THE DOORS’ "HORSE LATITUDES": POETRY IN ROCK, LIVE!

 

Track number five on The Doors' second LP, “Strange Days”, is a poem called "Horse Latitudes”.

It is a juvenile work by Jim Morrison, recited by the frontman without the instrumental accompaniment of the rest of the band.

A chaotic and dark background makes the lyrics even more intense and evocative than the complex and heartbreaking meaning of the words already are.

Putting a poem at the center of a rock record in 1967 is something extremely innovative, a gamble intended to highlight the band's ability to offer more than just music.

In fact, from the beginning of 1967, The Doors began to include improvised moments in their concerts, often in the middle of or between songs, dedicated to Morrison's poems.

In these unrepeatable moments of live art, without any commercial mediation, the keyboards, electric guitar and drums were placed at the service of the poems conceived and interpreted by Jim Morrison's incalculable and dazzling talent.

The Doors' live performances thus became real shows in which performance art transcended musical artistry to reach the dimensions of poetry and theater.

The presence of a recited poem on the band's second album (recorded in the late spring and summer of 1967, to be released on September 25, 1967) confirms the importance given to these moments.

"Horse Latitudes" was also performed in concerts at the time and remained in the set list on and off for several years.

We would like to present two examples of how it was presented to the public by the band, two moments separated in time by a little more than two years, but linked together by the way in which the poem was arranged.

The first concert takes place in Danbury, Connecticut, on October 11, 1967, two weeks after the release of the album "Strange Days".

The evening is opened by an extended version of "Moonlight Drive", a track from the latter LP itself, on which it is placed as track number six immediately after "Horse Latitudes".

In Danbury, once the final stages of "Moonlight Drive" are reached, the group continues to keep the beat as a backdrop while Morrison begins to sing "Horse Latitudes" (here the Danbury '67 version we are talking about) in a more melodic and mellow atmosphere than the one created on the LP.

The effects created by R. Krieger's guitar as a background to the vocals are not only interesting, but overtly designed to translate the words spoken by Morrison into sound.

Immediately after "Horse Latitudes", The Doors repeat the last verse-chorus sequence of "Moonlight Drive" and then end the song at a total length of 6.30 minutes.

The second concert to which we want to draw attention, and in which the four musicians place the poem "Horse Latitudes", is the one that took place at the Felt Forum in New York on January 17 and 18, 1970 (here is the version of "Moonlight Drive" in New York in '70 we are talking about).

Here The Doors are in the final phase of their live performances, but the pattern described above for Danbury is repeated unchanged, as is the arrangement chosen for the occasion.

In the middle of "Moonlight Drive", Morrison delivers the verses of "Horse Latitudes" in a relaxed manner, laying them down quietly on the carpet of sounds laid down by the other three members of the group.

It is Robby Krieger's guitar in particular that accompanies the recitation with restrained electric blasts, smoothed by the "slide guitar" technique he uses in this song.

Note that a few seconds before Morrison launches into the poem "Horse Latitudes," he gifts the New York audience (and us) with a short verse, improvised on the spot and taken from one of his poems.

The verse, improvised by the frontman in New York for a few seconds and inserted in the middle of "Moonlight Drive", just before "Horse Latitudes", is quite cryptic and reads: "Children of the caves will let their secret fires glow".

After this suggestive and fleeting line, "Horse Latitudes" flows smoothly, only to ripple in the finale. In fact, here, as in Danbury, the singer's voice sours for a few seconds at the end of the poem.

He thus presents a version of the poem that, despite its content, is neither tormented nor aggressive (unlike what we hear on the "Strange Days" LP).

While the October 1967 concert is a bootleg, with its inevitable sound problems, the New York recording is much better in terms of sound quality.

Of course, we recommend both recordings (especially the Danbury one), as they are great sound and artistic experiences.

They are two examples of how the Californian band was able to express music of the highest level, together with artistic, theatrical and poetic performances of great impact, unprecedented both for the music scene of the time and for that of the future.

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

Here’s the link:

Amazon – “The Doors Through Strange Days”