Excerpts: Liner Notes From The Doors' Live In New York

We were all pumped up [for the Felt Forum shows], everybody was at the concerts, and the vibes were superb. Jim was terrific. For all four concerts, the air was filled with a high expectation of supercharged excitement, and there was a feeling that something amazing might happen. Robby’s solo on “Little Red Rooster” is a classic—his technique and passion just ooze all over the stage. A couple of versions of “Light My Fire” have similar moments in the dialog between Robby, Ray, and John; and when The Doors were locked and hitting on all cylinders, nobody could match them for virtuosity and feel. Everybody’s favorite bar song, “Roadhouse Blues,” started off all the concerts with Jim’s amazing basement-to-the rooftops scream, “Come on, yeah!” The crowd went wild. Later on, Jim was calling out, “Bring out your dead… bring out your dead.” It was rock theater at its best.

TECHNICAL NOTE: A long, long time ago, when nobody thought that we would ever need the 8-track tapes again, many bits and pieces were removed from these shows and were scattered through many Doors albums. Large chunks were used in Absolutely Live, An American Prayer, and Alive, She Cried. Goings-on between Jim and the audience, as well as parts of songs from the 8-track masters, have disappeared forever, though some do exist on the live 2-track tapes. Through the generous help of a few of our Doors collectors, we were able to obtain personal copies of audience recordings that helped us sort out the road map, show us what bits went where, and determine exactly what was missing.

In putting this project together, The Doors and I agreed that it was very important to have complete shows. The plan was to insert the audience and the live 2-track recordings where chunks were missing from our masters, in order to have a faithful reproduction of the concert. So, you might be rocking to “Five To One” or “Light My Fire,” and all of a sudden the sound might change into the live 2-track or an audience recording, and then back again. We tried to keep this at a minimum, but felt that going about it in this fashion would, in the end, be a more satisfying experience.

Beyond the audience recordings that have been circulating through the Doors-o-sphere, this is the first time that we have all four concerts complete.

— Excerpted From Producer/Engineer Bruce Botnick’s Liner Notes for LIVE IN NEW YORK