Post by darkstar3 on Jan 30, 2011 22:46:03 GMT
Long Beach Independent
June 30 1968
‘Seeking Purer Realm’
Jim Morrison, singing member of The Doors, recently explained the groups unusual name: “We’re trying to break through to a purer, cleaner realm. It’s a search, an opening of doors.”
The Doors follow no set pattern during a concert, only a general line. Often they break their melodic numbers and instrumental changes with sudden moments of silence.
The group will appear Friday at the Hollywood Bowl. Tickets are on sale at the box office, Mutual Agencies, and Wallich’s Music City Stores.
END.
Los Angeles Times
July 8 1968
DOORS PLAY AT HOLLYWOOD BOWL
By Pete Johnson
The Doors concert at the Hollywood Bowl Friday night should have been an exciting event, the high point of the career of a local rock quartet whose struggle for success has taken more than two years. Instead it was a bore, the most disappointing pop concert at the Bowl since the Jefferson Airplane and an ill mannered audience made a shambles of the place last summer.
Again, the audience was largely to blame, but much of the fault lies with The Doors, particularity lead singer Jim Morrison for failing to gain a rapport with the crowd.
There are a number of factors which may have contributed to the lack of success of the appearance. The date was July 5 and there were firecrackers left over from the previous day, so the evening was punctuated with detonations and pyrotechnics from self appointed entertainers in the audience.
Some agile outsiders scaled the walls of the Bowl and gained momentary notoriety as squads of ushers – those who weren’t antagonizing the fireworks people into further displays – converged on them. A covey of photographers lapped at the foot of the stage and wandered around the quartet, oblivious to the audience.
Some agile outsiders scaled the walls of the Bowl and gained momentary notoriety as squads of ushers – those who weren’t antagonizing the fireworks people into further displays – converged on them. A covey of photographers lapped at the foot of the stage and wandered around the quartet, oblivious to the audience.
So much for the distractions with which The Doors had to compete. A sizable part of the capacity crowd did not seem interested in seeing them, a lack of enthusiasm which manifested itself in random yells and myriad conversations during most of their set. Whey were these people there? Neither of the other two groups on the bill – the Chambers Brother and Steppenwolf – has had a local hit yet, so it is doubtful that they attracted a significant number of anti-Doors followers to the event.
What Could They Lose?
Part of the problem may be that the concert was sponsored by radio station KHJ (an irony, since the Top 40 operation has been reluctant until recently to play The Doors’ records; they once even eliminated the group from their playlist). Some of their listeners, presumably, came out of curiosity. It was sponsored by their favorite station, they had heard three of the groups records – “Light My Fire,” “The Unknown Soldier” and “Hello I Love You” – and what could they lose?
Even against the distractions and the curiously mixed audience, though, The Doors should have succeeded. The Chambers Brothers, who preceded them, were a great successes, particularly with their “Time Has Come Today,” which roused part of the audience into a standing ovation. Steppenwolf, however, met a colder fate than The Doors with a set which dragged despite it’s brevity.
The pacing of The Doors’ performance seemed wrong, at least wrong for that setting and that crowd. Morrison began with “When The Music’s Over,” a long dramatic number dotted with soft interludes. Shouts from the audience pierced the quiet passages and the mood of the song. Next came “Alabama Song,” which flowed into “Back Door Man,” then a couple of Morrison’s morbid surrealistic narratives and then “Hello I Love You,” the first song which a non album buying KHJ listener would have recognized. This sequence, however, has worked well for The Doors in other concert situations.
Detached and Mildly Amused
Morrison seemed detached and subdued and mildly amused during The Doors’ set, too good humored to work into the catatonic state which characterizes his most hypnotic and frightening performances. Even such potentially scary bits as his recitation during “The End” of his desire to die in a field where the birds could pluck out his eyes, the snakes could suck on him and the worms could eat him came off as ridiculous pose.
Fifty two amplifier speaker combinations (7,000 watts of power according to one of the emcees) filled the Bowl with Jim Morrison’s voice and the sounds of Ray Manzarek on organ; Robby Krieger on guitar and Jim Densmore on drums. The sound potential of such an array of amplification is enormous but it somehow lacked the punch they achieve indoors. Everything was audible, including a comic burp by Morrison in response to some heckling, but the music had little impact.
Three of the numbers, “Hello I Love You,” “The Unknown Soldier,” and “Spanish Caravan” were taken from their album, “Waiting For The Sun,” which will be released on Elektra within the next two weeks. Other tunes from the album include, “Yes, The River Knows,” “Love Street,” “Summer’s Almost Gone,” “My Wild Love,” “Not To Touch The Earth,” “We Could Be So Good Together,” “Five To One” and “Wintertime Love.”
The LP is gentler and more romantic than their previous two albums and Morrison’s voice sounds better than it has before. An advance listening in a congenial setting – not the best situation in which to judge a record, since the enthusiasm of others can be contagious – left me convinced that it is their best album. The Bowl appearance, however, was far from their best.
END.
June 30 1968
‘Seeking Purer Realm’
Jim Morrison, singing member of The Doors, recently explained the groups unusual name: “We’re trying to break through to a purer, cleaner realm. It’s a search, an opening of doors.”
The Doors follow no set pattern during a concert, only a general line. Often they break their melodic numbers and instrumental changes with sudden moments of silence.
The group will appear Friday at the Hollywood Bowl. Tickets are on sale at the box office, Mutual Agencies, and Wallich’s Music City Stores.
END.
Los Angeles Times
July 8 1968
DOORS PLAY AT HOLLYWOOD BOWL
By Pete Johnson
The Doors concert at the Hollywood Bowl Friday night should have been an exciting event, the high point of the career of a local rock quartet whose struggle for success has taken more than two years. Instead it was a bore, the most disappointing pop concert at the Bowl since the Jefferson Airplane and an ill mannered audience made a shambles of the place last summer.
Again, the audience was largely to blame, but much of the fault lies with The Doors, particularity lead singer Jim Morrison for failing to gain a rapport with the crowd.
There are a number of factors which may have contributed to the lack of success of the appearance. The date was July 5 and there were firecrackers left over from the previous day, so the evening was punctuated with detonations and pyrotechnics from self appointed entertainers in the audience.
Some agile outsiders scaled the walls of the Bowl and gained momentary notoriety as squads of ushers – those who weren’t antagonizing the fireworks people into further displays – converged on them. A covey of photographers lapped at the foot of the stage and wandered around the quartet, oblivious to the audience.
Some agile outsiders scaled the walls of the Bowl and gained momentary notoriety as squads of ushers – those who weren’t antagonizing the fireworks people into further displays – converged on them. A covey of photographers lapped at the foot of the stage and wandered around the quartet, oblivious to the audience.
So much for the distractions with which The Doors had to compete. A sizable part of the capacity crowd did not seem interested in seeing them, a lack of enthusiasm which manifested itself in random yells and myriad conversations during most of their set. Whey were these people there? Neither of the other two groups on the bill – the Chambers Brother and Steppenwolf – has had a local hit yet, so it is doubtful that they attracted a significant number of anti-Doors followers to the event.
What Could They Lose?
Part of the problem may be that the concert was sponsored by radio station KHJ (an irony, since the Top 40 operation has been reluctant until recently to play The Doors’ records; they once even eliminated the group from their playlist). Some of their listeners, presumably, came out of curiosity. It was sponsored by their favorite station, they had heard three of the groups records – “Light My Fire,” “The Unknown Soldier” and “Hello I Love You” – and what could they lose?
Even against the distractions and the curiously mixed audience, though, The Doors should have succeeded. The Chambers Brothers, who preceded them, were a great successes, particularly with their “Time Has Come Today,” which roused part of the audience into a standing ovation. Steppenwolf, however, met a colder fate than The Doors with a set which dragged despite it’s brevity.
The pacing of The Doors’ performance seemed wrong, at least wrong for that setting and that crowd. Morrison began with “When The Music’s Over,” a long dramatic number dotted with soft interludes. Shouts from the audience pierced the quiet passages and the mood of the song. Next came “Alabama Song,” which flowed into “Back Door Man,” then a couple of Morrison’s morbid surrealistic narratives and then “Hello I Love You,” the first song which a non album buying KHJ listener would have recognized. This sequence, however, has worked well for The Doors in other concert situations.
Detached and Mildly Amused
Morrison seemed detached and subdued and mildly amused during The Doors’ set, too good humored to work into the catatonic state which characterizes his most hypnotic and frightening performances. Even such potentially scary bits as his recitation during “The End” of his desire to die in a field where the birds could pluck out his eyes, the snakes could suck on him and the worms could eat him came off as ridiculous pose.
Fifty two amplifier speaker combinations (7,000 watts of power according to one of the emcees) filled the Bowl with Jim Morrison’s voice and the sounds of Ray Manzarek on organ; Robby Krieger on guitar and Jim Densmore on drums. The sound potential of such an array of amplification is enormous but it somehow lacked the punch they achieve indoors. Everything was audible, including a comic burp by Morrison in response to some heckling, but the music had little impact.
Three of the numbers, “Hello I Love You,” “The Unknown Soldier,” and “Spanish Caravan” were taken from their album, “Waiting For The Sun,” which will be released on Elektra within the next two weeks. Other tunes from the album include, “Yes, The River Knows,” “Love Street,” “Summer’s Almost Gone,” “My Wild Love,” “Not To Touch The Earth,” “We Could Be So Good Together,” “Five To One” and “Wintertime Love.”
The LP is gentler and more romantic than their previous two albums and Morrison’s voice sounds better than it has before. An advance listening in a congenial setting – not the best situation in which to judge a record, since the enthusiasm of others can be contagious – left me convinced that it is their best album. The Bowl appearance, however, was far from their best.
END.