THE SAN BERNARDINO CONCERT BOOTLEG: THE DOORS - 4/7/1967

The Doors perform twice in San Bernardino, California in 1967, three months before and three months after the release of their second LP, "Strange Days".

The two concerts took place on July 4 and December 16, 1967, while "Strange Days" was released on September 25.

There is a bootleg of the July performance, an amateur recording that allows us to hear the group live, albeit with less than optimal sound, in the middle period of the recordings of the aforementioned album.

The bootleg, which you can listen to at the link below, has the wrong date on the picture: while the December date is highlighted, it refers to the July 4, '67 recordings.

Five songs from this show have come down to us, but there is a possibility that the band performed other songs as well. In fact, at the beginning of the last available song, "Light My Fire", Morrison announces a short break due to a malfunctioning sound system.

Unfortunately, we do not know if the Doors returned to the stage or if the technical problem caused the concert to end early.

Either way, the mishap negatively affected the musicians and the technical aspects of the performance, but did not detract from the overall quality of the music played that night.

In addition to the last track available on the tape, "Light My Fire", the other tracks presented in chronological order are "When The Music's Over", "Horse Latitudes", "Break On Through (To The Other Side)" and "Alabama Song".

The first thirteen minutes of "When The Music's Over" already show the problems with the sound system, but leave us with a long solo by Robby Krieger (min. 4:20 to min. 5:42).

The guitarist had the fuzz distortion pedal with him, which he will use for the same purpose on the official version of the record. Here he pushes into rough, dissonant electric explorations, even freer in form than on vinyl.

Waves of electricity follow one another, harsh and distorted, before settling down and ending in a dark note that lingers for several seconds.

Immediately after "When The Music's Over", Jim Morrison intones verses from "Horse Latitudes" (at min. 13.47), then adds a second track from "Strange Days", whose U.S. release would come a few months later.

The sound quality is not very good, but you can hear the singer reciting the dramatic poem in a more relaxed manner compared to other live performances or even the LP track.

"Break On Through" and "Alabama Song," whose audio is somewhat compromised, are performed with the edgy power that the California group was particularly adept at expressing in July '67.

The second of these two songs features a creative and spirited guitar solo not found on the official version on the Doors' first LP ("The Doors," 1967).

This bootleg is an interesting sonic document mainly because it compensates, at least in part, for the painful absence of live material from that wonderful period of the Doors' career: the summer of 1967.