"This is a monumental collection, an amazing piece of research which every real Doors fan should own. Greg Shaw has done an outstanding job at a Herculean task."
Ray Manzarek
The Doors Keyboardist

"Never before has there been a book full of sheer facts about The Doors concerts. Any previously published overview pales in comparison. Highly entertaining and very recommended!"
Kerry Humpherys
The Doors Collectors Magazine

Full of little known details to entice old and new fans alike, The Doors On The Road includes:
Exact dates and locations of most every show
The most complete list of set lists ever compiled
Opening acts and other bands on the bill
Stage antics and Morrison provocative dialogues with audiences
Reviews of the shows and critiques of different song versions
Recording session and album information

Only a few copies in stock! Cond: Exc+
Price: $--

Return to Books

At this time, however, Jim Morrison did not share the concerns surrounding their public appearances. In fact, he was intrigued by the mob mentality he had observed at their and other bands' performances. Aside from the exaggerated portraits of violence surrounding other concerts, accounts of this performance were undeniably valid. From the outset, the concert on this dreadfully hot and humid New York summer night had been plagued with difficulties. The opening band was poorly received by an unruly crowd impatient for the two main acts. It was a year before The Who's rock opera "Tommy" was released, and the band had yet to achieve legendary status in the States. Nevertheless, they were determined that the stage set-up specifically accommodate their presentation and were adamant that none of The Doors' equipment obstruct the stage. During The Who's performance, the rotating stage had broken down, leaving a section of the audience unable to adequately see the band. The Who put on a good, but not exceptional show, and exited the stage visibly annoyed. After their set, there was an hour-long interim before The Doors took the stage, and the delay further aggravated the already impatient audience.

As soon as The Doors appeared, they were greeted with a thunderous assault of screaming fans and segments of the crowd began rushing the stage. A column of policemen were stationed at the front of the platform to curtail this onrush of people, while Morrison fiercely jostled his way through them to face the crowd. The chaos escalated continuously during the performance, with fights erupting throughout the Singer Bowl. Morrison sang with a very precise and articulate emphasis on the lyrics, and actually appeared to be substantially more sober than the crowd he was facing.

Ellen Sander commented on the show's build-up in Trips: "A good portion of the audience still couldn't see and they were furious. Crowds stormed the front of the stage and were turned back by the police. Some were trying to scale the stage and others cheered them on. Morrison spun around and ground the songs out halfheartedly, ad libbing, improvising, doing an ominous dance. Hysteria was building. Morrison shrieked, moaned, gyrated, and minced to the edge of the stage, hovering. Hands reached out and grabbed him and the cops had to pry them away. The camera crew ducked a piece of broken chair which came flying onto the stage. Morrison caught it and heaved it back into the crowd. The Doors were hardly visible from any angle because there were about twenty cops onstage." (Ellen Sander, Trips, New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1973)

By the time The Doors began to perform "The End," the crowd was in an incredible uproar. Morrison vainly attempted to "sssshhhh" the audience, but there was no response and he began appealing to them. "Hey, this is serious everyone! Get quiet man! You're going to ruin the whole thing."

Following the opening stanzas of the song, Morrison drifted into a expansive passage of poetry, beginning with "Fall down now; strange Gods are coming." With decidedly steady pacing, he advanced through a series of poems until he unexpectedly burst in a scream of "Don't come here! Don't come in!" Proceeding from this flare-up into "Ensenada," Morrison was continually assailed with clamorous screams of "Morrison is King!" from the crowd. He calmly began to recite the Oedipal section of the song, but when he paused at one significant part, the audience impatiently roared the delayed lyrics "he walked on down the hallway, baby!" The crowd momentarily became quiet again, until Jim reached the conclusion of the Oedipal section with "Mother, I want to..." and the Singer Bowl burst into pandemonium with the audience finishing the lyrics. The band accelerated into the musical passage and Morrison hit the stage, writhing in agony like the death knell of a hideous serpent while the crowd went wild. The instrumental passage climaxed with a horrendous blood-curdling scream from Morrison, followed by Krieger's guitar set on some wildly unrestrained echo. By now no one remained seated in the crowd and the police were forming a barricade in front of the stage. The audience was defiantly screaming "Sit down, cop!" as Krieger finished the song with a long trail of feedback.

Just before midnight, as The Doors concluded their performance, a horde of people began demolishing the wooden seating section in front and hurling portions of the the splintered benches at the stage. The debacle turned into a complete riot when the crowd charged the police barricade, forcing The Doors to abandon the stage amidst a torrent of plummeting debris. As the police struggled to regain control of the crowd, Vince Treanor and the equipment crew desperately tried to guard and defend their gear.

Peter Townshend, lead guitar player for The Who, observed the entire disturbance from the side of the stage and was both fascinated and appalled by Morrison's apparent indifference to the situation. According to Who biographer Dave Marsh, it was Morrison's aloof and mystifying demeanor in the face of intensifying chaos that prompted Townsend to write The Who's composition "Sally Simpson."

• Also performing: The Who; The Kangaroo
• Filmed for Feast Of Friends
• Promotion: Gary Kurfist & Shelley Finkel
• Capacity: 17,500