Post by darkstar3 on Jan 14, 2011 14:37:11 GMT
From: This Day In Led Zeppelin History. The Month of July 1969:
On this day in 1969, Led Zeppelin saved the scene at the Seattle Pop Festival after a surprising display from the Doors.
Many of the 40,000 audience members had showed up to the Gold Creek Park in Woodinville, Wash., exclusively to see the Doors. Lead singer Jim Morrison had been a sex symbol in previous years. Young girls were still flocking to Doors shows to see him. But now, the celebrity was bearded and unrecognizable, suffering from an indifference to music and expressing his hatred of overexposure. His energy was directed not to performing but to ridiculing the audience.
Of the few songs the Doors performed was the hit song, "Light my Fire." Although the song was older and had been sworn off by Morrison in interviews earlier that year, it was still an audience favorite and remained in the set list. Morrison performed it without conviction.
The set opened, ironically, with "When the Music's Over" but concluded, appropriately, with "The End." In the meantime, Morrison provoked the audience to respond unfavorably. Everything from crushed cups to curses was hurled at him from the people who'd been his fans, and Morrison only continued to antagonize them.
After the Doors left the stage, it was up to Led Zeppelin to save the evening with a performance that would make everyone forget the preceding act. According to reports, Led Zeppelin succeeded in doing that.
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Robert Plant, who watched from the audience with his wife Maureen during the Doors' set, tried to get inside Morrison's head. Plant diagnosed his fellow singer with problems. "It seemed like he was screwed up," Plant said.
"He was giving the impression he was into really deep things like Skip Spence of Moby Grape. You can get into a trip of your own that you don't really realize what's going on in the outside world. Morrison went on stage and said, 'Fâ you all,' which didn't do anything except make a few girls scream.
"Then he hung on the side of the stage and nearly toppled into the audience and did all those things that I suppose were originally sexual things, but as he got fatter and dirtier and more screwed up, they became more bizarre. So it was really sickening to watch. My wife and I were there watching and we couldn't believe it."
On July 18, the Doors had just released an album, The Soft Parade. The album contained the hit song, "Touch Me," a sexual anthem recorded in the same vein as Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love." When Morrison was at his best, the frontman who was accused of indecent exposure after an incident at a Miami show that March could still be the sex symbol his audience expected him to be. Some of his best moments, many including Page and Plant agree, are on the Doors' studio albums.
Plant admitted that the Doors performed well in the studio. "I respected the Doors' albums," he said. "What Morrison was doing on record was good. The track 'Cancel My Subscription' was great. He was just miles above anyone's head.
"It seemed that he realized that the Doors were on the way down. He went on stage with that opinion and immediately started saying all those strange things which nobody could get into. There were one or two people there crying, 'You're God, you're king,' and I was thinking, 'Why?'"
********************************************
Robert Plant and Jimmy Page had some similar thoughts about Morrison's performance. Page said: "I was surprised after hearing a lot of advance publicity in England about how sexy Jim M. was. How virile and whatever. I was surprised to see how static he was live on stage. I admire his writing ability and when he gets it together in the studio, but on stage he's not really for me.
"[Plant and Morrison] are completely different. If you want to relate Robert to a sexual image â and a lot of people are doing that â he's all those things one would associate with it. He's good looking, he's got the virile image, he moves well onstage, he looks right, and he sings well. As far as I could see, the Morrison thing is just an embarrassment towards the audience. He would actually insult them and swear at them. And his sexual thing is more of an introvert thing, it isn't so extroverted as Robert's."
members.aol.com/lzhistory/jul.html
On this day in 1969, Led Zeppelin saved the scene at the Seattle Pop Festival after a surprising display from the Doors.
Many of the 40,000 audience members had showed up to the Gold Creek Park in Woodinville, Wash., exclusively to see the Doors. Lead singer Jim Morrison had been a sex symbol in previous years. Young girls were still flocking to Doors shows to see him. But now, the celebrity was bearded and unrecognizable, suffering from an indifference to music and expressing his hatred of overexposure. His energy was directed not to performing but to ridiculing the audience.
Of the few songs the Doors performed was the hit song, "Light my Fire." Although the song was older and had been sworn off by Morrison in interviews earlier that year, it was still an audience favorite and remained in the set list. Morrison performed it without conviction.
The set opened, ironically, with "When the Music's Over" but concluded, appropriately, with "The End." In the meantime, Morrison provoked the audience to respond unfavorably. Everything from crushed cups to curses was hurled at him from the people who'd been his fans, and Morrison only continued to antagonize them.
After the Doors left the stage, it was up to Led Zeppelin to save the evening with a performance that would make everyone forget the preceding act. According to reports, Led Zeppelin succeeded in doing that.
********************************************
Robert Plant, who watched from the audience with his wife Maureen during the Doors' set, tried to get inside Morrison's head. Plant diagnosed his fellow singer with problems. "It seemed like he was screwed up," Plant said.
"He was giving the impression he was into really deep things like Skip Spence of Moby Grape. You can get into a trip of your own that you don't really realize what's going on in the outside world. Morrison went on stage and said, 'Fâ you all,' which didn't do anything except make a few girls scream.
"Then he hung on the side of the stage and nearly toppled into the audience and did all those things that I suppose were originally sexual things, but as he got fatter and dirtier and more screwed up, they became more bizarre. So it was really sickening to watch. My wife and I were there watching and we couldn't believe it."
On July 18, the Doors had just released an album, The Soft Parade. The album contained the hit song, "Touch Me," a sexual anthem recorded in the same vein as Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love." When Morrison was at his best, the frontman who was accused of indecent exposure after an incident at a Miami show that March could still be the sex symbol his audience expected him to be. Some of his best moments, many including Page and Plant agree, are on the Doors' studio albums.
Plant admitted that the Doors performed well in the studio. "I respected the Doors' albums," he said. "What Morrison was doing on record was good. The track 'Cancel My Subscription' was great. He was just miles above anyone's head.
"It seemed that he realized that the Doors were on the way down. He went on stage with that opinion and immediately started saying all those strange things which nobody could get into. There were one or two people there crying, 'You're God, you're king,' and I was thinking, 'Why?'"
********************************************
Robert Plant and Jimmy Page had some similar thoughts about Morrison's performance. Page said: "I was surprised after hearing a lot of advance publicity in England about how sexy Jim M. was. How virile and whatever. I was surprised to see how static he was live on stage. I admire his writing ability and when he gets it together in the studio, but on stage he's not really for me.
"[Plant and Morrison] are completely different. If you want to relate Robert to a sexual image â and a lot of people are doing that â he's all those things one would associate with it. He's good looking, he's got the virile image, he moves well onstage, he looks right, and he sings well. As far as I could see, the Morrison thing is just an embarrassment towards the audience. He would actually insult them and swear at them. And his sexual thing is more of an introvert thing, it isn't so extroverted as Robert's."
members.aol.com/lzhistory/jul.html