London Fog 1966

The oldest Doors music I have heard prior to this is an old reel-to-reel from The Matrix Club in San Francisco in 1966. In 1966 The Doors would play anywhere and everywhere and hope to get paid. The Matrix tapes have really rotten sound quality but they are considered a bit of history for fans of The Doors. A friend of the band brought his tape deck to The London Fog Club in Hollywood in May 1966 to tape the band's set and now in 2019 more history has reached my old broken down ears and we are lucky once again. Lot's of background chatter can be heard from this small club and then John Densmore pounds through your skull like Keith Moon in a London library. John's drums dominate this tape and Ray is in there behind the atomic blast of percussion and sometimes you can even hear Robby's guitar a little. This is Jimbo the Bluesman with "Rock Me Baby" and "Baby, Please Don't Go" getting the party into second gear like a runaway truck on the Grapevine. Jim. screams and croaks his way through this and if you think some of the tapes from 1970 sound raw you had best stand back or better still get outta the way of Jim Morrison as he is in yer' face for the entire set and you ain't gonna escape the onslaught of this mighty beast."You Make Me Real" was one of Jim's early poems that he showed Ray on Venice Beach in 1965. This original Doors song is just like the blues standards played before it but it shows what direction the band had in the early days. This is 1966 and things will change so fast over the next few years you best hang on and enjoy the ride. "Don't Fight It" (I never heard this one before) and "Hoochie Coochie Man" bring us to "Strange Days" and it's interesting to hear this Doors standard as a baby because this baby came fully formed at birth and very high right from the womb. The song structure is great for a new band still finding it's way. This (for me) is the standout track from London Fog.Forget what you already know about Little Richard's classic tune "Lucille" as The Doors turn it inside out and reinvent it into Doorsmusic and it's another really cool find to hear Jim and the lads have a go at it.The sound is a battle, but if you turn your stereo up really loud and make your hounds howl it will sound like your head and that tape recorder are both inside John Densmore's bass drum and that is where they belong. Rock 'n' Roll as it should be played. History can be heaps of fun.Four Stars!

There is just not that much rare live material from the early Doors pre-1968. The Matrix tapes are good but sometimes you can barely hear Robby Kreiger. They were right to put this disc out, but it is only really seven songs. Being the earliest known live Doors, it gives insight to what they were like as a club band on Sunset Strip. They certainly sound better than on the World Pacific demos. The balance between Kreiger's guitar and Manzarek's organ is much better here than on the Matrix material. The sound is so-so, but after all it is 1966. All boots sounded questionable.The revelations here are contained in the choice of material. There are only two originals. 'Strange Days' has practically the same arrangement, just different drum fills. 'You Make Me Real' is also very similar, only missing the tack piano. Odd that it wasn't recorded in a studio for so many years.The covers show what the early band really sounded like. The blues covers are all pretty good. There was a blues revival happening in L.A. at the time, with Canned Heat, Captain Beefheart, and even the very early Mothers prime examples. Morrison even toots some reasonable harmonica, something he seemed incapable of doing after. Kreiger's guitar is curiously atonal during 'Baby Please Don't Go' instead of following Them's template, which Jimmy Page played back in 1964. 'I'm Your Hootchie Cootchie Man' has some great vocal interplay between Morrison and Manzarek, nice to hear.The question marks are 'Don't Fight It' and 'Lucille'. I'm sure both were good enough to fill the dance floor, the Doors' main job at the time, but they aren't very good. Jim struggles manfully with the R & B 'Don't Fight It', only losing after the modulation to a higher key. Sober, Morrison was a very good singer, always in time and in key. 'Lucille' just doesn't work despite John Densmore trying to goose the beat. His drumming is always solid. But Jim is singing perhaps three octaves below Little Richard and the band is playing the song at half speed. Ugh!Still, it is an important artifact of the early Doors and the good outweighs the bad. For fans only.

This is simply an amazing find. An early DOORS live recording from their London Fog days well before they broke through. The quality of the 1966 recording is very good for the time. Hats off to the lady who recorded this historical gem. Hearing a very early version of Strange Days was worth the price of admission alone. This is a beautifully packaged set with great pictures of a young and hard working band. The Doors will forever be timeless! Hard to believe its been 50 years and yet they still thrill....

Nice for the collection and is of historic value to Doors fans but wish the sound was better. So if the price does not bother you on this set & your a huge Doors collector like myself, I'd buy this one, if not then maybe a download is cheaper. Up to the consumer.Drop by my website sometime @ "JudeMacforever". Google it, always something there for about everyone.

OKsure its a bit of a swizz, the doors managemnet took a 32 minute tape and stretched it out to a box set. But wow what a tapeSure it only 7 songs and mainly covers but this is the eary doors, 1966 come on. This is awesome the doors as a bar band before they even played the Whiskey. Jimbo sounds young but still like Jimbo. Its a decent sounding audience recording, the covers are solid and interesting and sound like the doors which is surprising given how young they are. You make me real is the standout, its the same compostion as on Morrison Hotel but its clearly emrionic, you really are hearing early doors here. Thats why it gets 5 starrs its just such a unique are rare thingThe box itself is kind of cool, like a real look into the doors time at the Fog, I expected to feel bumped with it but I kind of like it.The taper had a second reel from the same night which has a 15 minute recording of the end but she cant find it., it was recoded as a soundtrack for a student film she made, she reckons both tapes are in a box, somewhere, so maybe one day...

Wow ! was my fist impression when I heard the quality of the recording. It has to be one of the holy grails for Doors fans. It is like entering a time warp. The tape starts with tuning up and from that point on you feel like you are in the gig itself. It is quite clearly a recoding from the audience but it must have been made on good equipment for 1966. The vocals are slightly more distant than the instruments and they are a little sharp but overall it is nicely balanced. The whole item is a really cool. I love the hand made packaging and the contents, which have been made to look dated and old. The recording is only 32 minutes long but what a 32 minutes that is. For Doors fans itbis a must have item.

Waited for this cd to be made available and I’m not disappointed. A worthwhile addition to yourCollection of Doors releases for a reasonable £10. Get it while you can.

Loved the doors for years great live concert

a very nice box set