Nov 6, 2011 12
Fishing for Jim
I never call into On Point, but when I heard Greil Marcus on there talking about The Doors, I did.
Unfortunately, no matter how many times I dialed, I always got a busy signal.
Fortunately, there’s this thing called the Internet where I can tell my story to the whole wide world. Who knows? Maybe Greil Marcus and Tom Ashbrook will read this along with everybody else! <crosses fingers and closes eyes to make that “I’m wishing really hard” face>
Why was I moved to call in? Because I had a story I wanted to tell and a question I wanted to ask.
My story goes like this:
In the early 80’s I used to go to a club called the Cathay de Grande which was behind the Hollywood Palladium. I went with my girlfriend, Flannery.
Basically a basement with a bar—I don’t think there was even a band riser—at the Cathay de Grande you were just standing there with the bands. I saw some amazing and some frightening music there and one night I even saw Ray Manzarek sit in with Top Jimmy and the Rhythm Pigs. John Doe was on bass.
They played “Backdoor Man” and “Roadhouse Blues.” In between, Manzarek teased with the opening run to “Light My Fire.” Top Jimmy was in his prime then and the band—which included blues guitar’s unsung hero, Carlos Guitarlos—rocked these tunes hard.
It was as close as I ever got to seeing The Doors (and it might have even been better!).
My question is this: