The Lizard King, Jim Morrison, slipped into the big sleep in 1971. Although over four decades have passed, the interest in the music of Jim Morrison and The Doors continues to live on.
The vaults have been opened, the tapes sonically groomed to an excellent level, and the entire Hollywood Bowl Concert, Live At The Bowl ’68, has been released.
Morrison appears to have his ego and sanity in check throughout this concert while Ray Manzarek creates the mood with his keyboards playing leads and bass lines.
With the creative, smooth riffs of Robby Krieger on guitar and John Densmore on drums you soon understand that even without the poetry of Morrison, The Doors would have been popular for their sound in the 60s..
Alas, Jim Morrison really was the The Doors. For a brief moment, Morrison was an outrage to the establishment, an idol to the rebellious and eye opening to all.
The three longest songs of the concert showcase Morrison and the band conveying the songs that justly made The Doors a household name.
“When The Music’s Over” with the lengthy organ solo at the start, jumps to life with a drum roll and Morrison’s screams and the infamous cover of Jose Feliciano’s “Light My Fire” is stupendous,
The finale of the concert, “The End”, where Jim spends 90 seconds trying to get ‘Mr. Lightman’ to turn the lights down and seemingly failing. He shrugs and continues and it is written Morrison’s ‘ trip’ commenced about now.
This concert is an excellent snapshot of a band at the top of their game. Take note of the lengthy set-list where the 3 tracks mentioned above make up 60% of the music provided. “Moonlight Drive”, “Hello, I Love You” and a rollicking “Alabama Song” are some of the others included, but don’t blink or you might miss them.
