The Doors
October 11, 1967 (Wednesday)
Danbury High School Auditorium
Danbury, Connecticut
[PA System Recording]

Master 7" Reel (3.75 ips) > Reel To Reel > DAT(2) > CDR > EAC > WAV > Flac Frontend > FLAC (lvl 8, SBE aligned)

Here it is as promised. Provided by Doors collector and fellow Traders' Denizen Christophe is a first generation recording of The Doors' appearance at Danbury High in 1967. Contrary to popular belief, this show wasn't put on for or by the high school, but by Western Connecticut State College as an opening to their Fall Weekend. Much of the crowd is actually made up of college students and Danbury residents. (Thanks to Greg Shaw's book for that info.) 

Unlike other circulating sources, there is very little tape hiss present on this version. There are also no cuts during "Break On Through" -- though there is still a missing verse during "Moonlight Drive" which seems to be on all known copies. "The End" is complete along with Jim's introduction. 

Here's some info from the person Christophe got his copy from: 

"The master reel was made by a faculty member at Danbury High School (at the time) who ended up teaching at Wesleyen University in the early 1980s. A student there, who I've long since lost touch with, borrowed the master reel and I made a reel copy of that in the early '80s. The master was a 7" 3.75 ips reel and my reel copy was the same. A metal cassette with Dolby B was made from my reel (as well as an XL2 cassette for my friend ) and I'm fairly sure most circulating copies are from those cassettes which would be 2nd generation from the master. I made many copies of my cassette for various people over the years because my Revox was packed away in storage. A few years ago, my original reel copy was finally transfered to DAT and CD and I have traded that a few times since so a digital copy of the first gen reel is also now circulating."

Despite its first generation origins, there are still some problems with the recording. First, while The Doors were setting up, Jim's friend Tom Baker did a poetry reading (perhaps as much as 25 minutes worth) and this reading is said to be on the original master. In fact, it's Baker's voice you hear at the start of "Moonlight Drive" introducing the band. Also, throughout the show, there are some amplification issues and different parts come through louder/clearer than others. These may be problems present on the original master tape or on the reel to reel copy. "Break On Through" has the most issues as there were dropouts which were fixed by the person who transferred the tape by copying over the intact channel. I tried matching up the audio channels where there was an obvious difference in amplification (only two or three spots) and also ran the tape through ClickRepair (on a low setting of 50 with DeCrackle off) to remove some clicks and pops which were present during the quietest portions -- most audibly between "Light My Fire" and "The End." No noise reduction or other "remastering" was applied to this recording.

All in all, this is the best sounding source for this show I've ever heard and unlike many other copies it even appears to run at the correct speed. So enjoy this great upgrade.

-Porsche

I'm always on the look out for Doors recordings I don't have or source upgrades. 
Check out my complete list of shows here: http://www.eccentrix.com/members/thedoors/tradelist.html


Track List:

1.Intro - Moonlight Drive - Horse Latitudes
2.Money
3.Break on Through - There You Sit 
4.Backdoor Man - I've Got the Right
5.People are Strange
6.The Crystal Ship
7.Wake Up!
8.Light my Fire
9.The End - Names of the Kingdom - Stop the Car, I'm Getting Out - Who Scared You

***[Sadly, People Are Strange had to be removed due being officially released in the Boot Yer Butt collection]

Comments:

For some reason this particular show has been dated by many as being October 17, 1967. However, Rob Poodiack and Kevin N.Barry, writers for local Danbury newspaper The News-Times, had noted the date of this concert as being October 11. The Doors performance at Danbury had been sponsored and organised by the Fall Weekend Committee of Western Connecticut State College. "I hope you can be patient with us for a few moments. Our guests have arrived and there will be a fifteen minute intermission and I recommend that you sit in your seats and do not leave the auditorium.....and no smoking please....sit in your seats and if you get out then we will escort you to the door."
The crowd sounded excited as Robbie tuned in his guitar. The announcer continued:

"If you’re ready to calm down, I will....." the announcer briefly paused and resumed while Ray tuned in his organ.

"All right now, I have a very special guest" the rest of the announcer’s speech is cut. Apparently Jim’s drinking buddy, Tom Baker, recited a poem prior to the beginning of the concert, but none of it was recorded - all that can be heard is Tom saying:

"The Doors, O.K ? "

The Doors then began with an interesting version of Moonlight Drive, where Robbie played a good deal of slide guitar during this version then he normally would in most other performances. The group then played a blues cover song, "Money". The group’s next song was "Break On Through" that was unfortunately cut off towards the end followed by an energetic "Back Door Man". The next song, "People Are Strange" is a fairly rare example of The Doors playing this song live. Listening to existing recordings, The Doors didn’t seem to play this song frequently as part of their set even though it had been played live on The Ed Sullivan Show and also in the 2nd sets on March 7 and March 10 at the Matrix Club earlier in the same year.

"The Crystal Ship", "Wake Up" and "Light My Fire" were played before The Doors finished of their concert with "The End". Just before The Doors start playing "The End", Jim asked the crowd:

"Do you want us to do any more ?", he then paused for a moment and continued:

"Are you sure you want ? Yeah, O.K.", Robbie tuned his guitar and began to play "The End".

Halfway through this version of "The End", Jim sang a part of "Enseneda" and also included some of the lines from "Who Scared You":

I see you’re riding, coming down the road, I see you’re riding, coming down the road. He’s got a burden, carrying a heavy load, One bag of silver and one sack of gold. So you won’t get cold, so you won’t grow old I’m gonna show you a place, Like to stay, So you won’t go away.

During the group’s rendition of "The End", Jim grabbed the microphone stand and started to smash it into the edge of the stage and broke the stand in half.

The recording finishes of with the announcer clapping whilst saying:

"Wonderful show ! Thank You !

The following day, principal P.J. Murnane had given a speech to his students telling them what a disgrace the performance had been.

The audience seemed to have a mixed reaction regarding their response to The Doors’ performance. One audience member at the time, Rob Ultsch of Brookfield remembered that:

"Everybody just kind of sat there, amazed, and went ‘WHOOOOOAAAA.’ "

However Kevin Barry, The News-Times music reviewer at the time remembers things quite differently:

"I think my (negative) review spoke for most of the audience."

The group received a rather negative and scathing review by Kevin N. Barry, who based his comments on very little knowledge or appreciation of the music, as he commented that; "The Doors swung in and swung out of the Danbury High School Auditorium last night and it’s good to know that the doors of D.H.S. also swing both ways."

An out of touch and misinformed (to say the least) Kevin N. Barry had also described "The End" as being "about a man ending an LSD trip" (which couldn’t be any further from the truth) and simply (and blindly) described the music and atmosphere as being "loud, had a fast beat and the psychedelic theme was emphasised even more by the lighting effect."

In defence to the Doors music and performance which had been greatly overlooked for it’s merits, Paul A. Gordon had written a letter to the editor explaining that Kevin N. Barry’s review;

‘was obviously out of touch with the performers, their music or the audience." and commented further that;

‘Describing the music as "loud" and with a "fast beat" tells nothing, nor does sprinkling of the ingroupy sounding catch-all "psychedelic". The skill of organist Ray Manzarek, who played both organ and bass, was ignored, as was the effective and distinctive bottle neck styling of guitarist Robby Krieger.’