The Lost Paris Tapes

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

This CD of part of the 1969 Los Angeles poetry session appeared in 1994 with about an hour from the Elektra Sound recording.
How it ended up in the possession of some bloke Jim knew is highly debatable and I for one do not believe the tale on the CD cover.
Regardless we fans can applaud them for releasing it on a bootleg CD as we would likely never have heard it without that
and is a must have for any Doors fan.

Another highly contentious part is the so called last recording supposedly in a Paris studio in June 1971.
Again I don't believe it for a second and it is most likely from LA as the engineer is speaking English in an American accent.
Whatever it is it is a bigger pile of shit than the Hendrix one and something not worth hearing once let alone twice.



I. JIM MORRISON POETRY SESSION
(Los Angeles, March, 1969)

FAR ARDEN: Radio Dark Night (Take 1)/ Radio Dark Night (Take Two)/ A Vast Radiant Beach (Awake)/ Moonshine Night/ Frozen Moment By A Lake/ Bird Of Prey/ Dawn's HWY/ Under Waterfall/ The Hitchhiker/ Winter Photography/ Whiskey, Mystics And Men/ Orange County Suite/ All Hail The American Night/ Far Arden Poem/ Texas Radio & The Big Beat #1 (Letter From Shirley)

TALES FROM THE AMERICAN NIGHT: The American Night/ The Holy Shah/ Hitler/ Latino Chrome/ To Come Of Age - Black Polished Chrome/ Search On, Man/ Indian, Indian (Sirens And Horns Honking)/ Woman In The Window/ A Vision Of America: From The Book Of Days - A Vision Of America - Motel, Money, Murder, Madness/ Earth, Air, Fire, Water/ Discovery (Angels & Sailors)/ Now Listen To This (Texas Radio & The Big Beat #2)/ Stoned Immaculate/ White Blind Light (Thank You, O Lord)

II. LAST RECORDING SESSION
(Paris, June 1971)
Guitar Tuning & Chats/ Orange County Suite








If you look at the above photo there are 2 tape boxes presumably with these recordings.
Both are identical style boxes which adds to the US for the drunk tape.
A box from Paris to hold the tape would surely be different to the 1969 US tape as it was from France.

Of course why Jim would bring such a useless session does give weight to the Paris idea but maybe he wanted to use it for something
else or maybe it just ended up in his luggage.

[zaval80]

It's nothing like a Paris session. That was established years ago by Heinz Gerstenmeyer and Len "Porsche" Sousa. The voice on the tape is Paul Rothchild, and one of the guys is Michael McClure. I have a back-up of the relevant page from Sousa's defunct "The Doors Guide" site somewhere, will send you. These tapes were copies given to Jim by John Haeny. John did not give the copies of the second poetry session to him, as he wanted to ensure for himself the producer's credit and royalties when Jim's poetry project would get off the ground. (Surely a wise precausion on his side, because on the master box of the first tape David Anderle has added his name as a producer ("Produced by John + then David", LOL). Evidently these senior Elektra guys were looking for nice little earners wherever possible. As for the Paris angle, it probably was thought up by Rainer Moddemann.

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

Why would Paul Rothchild be involved in that shit? I have a lot of respect for Len but this makes no sense.
I always presumed it was made in Sunset Sound but in what context to involve Paul? Mike McClure being one of them makes sense and I heard in the 00s he was there.
Maybe from Len from his Live & rare site.

[zaval80]

Whatever sites there were, they're gone, and Len made sure The Doors Guide cannot be found via Wayback Machine, but "archive.is" or whatever allowed to restore some pages. I'll find it and post it.

The recording was at Elektra. Here's an interesting account:
bobsegarini.wordpress.com/2012/02/06/3549/

Who knows how many times Morrison met McClure at Elektra, but if just one time is to be supposed, then it's some of the sessions where Ray played Hammond on TSP stuff, like the title track, Who Scared You, TATP or something else.

Why Rothchild? Well, probably your mention of poetry bits for TSP has to deal with it somehow. I don't think it took much time or effort from Rothchild to allow something like this at the end of some session, but in this way he was able to give Jim a small favour. We know one thing for sure: the poetry album demo session on Feb 9th, 1969 wasn't something arranged through Rothchild. That was Jim with Haeny via Holzman. So the proper poetry stuff of Jim was separate from the Doors thing, and some small bits were Rothchild's territory. It could be he promised this to him since WFTS. There was some talk according to Robby about trying COTL for TSP, with "Universal Mind" in the place of NTTTE.

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

The more important thing is how good it was that we fans got to hear Jim and his poetry the way he wanted it heard.
Whether it was finished or not it's all we have and some of it is quite profound.

That shit session I listen once and I don't remember if I got through it all and will never repeat the experience.

[zaval80]

Here's the link to the story about The Lost Paris Tapes from Len Sousa's site:

archive.ph/MiCxf

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

Nice one!
I never thought for a second it was from Paris but was surprised the voice was Paul.
I'm surprised he put up with such shit.
This may be why he never did LAW.

[zaval80]

The minute they issued the MH outtakes on the Perception it was clear that the brilliance of The Doors = Paul A. Rothchild. Everything else the issue just adds to this.

The "Rothchild for Elektra" story is very interesting, esp. The Clear Light and The Rhinoceros. It shows him as a ruthless manipulator with his sights on the success of the project. Of course he wouldn't be able to manupilate Jim Morrison, but thanks to Ray's stabilizing influence The Doors knew where their bread was buttered, unlike less stable bands. As for LAW, the ROTS "demo" they did with him is decent. Probably it was their attitude which got to him (hazy, lazy).