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".

Filmed in Los Angeles on 4 December 1967, it was broadcast throughout the United States and Canada on 27 December.

This took place just four days before the famous on-stage arrest of the frontman in New Haven, by which time his image had already taken on the transgressive contours that would render it famous and immortal.

The show featured several performers, most of whom were comedians.

The segment featuring The Doors lasted approximately six minutes. It consisted of two songs: "Moonlight Drive" and "Light My Fire" (link here).

The former was taken from the band's second album, "Strange Days", which had been released around two months prior to this show.

The second was the single that gave the group a number one hit in the summer of the same year.

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

Let's therefore see how Morrison's live singing developed alongside the backing tracks of the two songs.

During 'Moonlight Drive', Morrison initially wears sunglasses and remains practically still with his eyes closed throughout the song.

His voice is less powerful than in the original version and, in the final verse-chorus section, he fails to convey the raw emotion that makes the track so distinctive.

The singer's performance in "Light My Fire" suffers even more from his overly relaxed attitude.

In particular, he sings the final part of this wonderful song almost unwillingly, with some of the words barely audible and lacking the usual vocal drive.

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.

Overall, The Doors did not shine on the Jonathan Winters Show, neither in terms of the quality of their music nor in terms of their usual originality.

This was mainly due to Morrison's poor condition and lack of motivation to perform on TV.

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

The positioning of the musicians also reinforces this idea: the singer is alone at the front, while the rest of the band is set back behind him. This was the opposite of what the band wanted from a live performance.

Preferring a more direct relationship with the audience, Morrison often struggled with TV appearances, failing to communicate the energy and passion that established him as one of the greatest singers in the history of modern music.

P.S.: My book "The Doors Through Strange Days"- The most comprehensive journey ever made through The Doors' second LP, is available on Amazon.com, .uk, .mx, .it, etc.

Here’s a link:

Amazon – “The Doors Through Strange Days”