Celebration Of The Lizard

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

Many of us first heard this as a poorly recorded bootleg a few years ago before the Doors took the available bootleg and cleaned it up for a release on the Legacy disc.
What exactly do those of you who have heard the rough studio cut think of Jim's tour de force and
given a lot more time and maybe a bit more belief in the track by Jims bandmates could COTL have been worked up into an actual album track for a release on a subsequent Doors album......

"While Jim squats behind the control panel a roughly recorded dub of his 'Celebration Of The Lizard' comes over the loudspeakers.
Gently almost apologetiaclly Ray tells Jim the thing does not work. Too diffuse, too mangy. Jim's face sinks beneath his scaly collar. Right then you can sense 'Celebration Of The Lizard' will never appear on record......certainly not on the new Doors album. There will be eleven driving songs and snatches of poetry read aloud. But no Lizard King. No monarch crowned with lovebeads and holding a phallic sceptre in his hands.
'Hey bring your notebook to my house tomorrow' Rothchild offers. 'Yeah' Jim answers with the look of a dog who's just been told he's missed his walk."

The Shaman as Superstar by Richard Goldstein
From the waiting For The Sun songbook 1969.

[thebadcowboy]

even though it is lyrically and musically disjointed... i reckon its pretty cool.. one of my favourite doors pieces... and has some of jims best verses in it also.....

je veux etre pret.......!

[ensenada]

>:(i have to say i love COTL. great poetry mixed with great music. who can not love not to touch the earth?

[sparky]

dont stop to speak or look around, ur fan and gloves are on the ground. we're getting outta town..... we're going on the run.... and your the one....... i want to come!!


i think this is a classic morrison piece. i remember the first time i ever heard it i was like..... wow! this is amazing i had never heard anything so beautiful in my entire life. its very emotional, its full of fear and mystery and anticipation!!!

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

That's true Sparky but if you look at the way songs such as The End or When The Music's Over were constantly refined during The Doors club days and the rare outings that COTL was given as a complete track I think there we find the reason why it never made it as a studio track.
Thrown in as poetry snippets during LMF and other tracks but never being given a place in a Doors set the way those others were it sounds like a song designed by committee rather than one that evolved in the way The Doors first two albums did.
When I first heard it I was amazed by it but now after having heard it many times it is full of flaws and seems like its going nowhere.
Ray's description of being 'too mangy' is about right......I wonder if the track we have is the one talked about in Goldstein's visit to the WFTS session and if so it's easy to see why it was not included.
The poem itself is awesome enough but the musical backdrop is a mess.
Far too ambitious and by the time WFTS was being recorded beyond The Doors capability to deliver something of that complexity.
True they managed to give us The Soft Parade epic track but they took over a year and it was delivered at such a cost that The Doors we knew were gone and replaced by the blues band of Morrison Hotel and LA Woman.
Had COTL been around in 1965 perhaps we would have seen something special but once the demands of being the flagship of Elektra took hold The Doors ability to produce something of this magnitude were gone.
Morrison began to become dissillusioned with the band at around the time that they became superstars ......fame inextricably linked with the bands slump in the studio.......it shows what an incredible band they were that they found a new direction and finished off with two powerhouse albums before 'the whole shithouse went up in flames'.....
As a treat at a live concert COTL was an unbelievable experience but I doubt we would ever have seen an album version given the circumstances...

[ensenada]

there aint no flaws in COTL baby! wheres gerry springer when you need him? for me, the song was meant to sound like that. like what? i dont know but rather good ;D

[ftw]

i really like COTL

if i could change it i wouldnt
there are soo many feelings into that song
its rad
so many elements

[othercircles]

I dont think the record companies were ready them to put that out by their third album. Maybe if they had done a double album.. ... then that would be perfect. But it would have been the entire side of an LP just about. I believe that if Jim had lived they would have done another version eventually... they woulda done another tour..... then another blues album..... then I bet a big ass double album featuring COTL

[hippieflowergirl67]

The first time I heard it on the Legacy album, it scared the hell out of me! Now since I'm used to it, I'm cool with it....

[wtd]

Yeah, I think the studio version was rough. But the one's they recorded in concert were pretty awesome. I for one would have liked to have seen it on the WFTS album. I think it would have been cool. No one in Rock had attempted something like that. It would have really shown Jim's poet side. Maybe people would have looked at him differently because of it.

[ensenada]

its a totally unique fuion of poetry and song..really cool. i have heard a few versions that i dont like as much.. i.e. when jim decides to arse around and not do it as good but the best version of COTL i heard is on the in concert cd, cant remember which one. i also quite like the way the combined the beginning of COTL with light my fire. that with the grave yard poem would be awesome......

[othercircles]

I first heard it on 'Absolutely Live' and to me its sounds best live. The energy and audience participation all makes for better ambience for a song built on it.

Although I think they could have made the Little Game & Hill Dwellers portion into a good studio cut.

[gizmo]

i was realy blown away the first time i heard it, and the more you listen to it , it becomes better and better