Even legends have to start somewhere.
For the Doors — the psych rock pioneers who pushed the limits of minds and music with tracks like “Light My Fire,” “Love Me Two Times” and “L.A. Woman”— it can all be traced to the London Fog on Los Angeles’ Sunset Strip. Just months after forming, the nascent group was offered a residency at the down-at-the-heels club in early 1966. Having played little more than the odd college party for their UCLA film school friends, the London Fog became the Doors’ home base and testing ground. Six nights a week, from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m., singer/poet Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzerek, guitarist Robbie Krieger and drummer John Densmore honed their skills, both musical and theatrical.
An often absent crowd gave the quartet freedom to experiment, emboldening them to introduce daring original compositions alongside covers of early rock and R&B standards by Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, and Big Joe Williams. Unlike their bar band contemporaries, the Doors brought jazz sensibilities to their set, exploding each song and exploring individual sections with lengthy instrumental solos and improvisational lyrical passages. Though they would ultimately find fame and fortune a few doors down at the Whisky a Go Go, where they served as the house band later that summer, the Doors truly came of age at the London Fog.
A tape from this thrilling period, recorded by the band’s friend Nettie Peña in May 1966, was recently rediscovered and is now available as part of a limited-edition box set, London Fog 1966. To date, it’s the earliest known document of the Doors in action. Rounding out the collection is an assortment of facsimile memorabilia, including a set of 8×10 photos, handwritten setlist, and even a London Fog coaster. The effect is deeply evocative, offering a vivid time-capsule of the ’60s Hollywood underground scene.
On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the Doors landmark self-titled debut, Krieger, 70, tells PEOPLE about those exciting early days before the band became stars — and before Morrison became immortal.
What was it like hearing these tapes for the first time?
I thought it was pretty cool, man. I was amazed at the quality of the sound. We were a little rough around the edges, but I thought we sounded pretty good.
What comes to mind when you look back on that era?
Just how green we were, you know? Especially me, I’d only been playing electric guitar for maybe a year at the time. Less than that, even. The fact that we had such an odd set up — with Ray playing the bass keyboard and the organ and no other guitar player, just the three of us playing instruments — it really formed my style. I think if I’d just been playing with some other band, a normal rock band, it would have turned out totally different.
How did you first get the job at the London Fog?
That’s a good question! Basically, we just used to go around and hound all the club owners and ask them if they’d hire us. We hit all of the spots on the Strip, and the London Fog had just opened up. I think we were the first ones to play there. It was a small place, mainly a bar, but it did have a stage. By this time we’d gone through about 20 or 30 different clubs and been rejected. We learned the ropes and said, ‘Listen, man, we can fill this place up!’ And we did. The first night we got all of our friends to come from UCLA and everywhere and it was packed. So the guy hired us.
Of course, the next night nobody came. It was two people. But it slowly built up. On the Strip there’s a lot of foot traffic. They’d leave the door open so people could hear what was going on inside. I don’t think there was a door fee. If you came in you had to buy a couple of drinks.
What was the audience’s reaction when you’d switch from Chuck Berry covers to originals like “The End.”
It depended on who was there. It seemed like most of the people didn’t really care about dancing too much, they were just gawkers. If they wanted to dance they would go somewhere like the Whisky where they had a real dance floor and go-go girls. Although we did have a go-go girl, Rhonda Lane.
It must have been hard for her to go-go dance to “Strange Days”…
We had that experience a few times, where dancing girls would complain about our music. I remember this one gig we played, this guy had booked this theater. We were one of the bands, and he had this exotic kind of dancer. So we started to play “The End,” and she was getting more pissed off as it went along. And at the end she went, “Never play that song again when I’m dancing!”
The box set has early versions of “Strange Days” and “You Make Me Real.” Why were neither of those songs included on your debut album?
It wasn’t that we thought they weren’t good enough for the first album