More Music Notes from around the Web . . . .

 BONNIE RAITT, Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix, Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue . . . . . . 

Bonnie early days . . . . . 

Photo: Sam Jones

Bonnie Raitt: 

It was unusual for a woman to play a bottleneck guitar and play styles of guitar that mostly men were doing… I came out of folk music and all those women were great accompanists. It’s about the song and about accompanying yourself and not about chops. It probably set me apart and helped me in a way. I don’t want to say it was a gimmick, but it was something that was unusual and made people pay attention.

Ry Cooder is still a god to me. Ry and Lowell George are the biggest influences on my playing. I love the Delta blues: Son House, Fred McDowell, Robert Johnson, Johnny Shines, John Hammond. But Ry wrote the book on making it sound like your voice, which is what I try to do. He and Stevie Ray Vaughan are the greatest guitar players I've ever heard.”

 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

Well, Eric it’s lovely to meet you but why did you go get a perm from your Nan?!

 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  

When Kylie and Nick Cave started working together I wonder if they got close . . . . . . 

 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

A happy Pam Courson before disaster struck

 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Famous Muses & Groupies, Girlfriends and Wives in Rock Music :: Pamela Courson Morrison

 OTHER VOICES, OTHER LIVES

Pam Courson (22nd December 1946 – 25th April 1974):

Pamela Susan Courson Morrison was an American boutique owner, fashion designer and model, and editor. According to her friends, she was wild and had a sense for adventure, a very exciting and fun person, but also very smart, mysterious and sweet.

She was the daughter of Columbus “Corky” Brimer Courson, a WWI veteran, and interior designer Pearl “Penny” Courson. She had an elder sister, Judy. 

As a teenager she was ahead of her time, dressing as a beatnik in her natal Orange County when no one did. That made her an outcast. She took art classes at Los Angeles City College and she loved travelling. 

From 1966, when she was 20, she had a toxic relationship with The Door’s frontman Jim Morrison, but also both maintained ongoing relationships with others, while also being strongly committed to each other in their own way. At the same time, he bought a fashion boutique for her, Themis, and she encouraged him to write poetry. 

They lived for a while at Laurel Canyon, LA, where other artists and musicians lived, so there was a feeling of community and creativity that flowed through the area. Pam’s boutique was filled with fanciful clothes, jewelry, and decor picked out especially by Pamela on her travels. Despite it’s exclusivity, it was more of a hangout for the beautiful people. 

Pam was a heroin addict, and Jim hated heroin and would become angry at her for using. In 1971 she found Jim Morrison dead in the bathtub of their apartment in Paris, France*. He was 27 and she was only 25. Under Jim’s will, which stated that he was “an unmarried person”, she was named his heir, and therefore in line to inherit his entire fortune. Lawsuits against the estate would tie up her quest for inheritance for the next two years. 

Pam was very distressed at his death and resorted to heroin and also started developing mental problems, for which she sought help. She moved back to Los Angeles. She died on 25th April 1974 of a heroin overdose on the living room couch at the Los Angeles apartment she shared with two male friends. It was just found one single needle mark on her arm, and she had been clean for at least two years. She was only 27. ** The exact same age as Jim was when he died

*it was thought by some and I agree with the notion that Jim after a night of drinking with pals in the Parisian bars he found a bag of Pam's white powder and snorted what he took to be cocaine to wake himself up or add to his energy levels not believing it was in fact Pam's China White heroin as she had promised Jim she would get clean. The combination of alcohol and heroin is deadly and causes respiratory problems amongst others and a often used remedy to bring people round from a heroin overdose then was to put them in the bath Jim either made his own way there or was put there and didn't not come round. An all too frequent death I have witnessed many time now working in the field as I did  (A.S.)

Source: Little Queenies 

THE DOORS - HONOLULU Convention Centre 1970 - Big O

THE DOORS
Honolulu 1970 [no label, 2CD]
Live at the Honolulu Convention Center, Honolulu, Hawaii; April 18, 1970. Very good audience recording.*

theultimatebootlegexperience:

Supposedly taped by engineer Bruce Botnick for personal purposes.

“There are two versions circulating of this show, made from the same tape but through different transfers. The “Doors Collector Magazine” source, which is originated from the master is the most complete and has all the songs, but still comes with missing a couple of things. The other, 2nd generation copy floating around, is less complete than the DCM copy but the sound is slightly better, not that bassy. Though it cuts up Mystery Train and ‘The End’ but leaves ‘When The Music’s Over’ intact - the DCM copy fades out and in again in the silent part “What have they done to the earth…” and repeats the missing part (probably made during the copy of the tape due to a tape flip).” - christophe

Excperts taken from Stephen Davis’ book on Jim Morrison p370-371:

“In April 1970, the Doors went back out on the road in three-day weekend bursts. “We could tell his energy was giving out,” Ray said later in a radio interview. “He was really depleting his energy with alcohol” but they all needed cash - Densmore had bought a house, and Themis was bleeding Jim dry. Some of the shows were ragged, a few were desperate. “The first night would be OK,” Ray said. “The second night he was drinking during the show. By Sunday night he was mostly hanging on the mike, trying to stay upright…”

Next weekend: Honolulu Convention Center, April 18. Someone brought “da kine” backstage, “Maui Wowie,” the most potent marijuana known to man. The Doors played for two hours in an inspired ganja trance. Jim stopped “Roadhouse Blues” because he didn’t like the lighting. He started singing “Love hides in the strangest places,” a riff that he kept performing that year.

After the jam “People Get Ready/Mystery Train/Away In India/Cross Roads/People Get Ready,” Jim launched into “Baby, Please Don’t Go.” The encore of this stoned soul picnic was “The End,” interrupted for a poetry reading: “Stop The Car/Ensenada/Coda Queen.” The audience cheered for 10 minutes after the band left the stage, but there was no encore. Two days later Jim was acquitted of assault charges when the Continental Airlines stewardess testified that she had made a mistake in identifying him as the man who had harrassed her.”

+ + + + +

Track 01. Back Door Man 5:58
Track 02. Five To One 5:20
03. Roadhouse Blues - Omitted *
Track 04. Break On Through 3:51
Track 05. When The Music’s Over 14:37
06. Peach Frog - Omitted *
Track 07. The Crystal Ship 2:50
08. Mystery Train - Omitted *
Track 09. Love Me Two Times 5:40
Track 10. Rock Me (cuts) 3:52
11. Wake Up/Light My Fire - Omitted *
Track 12. The End 18:33
[61 mins]

* Released on the legendary Boot Yer Butt (Rhino) compilation.

* about what you expect from old school DOORS bootlegs this is pretty poor, muffled and boomy with poor balance - a year later Jim would be dead in Paris of an accidental  heroin overdose combined with alcohol (consensus would have us believe he took some of Pam Courson''s stash of China White heroin presuming it was cocaine and having a bath to rouse himself died in the bathtub for Pam to find him in the morning)

For completeists only

Jim Morrison by Gloria Stavers (look at those eyes - they're awful large those pupils Jim what had you been doing?!)

Jim Morrison by Gloria Stavers

'Jim Morrison's Main Squeeze!' Pam a considered reflection . . . . . . .

 PAMELA COURSON

Pam and Jim pictured in November 1969 by Raeanne Rubenstein at Pam’s boutique Themis. 

(detail of above)

Pam was of great interest to me and is largely considered his 'wife' or significant other, she had a dare devil aspect to her personality that appealed to Jim but their relationship was nothing if not volatile. Jim was ever the mean and somewhat testing practical joker and once when Pam came home to their apartment heard noises from their room which sounded like Jim was not alone and after knocking to be let in, Jim shouted he couldn't as he was busy and increasingly loud sex noises came from within. Pamela's fury increasing she eventually persuaded Jim to let her in to find there was nobody there with him at all! Jim found this kind of prank hysterically funny.  

She was certainly responsible for taking him to Paris for a break where he died in 1971. Allegedly Jim is said to have snorted some of Pam's stash of heroin believing it to be coke! Coke goes well with alcohol Jim's main drug of choice and can wake or enliven you from a stupor if you have over indulged, heroin the almost exact opposite and shuts the body down often making it difficult to breathe and death is frighteningly common amongst those who have mixed heroin and alcohol. Jim was notorious and notably anti-heroin and didn't seem to be particularly approving of Pam's use though stopping short at attempting to forbid it, she does seem to have taken it surreptitiously and without his knowledge. If he came across any China White he may well have assumed it to be cocaine and snorted it which would have had disastrous effects. 

Pamela committed suicide it is believed as she died three years exactly to the day after Jim's death 25th April, 1974 of a heroin overdose. 

The webpage Little Queenies focuses on partners' girlfriends, wives and partners [not to mention groupies!] had a lovely statement in response to a reader who asked about Pam that inspired me to post it here:

"According to her friends, Pam was very clever, she had a great sense of humour and she was very fashion conscious so she often travelled to Europe to get the last trends for her boutique Themis.

Pam was also passionated of cars, she owned a couple or three of them and loved driving very fast, she also babysat Slash as she was friends with his mum Ola Hudson who at the same time was David Bowie’s fashion designer.

Pamela Courson loved poetry and she was the subject & inspiration to Jim’s poems and he wrote his books for her. When all the trials about the Miami incident fell over Jim, it was Pam’s idea to fly to Paris to give him some fresh air and a new start as a poet. She didn’t broke up The Doors and she didn’t tell Jim to run away from them, she just thought it was wise to break with all this Miami incident trials and make a fresh start. Living anonymously in Paris, Jim reconnected with his family and Pam and Jim were thinking in having children for the first time in their lives.

It’s difficult to tell more things about Pam as there’s just one book written about her “Angels Dance and Angels Die” and some articles where she’s just mentioned. We know lots of people dislike her for Jim’s ending, but we are sure it wasn’t Pam’s fault, it was just an accident.

We love Pam because she is a Californian girl, red-haired hippie type, she was very creative and she looks always happy in the pics, so she really seems an easy-going person and also very friendly. She loved animals as well and she took care of Sage after Jim’s passing, and what’s more important, Jim loved her dearly because although they split up several times, they always ended up together and with Pam Jim could be Jim and she had the nerve to stand next to him when the things went bad. Although maybe she doesn’t seem it, she was really strong."

L.G. 

I wholeheartedly agree with this statement and folk under estimate Pam without any due reflection or knowledge let alone research.

 THE DOORS L.A. WOMAN
50th ANNIVERSARY DELUXE EDITION

3-CD/1-LP Set Expands The Doors’ Sixth Studio Album
With More Than Two Hours Of Unreleased Session Outtakes;

Includes the Fabled, Original Demo Of “Riders On The Storm,”
Recently Discovered On An Unmarked Reel In The Doors’ Vault

Producer Paul Rothchild Famously Referred To The “Riders” Demo As “Cocktail Music” Before Departing The Project

Available For Pre-Order Now

Be warned of course for like the lyrics book (which seemingly contains nothing new but collects it all in one place!) it isn't cheap  Three CD separately nearly £30 here in the UK, the 3 CD and vinyl version the USA is listed at $79.98 which isn't even mentioned on Amazon here . . . . . . hey ho if you bought the 40th Anniversary Edition (ahem) imagine the pure joy!)

ON THIS DAY IN MUSIC

1974 - Pamela Courson

Pamela Courson the long-term companion and lover of the late Jim Morrison died of a drugs overdose. She was 27. It was Courson who found The Doors singer dead on July 3, 1971 in the bathtub of their apartment in Paris, France. Pamela had been a long term heroin user and though Jim was notably anti-heroin, it is understood he may have confused her stash when they were in Paris and snorted a whole lot believing it to be cocaine. As many colleagues know as well as I, heroin and alcohol do not mix and have caused many such similar deaths and continue to do so. Jim was essentially a 'juicer' although partial to an occasional line of coke to maintain the creative flow as it were, as many artists have done before and since. Cocaine and alcohol produce a secondary substance of addiction called cocaethylene which increases the affects of both substances. Heroin and alcohol when used together  can act in opposition as central nervous system depressants. When taken together, their sedative properties only increase. This effect can suppress the lungs function and even stop breathing all together. 
A treatment for finding you have had too much 'gear' at the time was believed to be taking a bath to revive you and this is where Pam found Jim's body in the morning after an evening out on the town. As to the myths surrounding Morrison's death, and his still being alive, the Doors drummer John Densmore has always said after he saw Pamela upon returning to America he 'looked in her eyes and knew Jim was dead'

In their prime . . . . 

Jim and Pamela in France

THE DOORS - L.A. WOMAN

Right up there in my top albums of all time and probably always in my top three (as I have said before) the titular track would probably be my all time driving song and possibly my all time favourite song dependent on my mood at any given moment. This swan song of an album came out three months before Jim's death and I was still in shock over here in the UK but buying this in it's original cover became a salving source of comfort and somehow loads of us didn't believe he could be dead. Of course the legends and myths survive but it is fairly commonly accepted that Jim whilst enjoying a prolonged sojourn in Paris with 'wife' No 1 Pamela Courson may have mistaken a wrap of her heroin for cocaine and snorted just too much. Pam had a habit which she continually tied to hide from Jim as he disliked the drug and enjoyed this powders that went better with alcohol. Heroin and alcohol do not mix and cause many to overdose or rather in combination they shut down the lungs and respiration is threatened. Not drinking as heavily as he had perhaps, he was happy in France and had recorded a session of poetry but after a night out with friends Gilles Yepremian, Hervé Muller and Alain Ronay he had been drinking beer with he returned to their apartment and snorting a line got into a bath which is where Pam found him dead the following day. 
Pamela herself died of a heroin overdose in 1974 unable to continue she had been haunted by Jim's death ever since.

On this day in music history: April 29, 1971 - “L.A. Woman”, the sixth studio album by The Doors is released. Produced by The Doors and Bruce Botnick, it is recorded at The Doors Workshop in Los Angeles, CA from December 1970 - January 1971. After the departure of their producer Paul A. Rothchild (leaving after having differences with the band over musical direction), The Doors along with recording engineer Bruce Botnick handle the production duties on their sixth studio release. Unlike past albums, much of “L.A. Woman” is recorded live with few overdubs. They will be augmented by bassist Jerry Scheff and rhythm guitarist Marc Benno. It is the bands last album with lead singer Jim Morrison who dies three months after its release. The first press run of the LP features a die cut cover (with rounded corners similar to a photographic slide) with a portrait of the band printed on transparent yellow acetate plastic with the title and band name embossed on the front. Subsequent re-pressings of the LP are printed on standard cardboard stock without the die cutting and plastic window. It spins off two singles including “Love Her Madly” (#11 Pop) and “Riders On The Storm” (#14 Pop). To commemorate the albums’ fortieth anniversary, it is remixed, remastered and reissued as a double CD set. On the first disc, some tracks are extended, running past the fade out point of the original mixes. The second disc includes alternate versions of several songs and previously unreleased tracks. The album is also reissued in 2009 as a 180 gram vinyl LP, restoring the original cover artwork featured on the initial pressing. “L.A. Woman” peaks at number nine on the Billboard Top 200, and is certified 2x Platinum in the US by the RIAA.

another from Jeff Harris' wonderful music blog