The Doors TV Appearances: 1968

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

The Doors TV shows 1968.


The events of December 9th the previous year had serious consequences for The Doors in 1968 as TV stations were reluctant to book them.
It wasn't until they went to Europe that they actually appeared playing music in a TV studio.


20th April 1968: CBC Toronto 'The Way It Is'
It was April 1968, when the band was there for a concert, that The Doors appear on Canadian Broadcasting's weekly half hour public affairs program 'The Way It Is' filmed in and around Toronto




Some short segments of the programme still exist one of these showing 12 seconds of Jim, Ray & Robby at one of CBC's studios in Toronto.
Jim is heard saying saying tongue in cheek 'who are all these people. I hate people' then he mischievously smiles at the camera.
The segment concentrates on Jim and the narrator then says 'he blames his problems on his rock God image'.



5th September 1968: BBC Television Centre London. Top Of The Pops!

After arriving in England the 5th saw them at the BBC Centre to record an edition of Top Of The Pops which was the premiere TV music show hosted by BBC radio DJ's.
Decades later BBC would become embroiled in the Jimmy Saville investigation as the pervert hosted TOTP and many other BBC shows.

The show was usually hosted by Top Radio 1 DJs such as Saville, Tony Blackburn or Dave Lee Travis but on the night The Doors appeared it was introduced by Stuart Henry.

BBC Radio Times weekly TV Guide



I would not have described HILY as 'chart busting' but I guess they had to drum up interest somehow.
Truth be told The Doors were just another band and outside the London Bubble were forgotten shortly after as another 'one hit wonder' and in all honesty #15 was not really something that could be described as a 'hit'.
The band mime their latest single 'Hello I Love You' for the biggest rock/pop show on UK TV.
Watched by millions of kids like me aged 12 then.

I was an avid TOTP watcher, even if I did not like much of what passed for pop in 1968.
I did liked HILY and they were possibly one of several bands I wanted to see that night.

I no longer recall any of that 'performance' and it was consigned to the 'dustbin' as BBC were so tight they constantly reused reels of tape.
WE do however have a range of photos from TOTP both the rehearsal and the actual screening with Jim in his leathers.

Jim was not impressed.
"I didn't realise they turned out everyone like sausages on that show. I doubt if we'll do it again'
Jim Morrison to Melody Maker May 2nd 1970 talking about the bands TOTP experience.

## Contrary to what some believe TOTP was NOT broadcast simultaneously on BBC Radio#1.
At that point in time TOTP was still in its infancy and something that sophisticated would never have been possible.

REHEARSAL






BROADCAST

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September 6th/7th 1968: Granada TV The Doors Are Open

The band are filmed by Granada TV an ITV Company based in Manchester.
The crew meet them at Gatwick Airport and follow them everywhere for the next 2 days.
Robby famously told the tale of how a camera crew followed him into the toilet.




Melody Maker 7th September 1968

The Doors are driven around London in a Rolls Royce and filmed at the ICU press conference and several locations around the city.



The bands soundcheck was filmed and featured Ray performing the new single with a roadie holding a mike in front of him as he played the organ.




On the 6th Granada film The Doors first set and then decamp back to their hotel to review the footage.
To their horror they find it is damaged and unusable so they return the next night and film the first set there.
Again returning to the hotel and finding it is thankfully undamaged.

"Indeed the English audience were ready for them by 1968 - in fact Paul McCartney attended the first show that night and had witnessed probably one of best shows that The Doors had played. Other rock celebrities that attended The Roundhouse concerts included Arthur Brown, Steve Winwood and Jim Capaldi.
The English audience seemed to really listen to what The Doors had to say since this was the first time they played in Europe, unlike the American public who started to go to Doors concerts to see Morrison do something "spectacular".
Robbie Krieger probably best summarised the differences between the American & European audiences, as he once said to Richard Goldstein of the Village Voice, during a 1969 interview on a PBS educational TV show, Critique.
"It’s actually funny, in Europe the kids were much more politically oriented, you know if we said anything politically they’d go into a furore you know. I mean they love it, especially anything against America you know, but if we just played, then they’d dig that too but, then they really dug the political side of it to you know. But in America, it’s just the opposite really. A lot of people....at our concerts at least, they’re sort of, it seems like they don’t come to hear us speak politics."
"What do they come to hear ?" - asked Richard Goldstein.
"I think they come for the religious experiences", Robbie replied.

Both first and second sets for the September 6 concert were filmed by Granada Television, later fused with footage of political demonstrations, as seen on the video "The Doors Are Open" (originally to be titled as "When the Music Changes, the Walls of the City Will Shake"). The concert was broadcasted on BBC/Granada TV on October 4 that same year but only included footage from the second set."
A Dionysian Experience
### BBC were not Granada and the first & second sets were not filmed on the 6th. The 1st set on the 6th was damaged so Granada returned and filmed the first set from the 7th which became the programme


Melody Maker 14th September 1968
*** where do they get this shit. A Granada TV crew did NOT travel from America with the group.
In 1968 such an expense for an act pretty much unknown here in the UK would have been unthinkable.
'When The Mode Of The Music Changes, The Walls Of The City Will Shake.' is a pretty good title as opposed to what the ended up with.

Sadly the documentary was neither a 'spectacular' nor shown across the UK at peak time.
It had a very very limited showing in 1968.
Granada region (Manchester) obviously and perhaps a couple of other regions but the majority of the UK did not see it for many years.
My own region Tyne/Tees TV did not show it until 1981 and well after midnight.
I had to sit up and watch as we had no video recorders then. I was blown away by the concert but annoyed that they kept interrupting it with violent and
protest scenes. At least the Vietnam interruptions had a point to what The Doors were doing.


##The actual concert is dealt with in the In Concert section under the UK Tour thread.

##contrary to a story that appeared on the Web Granada's crew were NOT stoned and barely able to use their cameras.
These blokes were mostly middle aged family men doing just another job.
Most of them likely did not even know who The Doors were and they were highly experienced camera operators
whose reputation was held in high esteem across the UK's ITV Network.

## They did NOT film 4 sets nor is there any out take material as what they did not use was thrown out.

The finished product was very poor as Granada tried to equate The Doors with violence and political dissension giving a very dishonest portrayal of America's #1 band.
Of course the concert footage was excellent as one would expect from Granada.
Overall it was a decent documentary but sadly wasted about 10 minutes that could have featured The Doors.

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

13th September 1968: Römer Square Frankfurt am Main West Germany.'4-3-2-1 Hot And Sweet' ZDF-TV

The band arrive in Frankfurt and on the afternoon of the 13th record two songs for the ZDF-TV German music show '4-3-2-1 Hot And Sweet' set in the Historic Frankfurt public space the Römerberg named after the Römer complex that make up Frankfurt Town Hall and civic buildings.
Been there many times myself, as a mate lives there, and it is a very beautiful square with several interesting churches and some nice bars adjacent or in the square.

“You can see Jim looking up while he’s singing. We’re in this beautiful square with incredible architecture all around. I know he was just looking at all the cool stuff surrounding us. I wish they had panned around to show where we were, because it was absolutely amazing!”
Robby Krieger


The Doors segment is presented by the pixie like Suzanne Doucet who is seen introducing Hello I Love You before ducking down to allow the camera to film The Doors miming to the song.
She is seen dancing during the mimed performance near the fountain in the square.
The show featuring The Doors was first shown in B/W but a colour version appeared shortly after.
It is said the band performed 2 songs for the programme but what the other song was is not known and it is likely only the HILY part still exists.






“In Germany they really had no idea what The Doors were doing, and it all went completely over their heads. But we were a bit naive as well. At one concert we thought, ‘Hey, let’s play the Alabama Song. That’s German, so they’ll like that one.’ That was the worst possible thing we could have done because Brecht and Weil were Communists and we were playing in West Germany. A total disaster.”
Ray Manzarek




There are several videos on line of this HILY part of The Doors performance, in both colour and B/W, with varying quality from good to bloody awful.


“The people behind us are completely bored to death. It’s an example of me playing so lightly, that the sound you’re hearing could never be what I was playing live. But we were trying to get a foothold in Europe.”
John Densmore

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18th September 1968: Gladsaxe Television-Byen studios, DR-TV Copenhagen

Before the band even set foot in Europe Leon Barnard, who was loosely a promotions guy for the band, had secured a TV spot for them for a live studio session to be broadcast by DR TV which was the official Danish Broadcasting Corporation (their version of our BBC).
He had toured Europe with 2 cans of film, one containing the Break On Through film and the other their more ambitious Unknown Soldier promo video.
Interest was in and out but he managed to interest several broadcasters but the Danish one culminated in an actual programme for The Doors.

“They asked if we wanted to play a TV show while we were in Denmark. We said, ‘OK’. Then they told us the bad news, which was we’d have the get there at 6 o’clock in the morning. It was kind of like waking up in a dream. It was tough to pull out a performance in conditions like that. I was really proud of how we did.”
Robby Krieger


The band outside the studio before their performance

Recorded the day after the band appeared at the Falkoner Centre in Copenhagen they arrived at the studio to film an early morning appearance to an audience of a few photographers and TV techs.
The fact they managed to put in a top class performance a testimony to the bands resilience.
Their 30 minute set was interesting as it did not contain any of their major hits just Robby's Love Me Two Times which reached #25 in the US chart.





The set, introduced by Edmont Jensen, was very eclectic featuring poetry, a couple of interesting covers and one of the bands tour de force numbers.


The band on set with Edmont Jensen

The band seemed more comfortable in the audience-less studio and produced a powerful yet relaxed performance free of any audience expectations.



“They asked if we wanted to play a TV show while we were in Denmark. We said, ‘OK’. Then they told us the bad news, which was we’d have the get there at 6 o’clock in the morning. It was kind of like waking up in a dream. It was tough to pull out a performance in conditions like that. I was really proud of how we did.”
John Densmore

The finished B/W concert was broadcast at the end of October on DR-TV.

Alabama Song/Back Door Man
Texas Radio and the Big Beat
Love Me Two Times
When The Music’s Over
The Unknown Solder.

“My favourite song from this performance is ‘Texas Radio and the Big Beat’; Jim’s poetry set to music. It’s what we tried to do later with An American Prayer. The art of poetry and music. ”
Ray Manzarek

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December 15th 1968: Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour CBS TV Stage 33, Los Angeles, CA

The band visit CBS studios around the 4th and rehearse several numbers to be filmed the next day on the 5th.
The show is broadcast nationwide and in colour on the 15th December.

As this is the only time The Doors played a US TV show in 1968 it shows how their star had waned and how TV companies had been influenced by New Haven and the Ed Sullivan performance.
Smothers Brothers were more attuned to The Doors and the band probably enjoyed performing here than any other show over the last couple of years.
For them it was the perfect end to 1968 looking forwards to 1969.

The day before the actual recording the band came into CBS and rehearsed their songs.
Jim starts off wearing a jumper for Wild Child but later is seen in a striped shirt rehearsing Touch Me.
It was unlikely that the rehearsal was filmed but there are some photographs.

REHEARSAL.




The band played 2 songs from their as yet completed new album.
Touch Me & Wild Child.
These songs had been released in December as a taster single for that new album.


“The Smothers Brothers were funny and they were political. Their politics were our politics, plus they were against the Vietnam war. In fact, they got kicked off the air due to their politics. We were really proud to be on their show."
John Densmore

WILD CHILD











Cash Box magazine December 21st 1968
The week after the broadcast Touch Me had not charted and it would be another week before it made a slight dent in the chart.
Cashbox got one thing right as the single would sell well over a million and peak at #3.


TOUCH ME








Touch me was augmented by The Smothers Brothers Orchestra and Curtis Amy on saxophone.
The band had used an orchestra for the single and allows Amy to do a sax solo on the single.
He recreated this on the TV show.
The band played live and unusually for him Jim missed his cue during 'Touch Me' but recovered well.
The single hit the Top 100 just after the broadcast and would reach #3 in 1969 the first of 4 singles from the LP.


Robby is sporting a black eye and when asked has over the years said Morrison punched him, he walked into a door or he got it protecting Jim during a bar brawl.
John Densmore revealed in a video during the 00s that Robby had a car shunt which caused him to headbutt the dashboard.
This was later revealed to be the truth. Robby wears sun glasses through most of the recording but during Touch Me is seen later without them which highlights a rather spectacular black eye.

Robby Krieger wrote Touch Me as "Hit Me," based on fights he had with his then girlfriend Lynn Veres.
The lyric originally was, "C'mon, hit me, I'm not afraid." Jim Morrison refused to sing that and it was changed to "Touch Me."
At the end of the song, Morrison chants "Stronger than dirt!" from an Ajax commercial popular at the time where a white knight rides around destroying dirt.
The last four chords of the song were also lifted from the commercial.




Many Doors fans were annoyed at this direction the band was taking. They thought the band had sold out as if experimentation by a Progressive Rock band like The Doors was somehow Heretical to the guitar/drum/organ
format they had adopted for their first 3 LPs.
Having come to The Doors from an LA Woman/Other Voices standpoint the brass/strings did not bother me as several bands I was listening to used it.
I love Wishful Sinful and Tell All The People & Touch Me are excellent tracks. Of course Jim's efforts were the best tracks on the soon-to-be-released as yet un named LP.
It took balls to play Wild Child on National TV. And then playing Touch Me which was likely as not unheard of by many a Doors fan let alone the mainstream audience.

“The Smothers Brothers were great guys, and very controversial. They wouldn’t bow to the powers-that-be and were always poking fun at the establishment. Eventually the establishment decided to poke back and they were kicked off the air. And Curtis Amy. He was a jazz cat, and our guy. What a great man he was. Loved his solo in ‘Touch Me’.”
Ray Manzarek

The Billboard chart dated December 28th saw The Doors crawl into the Hot 100 at #72, which considering the song had gotten nation wide mainstream TV coverage 2 weeks previously wasn't that great.
It would go on to become #3 in the chart in 1969.