THE DOORS
Kongresshalle
Frankfurt, Germany
1968-09-14
Format: mp3 320kbps
Tracklist:Early show 01 - Tuning 0:28
02 - Break On Through (To The Other Side) 4:20
03 - Alabama Song (Whisky Bar) 2:34
04 - Back Door Man 4:14
05 - When The Music's Over 14:11
06 - The WASP (Texas Radio and the Big Beat) 2:30
07 - Hello, I Love You 3:22
08 - Light My Fire 9:53
09 - The Unknown Soldier 5:01Late Show
10 - Five To One (cut) 1:26
From Greg Shaw's book The Doors On The Road:The early show goes well, although the audience seems somewhat restrained. While Manzarek's playing is powerful, Morrison is a bit subdued, even tired. Nevertheless, his grotesque laughter during "Back Door Man" elicits cheers from the crowd. The finale of "The Unknown Soldier" is particularly powerful, with loud, distorted, raging guitar from Krieger, and Jim pushing some real fury into the lyrics. That song elicits the greatest applause of the evening. It is particularly significant for the numerous G.I.s in the audience.The late show opens with a particularly gritty rendition of "Five to One," which concludes with Morrison delivering a nasty, clenched-teeth snarl of "Get the whole fucking thing together just one more TlME!" His voice is particularly melodic tonight, making his unpredictable outbursts even more startling. After a substantial portion of the audience has already left at the conclusion of the late show, the Doors reappear to do an extended encore with an approximately thirty-minute version of "The End."Portions of this show are filmed by German television (possibly by a station in Frankfurt, which also recorded a number oi the Iimi Hendrix Experience shows). The songs televised include portions of "Light My Fire" and "Five to One."
From John Densmore's biography Riders On The Storm:
"You will open ze bag, I will look!" the customs officials barked in their German-accented English. When we arrived in Frankfurt on the next stops of our tour, I thought I was in old World War II movie. Once we got into the country, though, the people were very friendly and I was surprised at how green the landscape was. I thought it was going to be gray. I'd seen too many films stereotyping Germany. The promoters were two young men who were very warm and catered to our very need. They had a vivacious blond in tow who seemed to be available for the groups who came into town. We arrived at the conclusion after the promoters told us that José Feliciano had enjoyed reading Braille all over her chest. (We allloved his version of "Light My Fire," because he had found a way of interpreting it rather than just copying our arrangement.) Another beautiful German woman, Francesca, latched on to Jim. Pam Courson was nowhere in sight, and Jim had started occasionally staying in motels when we were back home. I guess he was available. That night as the curtain rose, I was optimistic about our set. I could feel the audience's anticipation. We roared into "Break On Through" and finished it with a bang. Silence. As we quickly started our second number, "Back Door Man," I could still feel the silence. Maybe they were transfixed by Jim. The song ended and the response was still very quiet. Curious.
We thought "Whiskey Bar" would get a rise out of them, since it was written by one of their countrymen, Munich's own Bertoldt Brecht. Nothing. Quieter still. Maybe the pre-Hitler song was in bad taste. We countinued and Jim started berating the audience for a reaction. He stalked around the stage using the mike stand as if it were a javelin, pretending to throw it into the audience. He got a vicious look on his face and ran from the back of the stage, in front of my drums, to the edge of the stage, threating to impale members of the audience on his mike stand. I thought he was going too far. The audience didn't flinch. Each time he did it, I gasped. We finished the set to the same lukewarm response, and the curtain came down. Everyone backstage was very quiet. The once friendly promoters avoided us. "What happened out there, Ray?" I asked. "Beats me!" I was mad at Jim for being so hostile, but, in retrospect, I think he struck a nerve in all of us. Here was this rock singer, dressed in his "leathers," stomping around the stage threatening violence. He wasn't doing the goose step, but the young Germans got the message. Rage and anarchy. Just what they had been trying to forget since the war. Afterward we were taken to an Israeli club called Das Kinky. It was full of life. My impression was that the young people were trying to make up for what their parents had given in to. The blond came on to Robby after realizing that everyone else is taken - Jim with Francesca, Ray with Dorothy, and me with a German Jewess from the club - but it was to no avail. Lynn was to catch up with Robby in a few days and he was comitted to her, so he passed on the blonde. It was heartwarming that for a few years Lynn had lived the sixties' version of McInerney's Bright Lights, Big City and was now settling down with Robby. Unfortunately, the German girl I ended up with didn't speak a word of English. Excuse me, I didn't speak a word of Deutsch. German is close enough to English that occasionally a sentence would pop out of her conversation that I would understand perfectly. I was worried about making love with someone I couldn't talk with, but we had no problem communicating physically. She looked very exotic sitting on my hotel bed, with her coal-black hair practically covering her face. The problem was that I had to get on a plane the next morning and I had no way to tell her. When morning came and I began to pack, she got the idea. She looked very surprised and sad. I didn't feel too god either; the only thing I could say was "Auf Wiedersehen."
My notes:Another great performance just a few days after The Roundhouse in London. The guys were at the top of their game, although they all got disappointed at the restrained and unusually quiet reaction of the German crowd. Maybe that's the reason why Morrison gets confused at the end of Light My Fire, singing twice the "The time to hesitate is through..." part instead of switching back to "You know that it would be untrue..." in the second verse.The present tape is a good audience recording of the early show. Both of the shows were filmed for the German television, although only small segments of Light My Fire from the first performance and Five to One from the second were broadcast. It's a fantastic document nevertheless, because it's one of the few videos of The Doors of which we also have the original audio to go with. I included the audio snippet of Five to One as bonus track since that tv program is the only source for the late show.The previous day, The Doors recorded a color video in Römer Square, Frankfurt. They all mimed to a playback of "Hello, I Love You". A good quality copy of this broadcast has been recently shared on youtube.
Download:
mediafireThe Doors live in Frankfurt, Germany 1968The Doors "Hello, I Love You" Frankfurt, Germany 1968
