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The Doors - Boston Arena April 10, 1970 (1st Set) (1970)

Track listing:
  1. Jim Welcomes The Audience 2:42
  2. Roadhouse Blues 4:49
  3. Ship Of Fools 6:21
  4. Alabama Song 2:00
  5. Back Door Man 2:20
  6. Five To One - I Want To Love You, Baby 10:11
  7. When The Music's Over 14:14
  8. Rock Me 6:36
  9. People Get Ready / Mystery Train 6:38
  10. Away In India - Crossroads 8:11
  11. Audience Requests / Wake Up! 2:56
  12. Light My Fire 12:16

Notes


3rd Generation Audience Recording (master)

The crowd waited in anticipation for The Doors to take the stage. When The Doors finally came on stage the crowd erupted with a strong applause. Jim took the microphone and started to speak to his audience - he was slightly drunk but he was clearly in good spirits.

"Well ! Well ! All right ! All All All right yeah, oh I wanna have a good time ! Yeah, well"
"Everybody feeling all right ?"
"Well I feel all right myself, oh yeah."
"Well I feel pretty good. I feel all right now baby !"
"Well all right, well yeah"
"Whoooaaaa !"

Jim then let out a roaring scream, at the top of his lungs as Robbie played the first few notes of their opening song, "Roadhouse Blues". The group’s following song, "Ship Of Fools", was a magnificent version of their newer material, once again illustrating that the group could sound as good playing live as well as what four musicians could achieve in their studio. Robbie played some fantastic improvised lead breaks during "Ship Of Fools".

Their next song, "Alabama Song/Back Door Man/Five To One", was played a little faster than usual but none the less, this song was powerfully delivered with "Five To One" taking a slightly different direction - Jim added in his lyrical improvisations and Robbie ad-libbing during his guitar lead breaks.

During "When The Music’s Over", Jim had paused singing when he rhetorically and bluntly asked his audience:

"What do you want ?"
"What would you do with it, babe ?"
"Oh you tell me what you would do with it."

The audience replied to Jim and he jokingly answered:

"I think I’ll pass"

"Sshhh-" Jim then resumed with his singing.

After completing their 14 minute epic of "When The Music’s Over", The Doors played a blues cover song, "Rock Me" and one of their new medleys, a compilation of "People Get Ready" with "Mystery Train" combined with parts of "Away In India" and "Cross-roads", which was never recorded in the studio. Based on existing recordings, this seems to be the first time that "People Get Ready" was ever performed live. Last but not least, the group finished up with "Wake Up/Light My Fire" - Robbie’s guitar solo during "Light My Fire" was superb. This was one of the most dynamic shows that The Doors played during their 1970 tour.

Contrary to the first set, the group’s second set didn’t go as smoothly that night in Boston. The Doors played for almost two hours straight on their second set and ignored the promoters request to stop playing. At around 2 a.m. the Boston Arena management cut off the power to The Doors’ equipment in the middle of one of their songs. It just happened that the centre microphone was still working, thus giving the chance for Jim to respond angrily:

"Those cocksuckers."

Ray Manzarek quickly got a hold of Jim and tried to carry him off-stage, however Jim broke away from Manzarek and continued his protest:

"We should all get together and have some fun, because the assholes are gonna win if you let them"

Jim continued with his raving then grabbed the mike stand and started to smash the stage floor before leaving the Boston Arena for good. The Doors had been scheduled to play the following night at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City. Unfortunately it just happened that Earl Duryea, manager of the Salt Palace, had flown over to Boston to view the group’s performance in order to determine if The Doors would be suitable for their northern Utah audiences. Earl was present at both sets that night and had seen what happened during the second set. On the following morning, Earl telephoned officials in Salt Lake City to inform them that The Doors’ act was "unsuitable for local performance". Miami paranoia was ever still present and the "Bible Belt Angels" wanted nothing to do with these "West Coast Satanic-Beat-Messiahs". As a result of this, The Doors’ scheduled performance for the Salt Palace was cancelled.