The London Fog Los Angeles May 1966

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

"We just used to go around and hound all the club owners and ask them if they’d hire us. We hit all of the spots"
Unknown Door.



Talked about on The Doors forum for over a decade as the one thing fans would have loved to have been recorded.
Obviously that was never gonna happen as there were no tapes or photos from that period.
Then Doors World was turned upside down 50 years after the band had played The Fog we discovered someone had taped it and that there were photos.

A wonderful UCLA film student Nettie Peña recorded the show on a reel to reel and took lots of photos.
And the photos were shocking as we saw The Doors as just a bunch of lads trying to make it to the bigtime like so many
hundreds of others all across California. No leather pants or histrionics.
Morrison a lot of the time had his back to whatever made up the audience but slowly grew in confidence and eventfully faced them.

Sadly The Doors managed to fuck it up by losing an alleged 2nd tape that included the proto version of The End.
What was left was 30 minutes of Doors Gold.
"You're really only hearing half of that evening's performance" John Densmore said as he alluded to early versions of "Light My Fire" and "The End" that were performed during that gig.

The 1966 film Mondo Bizarro famously captured Sunset Strip and a sign outside advertising 'The Doors Band from Venice' residency.

Released as a 10 inch LP on December 16th 2016 and a single CD shortly after.
It is pretty good quality for an audience recording and gives us a glimpse of where they were at just before The Whisky.
Strange Days and You make Me Real are interesting and the rest were covers some of which would make it into their 1970 set lists.
A great piece of Doors History. Now if they could get off their arces and put out the 2nd reel unless someone has taped over it.

## One of the annoying habits The Doors had with this kind of release was to boast of the number of tracks only for the fan to discover half a dozen were a few seconds of 'tuning' hence this 9 song release had actually 7 songs.
Why they needed to separate tuning from the start of a track can only be a tool for them to exaggerate the number of songs on a release.




An amazing photo of Jim playing harmonica.








Tuning (I) 0:41
Rock Me 5:35
Baby Please Don't Go 5:27
You Make Me Real 2:48
Tuning (II) 0:13
Don't Fight It 4:40
I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man 5:16
Strange Days 3:46
Lucille 3:44

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

10" LP/CD Box Edition

WE have UCLA Film maker Nettie Peña to thank for this wonderful recording but in her notes she creates a bit of an enigma.
This tape seems to have been made on the night of their debut as she mentions the band packed out their opening night at The Fog.
But for decades we have been told Jim played with his back to the audience as he was shy and preferred to face his band mates as he sang.

Nettie took several rolls of film to produce a wonderful array of photos from the band Fog debut.
But none show Jim facing the band. In her photos an incredibly young Jim seems totally at ease with his audience.
So were stories of Jim not facing the audience just Doors hyperbole or was Nettie's tape from a later concert.

Nettie mentions the band were doing a sound check when she arrived. Making sure they were at optimum performance level for their 'big debut'.
Fog debut or recording debut?
She also mentions the club filled with their friends from UCLA & Venice. We know they did this at their audition.

This recording is from May 1966 but the band most likely had been playing since February/March 1966 by which time Jim could have gotten over his stage fears and started on the road to being one of America's Greatest Frontmen.
Also May 7th 1966 is noted in Doors On The Road as being their last Fog gig.
The venue closed down shortly after this.

So was this tape the bands last show? Or was it the weekend before?
It certainly isn't from their opening night if it was in May.
It's strange which all adds to the mystique of being a Doors fan.

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

February 2017
Uncut

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

Rhino Promo Pack

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

[zaval80]

Dec 27, 2023 13:03:14 GMT TheWallsScreamedPoetry said:

10" LP/CD Box Edition

WE have UCLA Film maker Nettie Peña to thank for this wonderful recording but in her notes she creates a bit of an enigma.
This tape seems to have been made on the night of their debut as she mentions the band packed out their opening night at The Fog.
But for decades we have been told Jim played with his back to the audience as he was shy and preferred to face his band mates as he sang.

Nettie took several rolls of film to produce a wonderful array of photos from the band Fog debut.
But none show Jim facing the band. In her photos an incredibly young Jim seems totally at ease with his audience.
So were stories of Jim not facing the audience just Doors hyperbole or was Nettie's tape from a later concert.

Nettie mentions the band were doing a sound check when she arrived. Making sure they were at optimum performance level for their 'big debut'.
Fog debut or recording debut?
She also mentions the club filled with their friends from UCLA & Venice. We know they did this at their audition.

This recording is from May 1966 but the band most likely had been playing since February/March 1966 by which time Jim could have gotten over his stage fears and started on the road to being one of America's Greatest Frontmen.
Also May 7th 1966 is noted in Doors On The Road as being their last Fog gig.
The venue closed down shortly after this.

So was this tape the bands last show? Or was it the weekend before?
It certainly isn't from their opening night if it was in May.
It's strange which all adds to the mystique of being a Doors fan.








I don't know about several rolls of film, but on Nettie's site there are 16 pics and it is said it's their official debut.

My guess "May 1966" is an invention of the Doors team. How come the tape is inscribed "1966" and on the backs of the pictures in the set it is "5/1966"?

I think Nettie's words are right. Where is Ray's keyboard bass? If I remember right, he saw one with some group when they auditioned in all the other clubs on the Strip. Probably why they weren't accepted in those clubs, because of lacking a bass player. And Jesse James just was fooled by them on that first night with the full club.   

[zaval80]

Had a listen to the London Fog and it seems to me that "May 1966" is a more valid date for the music than "the debut". The pics do not show the keyboard bass, but what do I hear on the tape if not that bass. It could be Morrison asked Nettie to document their sound at a later date, possibly knowing that their LF days were coming to an end. So the obvious problems with the release are numerous "5/1966" on the back of each photograph.