Review: Doors Boston Show Apr 10 1970 - RS#58

[darkstar]

Review of The Doors performance at Boston Arena
April 10, 1970.

ROLLING STONE MAY 14, 1970 ISSUE #58 - "ANYONE LIKE TO SEE MY
GENTIALS?" by: unknown writer

BOSTON - The Doors, after playing for almost two solid hours April 10th at the Boston Arena, were unplugged by the management.

At approximately 2 AM the speakers and equipment
went dead. The center mike was still on until singer
Jim Morrison responded to the turn-off with an
audible, "those cocksuckers."

Ray Manzarek who had put aside the organ for a try at lead guitar, reacted to Morrison's words by clapping the singer's mouth shut with one hand and then lifting and carrying him across the stage like a microphone stand. Yet after much coaxing from the Doors equipment staff, who probably feared another bust, Morrison wouldn't leave the stage.

To the audience that was stomping for more music, he
said: "We should all get together and have some fun,
because the assholes are gonna win if you let
them."

But the crowd seemed to tired to riot and so like a
warrior without an army, Morrison finally left the stage
- but not until he had put a few dents in the floor
with an overturned mikestand. The manager of the
arena, Chuck Toomey, said the next day that "the show
had lasted long enough" and that ending the concert
at 2AM was due to problems of maintenance. "It's
necessary to sweep the building, to get properly ready for the next day," he explained. Otherwise, Toomey, who described himself as a neophyte in the rock business, thought the Doors and Morrison put on a "tremendous" show. "The kid did a great job and has a hell of a thing going for him," he said. The show had been full of surprises, highlighted by such non-Doors songs as "Fever," "Summertime," and even "People Get Ready." At one point, Morrison told the audience to "just call me Jimbo." And in a moment of largesse he emptied his pockets of cash, distributing the bills to the front row.

At another point, he was even able to get away with
"would anyone like to see my gentials?" But that was
before they turned the sound off.

[pantydropper]

Hilarious!
I've heard that Ray was the one who shouted "Cocksuckers!" into the mic. I also heard that during the Light My Fire instrumental, Jim sat at the edge of the stage, took off his boots and started to peel and eat an orange!

[darkstar]

Hi King G and thank you for replying to my post. Here's a little more information I uncovered about the Boston show from Greg Shaw's, "The Doors On The Road" book which also includes two reviews from Melody Maker and The Boston Globe. These additional reviews are similar to Rolling Stones' with the exception of a couple of quotes from Jim Morrison to Melody Maker.

Doors – Boston Arena Friday April 10 1970

From: Greg Shaw’s The Doors On The Road (page 192-93)

Early Show (7:00 pm):

The Doors' Boston shows go well, although the first show is not nearly as impressive as the second. Morrison precedes thier raw, gutsy version of "Roadhouse Blues" with a brief a cappella introduction based on lyrics from "Rock Me." With hardly a pause, the band then leaps into an engergic version of "Ship Of Fools" featuring some atmospheric organ work from Manzarek. later, Morrison's legendary, guttural screams erupt during the transition from "Alabama Song: into "Back Door Man." Following that medley, they do an excellent version of "When The Music's Over." Before the "We want the world" portion, the arena is silent and Jim asks "What do you want?" After the wild response, Morrison queries in a singing voice "What would you do with it?" to boisterous laughter and applause. And then quite unexpectedly, Morrison flatly states "I think I'll pass" to a knowing applause that indicates they understand what he is driving at. After that song, the band does a sparse, bluesy rendition of "Rock Me" that showcases Krieger's guitar prowness, and then quietly initiate their "People Get Ready" jam. As the tempo begings to accelerate and the band is off to a respectable verison of the medley, despite the fact that Morrison's vocals are becoming increasingly slurred. Next, after his opening shriek of "Wake Up!" Morrison interjects his poetic "Vast Radiant Beach" before bursting into "Wake Up !" a second time, as their now customary prelude to "Light My Fire." Robby Krieger digresses into a waltz melody during his lead in "Light My Fire" that bears similiarities to John Coltrane's "My Favorite Things" and the Doors' instrumental "Summertime."

Set List (10:00 pm):

Rock Me (vocal introduction)
Roadhouse Blues
Ship Of Fools
Alabama Song
Back Door Man
Five To One/I Want To Love You, Baby/Five To One
When The Music's Over
Rock Me
People Get Ready
Mystery Train
Away In India
Crossroads
Wake Up!/Light My Fire/Lets Roll All Night Long/
Light My Fire

Late Show:

The second performance tonight is outstanding despite the stage power being cut off when the show goes overtime. Morrison hits the stage in a fury of energy that never seems to subside and reels about the stage throughout the show. During “Alabama Song” he slips while climbing a speaker stack, landing flat on his back in front of the speakers and proceeds with the song that way without missing a beat.

The late show opens with a vigorous “Break On Through” with Morrison bulleting onto the stage right after the introductory notes and erupting into the song. The show starts at 12:18am and is running excessively late when the frustrated hall manager loses all patience and disconnects the bands stage power around two a.m. The electric instruments all go down, but the house PA system, including Jim’s Morrison microphone, is still live. As the crowd screams for more, Jim is furious that their power had been cut and clearly growls “Cocksuckers!” into the live mike. He continues with “We should all get together and have some fun, because they’re going to win if you let them.” Manzarek leaps from his keyboards, cups Jim’s mouth and emphatically reminds him that any controversial incidents could further damage the already excessively scrutinized tour. Morrison then angrily smashes his microphone stand into the floor and follows Ray off the stage.

The following day Morrison tells a reporter from Melody Maker: “When I freak out on stage it’s usually for one reason, I can’t stand them stopping the show. It happened again last night in Boston. Just as we got the audience going some____comes up and pulls the plugs. I got mad not just for us but for the audience who had been cheated as well. The result was that they cancelled the next booking in Salt Lake City.” (“Super Jim, the Angel Faced Rasputin,” Melody Maker, May 2, 1970)

The Boston Globe comments: “The Doors performed non-stop for almost two hours until the Arena management turned the power off and it would be (an) understatement to say the show was a complete success. Morrison is a showman. He prances and reels about the stage, miraculously staying on his feet. The end of the show was tense. After Morrison’s insistence to sing, the power was shut off. The crowd chanted for more; Manzarek implied that if they didn’t quit, they would be blackballed from halls across the country.” (Barry Gilbert, Boston Globe, April 1970)

Also performing: Gordon Lowe, Axis
Note: This show was originally scheduled for April 17.
Both performances recorded for Absolutely Live

Set List:

Break On Through
When The Music’s Over
Roadhouse Blues
The Spy In The House Of Love
Alabama Song
Back Door Man
Five To One
You Make Me Real
People Get Ready
Mystery Tran
Away In India
Crossroads
(band introductions)
Light My Fire/
Fever/
Summertime/
St. Jams Infirmary Blues/
Graveyard Poem/
Light My Fire
Been Down So Long
(stage power cut)

[pantydropper]

Although Shaw made an incredible book, a lot of his information in it was incorrect. Shaw never heard the AL shows to give his opinion on them; he basically talked to Vince Treanor (who by the way said Bakersfield was a 3 hour show which is wrong as well.)

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

Like you say King.... Shaw made a number of errors in OTR but it was a decent effort and I remember chatting with him via email a couple of years ago and he said he wanted put out a revised edition.....dunno if he ever got very far. Danny was working on a rather more definitive version of In Concert moments before the illness took him and I wonder if he managed to finish that particular project.....
Be nice if someone took the trouble to get what he was working on out....


Boston, Massachusetts - April 10, 1970.
The crowd waited in anticipation for The Doors to take the stage. When The Doors finally came on stage the crowd erupted with a strong applause. Jim took the microphone and started to speak to his audience - he was slightly drunk but he was clearly in good spirits.

"Well ! Well ! All right ! All All All right yeah, oh I wanna have a good time ! Yeah, well"
"Everybody feeling all right ?"
"Well I feel all right myself, oh yeah."
"Well I feel pretty good. I feel all right now baby !"
"Well all right, well yeah"
"Whoooaaaa !"

Jim then let out a roaring scream, at the top of his lungs as Robbie played the first few notes of their opening song, "Roadhouse Blues". The group’s following song, "Ship Of Fools", was a magnificent version of their newer material, once again illustrating that the group could sound as good playing live as well as what four musicians could achieve in their studio. Robbie played some fantastic improvised lead breaks during "Ship Of Fools".

Their next song, "Alabama Song/Back Door Man/Five To One", was played a little faster than usual but none the less, this song was powerfully delivered with "Five To One" taking a slightly different direction - Jim added in his lyrical improvisations and Robbie ad-libbing during his guitar lead breaks.

During "When The Music’s Over", Jim had paused singing when he rhetorically and bluntly asked his audience:

"What do you want ?"
"What would you do with it, babe ?"
"Oh you tell me what you would do with it."

The audience replied to Jim and he jokingly answered:

"I think I’ll pass";
"Sshhh-": Jim then resumed with his singing.

After completing their 14 minute epic of "When The Music’s Over", The Doors played a blues cover song, "Rock Me" and one of their new medleys, a compilation of "People Get Ready" with "Mystery Train" combined with parts of "Away In India" and "Cross-roads", which was never recorded in the studio. Based on existing recordings, this seems to be the first time that "People Get Ready" was ever performed live. Last but not least, the group finished up with "Wake Up/Light My Fire" - Robbie’s guitar solo during "Light My Fire" was superb. This was one of the most dynamic shows that The Doors played during their 1970 tour.

Contrary to the first set, the group’s second set didn’t go as smoothly that night in Boston. The Doors played for almost two hours straight on their second set and ignored the promoters request to stop playing. At around 2 a.m. the Boston Arena management cut off the power to The Doors’ equipment in the middle of one of their songs. It just happened that the centre microphone was still working, thus giving the chance for Jim to respond angrily:

"Those cocksuckers."

Ray Manzarek quickly got a hold of Jim and tried to carry him off-stage, however Jim broke away from Manzarek and continued his protest:

"We should all get together and have some fun, because the assholes are gonna win if you let them"

Jim continued with his raving then grabbed the mike stand and started to smash the stage floor before leaving the Boston Arena for good. The Doors had been scheduled to play the following night at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City. Unfortunately it just happened that Earl Duryea, manager of the Salt Palace, had flown over to Boston to view the group’s performance in order to determine if The Doors would be suitable for their northern Utah audiences. Earl was present at both sets that night and had seen what happened during the second set. On the following morning, Earl telephoned officials in Salt Lake City to inform them that The Doors’ act was "unsuitable for local performance". Miami paranoia was ever still present and the "Bible Belt Angels" wanted nothing to do with these "West Coast Satanic-Beat-Messiahs". As a result of this, The Doors’ scheduled performance for the Salt Palace was cancelled.
A Dionysian Experience.