Courier – Journal By Glenn Rutherford

In keeping with the spirit of Halloween, something weird happened last night at Freedom Hall.
The weird thing happening was a concert by the Doors, a singing group from the Los Angeles area. Many strangely dressed people showed up among the 4,500 persons attending the program. Actually, they weren’t dressed especially for Halloween- most of them apparently look that way all the time.
The Doors were preceded on stage by a couple of local groups, one led by a singer who fancies himself a white James Brown. The other group made sounds more akin to stereo feedback than any normal melody. But the crowd seemed to enjoy it.
Next to the ovation given when the stars of the show appeared, the biggest hand of the evening came when the audience was told of President Johnson’s decision to halt the bombing of North Vietnam.

ARRIVE IN 2 CARS

The Doors arrived only minutes before they were scheduled to go on stage. The four-man group arrived in two long, black limousines- Ray Manzarek, 26, John Densmore, 23, and Robby Krieger, 22, in one car. The group’s singer, 24-year-old Jim Morrison, and a female companion had the other car all to themselves.
Morrison has been called by several national magazine as the only male “sex symbol” in popular music today, but he disappointed the Louisville audience somewhat by not wearing his now-famous, supposedly sexy, skin-tight black leather jeans. Instead, he was dressed in loose-fitting white jeans and a late0 1950 vintage red sweater.
By the time the Doors finally took the stage, Morrison had been persuaded by manager Bill Siddons to shed the sweater. He approached the microphone, cigarette between his teeth, rolling up the sleeves of his wrinkled blue shirt. A few low-volume female shrieks echoed through the huge hall.
Manager Siddons complained that the concert probably “wouldn’t go over very good” because the group had lost their piano bass. Just what the piano bass does was never explained, but the audience evidently didn’t miss it.
The music the Doors performed, together with the provocative way Morrison delivers the lyrics, often excited the audience to sudden bursts of enthusiastic applause.
To the Neanderthal pounding of a drum, organ and guitar, Morrison sang:

The clock says time to go…now Guess I’ll have to go…now
Really want to stay here…all night
Really want to stay here all night.

In another number, Morrison created commotion among the audience when he sang:

You eat your dinner,
Ear your pork and beans,
I’ll eat more chicken than you’ve ever seen.
The men don’t know but the little girls understand.

But the men understood- they clapped and shouted.