DANBURY '67, THE DOORS' BEST CONCERT?
The Doors' second album, "Strange Days," was
released on September 25, 1967. After about two weeks and several concerts, the
group performed in Danbury, Connecticut, on October 11.
Fortunately, we have the complete live
recording: a one-hour bootleg of immense artistic and historical value.
In fact, given the absence of official live recordings
documenting this phase of the band's career, the concert we are talking about represents
the most complete record of the period immediately following the release of
"Strange Days”.
In addition, it is the only one that captures a
complete show by the band during this great segment of their history.
Let's take a look at the musical development of this
beautiful bootleg, which I consider to be one of the best The Doors recorded
for posterity.
"Moonlight Drive" opens the show in a
relaxed and melodic atmosphere that includes the poem "Horse
Latitudes". R. Krieger's slide-style electric guitar takes center stage,
while Manzarek's organ punctuates the composition with short, rhythmic chords.
Both songs had just been released on "Strange Days".
Next, the Doors start "Money," a cover of
Barret Strong's rhythm and blues song (1959) later made famous by The Beatles on their second album “With The Beatles” in November 1963.
The solo by guitarist Robby Krieger is remarkable, as
he repeatedly quotes an electric phrase typical of the great bluesman Elmore
James, again using the "slide" technique.
Morrison tackles the song with engaging aggression,
dominating its rhythm and dictating its feel with a voice red-hot on the fire
of the instrumental backing.
"Break On Through (To The Other Side)" takes
us back to the Los Angeles band's first LP ("The Doors," January
1967). Here it is keyboardist Ray Manzarek who steals the show with a very
different solo from the original version of the song, constructed by varying
the main theme of this historic rock song with remarkable creativity and taste.
After the electric storm of "Break On
Through", we come to "Back Door Man" and "People Are
Strange".
The former is a powerful and edgy rendition of Howlin
Wolf's 1960 blues, in which Morrison's incomparable charisma stands out as
he improvises a few verses and communicates to the audience through his own attitude.
"People Are Strange," from the album
"Strange Days," is the most relaxed moment of this show, but also
probably the best live version of the song available.
The first half of the concert ends with "The
Crystal Ship," from the Doors' debut album. This excellent performance is
most notable for Morrison's spontaneous and passionate singing.
But it is Manzarek who astonishes the listener during
his brief solo. The electric organ notes are fragmented, drawing an extremely
original trajectory, unexpected in the rock idiom, and pointing decidedly
towards modal jazz.
This first half of the concert is of great artistic
value and is enough to classify it as one of The Doors' best live performances,
except for the suboptimal audio quality, which is anyway still satisfactory for
a bootleg.
The second part of the live show (another 30 minutes) consists
of just two intense songs, "Light My Fire" and "The End.
The first one is introduced by a poem that Morrison
recites, beginning with the cry "Wake up!" and continuing for about
two minutes, verse after verse, alternating between eerie whispers and
explosions of biting rage. The background created by the rest of the band is
yet again vary innovative and original for 1967.
"Light My Fire", the quartet's most famous
song, is performed here with dynamism and creativity, resulting in an
overwhelming execution, one to be fully immersed in.
Ray Manzarek's long solo on electric organ is perhaps
the most exciting moment of the song, oscillating between isolated notes and
chords.
The individual notes compose a texture closely related
to John Coltrane's modal jazz of the early 1960s, while the chords fill the
hall with an electric tide that rises and falls rapidly over the audience. This
is perhaps the best highlight of the entire concert.
Notably, between Manzarek's (electric organ) and
Krieger's (electric guitar) solos, Morrison inserts two short verses
("Persian Night ... See The Light") that originally belonged to the
"religious" section of "When The Music's Over".
"The End" closes the concert with one of his
longest versions: about 20 minutes, twice the original length. It is an
unforgettable dreamlike journey, winding between peaks of harsh distortion and
wild screams. They alternate with obscure descents into the oblivion of
mysterious and rarefied atmospheres.
This last song is prolonged by repeated improvisations
that significantly alter its lyrics and some of its musical passages. These
musical and vocal improvisations stand on the threshold of avant-garde theater,
showing the fascination that only unprecedented experimentation has.
During “The End”, the leading role played by Jim
Morrison does not overwhelm the other members of the band, although his singing
triggers astonishment and rapture in the listener.
Overall, it is no exaggeration to say that Danbury '67
is one of the best concerts you will ever hear. Don't be put off by the
mediocre audio, the great artistic-musical quality contained here is more than
worth dealing with some muddy sound.
The live in Danbury adds many elements to what The
Doors were recording on vinyl, highlighting the more adventurous and
unpredictable side of a group of truly great rock musicians.
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