 1968 ended, one understands the skepticism.  On the other hand, the closest thing one views as a a rational voice reaching out as a bridge between the cultural divide is Steigmeir in this picture.  Rebellion is a wide road in identifying social ills, but often is a vacuum in terms of personal resonsibility entering the fray. 

Footage shot included parts of a dozen concerts, including the entire show from the Hollywood Bowl.  Shooting went from mid-April to September of 1968, and the home movie feeling allows a fan some access behind the veil and into the private domain of the stars.  Doors drummer John Densmore answered some questions for L4LM, as he prepares to write a new book on musicians who crossed the path of the Doors.