Light My Fire
© The Doors 1967
Live At The Live At The Dinner Key Civic Auditorium
Coconut Grove, Miami, FL.
Fri. March 1, 1969
The Dinner Key Auditorium was situated strategically across the parking lot from City Hall in Coconut Grove. Ken Collier, doing-business-as Thee Image Productions, had lured The Doors away from the university hall
with a deal for more money. The building was a converted seaplane hanger in general disrepair, with an official seating capacity of seven thousand. The Doors were contracted for a flat twenty-five thousand dollars, based on what they understood to be an auditorium with a forty two-thousand dollar maximum. After the contract was signed, Collier took out the seats and sold several thousand more tickets, nearly doubling the maximum.
Bill Siddons, The Doors manager, was outraged when he arrived at the auditorium to take an accounting of the seating. Vince Treanor , the bands equipment manager, said the argument started right away. "When Siddons reminded the promoters that this wasn't in the contract, the promoters said, 'What are you gonna do about it?' Bill threatened to take the equipment and leave and the promoter said, 'You think you're gonna take this equipment outta here? You're gonna do this show.' Here's the band's brand-new equipment and a hall full of shouting people and the promoter is holding a gun to our heads." While Siddons and Collier were fighting over the deal, dozens of people without tickets were scaling the outside walls to climb in through the second-story windows, another thousand were jammed against the entrances hoping to squeeze in. Temperatures were shooting upward, it was a hot night in Miami, even for March and the building had no air conditioning. People were scaling the walls to hang from the rafters, seeking desperately to make space and find relief from the heat. The hour was late and Morrison was still enroute, by this time some reports swore nearly thirteen thousand people were jammed into the hall.
When Jim finally arrived, it was obvious to everyone who knew him he was drunk, drunk beyond even Morrison standards. Jim was not a man to be reasoned with, even if his close associates hadn't been faced with thirteen thousand angry reasons why he'd better get on the stage. Morrison only needed a moment to size up the situation. While The Doors
repeated the intro to Break on Through over and over, he bided his time at the side of the stage. When Jim finally crossed the stage and took the microphone, at least one tape-recorder ate up every word. You can still hear it if you want to, ask any hard-core Doors fan for an audio of the Miami concert. Just be forewarned, it wasn't Jim's finest hour.The following is a summary of the controversial moments of the next 65 minutes:
Jim finally gave into the shouts for Light My Fire. The edge of the prior moment was dulled and the confused mass of followers basked in the rays of their anthem. By this time dozens of people were climbing onto the rickety stage. Collier had finally had enough and made his way toward Jim's microphone to cool things down. In the struggle that followed, Jim was thrown into the audience. No to be diminished, Jim lead a snake dance through the auditorium , disappeared in the midst of the movement, only to reappear in a balcony to observe the turmoil below. As the weary concert goers filed out,
The Doors retired to their dressing rooms . There was the usual group of hangers-on and several policemen came up for autographs. Siddons paid for a policeman's hat which Jim had flung into the audience earlier and there was the usual good natured joking. Miami went home and The Doors left the next morning, as planned, for a vacation in the Caribbean.
Venue address: 2700 S Bayshore Dr, Coconut Grove, FL
Promotion: Thee Image - Jim & Ken Collier.
Capacity: 7.000
************************************************************************************
Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for fair use & for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. Copyrighted materials contained herein belong to their respective copyright holders, I do not claim ownership over any of these videos.
Loading...
10:54
Light My Fire - The Doors Live At The Aquarius Theater, Hollywood, CA. July 21, 1969 (Early Show)by rutazzurra1,103 views
THERE IS A VERSION THAT DOESNT FADE OUT AT THE END
MichaelHansenFUN 2 months ago