Towards the end they hired Jerry Scheff, better known for session work and backing Elvis Presley. He got involved too late!

As Scheff reports on his own web site

Right about this time I got a call to do an album with "The Doors." We spent six weeks in the studio recording "L.A. Woman" Which turned out to be their last album. They had always used keyboard bass live, after we finished LA Woman I was approached about joining the group. Jim Morrison went to Paris and died. One of those things!

True, but unless you got a keyboardist who can handle basslines and the rest it sounds pretty thin live... ?

They generally had a bass guitarist on the studio albums.

X-rated Bob wrote: They generally had a bass guitarist on the studio albums.

Yes, interesting.
I have the greatest hits album and it mentions, Lonnie Mack, Doug Lubhan, Jerry Scheff and Harvey Brooks as session bassists.
Now you'd think that they would have required one of these guys on stage more so than in the studio.
It shows Manzarek in a good light.

A Hammond has some monstrous bass sounds on the pedals. Look at Led Zep live - when JPJ plays the keys, the band does not sound thin in the slightest. He keeps the pedal bass fairly simple, but it fills out the sound admirably.

I've got a recording with John McLaughlin, Joey Di Francesco and Dennis Chambers. Trust me, you don't miss the bassist with Di Fancesco on the keys. Like you don't miss the guitarist in Weather Report or ELP...

Ray Manzerak had a keyboard specifically for bass - I don't know what it was called, but you can see him with his left hand on a small keyboard mounted above his main organ in live vids. That's the bass. The classic example is Break on Through which has that very powerful bass riff throughout.

So they did have a bassist. They just didn't have a bass guitarist.

singemonkey wrote: Ray Manzerak had a keyboard specifically for bass - I don't know what it was called, but you can see him with his left hand on a small keyboard mounted above his main organ in live vids. That's the bass. The classic example is Break on Through which has that very powerful bass riff throughout.

So they did have a bassist. They just didn't have a bass guitarist.

Bass keyboardist.

singemonkey wrote: Ray Manzerak had a keyboard specifically for bass - I don't know what it was called, but you can see him with his left hand on a small keyboard mounted above his main organ in live vids. That's the bass.

Yes. It was like a bass version of a Fender Rhodes (it was a Fender something-or-other). It only had an octave and a half or something like that.

I lie. Two and a half.

observe the genius that is charlie hunter, omg.



he doesn't have a bassist either...

INSANE!!!