Lost Film By Classic Rock Band The Doors Coming To DVD [Video]
It has been more than 40 years since the death of The Doors’ charismatic frontman Jim Morrison. Despite the general view of The Doors as a historic band that was part of the unchangeable makeup of the psychedelic rock culture of the 1960s, appetite for the band continues to the modern day. In the early 2000s, two of the three surviving original members re-launched a version of The Doors with Ian Astbury of The Cult on lead vocals. That move, along with many uses of The Doors name and music in recent years, came with a side order of legal controversy.
The most recent Doors product to come into the marketplace seems to go back to the beginning. As Ultimate Classic Rock reports, the Doors-produced documentary Feast of Friends is set for DVD/Blu-Ray release. It was the band’s own film project, produced as a gift to fans. It’s also allegedly been passed around among Doors fanatics for many years, and clips have made their way into Doors films not produced by the band. It was filmed over five months beginning in April 1968 in a free-form manner, mostly offstage.
The team behind the film included Paul Ferrara, who attended film school with Jim Morrison, and Ray Manzarek. Two of The Doors’ founding members, Morrison and Manzarek, met at UCLA and started the group in 1965. Morrison died in Paris in 1971, while Manzarek passed away in 2013.
Feast of Friends is reportedly only 40 minutes in length, and to increase the value of the DVD/Blu-ray, Eagle Rock Entertainment has included many extras. This includes a series of the film’s outtakes, a 1968 British documentary about the band, and a Canadian performance in 1967. That last item includes a 10-minute-long performance of “The End.”
Entertainment Weekly shared a trailer for the film, which you can see below.
News of the film’s release comes as John Densmore begins a series of book readings. As reported by the Broward/Palm Beach Times earlier this month, Densmore released his second autobiography, Doors Unhinged, last year. It documented his lengthy court battle with his former band mates over the early 2000s version of the group. Despite the difficult legal dispute, Densmore said he and Manzarek were able to connect before the latter’s death from cancer. He and the other surviving member of The Doors, Robby Krieger, are attempting to put together a musical benefit for cancer that should take place next year.
Feast of Friends, the lost Doors documentary DVD/Blu-ray, is set for release on November 11, 2014.
[Image: The Doors/Google]
