“Roadhouse Blues” is a song by the Doors from their 1970 album Morrison Hotel. It was released as the B-side of “You Make Me Real”, which peaked at No. 50 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and No. 41 in Canada. “Roadhouse Blues” charted in its own right on the Cash Box Top 100, peaking at No. 76.
The Doors put together a video for this song using footage shot for a tour documentary called Feast Of Friends that was never completed.
When Doors lead singer Jim Morrison got drunk, he liked to sing blues numbers at their jam sessions. “Roadhouse Blues” is one of the songs he came up with at one of those inebriated sessions.
If there was an actual roadhouse that inspired this song, it was probably the Topanga Corral, a windowless nightclub in the counterculture enclave of the Topanga Canyon, where Jim Morrison lived. To get to the venue you had to take Topanga Canyon Boulevard, which is full of twists and turns – you really did need to “keep your eyes on the road, your hand upon the wheel.”
The Corral, where Little Feat and Canned Heat played and Linda Ronstadt was often spotted in the audience, burned down in 1986.
There was a cabin behind the Topanga Corral that many sources say Morrison bought for his girlfriend, Pamela Courson. This could be what provided the line, “In back of the Roadhouse they got some bungalows.”
The Doors
Jim Morrison – vocals
Robby Krieger – guitar
Ray Manzarek – tack piano
John Densmore – drums
Additional musicians
Lonnie Mack – bass
John Sebastian – harmonica
