The Doors TV Appearances: 1971-1972

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The Doors TV shows 1971-1972.

In March 1971 Jim Morrison announced to his band mates he was leaving The Doors and moved to Europe with the goal of living there permanently.
His death in July 1971 allowed the band to rewrite that History and claim he was simply on a sabbatical and was going to return and record a new album that the band were working on.
This lie still has legs today as Densmore & Krieger still do not admit Jim was done with The Doors.

Regardless in July 1971 the three Doors had a decision to make. Should they continue?

“We felt we had a lot of good music left in us. Besides we were friends and knew each other’s moves musically. You don’t give up on something like that. We decided against bringing in a new vocalist. No matter how good he was, people would say he wasn’t as good as Jim. Then fortunately Ray stepped forward and started singing.”
John Densmore

Thankfully they made the right decision and gave it a go as a trio.
There first effort was pretty good.
Made up of a couple of songs that had been recorded during the LA Woman session with Jerry Scheff on bass as well as songs they recorded in The Doors workshop in July/August with a selection of bass guitar players.
Other Voices was a pretty decent album and sold well considering Jim was absent.
The decision to sing the songs themselves, rather than seek a new singer, was a brave one with Ray doing a damn good job whilst Robby's vocal efforts were a bit 'hit & miss'.
'Mostly 'miss'.

The Doors TV shows 1972.

After releasing Other Voices in October 1971 the band embarked on the first of what would become 3 tours of the US and a European tour.
They received generally good reviews and attracted some decent crowds, especially on the East & West coast gigs.
During this time the band did not play ONE Jim Morrison song as they attempted to re-invent themselves as a new band.
Sadly even though they garnered quite a bit of newspaper/magazine attention 1971 saw no US TV spots and 1972 was little better.
But during their short Euro Tour they were invited to do 3 major European TV shows.
The 3 Doors were joined on tour by Bobby-Ray Henson on guitars, vocals & percussion and Jack Conrad on Bass guitar

“I thought the music and songs were good, and I would say that if Jim had still been the lead singer, people would have said they were excellent songs. It was just a matter of ‘I don’t like Ray’s voice or I don’t like Robby’s voice’. If Jim had sung Tightrope Ride, I think it would have have been a hit.”
Ray Manzarek *** although it was written as a response to Jim's death so doubtful Jim could have sung it.

30th April 1972 Montreux Rose d'Or Festival, Pavilion Montreux, TSR Switzerland

Télévision Suisse Romande (TSR) which was the Swiss French speaking broadcaster filmed The Doors during their opening set and this was shown on a music show called 'Pop Hot!'
This was obviously not the whole set but Pop Hot was generally a 30 minute programme so it is likely that the 28 minutes on YouTube was the episode shown.
It covered the whole of Switzerland and was also received by its neighbours.


The band shared the bill with Gary Wright and Wonderwheel, Sutherford Brothers and Claire Hamil from Middlesbrough











The 28 minutes of the concert itself is pretty good with a superb version of Ships w/ Sails.
Love Me 2 Times was the only other Doors song and the episode was fleshed out with covers Close To You a Doors standard from the bands earliest days and Good Rockin'
which would feature on the up-and-coming Full Circle album.
It is a shame that more from Other Voices was not included but what is there is worth a fans time.

3rd May 1972. Beat Club, Radio Bremen TV Studio 3, Bremen, West Germany

The Doors return to Beat Club this time filmed live in The Beat Club Workshop as part of their European tour of 1972.
They perform live for about 50 minutes showcasing songs from Other Voices as well as a couple from their Full Circle LP which will be released later this year.
This is the first of two programmes filmed minus an audience they would appear in during 1972.
Some nice YouTube footage exists of likely the whole recorded performance and it first saw a release during the VHS era of videotape.

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9th May 1972 The Old Grey Whistle Test BBC TV Centre London

The band were invited onto England's premier rock show of the 70's BBC TV's The Old Grey Whistle Test introduced by the Legendary 'Whispering' Bob Harris who was one of the Greatest DJs BBC radio ever had.
The Whistle Test' was a show I never missed and saw some great sessions including this one.
They opened the show with I’m Horny I’m Stoned (a song Jim flat out refused to sing during the LAW sessions in 1970) and closed it with In The Eye Of The Sun.
Thought lost, as with so much great rock, a time coded video of the bands whole session during that day clocking in at 38 minutes it includes several versions of I’m Horny I’m Stoned and Eye Of The Sun and a superb Ship's With Sails after a false start (which did not appear in the broadcast).



The time coded video is of them recording live versions of their own songs to be used on the show. None of this appeared on OGWT. The band sang live and mimed to one of these tracks.
The band is loose and having fun the entire session, especially when Robby comes in late on a few vocal verses, and when Ray sees that the slate for “Ships with Sails” actually says “Shitz With Sails”. He then jokingly interjects in his mocking German accent, “Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen, we’d now like to do that great German folk song ‘Shitz Mit Snails’.” When the show is broadcast “I’m Horny, I’m Stoned” and “In The Eye of the Sun” are featured, and “Shitz Mit Snails” ends up on the cutting room floor.



For the actual broadcast they use a pre-recorded musical track with live vocal mics. This state of affairs was due to the Musicians Union prohibiting miming on UK TV which was prevalent as studios could not be bothered to invest in equipment to record a band live..
To get round this bands would record their own music and then 'mime' to it as for all intents and purposes they were playing live.




“I wish I still had that shirt! Those English TV shows were so campy and quirky. Too bad “Ships with Sails” didn’t make the final broadcast because it was our favorite song from that album to play live. It would have been nice to have it on English TV. Fun performance, but I could tell that Ray was in one of his cynical moods that day. Shitz Mit Snails!”
Robby Krieger



25th August 1972: The Dick Cavatt Show ABC-TV New York City NY

There is no video footage that is known to exist sadly but the audio shows the band played an excellent couple of numbers.
They began with the irritating but fun Mosquito from their new album Full Circle with Robbie on 'vocals' and climaxed with a raucous Good Rockin' with Screaming Ray Daniels handling the vocal.

Their final bow came a few weeks later as a support slot to Frank Zappa at the Hollywood Bowl. They did not know that of course and they trundled on into 1973 when Howard Werth (of Audience & Jac Holzman's favourite) was unveiled as the new singer and took part in rehearsals in Barnes near London.
Shortly after that Ray went home with a pregnant Dorothy and The Doors were finally closed.