A LOOK AT “LOVE ME TWO TIMES” LIVE IN MIAMI (MARCH 1ST 1969)

The Doors' infamous Miami concert (March 1^ST, 1969) will surely go down in music history as an unforgettable evidence of Jim Morrison's provocative transgressions on stage.

In this article, we will not delve into the intricacies of this incredible performance or even the crucial consequences that ensued for both the group's career and Morrison's life.

However, it should be emphasized that the concert suffers in terms of quality and coherence due to the singer’s severely altered state, although it does not lose its great historical importance and poisonous artistic appeal.

We will consider one of the five songs that the band managed to extract from the shocking creativity that the frontman displayed on this occasion. We are talking about "Love Me Two Times”, originally released a year and a half before this incredible live performance on The Doors' second album ("Strange Days", September 1967).

This song is usually overshadowed by the most famous moments of the Miami performance, namely the shocking dialogues that Morrison established with the audience.

It should be noted that on that night the singer’s intention was to create a theatrical performance in which the audience was directly challenged and provoked to react both vocally and physically.

The live version of "Love Me Two Times" in Miami momentarily interrupts this disruptive dialogue between Morrison and the people present that night. In fact, it is the only tune in the whole concert that is not modified by the frontman’s incendiary and improvised conversations with the audience.

This track played on this famous occasion marks a major difference from the original on the 1967 vinyl. That difference can be found in Morrison's vocals.

In Miami "Love Me Two Times" is sung in sharp contrast to the determined passion and sensuality of the memorable version we find on "Strange Days". In this famous concert, he interprets the song with a voice that is harsh, rough and at the same time slurred by heavy alcohol abuse.

In this historical and dramatic singing performance, we notice an almost malevolent nuance that blends with the suffering accents that the singer unintentionally adds to the vocal line.

Morrison's singing becomes a bitter, irreverent and anguished cry, so much so that it sounds painfully desperate.

In this way, his voice contrasts sharply with the song's lyrics. In fact, the LP version of "Love Me Two Times" suggests the fascination exerted on the girl who is targeted with bold love requests. In Miami, on the other hand, the imagination is led to visualize the bewilderment on the face of the woman who hears this harsh and unsettling request for love.

The disturbing vocal performance we have described is also a sign of a crucial passage in The Doors' history. In fact, between late 1968 and the spring of '69, the bond that had existed between Morrison and the other band members weakened considerably.

In Miami on March 1, 1969, the singer was now disillusioned by certain recent events and consequently distanced himself both personally and artistically from the other three members.

In Miami, "Love Me Two Times" sounds like a mirror of what The Doors’ frontman was feeling inside at the time. A mirror cracked by the willingness to sacrifice in some measure the authenticity of The Doors' music, which the rest of the band had demonstrated on at least two occasions before the concert of Miami.

Firstly, the was the licensing of the song "Light My Fire" for a car commercial (September 1968), about which Morrison had not been informed and which he strongly resented.

Secondly, with the questionable direction taken by the recording sessions of "The Soft Parade" album (begun in November 1968 and in full swing at the time of the Miami concert), where for the first time some of the arrangements, songs and lyrics were disliked by Morrison.

This context makes "Love Me Two Times" in Miami a unique experience in music history for the unfiltered impulsiveness of The Doors’ frontman. He is swept away by the furious storm of his emotions and the chaotic tide of his drunkenness.

Here, the listener is drawn into the hellish abyss created by the tortured authenticity of a great artist. Performances like this have never been recorded before or since.