1967-12-26 Winterland Arena - San Francisco, CA

Posted on the 28 December 2011 by Melkor89

THE DOORS
Winterland Arena
San Francisco, CA
1967-12-26
Format: mp3 192 kbps
Tracklist:
01 - Back Door Man 5:45
02 - Break On Through (To The Other Side) 5:35
03 - When the Music's Over 14:54
04 - Close To You 2:51
05 - Mannish Boy 8:29
06 - Light My Fire 9:34
From Greg Shaw's book The Doors On The Road: 
The Doors open with a strong version of "Back Door Man", with Morrison's gravely vocals interspersed with demonic laughter. Before the concluding stanza, Jim temporarily slows the pace as he drifts into his "Softer" passage, and emerges from it with a eerie high-pitched wail, followed by "OK! All right!" and a return to the lyrics. The introductory passage to "Break on Through" is quite different from the standard, and Morrison breaks into "Come on, baby! Be my man. You understand. Yeeeaaaah!". After that, Jim's vocals are mildly restrained throughout the song, and after the instrumental break he inserts his "There you sit" poetry, and then takes a long pause before returning to the song. While the previous number is still being applauded, the Doors jump right into "When the Music's Over". The intensity of "When the Music's Over" keeps building as the song progresses. Jim spits out the "We're getting tired..."  line with decisive irritation in his voice, and then thunders "What have they done to the earth?" in a tone more akin to a venomous challenge than a question. In the pause following "ear down to the ground", Morrison quietly engages the audience: "Ready? Well? We do want it, don't we?". The audience softly responds "Yeah," and Morrison counters with "Oh yeah? [pause] I'm serious!". He concludes with "We want the world...  as the band breaks into a forceful instrumental featuring some particularly fierce organ work by Manzarek. It is after that that Morrison interjects his "Poor Otis, dead and gone" poem as a tribute to the late Otis Redding. (This stanza later serves as the introduction to their song "Runnin' Blue").
Ray Manzarek then takes over on lead vocals for a fleeting version of "Close to You" that comes to an abrupt standstill as Ray cries out "We lost it. Hold on.". The band immediately regroups and springs right into "Mannish Boy". Just prior to "Light My Fire", the audience begins clapping rhythmically, and Morrison jumps into the tempo reciting "Get together one more time" (from the developing "Five to One"), until Densmore cracks the opening snare blow to the song. The "Light My Fire" tonight is quite atmospheric, and Morrison sounds almost breathless as he brings it to a fine conclusion. 
This is also the first "official" show for equipment manager Vince Treanor, who has been actively involved with the band since seeing them at the Hampton Beach Casino shows in August.
- Otis Redding, who died in a plane crash on December 10, was originally scheduled to appear with The Doors at these shows. He is replaced by Chuck Berry.
My notes:
A good audience recording for a great performance by Morrison. The lyrics dedicated to Otis Redding make this show a must have for any fan of The Doors.
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