Doors – Roadhouse Blues

This is one of my favorite songs I like by them. The song peaked at #50 on the Billboard 100 and #41 in Canada in 1970. This was the B side of the song “You Make Me Real.”

John Sebastian from the Lovin’ Spoonful played the harmonica on this recording. He is identified on the album as “G. Puglese” because of Sebastian’s contract with Reprise Records. Lonnie Mack played the bass on this one with is unusual…the Doors usually let the keyboard handle the bass parts.

Topanga Corral

Morrison was said to write this song about The Topanga Corral, a windowless nightclub in Topanga Canyon. There were also bungalows in the back that Morrison mentions in the song. The club burnt down in the seventies. It is remembered for artists such as Canned Heat, Spanky and Our Gang, Linda Ronstadt, and Little Feat playing there.

Morrison was convicted of indecent exposure and sentenced to six months in jail, but he died while the case was being appealed. In 2010, Florida Governor Charlie Crist granted Morrison a pardon, clearing him of the charges.

It was on the album Morrison Hotel. The album peaked at #4 on the Billboard Album Charts, #3 in Canada, and #12 in the UK in 1970.

Robby Krieger on Morrison Hotel: “Ray (Manzarek, keyboards) had been driving around downtown LA, and he saw this place called Morrison Hotel. So we decided to go down and shoot some photos there, but the guy who owned the hotel wouldn’t let us inside it. I guess they thought we were hippies. There were a lot of drunks and bums hanging around that area. Anyway, we snuck in there real quick when he wasn’t looking and got the shot that became the cover of Morrison Hotel.”

Outtakes from one of Morrison’s recording sessions were used to dub his voice into this version on the 2000 tribute album Stoned Immaculate, where he duets with John Lee Hooker.

Roadhouse Blues

Ah keep your eyes on the road, 
Your hands upon the wheel. 
Keep your eyes on the road 
Your hands upon the wheel. 
Yeah, we’re going to the roadhouse, 
Gonna have a real good-time. 

Yeah, the back of the roadhouse, 
They’ve got some bungalows. 
Yeah, the back of the roadhouse, 
They’ve got some bungalows. 

They dance for the people 
Who like to go down slow. 

Let it roll, baby, roll. 
Let it roll, baby, roll. 
Let it roll, baby, roll. 
Let it roll, all night long. 

Do it, Robby, Do it! 

You gotta roll, roll, roll, 
You gotta thrill my soul, alright. 
Roll, roll, roll, roll-a 
Thrill my soul. 

*improv* 
Passionate Lady. 
Passionate Lady. 
Give up your vows. 
Give up your vows. 
Save our city. 
Save our city. 
Ah, right now. 

Well, I woke up this morning 
And I got myself a beer. 
Well, I woke up this morning 
And I got myself a beer. 

The future’s uncertain 
And the end is always near. 

Let it roll, baby, roll. 
Let it roll, baby, roll. 
Let it roll, baby, roll. 
Let it roll, all night long.

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

36 thoughts on “Doors – Roadhouse Blues”

  1. Ok, I like this Doors tune as the organ doesn’t go on and on. lol Jimbo sings it well here Max. I also like the Jeff Healy cover of this one as well. Great Tuesday pick!

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  4. I guess they don’t always guess right with A and B sides. I don’t think I ever heard You Make me Real on the radio. As a kid I listened to WLS in Chicago. They would refer to some singles as TSWs, or Two-Sided Winners – like Day Tripper/Eight Days a Week – when there really was no B side, just two As.

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    1. I can’t imagine them sneaking in and taking the pics. I wish I knew what the owner said after someone showed him the album cover.

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  6. I never noticed that this one had bass in it, that alone makes it stand out. to me, probably the least ‘Doors-y’ of all their singles, and perhaps showing where they would have gone if Jim had lived on.

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    1. I think you are right…they probably would have went this way…because LA Woman would be on the next album and reminds me of this a little.

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  7. I love this song and it is maybe the best Doors song. Jim Morrison wrote the lyrics for ‘Roadhouse Blues’ when he was inebriated and this has been called “the ultimate bar song”, because it sounds like a rowdy party. In order to get to this Topanga Canyon nightclub, you had to take Topanga Canyon Boulevard, which is full of twists and turns, thus you really did need to “keep your eyes on the road, your hand upon the wheel.” Morrison brought his girlfriend, Pamela Courson with him to the club, and this could be what provided the line, “In back of the Roadhouse they got some bungalows.”

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    1. I love the history of songs like this one and seeing those old buildings. A shame that it burned down…I’ve read it burned down in the 70s or 1986.

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  9. Great record. Great band, even better when they played the blues.

    Incidentally, I have stood before Morrison’s grave in Paris.

    While we are on such morbid subject matter, I have laid my hands on Bob Marley’s sarcophagus in Jamaica. I simply said “thank you”.

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    1. I’ve wanted to visit Morrison’s grave in Paris… That is really cool Paul! Perfect thing to say!

      I was in Atlanta for work last week…I’ll come by your site soon when I catch up .

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      1. My memory of Atlanta is my wife and I watching guys blatantly dealing drugs (or so it seemed) in the car park from out of our hotel window, thankfully several floors high!

        Oh, and also a plate of onion rings in a restaurant that would have fed an entire family. It was like a mountain. In the UK you get about four onion rings each and pay considerably for the dubious privilege!

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      2. Oh it’s a cess pool…but I was in Buckhead (a place in Atlanta)…that is where Elton John lives and it’s nice to say the least.
        They do serve crazy amounts here.

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      3. Is that where Peachtree Road is? I guess so.

        By the way, Max, I’ve just caught up with some of your selections – what a record that Crabby Appleton one is! I really loved it. Totally new to me. I’d never heard of them but great stuff. Space Truckin’ is great too (I knew that, of course). As you say the organ from Jon Lord is just so dirty. Ian Paice – a fine drummer too. I know nothing abut Cheap Trick or Husker Du, however.

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      4. Peachtree street goes a long ways but yes it does go through there. Husker Du is close to the Replacements we were talking about earlier.
        Cheap Trick isn’t bad…good power pop and rock.

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      5. Paul…I have a band coming on Thursday where you will know maybe but not many people over here.

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    1. This and LA Woman is so great. Album cuts like Hyacinth House also gets to me. I like the Hooker version of it also singing with Morrison.

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      2. That is cool CB…he has commented here also I believe…been a while since I saw him. Is it on your site?
        This and La Woman is probably their two most edgiest albums.

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  11. I agree – one of my favourite Doors songs. But then there are so many! (Status Quo do a great ‘live’ version on the expanded CD recording of their ‘Piledriver’ album.) 🙂

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  12. This is just a great blues groove- I prefer the bluesy Doors. Again, not the thing to make me popular with the music buffs, but I don’t subscribe to the ‘Morrison is untouchable just cos’ he checked out at 27′ theory. He was mostly good to decent to sometimes- as on this track- great.

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    1. I don’t either obbverse… I went through a teenage phase where I even got his album of poetry…then the Doors movie came out and everyone was a fan for a while.
      He was made for the blues…this one is straight out good…good enough to make John Lee Hooker “duet” with him.

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