The Doors: Live at the Bowl '68

Clad in a psychedelic blue waistcoat and tight brown leather trousers, Jim Morrison saunters languidly on stage to the cheers of 18,000 fans. He peers out into the crowd as if in a trance. To his right, keyboardist Ray Manzarek starts to play the opening notes to When the Music’s Over and the crowd gives another roar of approval. Guitarist Robby Krieger joins in and suddenly Morrison is awoken from his reverie, launching into an hour long set of brilliant, hallucinogenic rock.

Arranged and funded by The Doors themselves, and shot on just five cameras, THE DOORS: LIVE AT THE BOWL ’68 is the only full live recording of the concert. It captures them at the height of their power and also embodies the spirit of the decade that redefined music.

Sometimes it feels less of a rock n roll gig and more of a spoken word poetry session turned up to eleven.

Unlike today’s musicians who stuff their set list with quick, lean, three-minute numbers, The Doors were a band of jammers who elongated their songs into mammoth musical journeys, sometimes stretching beyond the quarter hour mark. Songs like Whiskey Bar and Hello, I Love you are warped, twisted and extended to fit the crazed and poetic ramblings of Morrison – who was reportedly tripping on acid during the entire gig. Sometimes it feels less of a rock n roll gig and more of a spoken word poetry session turned up to eleven.

Morrison, a lead singer who set the template for so many frontmen that followed him, is a mesmerising figure on stage. He allows himself be carried away by the music, transforming from a poised, tense statue to a crazed maniac as the intensity of the music rises and falls. For the crowd he is both a leader and a jester. At one point, after waxing lyrically about a grasshopper it seems only he can see, he kneels down and prods a tiny insect. “I messed it all up,” he announces, “it was a moth.” The crowd laugh uproariously, much to Morrison’s confusion. It must have been some pretty strong LSD.

The End’s morbid fascination with war, death and patricide is the most Morrisonesque song the band ever wrote …

The song that gets the biggest response is the penultimate: Light My Fire, a single that scored a number one hit a year earlier. However, it is their final song, an immense 15 minute rendition of The End, which is the most spectacular. Contrasting with the poppy, upbeat mood of Light My Fire, The End’s morbid fascination with war, death and patricide is the most Morrisonesque song the band ever wrote and is also a chilling omen; the vocalist died just three years after the concert was recorded.

THE DOORS: LIVE AT THE BOWL ’68 is a brilliant recording of one of the most important bands of the 60s. The footage is a little rough around the edges, but the band’s performance is so hypnotic that it hardly detracts from the experience.