Jim Morrison’s Last Waltz

December 12, 1970 at the Warehouse in New Orleans Jim Morrison he performed for the last time with his band, i Doors. The show remains unforgettable for at least two reasons: the first for having been, precisely, the last live show of one of the greatest characters who fueled the legend and mythology of rock; the second, for the sad and poor performance of a Morrison who was only 27 years old but had now become his own double and who collapsed on stage and was unable to complete the concert. After that performance the band decided to interrupt the tour they were planning to do to preview the songs from their new album, given Morrison’s poor physical, mental and psychological health.

A few months after the bad night in New Orleans, in April 1971, the Doors released their sixth album, “LA Woman” (read the review here). A record that shows many blues veins, whose best-known songs are “Riders on the Storm”, “Love Her Madly” and the title track. Jim Morrison he had already moved to live in Paris with his girlfriend Pamela Courson who, on July 3, 1971, found him dead in the bathtub of their apartment in the French capital. Jim had moved to Europe to leave an environment that was extremely suffocating him. Once speaking to Circus Magazine he stated: “I think I was just fed up with the image that had been created around me, which I sometimes contributed to consciously, most of the time unconsciously. It was just too much for me to digest and so I put an end to it all in one glorious evening. The result was that I told the audience that they were a bunch of fucking idiots because they were part of an audience. And what were they doing there anyway? The basic message was to realize that you’re not really here to listen to a bunch of songs by some good musicians. Why not admit it and do something about it?”

Jim Morrison it was spiraling faster and faster out of control. To record the album i Doors they had set up a makeshift recording studio in their rehearsal space, a nicknamed location ‘The Doors Workshop’located in a two-story building on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles. During those recording sessions, a short clip was also filmed of the band performing their version of the blues classic “Crawling King Snake”a song that is attributed to John Lee Hooker.

After the recording sessions, the band took to the stage in New Orleans to rehearse some of the songs live “THERE Woman” and everything seemed, more or less, to go well. Jim Morrison he began the show with the kind of strange recklessness that tipsy people possess. The first song was “Roadhouse Blues” followed by a couple of oldies, but then the frontman started forgetting the lyrics. The audience began to roar, Morrison tried to tell a joke which however came out flat, without bite and, above all, without a real punchline. The set continued, but it was now headed towards disaster, Jim shouting words at random regardless of the song the group behind him was playing. Clearly drunk, with a long beard, he collapsed on the stage and refused to get up. The band was disgusted by Morrison’s antics. The keyboard player Ray Manzarek in his biography he reported: “I could see Jim’s spirit leaving his body, even though he was still there.”

He finally managed to get up, gather the strength to push the crowd to applaud and ask for the band to return to the stage. It was a flash of clarity, the band started then “The End”he helped himself to remain standing by leaning on the microphone stand, but he didn’t last long in that position, he had to sit down and was no longer able to return to the microphone. “The End” it was the last song of the Doors sung by Jim Morrisonat that moment it was not yet possible to know, but it was the end of everything. The drummer John Densmore she pushed him, he got up and started smashing the microphone stand. The career of Jim Morrison ended that evening of December 12th 55 years ago in Louisiana.

Setlist:

Roadhouse Blues

Back Door Man (Willie Dixon cover)

Love Her Madly

When the Music’s Over

Riders on the Storm

Ship of Fools

Crawling King Snake (cover by John Lee Hooker)

LA Woman

Hyacinth House

Maggie M’Gill

Been Down So Long

I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man (Willie Dixon cover)

Who Do You Love? (Bo Diddley cover)

There’s a Palace in the Canyon

Light My Fire

Summertime (George Gershwin cover)

Love Me Two Times

Riders on the Storm

Soul Kitchen

The End