Chaos and confusion: Jim Morrison’s final show with The Doors
Any show that The Doors put on almost felt like an art piece rather than a concert. While Jim Morrison may have chosen rock and roll as his medium, he would spend most of the band’s performances either playing with the traditional way of performing the song or stretching out the track with various pieces of poetry he had to work with. Although they created a frenzy everywhere they went, their final show marked the moment when all those years of chaos finally reached a fever pitch.
By the time the group had started touring in 1970, they had begun to get back in touch with their blues-infused roots. After spending albums like The Soft Parade working with different elements of jazz and swing music with horns and strings, Morrison Hotel saw the band playing songs in a 12-bar formula, making for blues-soaked performances on tracks like ‘Roadhouse Blues’.
While their music style may have changed, Morrison wasn’t looking to compromise his singing. As evidenced by tracks like ‘Peace Frog’, ‘The Lizard King’ was still looking to paint vivid pictures in the listener’s mind, as he sings about a child finding a wreck on the highway and being severely scarred by the experience.
Morrison’s taste for grand theatrics was only being matched by his drinking. Though the frontman was known to live a life of excess, the only habit that he kept throughout his career was his alcohol dependence, which often got him into trouble when performing when he flew off the handle.
By the time the band settled in Miami, Morrison’s antics got the better of him when he was arrested for indecent exposure, bringing their touring days to an end for a while. As the group took time to regroup by recording their next album, LA Woman, they performed their final show in Louisiana in December of 1970, previewing different pieces from the new album like ‘Hyacinth House’ and the recent single, ‘Love Her Madly’.
Instead of the seasoned veteran that fans had come to know in the early days, Morrison had turned into a rock and roll casualty before their eyes, trading in his signature look for a long beard and appearing virtually unrecognisable to his fans. After trying to recapture the spirit of his early days, Morrison would fall to the stage floor midway through the show.
As he stood motionless on the floor, keyboardist Ray Manzarak knew that the group’s days as a touring outfit were over, with archivist David Dutkowski recalling, “Ray Manzarek looked up from his keyboard and saw Morrison’s spirit leave his body. He swears the shamanistic energy, the soul of Jim Morrison, flowed out of his body, and with it, the will to perform.”
After numerous attempts to get the band back onstage, the show quickly descended into madness, with Morrison coming back on only to attempt to sing the words to another song. Having to spend some of his time sitting on the drum riser, drummer John Densmore would eventually bring the show to an end, throwing down his drumsticks and storming out as the show ended.
This would also be the last high-profile appearance that Morrison would make, going to Paris after La Woman was finished before passing away due to heart failure. The Doors may have tried to persevere throughout the album sessions, but any fans looking for the band that opened their perception of rock and roll saw the group’s death that night in Louisiana.
