The Doors were an Americanrockband formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, California by vocalistJim Morrison, keyboardistRay Manzarek, drummerJohn Densmore, and guitaristRobby Krieger. The Doors' music was a fusion of psychedelic rock, hard rock, blues-rock, and acid rock. They were considered a controversial band, due mostly to Morrison's cryptic lyrics and unpredictable stage persona. The remaining members of the band dissolved it in March 1973,[1] short of two years after Morrison's death on July 3rd 1971. Despite a career that barely totaled eight years, The Doors still enjoy a huge cult following as well as status in the mainstream music industry as being hugely influential and original. According to the RIAA, they have sold over 32 million albums in the US alone.
Origins and formation
The origins of The Doors lay in a chance meeting between acquaintances and fellow UCLAfilm school alumni Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek on Venice BeachCalifornia in July 1965. Morrison told Manzarek he had been writing songs (Morrison said "I was taking notes at a fantastic rock-n-roll concert going on in my head") and, with Manzarek's encouragement, sang "Moonlight Drive". Impressed by Morrison's lyrics, Manzarek suggested they form a band.
Keyboardist Ray Manzarek was in a band called Rick & the Ravens with his brother Rick Manzarek, while Robby Krieger and John Densmore were playing with The Psychedelic Rangers, and knew Manzarek from yoga classes. In August, Densmore joined the group and, along with members of The Ravens and bass player Pat Sullivan (later credited using her married name Patricia Hansen in the 1997 box CD release), recorded a six-song demo in September 1965. This was widely bootlegged and appeared in full on the 1997 Doors box set.
That month the group recruited guitarist Robby Krieger, and the final lineup — Morrison, Manzarek, Krieger and Densmore — was complete. The band took their name from the title of a book by Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception (1954). That title was in turn taken from a line in a poem by the 18th-century artist and poet William Blake: "If the doors of perception were cleansed, every thing would appear to man as it is: infinite".[3]
The Doors were unusual among rock groups because they did not use a bass guitar when playing live. Instead, Manzarek played the bass lines with his left hand on the newly invented FenderRhodes bass keyboard, an offshoot of the Fender Rhodes electric piano, playing other keyboards with his right hand. On their studio albums (with the notable exception of their eponymous first record), The Doors did, however, use bass players, such as Jerry Scheff, Doug Lubahn (who also played with Clear Light), Harvey Brooks, Kerry Magness, Lonnie Mack, Larry Knechtel, Leroy Vinnegar, and Ray Neapolitan.
Many of The Doors' original songs were group compositions, with Morrison or Krieger contributing the lyrics and an initial melody, and the others providing harmonic and rhythmic suggestions, or even entire sections of songs, such as Manzarek's organ introduction to "Light My Fire".
By 1966 the group was playing the London Fog club and soon graduated to the prestigious Whisky a Go Go, where they were the opening act for Van Morrison's group Them. On their last night together the two bands joined up for "In the Midnight Hour" and a twenty-minute jam session of Them's "Gloria".[4] On August 10, they were spotted by Elektra Records president Jac Holzman who was present at the recommendation of Love singer Arthur Lee, whose group was on Elektra. After Holzman and producer Paul A. Rothchild saw two sets of the band playing at the Whisky a Go Go, they signed them to the Elektra Records label on August 18—the start of a long and successful partnership with Rothchild and engineerBruce Botnick.
The timing was fortunate, because on August 21 the club fired the band after a profanity-filled performance of "The End". In an incident that foreshadowed the controversy that later followed the group, an acid-tripping Morrison raucously recited his own version of the Greek drama Oedipus Rex, in which Oedipus kills his father and has sex with his mother.
Debut album
'The Doors' self-titled debut LP was released in the first week of January 1967. It featured most of the major songs from their set, including the 11-minute musical drama "The End". The band recorded the album in a few days in late August and early September 1966, almost entirely live in the studio, with several of the songs being captured in a single take.[citation needed]
Morrison and Manzarek directed a promotional film for the lead single "Break On Through (To the Other Side)." In hindsight this has been seen as a significant advance toward the development of the music video genre.
To promote the single, the Doors made their television debut on a Los Angeles TV show called Boss City, circa 1966, possibly early 1967 and then on a Los Angeles TV show called Shebang, miming to "Break On Through," on New Years 1967. This clip has never been officially released by the Doors but can be seen on YouTube.
The second single, "Light My Fire," became a smash hit in July 1967, sold 1 million copies and reached #1 on the Billboard Charts on July 29th, keeping the top spot for three weeks. It established the group — in the vein of The Byrds and Jefferson Airplane — as one of America's counterculture bands. For AM radio airplay, the long middle organ and guitar solos were cut from the song making it 2:52 instead of the 7:10 original [5].
Early live recordings at The Matrix
In March 1967, The Doors performed at The Matrix Club in San Francisco, California. The March 7 and 10 shows were recorded by a co-owner of The Matrix, Peter Abram. These recordings are notable as they are among the earliest live recordings of the band to circulate. On November 18, 2008, The Doors published a compilation of these recordings, Live at the Matrix 1967, on the band's boutique Bright Midnight Archives label.
Early TV performances
In September 1967 the Doors gave a memorable performance of "Light My Fire" on the Ed Sullivan Show. According to Ray Manzarek network executives asked that the word 'higher' be removed in favor of 'better', as you couldn't say 'high' on national TV. The group initially agreed to this, but nonetheless performed the song in its usual form, either because they had never intended to comply with the request, or Jim Morrison was nervous and forgot to make the change (Manzarek has given conflicting accounts). Either way, 'higher' was sung out on national TV, and a furious Ed Sullivan cancelled another six shows that had been planned. To which Jim Morrison reportedly said: "Hey man, so what? We just DID the Ed Sullivan Show".
In May 1967, The Doors made their international television debut by recording a version of "The End" for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) at their Yorkville Studios in Toronto[6]. It remained unseen since its original broadcast until the release of The Doors Soundstage Performances DVD in 2002[6].
The next night at Winterland, a TV set was wheeled onstage during the Doors set so the band could see themselves on the Jonathan Winters Show. They stopped playing Back Door Man when their song came on. The audience watched the Doors watching themselves on TV. They finished the song when their bit was done, and Ray walked over and turned the TV off. The next night was their last ever in Winterland.
They played two more dates in Denver on December 30 and December 31, capping off a year of almost constant touring.
Strange Days
The second Doors LP, Strange Days, continued to explore the genre of acid rock. The closing track, "When the Music's Over", was, like "The End", lengthy and dramatic. The album was also commercially successful and featured now-classic Doors songs such as "People Are Strange" and "Love Me Two Times".
Waiting for the Sun
In April, the recording of the third album was marred by tension as a result of Morrison's increasing dependence on alcohol. Approaching the height of their popularity, the Doors played a series of outdoor shows that led to frenzied scenes between fans and police, particularly at Chicago Coliseum on May 10.
The band began to branch out from their initial form in their third LP, because they had exhausted their original repertoire and began writing new material. It became their first #1 LP and the single "Hello, I Love You" was their second and last US #1 single. There was a controversy with the release of the "Hello, I Love You" single in 1968, when the rock press pointed out the song's musical resemblance to The Kinks' 1965 hit "All Day and All of the Night". Members of the Kinks have concurred with music critics: Kinks guitarist Dave Davies has been known to add snippets of "Hello, I Love You" during solo live performances of "All Day and All of the Night" as a sarcastic commentary on the subject.[7] However, the two songs are distinctively different in either arrangement, scope, and sheer execution. In concert, Morrison was occasionally dismissive of the song, and left the vocal chores to Manzarek, as can be seen during their performance in the documentary The Doors are Open[8]
A month after riotous scenes at the Singer Bowl in New York, the group flew to Britain for its first dates outside of North America. They held a press conference at the ICA Gallery in London and played shows at The Roundhouse Theatre. The results of the trip were broadcast on Granada TV's The Doors Are Open which was later released on video. They played dates in Europe, along with Jefferson Airplane, including a show in Amsterdam without Morrison after he collapsed from a drug binge. Morrison returned to London on September 20 and stayed for a month[citation needed].
The group played nine more US dates and began to work, in November, on their fourth LP. 1969 started with a sold out show at Madison Square Garden in New York on January 24 and with a successful new single, "Touch Me", (released in December 1968), which hit US #3.
The incidents leading up to Morrison's arrest in New Haven are still somewhat unclear, though it is widely rumored (most notably documented by a scene in Oliver Stone's film, The Doors) that Morrison was caught by a police officer having a conversation backstage in a bathroom stall with a female companion. The officer, suspecting indecent sexual behavior on the part of Morrison and his companion, allegedly harassed the pair, aggravating Morrison and causing him to become belligerent with the officer. Morrison was subsequently maced by the officer, though not arrested at that time.
On stage, Morrison proceeded to go on an obscenity-laced tirade to the audience, explaining what had happened backstage, and belittling New Haven police. It was at this time that Morrison was apprehended and dragged offstage by the police. A riot ensued which spilled from the gates of the New Haven Arena (since razed) and into the streets of New Haven. Morrison was taken to a local police station, photographed and booked on charges of indecency and public obscenity.
Beginning in early 1970, the Black Panther trials were held in New Haven, CT. This polarizing event led to riots and increased National Guard forces in the streets; local schools and colleges (notably nearby Yale) went "on strike" and were the sites of many protest speeches and marches. Morrison later references this event in the song "Peace Frog" from the 1970 album Morrison Hotel which contains the lyric "Blood in the streets in the town of New Haven."
The Miami Incident
The Miami incident refers to a Doors concert on March 1, 1969, at the Dinner Key Auditorium in Miami, Florida where Morrison gave a controversial performance. The restless crowd was subjected to Morrison's lack of interest in singing the songs that night, as well as his unconventional emotional outbursts, screaming challenges to the audience, and making irreverent social statements. The confusion and taunts led to some out of control situations, such as Morrison allegedly exposing his penis, that resulted in an abrupt end to the show, shortly after having been on stage an hour.
At first the performance was simply seen as Morrison having been drunk beyond any saving grace, combined with his frustration over the trappings of rock stardom and his personal demons finally reaching a climax. But once a slanderous review of it was reported in the local press on March 3, Morrison's exhibitionism took on a snowball effect in the form of a media and legal firestorm. On March 5, a warrant was issued for Morrison's arrest on charges of indecency and obscenity, and one after another all the subsequent shows on The Doors upcoming tour canceled.
Between the time Morrison returned from his post-Miami trip to Jamaica with The Doors and he recorded some of his poetry and began shooting HWY, an experimental film about a hitchhiker played by himself. The Doors set the poetry session to music for the 1978 album An American Prayer. HWY contains virtually no dialog and circulates privately among collectors.
The group's only public appearance was on a PBS television special recorded late in April and broadcast the following month. The group performed songs from the upcoming Soft Parade album.
The Doors resumed touring at Chicago Auditorium Theater on June 14 and played two dates at Aquarius Theatre in Hollywood on July 21 and July 22, both later released on CD. Morrison appeared heavily bearded, wearing casual hippie attire and tinted aviator glasses, sitting on a stool.
Once The Doors completed their fifth album Morrison Hotel and a tour to support it, Morrison and the band found their career consumed with the Miami trial. On October 30, 1970, Morrison was found guilty of two charges, profanity and indecent exposure. He was acquitted of the charge of drunkenness and the felony of lewd behavior. The verdict was contested and Morrison died in July 1971 while his case was still on appeal.
The Soft Parade
Their fourth album, The Soft Parade (1969), released in June, further distanced the group from their core fan base, containing pop-oriented arrangements and horn sections. The lead single "Touch Me" featured saxophonist Curtis Amy.
While the band was trying to maintain their previous momentum, efforts to expand their sound gave the album an experimental feel, causing critics to attack their musical integrity. Morrison's drinking made him difficult and unreliable, and the recording sessions dragged on for weeks. Studio costs piled up, and The Doors came close to disintegrating[citation needed]. Despite all this, the album was immensely successful, becoming the band's fourth hit album and producing their last top ten single.
During the recording of their next album, in November 1969, Morrison found himself in trouble with the law after being abusive to airline staff during a flight to Phoenix, Arizona to see The Rolling Stones in concert. He was acquitted the following April after a steward mistakenly identified Morrison as his traveling companion, American actor Tom Baker[citation needed].
The group started 1970 in New York with two well-received nights at The Felt Forum, just prior to the release of "Morrison Hotel".
Aquarius Theatre performances
The Doors gave two concerts at the Earl Carroll Theatre (then called the "Aquarius" theatre) on Sunset Bvd, Hollywood.
The two shows were performed on 21 July1969. A "backstage" performance, a so-called "private rehearsal" without an audience occurred on 22 July1969. This was only a few months after the "Miami incident" in March of that year. The shows featured a more laid back, bluesy style of Doors music. Morrison appeared not as his trademark, "young lion" in black leather pants. Instead, he wore a beard and sported loose fitting carpenter-like pants.
The performances included Morrison singing sitting on a stool. The usual theatrics from Morrison were more subdued compared to earlier stage performances; the convulsing and writhing were not present during these nights. Morrison focused on his singing and expressed himself more musically--even shaking maracas during many of the songs--and not on his usual stage persona.
Of the songs performed with an audience, "Universal Mind" and the "Celebration of the Lizard" suite were released on The Doors' 1970 Absolutely Live album, whereas "You Make Me Real" was released on Alive, She Cried in 1983. Further, the Van Morrison track "Gloria", which was performed and recorded during the audience-less rehearsal, was also released on Alive, She Cried. The entire performance was released in 2001.
Morrison Hotel and Absolutely Live
The Doors staged a return to form with their 1970 LP Morrison Hotel. Featuring a consistent, hard rock sound, the album's opener was "Roadhouse Blues". The record hit US #4 and revived their status among their fans and the rock press. Dave Marsh, the editor of Creem magazine, said of the album that it was: "the most horrifying rock and roll I have ever heard. When they're good, they're simply unbeatable. I know this is the best record I've listened to ... so far"[9], while Rock Magazine called it "without any doubt their ballsiest (and best) album to date"[10]. Circus Magazine praised it as "possibly the best album yet from the Doors" and "Good hard, evil rock, and one of the best albums released this decade"[11]. The album also saw Jim Morrison returning to the post as main songwriter, writing or co-writing all of the album's tracks, as opposed to the poppier "The Soft Parade", for which Robbie Krieger had contributed an unusually large number of songs.
The 40th Anniversary CD reissue contains outtakes and alternate takes, including a different version of "The Spy" as well as versions of "Roadhouse Blues" with Lonnie Mack on bass guitar and The Lovin' Spoonful's John Sebastian contributing a bluesy harmonica.
Back in Miami for his trial, Morrison took the stand on September 16, but the jury returned a guilty verdict for profanity and indecent exposure on September 20. Morrison was sentenced to eight months' custody but was allowed to go free pending an appeal.
The Doors' last public performance
On December 8, 1970, his 27th birthday, Morrison recorded another poetry session. This would end up on An American Prayer: Jim Morrison in 1978 with music, and is currently in possession of the Courson family.
The Doors' tour to promote their upcoming album "LA Woman" would comprise only two dates. The first was held in Dallas, Texas on December 11 and reportedly went well. During the Doors' last public performance, at the "Warehouse" in New Orleans, Louisiana, on December 12, 1970, Morrison apparently had a breakdown on stage. Midway through the set he slammed the microphone numerous times into the stage floor until the platform beneath was destroyed, then sat down and refused to perform for the remainder of the show. Drummer John Densmore recalls the incident in his biography "Riders On the Storm", where after the show he met with Jim's bandmates and they decided that The Doors would end their live act, citing their mutual agreement that Morrison was ready to retire from performing. Shortly thereafter while finishing up the recording of their album, Morrison decided he would move to Paris with his girlfriend Pamela.
L.A. Woman
The Doors looked set to regain its crown as a premier act with L.A. Woman in 1971. It contained two top 20 hits and has gone on to be their second best-selling studio album, surpassed in sales only by their debut. The album explored their R&B roots, although during rehearsals they had a falling-out with Rothchild. Denouncing the new repertoire as "cocktail music," he quit and handed the production to Botnick. The result is considered a classic Doors album. The singles "L.A. Woman", "Love Her Madly" and "Riders on the Storm" remain mainstays of rock radio programming. During the sessions, a short clip of the band performing Crawling King Snake was filmed. So far as known, this is the last clip of the Doors performing with Jim Morrison.
From Wikipedia:
The Doors were an American rock band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, California by vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore, and guitarist Robby Krieger. The Doors' music was a fusion of psychedelic rock, hard rock, blues-rock, and acid rock. They were considered a controversial band, due mostly to Morrison's cryptic lyrics and unpredictable stage persona. The remaining members of the band dissolved it in March 1973,[1] short of two years after Morrison's death on July 3rd 1971. Despite a career that barely totaled eight years, The Doors still enjoy a huge cult following as well as status in the mainstream music industry as being hugely influential and original. According to the RIAA, they have sold over 32 million albums in the US alone.
Origins and formation
The origins of The Doors lay in a chance meeting between acquaintances and fellow UCLA film school alumni Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek on Venice Beach California in July 1965. Morrison told Manzarek he had been writing songs (Morrison said "I was taking notes at a fantastic rock-n-roll concert going on in my head") and, with Manzarek's encouragement, sang "Moonlight Drive". Impressed by Morrison's lyrics, Manzarek suggested they form a band.
Keyboardist Ray Manzarek was in a band called Rick & the Ravens with his brother Rick Manzarek, while Robby Krieger and John Densmore were playing with The Psychedelic Rangers, and knew Manzarek from yoga classes. In August, Densmore joined the group and, along with members of The Ravens and bass player Pat Sullivan (later credited using her married name Patricia Hansen in the 1997 box CD release), recorded a six-song demo in September 1965. This was widely bootlegged and appeared in full on the 1997 Doors box set.
That month the group recruited guitarist Robby Krieger, and the final lineup — Morrison, Manzarek, Krieger and Densmore — was complete. The band took their name from the title of a book by Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception (1954). That title was in turn taken from a line in a poem by the 18th-century artist and poet William Blake: "If the doors of perception were cleansed, every thing would appear to man as it is: infinite".[3]
The Doors were unusual among rock groups because they did not use a bass guitar when playing live. Instead, Manzarek played the bass lines with his left hand on the newly invented Fender Rhodes bass keyboard, an offshoot of the Fender Rhodes electric piano, playing other keyboards with his right hand. On their studio albums (with the notable exception of their eponymous first record), The Doors did, however, use bass players, such as Jerry Scheff, Doug Lubahn (who also played with Clear Light), Harvey Brooks, Kerry Magness, Lonnie Mack, Larry Knechtel, Leroy Vinnegar, and Ray Neapolitan.
Many of The Doors' original songs were group compositions, with Morrison or Krieger contributing the lyrics and an initial melody, and the others providing harmonic and rhythmic suggestions, or even entire sections of songs, such as Manzarek's organ introduction to "Light My Fire".
By 1966 the group was playing the London Fog club and soon graduated to the prestigious Whisky a Go Go, where they were the opening act for Van Morrison's group Them. On their last night together the two bands joined up for "In the Midnight Hour" and a twenty-minute jam session of Them's "Gloria".[4] On August 10, they were spotted by Elektra Records president Jac Holzman who was present at the recommendation of Love singer Arthur Lee, whose group was on Elektra. After Holzman and producer Paul A. Rothchild saw two sets of the band playing at the Whisky a Go Go, they signed them to the Elektra Records label on August 18—the start of a long and successful partnership with Rothchild and engineer Bruce Botnick.
The timing was fortunate, because on August 21 the club fired the band after a profanity-filled performance of "The End". In an incident that foreshadowed the controversy that later followed the group, an acid-tripping Morrison raucously recited his own version of the Greek drama Oedipus Rex, in which Oedipus kills his father and has sex with his mother.
Debut album
'The Doors' self-titled debut LP was released in the first week of January 1967. It featured most of the major songs from their set, including the 11-minute musical drama "The End". The band recorded the album in a few days in late August and early September 1966, almost entirely live in the studio, with several of the songs being captured in a single take.[citation needed]
Morrison and Manzarek directed a promotional film for the lead single "Break On Through (To the Other Side)." In hindsight this has been seen as a significant advance toward the development of the music video genre.
To promote the single, the Doors made their television debut on a Los Angeles TV show called Boss City, circa 1966, possibly early 1967 and then on a Los Angeles TV show called Shebang, miming to "Break On Through," on New Years 1967. This clip has never been officially released by the Doors but can be seen on YouTube.
The second single, "Light My Fire," became a smash hit in July 1967, sold 1 million copies and reached #1 on the Billboard Charts on July 29th, keeping the top spot for three weeks. It established the group — in the vein of The Byrds and Jefferson Airplane — as one of America's counterculture bands. For AM radio airplay, the long middle organ and guitar solos were cut from the song making it 2:52 instead of the 7:10 original [5].
Early live recordings at The Matrix
In March 1967, The Doors performed at The Matrix Club in San Francisco, California. The March 7 and 10 shows were recorded by a co-owner of The Matrix, Peter Abram. These recordings are notable as they are among the earliest live recordings of the band to circulate. On November 18, 2008, The Doors published a compilation of these recordings, Live at the Matrix 1967, on the band's boutique Bright Midnight Archives label.
Early TV performances
In September 1967 the Doors gave a memorable performance of "Light My Fire" on the Ed Sullivan Show. According to Ray Manzarek network executives asked that the word 'higher' be removed in favor of 'better', as you couldn't say 'high' on national TV. The group initially agreed to this, but nonetheless performed the song in its usual form, either because they had never intended to comply with the request, or Jim Morrison was nervous and forgot to make the change (Manzarek has given conflicting accounts). Either way, 'higher' was sung out on national TV, and a furious Ed Sullivan cancelled another six shows that had been planned. To which Jim Morrison reportedly said: "Hey man, so what? We just DID the Ed Sullivan Show".
In May 1967, The Doors made their international television debut by recording a version of "The End" for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) at their Yorkville Studios in Toronto [6]. It remained unseen since its original broadcast until the release of The Doors Soundstage Performances DVD in 2002[6].
On December 24, the Doors taped "Light My Fire" and "Moonlight Drive" live for the Jonathan Winters Show. From December 26 to December 28 the group played at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. An excerpt taken from Stephen Davis' book on Jim Morrison p. 219-220:
They played two more dates in Denver on December 30 and December 31, capping off a year of almost constant touring.
Strange Days
The second Doors LP, Strange Days, continued to explore the genre of acid rock. The closing track, "When the Music's Over", was, like "The End", lengthy and dramatic. The album was also commercially successful and featured now-classic Doors songs such as "People Are Strange" and "Love Me Two Times".
Waiting for the Sun
In April, the recording of the third album was marred by tension as a result of Morrison's increasing dependence on alcohol. Approaching the height of their popularity, the Doors played a series of outdoor shows that led to frenzied scenes between fans and police, particularly at Chicago Coliseum on May 10.
The band began to branch out from their initial form in their third LP, because they had exhausted their original repertoire and began writing new material. It became their first #1 LP and the single "Hello, I Love You" was their second and last US #1 single. There was a controversy with the release of the "Hello, I Love You" single in 1968, when the rock press pointed out the song's musical resemblance to The Kinks' 1965 hit "All Day and All of the Night". Members of the Kinks have concurred with music critics: Kinks guitarist Dave Davies has been known to add snippets of "Hello, I Love You" during solo live performances of "All Day and All of the Night" as a sarcastic commentary on the subject.[7] However, the two songs are distinctively different in either arrangement, scope, and sheer execution. In concert, Morrison was occasionally dismissive of the song, and left the vocal chores to Manzarek, as can be seen during their performance in the documentary The Doors are Open[8]
A month after riotous scenes at the Singer Bowl in New York, the group flew to Britain for its first dates outside of North America. They held a press conference at the ICA Gallery in London and played shows at The Roundhouse Theatre. The results of the trip were broadcast on Granada TV's The Doors Are Open which was later released on video. They played dates in Europe, along with Jefferson Airplane, including a show in Amsterdam without Morrison after he collapsed from a drug binge. Morrison returned to London on September 20 and stayed for a month[citation needed].
The group played nine more US dates and began to work, in November, on their fourth LP. 1969 started with a sold out show at Madison Square Garden in New York on January 24 and with a successful new single, "Touch Me", (released in December 1968), which hit US #3.
The New Haven Incident
On December 9th, 1967, The Doors performed at an infamous appearance in New Haven Arena in New Haven, Connecticut which ended abruptly in Morrison's on-stage arrest by local police.
The incidents leading up to Morrison's arrest in New Haven are still somewhat unclear, though it is widely rumored (most notably documented by a scene in Oliver Stone's film, The Doors) that Morrison was caught by a police officer having a conversation backstage in a bathroom stall with a female companion. The officer, suspecting indecent sexual behavior on the part of Morrison and his companion, allegedly harassed the pair, aggravating Morrison and causing him to become belligerent with the officer. Morrison was subsequently maced by the officer, though not arrested at that time.
On stage, Morrison proceeded to go on an obscenity-laced tirade to the audience, explaining what had happened backstage, and belittling New Haven police. It was at this time that Morrison was apprehended and dragged offstage by the police. A riot ensued which spilled from the gates of the New Haven Arena (since razed) and into the streets of New Haven. Morrison was taken to a local police station, photographed and booked on charges of indecency and public obscenity.
Beginning in early 1970, the Black Panther trials were held in New Haven, CT. This polarizing event led to riots and increased National Guard forces in the streets; local schools and colleges (notably nearby Yale) went "on strike" and were the sites of many protest speeches and marches. Morrison later references this event in the song "Peace Frog" from the 1970 album Morrison Hotel which contains the lyric "Blood in the streets in the town of New Haven."
The Miami Incident
The Miami incident refers to a Doors concert on March 1, 1969, at the Dinner Key Auditorium in Miami, Florida where Morrison gave a controversial performance. The restless crowd was subjected to Morrison's lack of interest in singing the songs that night, as well as his unconventional emotional outbursts, screaming challenges to the audience, and making irreverent social statements. The confusion and taunts led to some out of control situations, such as Morrison allegedly exposing his penis, that resulted in an abrupt end to the show, shortly after having been on stage an hour.
At first the performance was simply seen as Morrison having been drunk beyond any saving grace, combined with his frustration over the trappings of rock stardom and his personal demons finally reaching a climax. But once a slanderous review of it was reported in the local press on March 3, Morrison's exhibitionism took on a snowball effect in the form of a media and legal firestorm. On March 5, a warrant was issued for Morrison's arrest on charges of indecency and obscenity, and one after another all the subsequent shows on The Doors upcoming tour canceled.
Between the time Morrison returned from his post-Miami trip to Jamaica with The Doors and he recorded some of his poetry and began shooting HWY, an experimental film about a hitchhiker played by himself. The Doors set the poetry session to music for the 1978 album An American Prayer. HWY contains virtually no dialog and circulates privately among collectors.
The group's only public appearance was on a PBS television special recorded late in April and broadcast the following month. The group performed songs from the upcoming Soft Parade album.
The Doors resumed touring at Chicago Auditorium Theater on June 14 and played two dates at Aquarius Theatre in Hollywood on July 21 and July 22, both later released on CD. Morrison appeared heavily bearded, wearing casual hippie attire and tinted aviator glasses, sitting on a stool.
Once The Doors completed their fifth album Morrison Hotel and a tour to support it, Morrison and the band found their career consumed with the Miami trial. On October 30, 1970, Morrison was found guilty of two charges, profanity and indecent exposure. He was acquitted of the charge of drunkenness and the felony of lewd behavior. The verdict was contested and Morrison died in July 1971 while his case was still on appeal.
The Soft Parade
Their fourth album, The Soft Parade (1969), released in June, further distanced the group from their core fan base, containing pop-oriented arrangements and horn sections. The lead single "Touch Me" featured saxophonist Curtis Amy.
While the band was trying to maintain their previous momentum, efforts to expand their sound gave the album an experimental feel, causing critics to attack their musical integrity. Morrison's drinking made him difficult and unreliable, and the recording sessions dragged on for weeks. Studio costs piled up, and The Doors came close to disintegrating[citation needed]. Despite all this, the album was immensely successful, becoming the band's fourth hit album and producing their last top ten single.
During the recording of their next album, in November 1969, Morrison found himself in trouble with the law after being abusive to airline staff during a flight to Phoenix, Arizona to see The Rolling Stones in concert. He was acquitted the following April after a steward mistakenly identified Morrison as his traveling companion, American actor Tom Baker[citation needed].
The group started 1970 in New York with two well-received nights at The Felt Forum, just prior to the release of "Morrison Hotel".
Aquarius Theatre performances
The Doors gave two concerts at the Earl Carroll Theatre (then called the "Aquarius" theatre) on Sunset Bvd, Hollywood.
The two shows were performed on 21 July 1969. A "backstage" performance, a so-called "private rehearsal" without an audience occurred on 22 July 1969. This was only a few months after the "Miami incident" in March of that year. The shows featured a more laid back, bluesy style of Doors music. Morrison appeared not as his trademark, "young lion" in black leather pants. Instead, he wore a beard and sported loose fitting carpenter-like pants.
The performances included Morrison singing sitting on a stool. The usual theatrics from Morrison were more subdued compared to earlier stage performances; the convulsing and writhing were not present during these nights. Morrison focused on his singing and expressed himself more musically--even shaking maracas during many of the songs--and not on his usual stage persona.
Of the songs performed with an audience, "Universal Mind" and the "Celebration of the Lizard" suite were released on The Doors' 1970 Absolutely Live album, whereas "You Make Me Real" was released on Alive, She Cried in 1983. Further, the Van Morrison track "Gloria", which was performed and recorded during the audience-less rehearsal, was also released on Alive, She Cried. The entire performance was released in 2001.
Morrison Hotel and Absolutely Live
The Doors staged a return to form with their 1970 LP Morrison Hotel. Featuring a consistent, hard rock sound, the album's opener was "Roadhouse Blues". The record hit US #4 and revived their status among their fans and the rock press. Dave Marsh, the editor of Creem magazine, said of the album that it was: "the most horrifying rock and roll I have ever heard. When they're good, they're simply unbeatable. I know this is the best record I've listened to ... so far"[9], while Rock Magazine called it "without any doubt their ballsiest (and best) album to date"[10]. Circus Magazine praised it as "possibly the best album yet from the Doors" and "Good hard, evil rock, and one of the best albums released this decade"[11]. The album also saw Jim Morrison returning to the post as main songwriter, writing or co-writing all of the album's tracks, as opposed to the poppier "The Soft Parade", for which Robbie Krieger had contributed an unusually large number of songs.
The 40th Anniversary CD reissue contains outtakes and alternate takes, including a different version of "The Spy" as well as versions of "Roadhouse Blues" with Lonnie Mack on bass guitar and The Lovin' Spoonful's John Sebastian contributing a bluesy harmonica.
The band continued to perform at arenas throughout the summer. Morrison faced trial in Miami in August, but the group made it to the Isle of Wight Festival on August 29. They performed alongside artists such as Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Joni Mitchell, Miles Davis and Sly & The Family Stone. Two songs from the show were featured in the 1995 documentary Message To Love. In July 1970, The Doors released Absolutely Live.
Back in Miami for his trial, Morrison took the stand on September 16, but the jury returned a guilty verdict for profanity and indecent exposure on September 20. Morrison was sentenced to eight months' custody but was allowed to go free pending an appeal.
The Doors' last public performance
On December 8, 1970, his 27th birthday, Morrison recorded another poetry session. This would end up on An American Prayer: Jim Morrison in 1978 with music, and is currently in possession of the Courson family.
The Doors' tour to promote their upcoming album "LA Woman" would comprise only two dates. The first was held in Dallas, Texas on December 11 and reportedly went well. During the Doors' last public performance, at the "Warehouse" in New Orleans, Louisiana, on December 12, 1970, Morrison apparently had a breakdown on stage. Midway through the set he slammed the microphone numerous times into the stage floor until the platform beneath was destroyed, then sat down and refused to perform for the remainder of the show. Drummer John Densmore recalls the incident in his biography "Riders On the Storm", where after the show he met with Jim's bandmates and they decided that The Doors would end their live act, citing their mutual agreement that Morrison was ready to retire from performing. Shortly thereafter while finishing up the recording of their album, Morrison decided he would move to Paris with his girlfriend Pamela.
L.A. Woman
The Doors looked set to regain its crown as a premier act with L.A. Woman in 1971. It contained two top 20 hits and has gone on to be their second best-selling studio album, surpassed in sales only by their debut. The album explored their R&B roots, although during rehearsals they had a falling-out with Rothchild. Denouncing the new repertoire as "cocktail music," he quit and handed the production to Botnick. The result is considered a classic Doors album. The singles "L.A. Woman", "Love Her Madly" and "Riders on the Storm" remain mainstays of rock radio programming. During the sessions, a short clip of the band performing Crawling King Snake was filmed. So far as known, this is the last clip of the Doors performing with Jim Morrison.