THE DOORS - AUGUST 1968: THE PEAK OF SUCCESS
"Waiting For The Sun", The Doors' third LP,
was released in early July 1968. Its climb up the U.S. charts ended on August
10th of that year with a No. 1 ranking.
It would be the band's only album to top the American
charts, defining the Californian quartet's most successful moment.
A week earlier, a single from the album, "Hello I
Love You", had also reached the top of the American charts and would stay
there for another seven days.
Shortly thereafter, The Doors performed three highly participated
and tumultuous live shows on the U.S. East Coast, and then (early September
1968) flew to England for a two-week long tour of Northern Europe.
This period of the group's history is also marked by a
not-so-well-known peculiarity: in addition to "Waiting For The Sun",
two other LPs were simultaneously in the U.S. Top 40.
In fact, during the first week of August 1968, The
Doors' debut (January 1967) and the second episode of their LP discography
("Strange Days," September 1967) were still on the charts.
"Strange Days" held at number 40 after
peaking at number two in November 1967.
"The Doors" was still at #24, a full year
and seven months after its release.
August 1968 was celebrating some great artists and
groups (Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Aretha Franklin, Simon and Garfunkel, the
Steppenwolves, etc.). These circumstance made The Doors' chart performance all
the more remarkable.
Cream even peaked at #3 and #9 with two different very
good albums ("Wheels Of Fire" and "Disraeli Gears") in the
same week that "Waiting For The Sun" topped the charts.
The climax of The Doors' fame with the American public
would last until January 1969, when a concert at the New York's Madison Square
Garden was held in front of more than 20,000 spectators (a very high number for
that time).
Unexpectedly, although the summer of '68 represented
the apex of commercial recognition for The Doors, it would not remain in the
minds of fans as other periods of the band’s history did.
Both the LP "Waiting For The Sun" and the
single "Hello I Love You" are still considered by most admirers of
the group as less known and qualitatively inferior to other discographic
chapters of The Doors catalog.
This may be due, at least in part, to the cultural and
artistic climate of that summer.
Following the "Summer of Love" (that of
1967), the summer of '68 highlighted the American youth growing awareness of
the generational conflict in American society.
Opposition to the war in Vietnam and to the values of
a still generally conservative society constituted an act of rebellion that the
music of The Doors was able to transfer to vinyl with transgressive
effectiveness.
In the United States, this historical context would
quickly evolve through other social and cultural attitudes that would find new
musical interpreters (such as the Rolling Stones), just as they had a different
soundtrack before '68 (for example Bob Dylan).
The riots and unrest sparked by The Doors' live performances in '68 were also a signal that the group's sound and Jim Morrison's irreverent stage presence were perfectly suited to symbolize the sense of rebellion that permeated American youth that year.
P.S.: My book "The Doors Through Strange Days" is available on Amazon.com. The most comprehensive journey ever made through The Doors' second LP.
Here’s the link with the complete description of the book:
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