THE DOORS
Concertgebouw
Amsterdam, Netherlands
1968-09-15
Format: mp3 320kbps
Tracklist:01 - Announcement by Vince Treanor, The Doors' road manager 0:39
02 - Tuning 1:53
03 - Ray speaks 0:26
04 - Break On Through - There You Sit 6:01
05 - Soul Kitchen 7:32
06 - Alabama Song (Whisky bar) 1:14
07 - Back Door Man 3:33
08 - Hello, I Love You 3:21
09 - Light My Fire 15:00
10 - The Unknown Soldier (cut) 1:11
From Greg Shaw's book The Doors On The Road:
In Amsterdam, the Doors are obliged to perform without Jim Morrison. During the aftemoon, Morrison has graciously consumed an abundant amount of hashish, which admirers have presented him while he is sightseeing around the city. Whenever he is given any hashish, he just pitches it in his mouth and swallows it whole.The delayed reaction from ingesting the gratuities this way eventually catches up with him just as the Jefferson Airplane are opening the show. Morrison strolls onstage during their performance of "Plastic Fantastic Lover" and begins dancing outlandishly, twirling and wrapping himself in and out of guitar cables. After one spirited spin, Morrison collapses briefly, and then staggers backstage, where he crumples to the floor and is briskly transported to a local hospital. The physicians there diagnose the problem, but cannot prescribe any remedy to counteract Jim's exhaustion and get him back to the show. Instead. it is recommended that he remain ovemight and sleep it off. Meanwhile, when it is confirmed that Iim will be unable to perform, road manager Vince Treanor is elected to make an announcement that, although Jim cannot perform, the band wishes to go on with the show, and that people can request a refund and leave if they chose to do so. It is soon evident that scarcely anyone wishes to leave, and the three Doors perform to a capacity house.The Doors' performance is exceptional this night. Fueled by their frustration with the extenuating circumstances, notably Jim, they catapult into an aggressive and vibrant set with the majority of the vocals taken on by Ray Manzarek, whose inflection is uncannily reminiscent of Morrison's.
From Stephen Davis' book Jim Morrison: Life, Death, Legend:
The Doors flew to Amsterdam the following day. A flight attendant asked Jim for his autograph; he wrote a poem for her on an airsickness bag. “O Stewardess/Observe most carefully/Someday you may pour wine/for the tired man.”That afternoon the Doors and the Airplane strolled around Amsterdam’s old town. Crossing the bridges over the city’s canals, they found themselves in a district of quaint, gaily decorated shops and cafés that reminded them of San Francisco. As they were progressing down the street, Dutch kids came up and started giving them blocks of fresh hashish and pills of all varieties and colors. The others discreetly pocketed the dope—Amsterdam was famously tolerant toward recreational drugs—but Jim Morrison swallowed everything that was handed to him, without question. Grace Slick said later that he probably ate an ounce of hash and half a dozen pills that day.Jim was flying by the time the Airplane opened the show at the venerable Concertgebouw symphony hall at eight o’clock that evening. He seemed bored and manic hanging out with the other Doors in the dressing room, so he hopped onstage with the Airplane during “Plastic Fantastic Lover” and performed a crazed leather dervish dance, getting tangled on the guitarists’ electric cords and thoroughly annoying the band. Jim twirled and spun, made himself dizzy, and fell down. Helped backstage, he threw up and passed out.No one could wake him. His breathing was shallow and he looked green and ghastly. The promoter, afraid that Jim was dying on him, called an ambulance and Jim was carried out cold on a stretcher and transported to a hospital. The doctors examined him and said he had to sleep it off overnight. So the Doors went on without their singer. The audience was told Jim was ill and was offered a refund, but everyone stayed to hear Ray Manzarek sing Jim’s parts, and the three Doors played two complete shows without him. Contemporary reviews in the Dutch press indicate that the band pulled this off with flying colors.
Jim woke up the next morning, feeling good and rested, and asked what had happened. John Densmore proudly told Jim that the Doors had survived without him.
From John Densmore's biography Riders On The Storm:
A week later we were sitting in a pristine side room of the Amsterdam Concert Hall, surronunded by statuettes of Mozart, Chopin, and the rest of the classical lads. It was half an hour before we were supposed to perform, and Jim and Robby had wandered out somewhere in the auditorium. All of a sudden Jim was being carried past on a stretcher, out cold. He was put in an ambulance and he was gone."What the fuck happened, Leon?" I screamed to the publicist. "You were supposed to watch Jim this afternoon!" "We were on the street and someone came up and gave Jim a little block of hash, and he popped the whole thing in his mouth right there," Leon replied with exasperation. "Vince! Go out and make an announcememt that Jim got sick and they can have their money back. Or the three of us would play, I guess." Ray didn't sound so sure. "We can do it." I jumped in. Vince came running by in a fancy green sparkle jacket he'd put on just for the announcement. I went up to the Airplane's dressing room. Grace Slick said Jim had been onstage in the middle of their set and acted kind of crazy, but everyone had thought it was part of the act. The Airplane was mellow. Marty Balin was quiet, but Grace and Paul Kantnor were very friendly. When I got back downstairs, Vince ran up and said the audience wanted the Doors, with or without Jim. A couple of members of the Airplane, including Spencer Dryden, their drummer, came down to the wings to see how we would do. Ray handed the vocals fairly well; I exaggerated my performance because there was no lead singer blocking my view of the audience, and therefore, for once, I was the focal point. I liked that. The Dutch seemed to like us. Our lyrics weren't in Dutch, anyway, so they had to go with the mood. That's the way I judged new records, anyhow. If the mood got me, I would listen again to pick up all the lyrics. After the concert we called the hospital. Jim had recovered after taking a nice nap. The next morning, walked out of the hotel, we noticed that I was on the front cover of the local newspaper! An interpreter translated and said they liked my playing and stage presence. I glanced at Jim; he was expressionless. I was feeling very proud of myself. Check it out, Jim!
My notes:This is the only recording of the famous concert where Ray, Robby and John sang and played without Jim (an anticipation of what would happen after his death). According to Ray Manzarek's last interview with Ben Fong-Torres, the Dutch crowd didn't know who Jim Morrison was. They just wanted to hear The Doors playing Light My Fire, whoever the singer was.The various sources have been mixed together to obtain the most complete tape of the show, which includes the full speeches by Vince Treanor and Ray, the full-length performance of Light My Fire and the only known snippet of The Unknown Soldier sung by Robby first and then Ray.Ray is the man tonight. Not only he plays his organ and his bass keyboard and sings most of the songs, but he also adds Jim's typical improvised lyrics and poetry (notably, There You Sit from Wilson Pickett's Dont Fight It into Break On Through, and Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep into Soul Kitchen), thus sounding extremely close to Morrison. Robby and John do an outstanding performance too, making this recording a piece of rock history.
Download:
mediafire
