THE DOORS AT THE J. WINTERS SHOW - DECEMBER 4, 1967

 

Four days before Jim Morrison's 24th birthday, The Doors appeared on the television program "The Jonathan Winters Show".

It was taped in Los Angeles on December 4, 1967, and broadcasted throughout the United States and Canada on December 27.

It took place just four days before the frontman famous arrest on stage in New Haven, and his image was already taking on the transgressive contours that would make it famous and immortal.

The show as a whole featured several performers, most of them comedians.

The part dedicated to The Doors lasted about six minutes in total. It consisted of two songs, "Moonlight Drive" and "Light My Fire".

The first was taken from the band's second album, "Strange Days," which had been released about two months before this show.

The second was the single that granted the group the top spot on the singles charts during the summer of the same year.

Both are performed lip sync, with one notable exception. All instruments are recorded and played in the TV studio directly from the respective vinyl versions.

The exception is given by Morrison's vocals, which instead are sung live. Let's see how Morrison's vocals fit with the backing tracks of the two songs.

During "Moonlight Drive", Morrison wears sunglasses at first and then remains practically still with his eyes closed throughout the song.

His voice is less powerful than in the original version, and in the last verse-chorus section he fails to capture the raw, sweeping emotion that makes the track so unique.

In the case of "Light My Fire", the singer's performance suffers even more from his too relaxed attitude.

In particular, the last part of this wonderful song is carried almost unwillingly, making some of the words barely audible and without the vocal drive that usually characterizes them.

Note, as a curiosity, that at the end of "Light My Fire" Morrison throws himself against a structure made of wires, skipping the last word ("Fire") and trying to get entangled in the cables themselves.

The Doors did not shine on the “Jonathan Winter Show”, neither impressing with the quality of their music nor astonishing with their usual originality.

That was because of Morrison's precarious form and his lack of motivation to perform on TV.

However, the beautiful concerts of that period confirm how it was television, an impersonal and distant medium, that diminished the frontman's expressive abilities.

Even the position of the musicians in the TV set confirms this feeling: the singer isolated in the foreground and the rest of the band distanced in the background. In fact, this was exactly the opposite of what they were looking for in a live performance.

More inclined towards a direct relationship with the audience, Morrison suffered from performing in television appearances and consequently did not inject them with the energy and passion that made him one of the best singers in the history of modern music.