THE DOORS LIVE IN OHIO (NOVEMBER 1968): BOOTLEG ANALYSIS

 

On November 2, 1968, there was tension in the air in Columbus, Ohio.

The local community and the authorities of the town were far from pleased about the arrival of The Doors, a transgressive rock band at the height of their fame.

What’s more, the four musicians were a living portrait of the youth counterculture that was transforming the United States in a more libertarian society.

The group's frontman, Jim Morrison, was particularly unwelcome, as he was perceived as an insidious threat to the morality of the city's youth.

Considered a subversive element, he was seen as someone who would corrupt the values of the American Midwest with his celebration of sensuality and his frequent use of verbal and physical expressions that were considered unacceptable at the time.

The November 2, 1968 show was therefore addressed with mixed feelings by the citizens of Columbus: annoyed hostility and suspicious disdain from the parents; excited curiosity and rebellious admiration from the younger generation.

This was the third time that The Doors had performed since their return to the United States after a European tour that had ended on 20 September 1968 (the other two gigs had been held in Louisville and Milwaukee on 31 October and 1 November respectively).

At this point, Morrison was no longer wearing his notorious leather pants. Except on four other occasions between late 1968 and spring 1969, he finally discarded them during this period. Instead, he opted for a more sober outfit: white trousers and a red sweater.

Unfortunately, only a short bootleg of the Columbus concert survived, including the beginning of the show and the first song played by the Californian quartet (a total of eight minutes).

On the other hand, the audio quality is satisfactory for an amateur recording (here is the link, which also includes rare footage shot that same evening).

The vocals and electric guitar are more prominent than the other instruments, but listening carefully, it is possible to distinguish the other three components of the band's live sound: the electric organ, the drums and the Fender Rhodes piano bass (a small keyboard played with the left hand by Ray Manzarek to replace the electric bass).

After a brief announcement by the host (“Good evening... there you go... The Doors”), the pulsating and sinuous introduction to “Back Door Man” kicks in immediately (the tune is a cover of the blues originally written by Willie Dixon and recorded by Howling Wolf in 1960).

A few seconds later, a rough yet dramatically expressive scream by Morrison unleashes the vivid, abrasive and bewitching intensity that characterizes his voice.

This imbues the song’s opening segment with seductive power, leading it through its first exciting phases and then interrupting its magnetic flow with another sharp, liberating scream.

Robby Krieger's lively electric guitar solo bursts in, partially departing from what we hear in the version of “Back Door Man” found as track number seven on The Doors' first LP (“The Doors”, released in January 1967).

Among the variations that the guitarist inserts on stage in Columbus are more pronounced and dynamic notes that run in brisk flourishes, as well as a more incisive and engaging overall pace.

This solo part, stirring restlessly between Chuck Berry's rock ‘n’ roll and late '60s rock, appears to be an improvement on the one that we can appreciate on the vinyl recording.

As soon as the animated electricity projected by Krieger's guitar fades, the composition takes on a mysterious and improvised trajectory.

For more than half of the song, Morrison delivers a succession of poetic verses, accompanied by the rest of the band’s creative contributions in a dark and dreamlike procession of sound.

This live feature, typical of The Doors’ live music, is driven by a steady, vibrant and gloomy rhythm that is built by John Densmore's drums and Manzarek's Fender Rhodes piano bass. This provides the perfect framework for the singer's cryptic lyrical evolutions.

His words unfold in a relaxed vocal pattern, in which the vowels are prolonged, reverberating through the audience like an irreverent pagan invocation.

At the same time, the chant-like melody of the singing is supported by a repetitive cadence. This hypnotic pace is periodically interrupted by silences that bring the instrumental background to the fore and build anticipation for the next verses.

In this context, it is worth mentioning the verse that would be used a few months later in the suite “The Soft Parade”, the closing track of The Doors’ album of the same name released in July 1969: “It's getting hard - gettin' hard - harder - to describe - sailors - to the underfed”.

Morrison's poetic digressions also touch on the theme of the hitchhiker, a subject that would occupy the singer-poet's imagination for years, culminating in the lyrics of “Riders On The Storm” (the closing track of The Doors' sixth album, “L.A. Woman”, released in April 1971).

Lastly, Morrison declares, with an unexpected “Ok!”, that the improvisation is over, as if waking up from a spell thanks to the waves created by the electric organ and the light phrasing of the electric guitar.

“Back Door Man” ends with a final burst, consisting of the verse-chorus-coda sequence before fading out to make way for the rest of the concert.

Despite its brevity, this bootleg shows us the remarkable opening of The Doors' performance in Columbus on November 2, 1968. After captivating us, the tune leaves us with the bitter taste of not being able to hear the rest of that magical evening’s performance.

My book "The Doors Through Strange Days"- The most comprehensive journey ever made through The Doors' second LP, is available on Amazon.com, .uk, .it, .mx, .ca, etc.

Here’s a link:

Amazon – “The Doors Through Strange Days”