Doors/Elektra promo films 1966-1968

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

Doors/Elektra promo films 1966-1968


Break On Through November 1966

Filmed in New York City in November 1966 whilst the band were there for the mixing of their debut LP.

Directed by Legendary Elektra Producer Mark Abramson, the film utilises the freshly mixed version of Break On Through lip synced by Jim and the band.

Abramson was the first Elektra Producer and had working with Jac Holzman since 1958.
The video itself is ground-breaking and was far ahead of its time.
Abramson got Jim to wear black clothes and filmed it with a black background and lit only Jim's face to give the impression of a disembodied head.
He added a few random coloured lights for strangeness.
The video is very dynamic as Jim moves across the screen in jolts the band members jostle to share the screen with him.




The musicians were more colourful but were swathed in the blackness especially John who looked to be a head and two hands armed with sticks.
We get some nice footage of Robby with his 1957 Blonde National Town & Country guitar which was the forerunner to his Gibson SG.
It was was a brilliant use of light and shade and visually quite stunning and unique.
In 1966 nobody was presenting music like this.






Sadly though it had little impact on The Doors career. Sent to TV stations with the hope they would broadcast the film but rarely was it ever shown.
Leon Barnard went to Europe just before the bands European Tour to drum up interest but again did not get a lot of interest.
The film was then touted at Film Festivals with mixed results so finally it ended up as a warm up to Doors concerts played before the band took the stage.

"He had a natural musical and dramatic sense and absorbed the practical aspects of engineering rapidly. He was an artist himself, with an even temperament,
able to get along very well with the artists, and he became a hybrid recording engineer/producer—our first."

Follow The Music on Mark Abramson


Jac sent a letter to all Elektra promotion staff to push the video with their customers.



25-2-1967
Cashbox


Break On through was released on January 4th 1967 along with their debut LP.
Jac Holzman had delayed the release as he wanted a clear run for the album avoiding Xmas, even going as far as not releasing another LP in January.
To promote both album and single Jac got the idea for the first ever rock billboard and had one erected at 8161 Sunset Boulevard a hop, skip & jump from the Chateau Marmont.
Famously photographing The Doors helping the workers erect it in some head-spinningly and increasingly dangerous photo shoots.
If one of the band had slipped they would likely have plummeted to their death and that would have been some not so good publicity.
Their photographer pal Bobby Klein was on hand to help immortalise the proceedings.







THE FILM
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdnzBNMfZfo

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

The Unknown Soldier Spring 1968

The song itself appeared in the early part of 1968 and although it had a very Vietnam War vibe it was supposedly meant to be about war in general.
Unfortunately this was lost in translation and it was seen as an anti Vietnam War song.
This promotional film, once again created and directed by star Elektra producer Mark Abramson in 1968, was made to promote The Doors new single from their “Waiting for The Sun” album, “The Unknown Soldier” and its B-side, “We Could Be So Good Together”.


Obviously Vietnam loomed large and three of The Doors already had to report to the draft board JD & JDM in 1966 & RK in 1967 avoiding it thankfully for whatever reason.
Ray already served so managed to keep out of the lottery.
The breakfast where the news is read alludes to the fact that this was the first war (Vietnam) where families of those serving could keep up with what happens from their TV in real time.






In it see Jim, carrying flowers, marched out along the Santa Monica beach by the other three Doors and a dog then tied to the burnt out remains of the old Pacific Ocean Park pier by Dorothy Manzarek who pops up out of nowhere.
We hear the execution segment of the song and then Jim spasms as if actually shot his head dropping forward and blood pouring from his mouth onto the flowers he was carrying.
The band is then seen sitting playing sitars and hand drums as Jim's slumped body hangs loosely from the piers pilings.




Then we get a lot of Vietnam war footage and WW2 celebrations in New York City after the surrender of Japan.
Someone holds a sign 'War Over'.



The final shot is of the band wandering back the way they came but now only three and a dog.
A strange premonition of what was to come.


The editing was done without the bands knowledge but they were satisfied with what the finished film.
The film was sent out to the media around March 1968 for airplay, but was banned within a few days of its release due to the notion it was an anti Vietnam War song. Which it may well have been but probably wasn't.

"We conceived and directed the large sequence, the execution on the beach, but the rest of the film was stock footage that was done in New York. We had nothing to do with the final editing. But I think that it was a very effective film. I enjoyed it. A couple of times, we've run the film at a concert. As the film ends, we join in 'live' and continue to play after it's over."
Jim Morrison

This was an incredibly brave thing for the band to do. To confront war head on like this and make a film where the lead singer gets shot and blood pours from his mouth did not go well for them but they stood by song and film.
This was again ground-breaking by The Doors. Nobody was doing films like this in 1968.

Due to this controversy of the ongoing Vietnam war interspersed with graphic Vietnam footage and the “execution” scene little interest was solicited in showing the film. Being banned from radio did not help.

The film premiered before a Doors concert in Boston on March 17th 1968 at the Back Bay Theatre and was shown again during a show at the Fillmore East the next week.
The “Jim Morrison Film Festival” in Canada in 1969 carried it and it was a minor part of several other festivals during 1969/1970

THE FILM
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n5UAdD0acs