John Densmore Quotes

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John Densmore

Profession : Musician

Birth : December 1, 1944

I don't like totally free jazz, unless it's done by somebody like Coltrane, who did bebop and cool jazz, so he was allowed to go out there.

John Densmore

Everyone is so desperate to get attention for their project, they will do almost anything, and the corporate world has always encouraged this.

John Densmore

The Doors are Ray, Robby, Jim and John.

John Densmore

In the '60s, the Sunset Strip became insane. The sidewalks and the traffic were jammed. It was a renaissance.

John Densmore

In the 1950s, my family first lived in West Los Angeles. Dad was studying architecture at USC and we didn't have a lot of money. He'd buy crumbling fixer-uppers, make repairs and sell them for a small profit. Then we'd move on. My early childhood image of him is standing on a ladder and sanding the front door.

John Densmore

Well, I've discovered that I really like writing, and I feel that I'm good at it.

John Densmore

In the end, I have a nice house and groovy cars, and so do my bandmates. It's not like they're starving.

John Densmore

I like connecting new synapses. Like Jim Morrison did.

John Densmore

I remember thinking: 'Why is Jim's face so big?' on the cover of our first album, 'The Doors.' Probably because it wouldn't have sold a lot of copies if it were my face!

John Densmore

The whole world is hopefully heading toward democracy.

John Densmore

We used to build our cities and towns around churches. Now banks are at the centers of our densely populated areas.

John Densmore

If I had been the drummer for the Grassroots, it probably wouldn't have cut me to the core when I heard John Lennon's 'Revolution' selling tennis shoes... and Nikes, to boot! That song was the soundtrack to part of my youth, when the streets were filled with passionate citizens expressing their First Amendment right to free speech.

John Densmore

Pete Townshend keeps fooling us again, selling Who songs to yuppies hungry for SUVs.

John Densmore

I like driving at least a part-time electric car because there's nothing coming out of the tailpipe. That's very important to me.

John Densmore

If somebody makes a really wonderful, ecological car, I'm down, no matter where it comes from.

John Densmore

When I was in my 20s I went through my testosterone phase and had a Mercedes to show that I'm rich, and they used to call me 'Jaguar John.' I'm older now, and I'm concerned about the environment and... appreciate a car that doesn't pollute.

John Densmore

I had the first XJ6 and then they became real popular with lawyers so I had to move on. The only problem with Jaguar is that you have to go to the gas station every couple blocks, and a mechanic once told me that if you don't have the right attitude when you walk up to a Jag, it won't start.

John Densmore

In the '50s, West L.A. was like Kansas.

John Densmore

I had no clue of Hollywood until I became a teenager. Then I got a fake ID in Tijuana and discovered Shelly's Manne-Hole, on Cahuenga and Selma, where I saw John Coltrane and his piano player, McCoy Tyner, and Elvin Jones, the drummer - my idol.

John Densmore

If you surrender to the communal vision, sometimes, certainly in our case, you become more than the sum of your parts.

John Densmore