Light My Fire - The Doors Live At The Varsity Stadium, Toronto, September 13, 1969

Light My Fire
© The Doors 1967

Live At The Live At The The Varsity Stadium,
Toronto, Canada
Sat. September 13, 1969


The Toronto Rock 'n' Roll Revival festival on September 13, 1969 was a prestigious bill with The Doors to headline, and featuring The Plastic Ono Band, Bo Diddley, Alice Cooper, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Gene Vincent, Little Richard, The Chicago Transit Authority (later Chicago), Lord Sutch, and lesser known bands like Cat Mother and the All Night Newsboys, Milkwood, and Whiskey Howl, the only local Toronto band to play the festival that year.

The 1969 festival is probably most famously remembered for Alice Cooper's 'chicken incident'. During Cooper's encore the band would tear open pillows and blow feathers out into the audience, during this someone from the udience threw a live chicken on the stage. Cooper thinking chickens could fly threw it back into the audience and they tore it apart. Cooper remembers on one side of the stage he saw John Lennon watching him and on the other side of the stage, Jim Morrison egging him on.

Jim Morrison was present during much of the day watching the other bands perform, while the other members of The Doors
were backstage. Richard Maxwell who was at the Toronto festival in '69 has posted his memories of the event as well as pictures he took during the day.

The Doors were the headlining act for the festival and played last, a couple of memorable moments occurred during Light My Fire, the first, The Doors including a portion of Celebration of the Lizard in an introduction to Light My Fire. The second came when Doors guitarist Robby Krieger, in a homage to John Lennon, slipped in a bit of The Beatles Eleanor Rigby into his instrumental.

Gene Vincent being on the bill in Toronto may have been a nostalgic moment for Morrison. Vincent who was known in his 50's heyday for wearing leather pants may have been an early inspiration for Morrison's stage appearance. As The Doors started The End in Toronto, Morrison said he was honored to be on the same stage as the "illustrious musical geniuses."
Morrison and Vincent became friends for a short period of time and had the shared coincidence of being convicted of public obscenity (although Vincent's may have been manufactured by his manager), and Vincent died a little over three months after
Morrison in 1971.

It's in dispute whether Pennebaker filmed The Doors or not, some witnesses say he packed up right before The Doors went on because it was too late, while others say The Doors set was filmed and that perhaps contractual or monetary or issues similar to Lennon's objections had prevented the release. The Doors at the Toronto Rock 'n' Roll Revival was the last appearance of The Doors in Toronto with Jim Morrison.

*NOTE: Reportedly, the darkned stage during The Doors' set interfered with the quality of the filming.

Venue address: 299 Bloor Street West, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Promotion: John Brower & Ken Walker Enterprises
Capacity: 22.000

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Category:

Music

Tags:

• Light My Fire
• The Doors
• Jim Morrison
• Robby Krieger
• Ray Manzarek
• John Densmore
• Varsity Stadium
• Toronto
• 1969

[diamondnight]

I was there right up front and center.. did you record this?

rockandrollrevival.tripod.com

[rutazzurra]

@diamondnight I wish !...it has been taken directly from the ultra-rare 1988 LP bootleg "Light My Fire"

[Aleksandr2002]

great video and pictures--and of course great song!