It was a moment for the rock-and-roll record books: Robby Krieger, on guitar, and John Densmore, on the tabla, performed together for the first time in over a decade at a Film Independent at LACMA screening of the 2012 documentary Mr. Mojo Risin’: The Story of L.A. Woman. The film chronicles the making of the album film curator Elvis Mitchell called “the most cinematic album of the 20th Century. “

In what was a thrilling surprise for the sold-out crowd of Doors fans, the band’s two surviving members closed out the evening with a set of stripped-down, acoustic versions of People Are Strange, Love Me Two Times, Spanish Caravan, and Riders on the Storm, which segued into Ghost Riders in the Sky, its musical progenitor.

Before breaking out the instruments, the duo traded recollections, including the origin of iconic lyrics like “Don’t you love her as she’s walking out the door?” (It was inspired by Krieger’s then-girlfriend’s habit of ending fights with a dramatic door slam.) They recalled the night in Laurel Canyon when Jim Morrison wrote the lyrics to People Are Strange at sunrise after an all night bout with depression. They swapped stories about the L.A. Woman recording session that didn’t hit its stride until they relocated it from a recording studio to their rehearsal studio—“it was like home”—where Morrison recorded his vocals in the bathroom.

Those recording sessions would be the last time that Krieger, Densmore and Manzarek saw Morrison alive. Besieged, the singer fled to Paris, where three months later, he was found dead in the bathtub of his apartment. Morrison would have celebrated his 70th birthday this Sunday, December 8.

Manzarek died this past May.

But perhaps the evening’s most exciting moment for the legions of Doors fans around the world was Densmore’s mid-set ephiphany: “Hey John, why don’t we get the Psychedelic Rangers back together?” he said, referring to the band the two of them played together in before the Doors.

“At the time, LSD was legal,” Krieger responded.

“If it becomes legal again,” Densmore said, “Let’s do it.”

By Pamela Miller / Website & Grants Manager