The Doors – Roadhouse Blues

“Roadhouse Blues” – Single by the Doors from the album Morrison Hotel
A-side: “You Make Me Real”. Released in March 1970.

The song was recorded over two days, from November 4 to 5, 1969. Producer Paul A. Rothchild insisted on several takes, some of which were included on the 2006 reissue. Jim Morrison, who was apparently intoxicated during the sessions, flubbed several lyrics and kept repeating the phrase “Money beats soul every time”.

There was more progress on the second day when resident guitarist Lonnie Mack (then employed as an Elektra Records A&R representative) joined in to play bass; Ray Neapolitan, the regular bassist during the Morrison Hotel sessions, was stuck in traffic. Although there has been speculation that Mack also contributed the guitar solo, he confirmed that he had played bass and nothing else. While Mack had stopped working as a professional musician at the time, he decided to return to his career following the session.

Guitarist Robby Krieger is responsible for all guitar parts on “Roadhouse Blues”; Morrison shouts “Do it, Robby, do it!” at the start of the guitar solo. Ray Manzarek switched from a Wurlitzer electric piano to a tack piano. Ex–Lovin’ Spoonful frontman John Sebastian contributed harmonica (listed as “G. Puglese” for contractual reasons).

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The Doors - Roadhouse Blues, BEST version (live in N.Y. 1970) (music video)04:18

When Jim Morrison got drunk, he liked to sing blues numbers at The Doors jam sessions. This in one of the songs he came up with at one of those inebriated sessions.
If there was an actual roadhouse that inspired this song, it was probably the Topanga Corral, a windowless nightclub in the counterculture enclave of the Topanga Canyon, where Jim Morrison lived. To get to the venue you had to take Topanga Canyon Boulevard, which is full of twists and turns – you really did need to “keep your eyes on the road, your hand upon the wheel.”

The Corral, where Little Feat and Canned Heat played and Linda Ronstadt was often spotted in the audience, burned down in 1986.

There was a cabin behind the Topanga Corral that many sources say Morrison bought for his girlfriend, Pamela Courson. This could be what provided the line, “In back of the Roadhouse they got some bungalows.”

This has been called “the ultimate bar song,” and it continues to be played by bar bands everywhere.

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