Rockford teacher pens book about his roadie days with The Doors

February 9th, 2010 at 11:10am Georgette Braun

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B. Douglas Cameron, a history and choral program teacher at Guilford High School in Rockford, thought early on about giving a different title to his new book, “Inside the Fire: My Strange Days With The Doors.” It’s a 152-page self-published book about being a roadie for the rock band in 1969.

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(The only picture Cameron snapped of the now-late Jim Morrison is this one on the cover of Cameron’s new book and was taken in Mexico City.) 

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But the title that never was — “My 17 Days with The Doors” — could have minimalized from the get-go the story he mulled for decades before putting it into print late last year.  With so many books written about The Doors, one of the 1960s most controversial acts fronted by the untamed and unpredictable vocalist/poet Jim Morrison, Cameron wasn’t sure he had enough material to add to the mix. But as the years went by and he continued talking with keyboardist Ray Manzarek, he decided it was time to write.

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“I feel like I have made a few observations about the generations,” Cameron, a Rockfordian who grew up on Harlem Boulevard, said about the book. And, he expects this book to serve as the jumping-off point for him to write others when he retires at the end of this school year, including perhaps an autobiography including his days as a member of various bands.

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So what do his students and others think about his nearly three weeks at a $60-a-week job unloading amplifiers from U-Haul trucks when he was 17 years old in cities including Chicago, Los Angeles and Mexico City? Cameron said most people are “incredulous. They can’t believe it. And a massive dose of energy happens.” Yet Cameron said he cautions students about Morrison. “This guy is very thought-provoking, but sometimes, he creates evil images,” he said.

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One of the more revealing parts in Cameron’s book answers the question of why Vince Treanor III, the Doors road manager, was so interested in recruiting Cameron to be his assistant.

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“By the end of the 17 days with strange adults, I was ready to get back home to my girlfriend,” Cameron told me.

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In “Inside the Fire,” Cameron and writer David R. Greenland skillfully retell the curiosities of a slice of time that seemed strange then and continues to haunt those who were caught up in it. Buy it for $20 HERE.

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Entry Filed under: music