Very Low Quality - The Who at the Singer Bowl 1968.wmv

This is one of two very short very low quality Youtube films, one of the Doors and one of The Who that I filmed at the Singer Bowl in 1968. I went with a friend of mine and we had already seen the Doors at the Fillmore East and the Who at the Village Theater and a Murray the K Show, so we were primed for a great show. The Singer Bowl was in Flushing Meadows in Queens and had been built for the 1964 NY World's Fair.

Kangaroo opened to an impatient audience. There were several delays due to the revolving stage not working right.The Who were great and encored with an extended version of a new tune Magic Bus. This was before Tommy so they relied on short pop songs except for the classic "A quick one while he's away". The stage was set to rotate but it stopped working totally for the Doors so they played right in front of us. Morrison as usual started out slowly just holding the microphone but soon was leaping into the songs, attacking the songs and taunting the audience, later he was writhing on the floor and crawling snake like under the stage. There was a lot of police presence which was common then in rock concerts but especially with the doors. After The End ended we were leaving to catch a series of subways and buses but others were throwing chairs at the stage, the police, and each other. It was on the news but It was never clear why except because they could. And yes the Doors were fantastic. I never saw Morrison again but saw Robby and Ray in Atlanta in 05 and plan to see them in Norfolk 2010. The Who were great fun as usual but there's no one like the Doors.

I used an old Super 8mm Kodax camera that used cartridges that resulted 3 in reels holding about 3-4 minutes of action and no audio. I only had one cartridge. I only took a few clips of each band due to the shortage of tape. The lights were on for the Who so they are clearer. The Doors had the lights turned down low as usual. The original films are choppy as I held the camera above the crowd and tried to manage the limited recording time, the swarming crowds, and because of my general inexperience with filming. They laid in a drawer for 40 years but I had them digitized a few years ago. I put the best (meaning anything remotely viewable) into a video file. After the Doors Documentary When You're Strange on PBS which included some nice Singer Bowl segments I got around to posting them online to share with a friend. For those of you who asked, it's all on Youtube but yes the original quality is a little better. I don't think the vendor that I had convert them cleaned the film first perhaps I'll try that sometime and see if it comes out any better.

Thanks to those who posted the audio on youtube. There was good audio of The Who set that has disappeared and one with the Doors's Light My Fire

ticket stub : http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobistraveling/4669265450/in/photostream/
Brochure Cover: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobistraveling/4669270706/in/photostream/
Doors Booklet: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobistraveling/4668643681/in/photostream/

bobistraveling back through time

FRI. AUG. 02, 1968 SINGER BOWL
FLUSHING MEADOWS, QUEENS, NY
The New York Rock Festival at The Singer Bowl

Category:

Music

Tags:

• who
• music

[GoodbyeRubyTu3sday]

Wow you're so lucky!!!! :( Thanks a lot for posting!!!!

[DWGERRY26]

Thanks for posting. This clip is a real masterpiece! I was there and it gives me the chills watching it. These Who shows of today have nothing on the 68, 69 and 70 shows

[trapper2]

Looks to me like an amazing bit of history and I don't mean that in a bad way. This concert was pretty notorious, but really, The Who and The Doors at one show! When it happened, I was in Britain and in nappies, crap! I hear there was a riot, osmethign like that.

[ledZep342]

Hey there, I made the quality better and synched this footage, it will be up on my channel soon!

[topofthepopsguy]

Thank You So Vary Very Much for posting and sharing these truely amazing shots here on YouTube.Give yourself some credit man,did a great job holding the camera steady,as well recved clear shots with no ones head moving in and out of frame,ahh the memories!The film help up great,must of been well stored in that drawer,as film looks almost untouched.Ultrasonic cleaning would do the trick here,or a wetgate transfer possibly?Well worth the costs and effort in the end here for this displayed material

[crlaw75]

Thank goodness for YouTube for posting great film like this. Too bad you didn't get the part where the instrument smashing took place.

[ligger2]

Great footage. What a night. I was there too. "Hello, I Love You" was the number 1 song in the USA that week. The Who were still a cult band. thanks for documenting that very special evening.

[ShorthandedGoal]

Excellent gem, thanks so much for posting!

[hiwattful]

Thank you for sharing this.

[BrianInAtlanta]

Thanks for sharing no matter what the quality!