WTVJ-4 Editorial TV News Broadcast March 3 1969

[darkstar3]

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

Just goes to show how easily it is to imagine all sorts of stuff as a result of a concert like Miami. Morrison himself read books on how to control crowds and it can be seen here how successful one can be in instilling illusion just by the power of suggestion. Even those not there imagine all kinds of stuff and as the illusion grows it incorporates other events and adds them to the growing myth.
They were obviously alluding to New haven which was an entirely different event to Miami and one that evolved out of a simple mistake by a policeman and was blown out of all proportion by the act of a simple police lieutenant.

The Phoenix one is likely November 7th 1968 again has its root in completely different events than those in Miami. There were a lot of technical equipment failures and Morrison filled the gaps by talking to the audience about the recent election of that doyen of integrity Richard Nixon. Saying that 'we have a new President and he has not made any mistakes .....yet. If he does we will get him.' to which the crowd cheered loudly. Then Jim said "we are not going to stand for four more years of this bullshit."
Jim invites the audience to leave their seats and several hundred rush the stage and some are injured by the policemen trying to keep them back.
At the end the crowd are reported to have dispersed quietly although some reports say that they took some time to leave and several arrests were made.
A Highway patrol captain said later that Morrison was on the brink of being arrested several times for obscene language and that HE caused the problem when he encouraged people to leave their seats which was in complete disregard to police instructions.
The local media exaggerate the incident into a near riot caused by Jim. As a result the band are permanently banned from appearing a the Veterans Memorial Coliseum ever again.

Their previous appearance that year in February on the 17th also had it's problems as there was a bomb scare during the sound check and the building had to be evacuated. The concert eventually went off smoothly and was an excellent night for the band.

It just shows that having the police at concerts was a bad idea as they generally looked for trouble rather than just steward the event as they were there to do.
The hypocrisy on display is mind boggling as those that condemned The Doors such as J 'Gay' Edgar Hoover had a lot more hidden in his cupboard than a bit of swearing at a concert and Tricky Dickie was one of the most corrupt men of the 60s and 70s. The guy who booked The Doors for Miami came over all 'holier than thou' but probably did more to inflame the situation due to his greed than a drunken Morrison.

These incidents were not the only ones where The Doors shows were portrayed as riots and the media, which now crawls round the asses of artists just like Jim, sought sensation at the expense of truth to keep the young down and uphold imaginary American Values that were contradicted by the thousands dying in Asia for a bunch of rich corrupt politicians and businessmen to get richer.

We never got this as badly here in the UK but of course we had our moments of being aghast at these unruly pop stars. One interesting difference was that pop concerts here were not controlled by the police.

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

This from The Chicago Tribune on November 27th 1968 typical of the over reaction an eager press was willing to make about Doors concerts.

[gizmo]

great stuff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(great lies as well)

[darkstar3]

Mar 5, 2011 11:03:09 GMT gizmo said:

great stuff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(great lies as well)

Yes, I pushed the wrong button up there to reply to your posting - I pushed edit instead of quote. My sincere apology for doing that.



I had no idea that it took the city of Miami 5 years to invite musicians back for a rock concert after Jim's was charged in the city but Billboard has this story:


Billboard
July 20 1974
Page 22
Rock Back In Miami

Miami – Orange Bowl Stadium here opened its gates to rock for the first time with Leon Russell, the Eagles, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Sons of Champlin and Isis drawing a well behaved 18,000 to a 10 hour extravaganza July 7.

Tickets were priced at $10 in advance and $15 at the gate. Show ran 2-11 p.m. due to mandatory city closing time.

Miami municipal authorities have been notoriously anti-rock since the late Jim Morrison was convicted of exposing himself onstage at a 1969 Doors concert here.

Although the promoters, L&S Productions and Concerts South, had hoped for at least 35,000 attendance at their hard won Orange Bowl debut, they still go with the Allman Brothers headlining the bowl August 17th.
END.