THE DOORS ENTRY INTO PSYCHEDELIA: THE ONLY LIVE VERSION OF "UNHAPPY GIRL"

 

Like some other tracks on the Doors' second LP ("Strange Days", September 1967), "Unhappy Girl" wasn’t played very often in the group's live performances. Even less frequent are the recordings that allow us to hear how it was presented live.

It seems likely that the only instance in which it was captured and fixed on a tape is the series of concerts held at "The Matrix", a famous San Francisco venue where The Doors played between March 7 and 10, 1967. We are about a month away from the start of the studio sessions of "Strange Days", in which "Unhappy Girl" will be recorded.

Developing their songs during concerts was a well-established habit during the group's early years. In fact, with the March '67 live version of "Unhappy Girl" we were six months away from the release of the album in which it is comprised. This circumstance enabled them to try different solutions in terms of arrangement, receiving immediate feedback from the audience.

Let’s see how this track was played months before the studio recording of the song in its final shape.

Its appearance in the San Francisco concert in early March '67 marks the period in which The Doors became part of the psychedelic movement that had already been animating the U.S. and British Pop-Rock and Rock scene for about a year.

Partly as a result of listening to some visionary records belonging to this musical current and released during that spring, the quartet developed its sound in the direction of greater instrumental and sound experimentation. This artistic influence would be decisive for the distorted and mysterious atmosphere that would characterize the album "Strange Days" six months later.

"Unhappy Girl", already in this early version, indeed reveals some typical psychedelic elements, most of which will also remain in the LP's final track recording.

Among the most obvious differences there’s the instrumental introduction played by Ray Manzarek on electric organ. On the vinyl it is greatly reduced in length while here the keyboardist can let his imagination run free. In this way he rambles for nearly a minute and a half, composing and undoing elusive abstract figures with the liquid notes of the organ, before focusing on the song's opening phrase.

This brief musical journey finds the complicity of Densmore's drums. The latter kicks in after about fifty seconds from the beginning and then gradually gains courage, punctuating the progress of Manzarek's lysergic excursion with the crash cymbal.

This segment looks like the instrumental interplay that would characterize the second part of the track "Spanish Caravan", included on the band's third record ("Waiting For The Sun", 1968). After listening to this live version of "Unhappy Girl" from min. 1.02 to min. 1.22, we advise to listen also to "Spanish Caravan" from min. 1.57 to min. 2.11. So, it will be possible to get an anticipation of some ideas that will be fully developed by the band during the following year.

Talking about this live performance of “Unhappy Girl”, that is one of the band's first fully psychedelic arrangements, we’d like to mention Krieger's electric guitar. Playing with the slide technique, his long melancholy flourishes dip the blues in psychedelia. The resulting guitar solo is an abstract canvas whose colors are saddening thoughts, perfectly fitting with the lyrics of the song.

To wrap up, this live version of "Unhappy Girl" allows us to appreciate the Doors' period of transition to psychedelic rock, which would result in the LP "Strange Days", later leading to other changes in their unforgettable career.