1 DECEMBER 1967: THE DOORS AND CANNED HEAT LIVE IN LONG BEACH
An extraordinary concert took place in Long Beach, California, on 1
December 1967: The Doors performed in front of thousands of people. That same
night, another excellent band took to the stage: Canned Heat.
By this time, The Doors' second LP, "Strange Days" (released
in September 1967), had just reached its peak in the US charts.
In fact, this fantastic album reached third place, adding to the success
of their first LP, "The Doors", which was released in January 1967
and was still riding high in the charts.
Unfortunately, no recordings of this concert exist, but reviews at the
time were positive.
Reviewers spoke of a show in which the rock played by The Doors was
blurred by the enveloping instrumental digressions led by Ray Manzarek on the
electric organ.
Thanks to the existence of outrageous photos taken during the concert,
we can imagine how fascinating and exciting Morrison's performance was.
We can also picture how the singer interpreted the livelier songs with
his biting stance, which often alternated with the hypnotic spell he cast over
the audience when the music slowed down.
As well as songs that were part of the group's regular setlist, such as
"Back Door Man", "Light My Fire" and "The End",
the quartet performed two singles from the recently released LP "Strange
Days": "People Are Strange" and "Love Me Two Times".
They also played a live version of their latest single, "The
Unknown Soldier", released just a few days earlier. This innovative and
beautiful song would later appear on their next album, "Waiting for the
Sun", released in July 1968.
That evening also featured a concert by Canned Heat, a Californian band
that had released their debut album, "Canned Heat", in July 1967.
This excellent LP brought traditional blues into the contemporary music
scene, adding engaging rhythm and blues episodes to it.
On 1 December 1967, the date of the concert, Canned Heat were about to
finish recording their second album, "Boogie with Canned Heat", which
was released shortly afterwards in January 1968.
Undoubtedly, the music that Canned Heat played at the concert in
December must have been influenced by the developments made during the
recording sessions for their second LP.
After the first album, a new drummer, Adolfo de la Parra, joined the
band, adding more varied and creative nuances to their strict blues rhythms.
The blues covers that made up the first LP were largely replaced by the group's own compositions, such as the beautiful "World in a Jug" (link here).
Furthermore, longer songs and rock-blues
influenced numbers (such as the famous "On the Road Again") appeared (link here).
On that Friday night, of course, the spotlight was stolen by the magical
sound explosion caused by The Doors' music, but Canned Heat's set was also more
than worth the ticket.
P.S.: My book "The Doors Through Strange Days"- The most comprehensive journey ever made through The Doors' second LP, is available on Amazon.com, .uk, .mx, .it, etc.
Here’s a link:
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