This week, irocku presents, Back Door Man, a song that brings together one of the greatest songwriters of all-time, Willie Dixon and one of rock music’s legendary bands, The Doors.
Originally written while under contract with Chess Records in 1960, Back Door Man was first recorded by Blues legend, Howlin Wolf who, along with Muddy Waters helped inspire a generation of young rock musicians. The song refers to the boyfriend of a married woman who has to slip out the ‘back door’, before her husband comes home. A least that’s what they say. The band featured, Otis Spann on piano, Hubert Sumlin on guitar, and Dixon on bass. Since the early 1960’s, Willie Dixon songs have been recorded and performed by hundreds of musicians including; Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Cream, The Allman Brothers, Queen, Megadeth, Tom Petty, The New York Dolls, and in this case, The Doors.
Recorded in 1966 and released on The Doors self titled first album in 1967, Back Door Man soon became a band favorite and was the opening song for most of The Doors live shows until the death of lead singer Jim Morrison in 1971. With Ray Manzerak’s hypnotic pulsating beat, the piano puts the listener into a joyous carnival-like trance only to be cut in two by Morrison’s vocals that howl in delight like a pirate following a night of pillaging. Manzerak’s keyboard playing gives this song a frenetic energy that is representative of much of the decade of the 1960’s. In many ways the music of The Doors’ first album (1967) was a watershed in rock music history, it is when popular music turned sharply away from the British Invasion to embrace a new rock movement emerging from the urban centers of United States. Back Door Man (1960), written by Willie Dixon was born in Chicago, where Chess records lit a musical fuse in urban America that inspired the next wave in the never ending evolution of rock music.
“Back Door Man” is a 12-bar rock blues progression in a minor key. It’s got a simple four-to-the-floor eighth-note bass line. Get your metronome ticking and lock it in. For the improvisation, we explore moving in parallel fourths and sixths on the piano which is not always found in rock but works well for this minor blues tune. Try making it your own by creating licks using the Am Blues scale in your right hand. You can also try playing around with intervals. We use fourths in the right hand but try using fifths, sixths, and octaves. Thank you, Ray Manzarek.
Written by Willie Dixon
Administered by Bug Music
All Rights Reserved Used by Permission
Learn how to play rock and blues piano from one of rock’s greatest. Chuck Leavell, legendary keyboardist for The Rolling Stones, The Allman Bros, Eric Clapton, John Mayer, and more.
Practice Schedule
Second Week: Add the Exercise and Improvisation to your practice. “Back Door Man” is a 12-bar rock blues progression in a minor key. Don’t be afraid to experiment with it and have fun. That’s the best way to learn.
The above video is a preview from the lesson. Every lesson includes a groove chart that teaches how to play the song with a rock band, a rock theory and dexterity exercise, an improvisation, and a full arrangement of the song itself. All lessons include instructional videos as well as the sheet music.
Practice Schedule
Second Week: Add the Exercise and Improvisation to your practice. “Back Door Man” is a 12-bar rock blues progression in a minor key. Don’t be afraid to experiment with it and have fun. That’s the best way to learn.
The above video is a preview from the lesson. Every lesson includes a groove chart that teaches how to play the song with a rock band, a rock theory and dexterity exercise, an improvisation, and a full arrangement of the song itself. All lessons include instructional videos as well as the sheet music.
Practice Schedule
Second Week: Add the Exercise and Improvisation to your practice. “Back Door Man” is a 12-bar rock blues progression in a minor key. Don’t be afraid to experiment with it and have fun. That’s the best way to learn.
The above video is a preview from the lesson. Every lesson includes a groove chart that teaches how to play the song with a rock band, a rock theory and dexterity exercise, an improvisation, and a full arrangement of the song itself. All lessons include instructional videos as well as the sheet music.
Practice Schedule
Second Week: Add the Exercise and Improvisation to your practice. “Back Door Man” is a 12-bar rock blues progression in a minor key. Don’t be afraid to experiment with it and have fun. That’s the best way to learn.
The above video is a preview from the lesson. Every lesson includes a groove chart that teaches how to play the song with a rock band, a rock theory and dexterity exercise, an improvisation, and a full arrangement of the song itself. All lessons include instructional videos as well as the sheet music.
Practice Schedule
Second Week: Add the Exercise and Improvisation to your practice. “Back Door Man” is a 12-bar rock blues progression in a minor key. Don’t be afraid to experiment with it and have fun. That’s the best way to learn.
The above video is a preview from the lesson. Every lesson includes a groove chart that teaches how to play the song with a rock band, a rock theory and dexterity exercise, an improvisation, and a full arrangement of the song itself. All lessons include instructional videos as well as the sheet music.
Practice Schedule
Second Week: Add the Exercise and Improvisation to your practice. “Back Door Man” is a 12-bar rock blues progression in a minor key. Don’t be afraid to experiment with it and have fun. That’s the best way to learn.
The above video is a preview from the lesson. Every lesson includes a groove chart that teaches how to play the song with a rock band, a rock theory and dexterity exercise, an improvisation, and a full arrangement of the song itself. All lessons include instructional videos as well as the sheet music.
Practice Schedule
Second Week: Add the Exercise and Improvisation to your practice. “Back Door Man” is a 12-bar rock blues progression in a minor key. Don’t be afraid to experiment with it and have fun. That’s the best way to learn.
The above video is a preview from the lesson. Every lesson includes a groove chart that teaches how to play the song with a rock band, a rock theory and dexterity exercise, an improvisation, and a full arrangement of the song itself. All lessons include instructional videos as well as the sheet music.
Does the sheet music give all those riffs in the upper octaves? Or are they just improvised? They sound great.
Thanks for the question. The improvisation is based on the Am blues. In the improv lesson we teach Am blues licks which are similar to those used in the lesson preview. The previews are a combination of the lessons, improvs, exercises, groove charts, and scales and chords suggested in the Lesson Schedule. For most of the Previews the performer plays through the Lesson and uses techniques shown in all of the videos and mixes them up to his liking during the improvisation. The improvisations on the preview are based on the Improvisation lesson that we provide but the performer might introduce additional techniques, patterns, and rhythms found in the lesson videos. When we designed the IROCKU lessons Chuck stressed the importance of getting people ‘off the page’. Unlike classical players, only 10% of all rockers can read music and Chuck himself isn’t much of a reader. Rockers piece together songs by listening, and learning the progressions, the grooves, and then filling in with melody and riffs(mostly from the scales and chords). We try to provide the tools for our students to expand beyond the written page, which is why we provide the groove charts, exercises, and improvs along with the lessons. Don’t worry about playing the notes exactly as they are played in the videos. Get the groove down and supplement it with chord inversions and licks of your own. You’ll find that after working through a half a dozen of our songs (including groove, lesson, exercise, and improv) that things will start falling into place and picking up songs and improvisations will become easier for you. If you work your way up to our level 7s and master the content (i.e.songs, improvs, groove, and exercises) you should be capable of learning any rock song or riff. Chuck would prefer to see you come up with your own version of the songs rather than learning ours. Our goal is to provide you with the tools to do that.
Rest in peace Ray. (February 12, 1939 – May 20, 2013). Your genius lives on. Thank you for all the great playing.
We have updated some of the sheet music for ‘Back Door Man’. Please check the new pdfs out the next time you work on this song. thx, irocku
Great lessons, but I think the sheet music for lesson 2 is different from the video.