by Robert Wilkinson
Beside the King, January 8 is also the birthday of Doors' guitarist Robbie Krieger.
Robbie Krieger (January 8, 1946) is one of the best known guitarists in the world, and wrote some of the Doors’ best known songs, including “Light My Fire,” “Love Me Two Times,” “Touch Me,” and “Love Her Madly.” (Yes I know the Doors attributed composition to all 4, but realistically, most songs have one or two main writers!) Since the Doors he’s had a career as a jazz-fusion guitarist, and worked with countless major talents while keeping the Doors’ legacy alive with Ray Manzarek.
Today we have LOTS of live performance videos of Robbie, Jim, Ray, and John doing what only they could do!
From January 1, 1967, the Doors live on tv performing the song that introduced them to the world, the electrifying "Break On Through (To the Other Side)." Here's the music video of the Doors doing "Break On Through (To the Other Side)"
And now for some live concerts! Here are Jim, Ray, Robbie, and John doing what they do best at the Hollywood Bowl in July 1968! We begin with the Doors doing a great live performance of "Alabama Song (Whiskey Bar)" followed by Jim Doing Poetry and "Light My Fire." We'll close this performance set with one of my all time favorite Doors tunes, "Spanish Caravan."
After finding the above clips, I stumbled across the entire Hollywood Bowl live performance! For your enjoyment, a 1 hour+ live concert of the Doors at the Hollywood Bowl!
I found a real treat! Here's the song from their first album that usually closed their performances, and shows how electrifying they were when they exploded on the LA scene in the mid-60s! From a 1967 "Live in Toronto" tv program, an 11 minute live performance of the very surrealistic and haunting "The End."
From the "Live In Europe 1968" DVD, some live performances in black and while. Though it's obvious Jim is a bit out there, the Doors still smoke doing "Back Door Man." From the same show, "Light My Fire" and "Spanish Caravan."
Here’s the entire 58 minute Cinemax production of “The Doors Live in Europe in 1968"
Here's a great find! From a studio session on Danish tv in October, 1968, a 30+ minute show of the Doors in a live performance of "Alabama Song," "Backdoor Man," "Love Me Two Times," "When The Music's Over," and "The Unknown Soldier." (This was the first time that "The Unknown Soldier" was performed on television, and yes, this song was banned quite a few places in war-worshipping Amerika!)
From 1969, a great live performance on PBS of the Doors doing two of their best, Willie Dixon's monster blues hit from their first album, "Alabama Song (Whiskey Bar)" and "Back Door Man." From the same show, a haunting performance of Jim as poet in "Soft Parade."
From 1967, here's a music video of the Doors doing "People Are Strange."
Set to stills, a live audio-only March 1967 performance at the Matrix in SF of a bunch of great songs from the Doors' first three albums. First, "Back Door Man," followed by the haunting poetry of "Crystal Ship." From the same show, a live performance of one of my Doors favorites, "My Eyes Have Seen You."
Also from the Matrix, the Doors doing "Light My Fire" and the great "Twentieth Century Fox." From their second album, a live performance of "People Are Strange," followed by the incredible "Moonlight Drive." From the third album, "Summer's Almost Gone." We close this set from the Matrix with "Unhappy Girl," and a 13+ minute performance of "The End."
Set to random footage, from Cleveland in August 1968, here's an audio-only live performance of the Doors doing their menacing "call to arms" from their third album, "Five to One."
Set to stills and performance footage, here are the Doors in 1968 Stockholm doing a live performance of "Wild Child."
From the Felt Forum in 1970, a live audio-only performance set to stills of the Doors doing "Gloria" and "Easy Ride"
I found a five part rockumentary on the Doors called "When you're Strange." Some of it needs buffering, and I gather there are several chopped versions, so some of these may or may not overlap.
The Doors - When You're Strange - Part 1
The Doors - When You're Strange - Part 2
The Doors - When You're Strange - Part 3
The Doors - When You're Strange - Part 4
The Doors - When You're Strange - Part 5
And of course, since I originally found these links, what popped up but the entire movie at one link! For your enjoyment, the entire one hour and 25 minute documentary The Doors – When You’re Strange
As a fitting close to this birthday tribute, I found Jim's last performance with the Doors. Broadcast on Australian TV from LA, 1971, here's a live performance of The Doors doing "Crawling King Snake."
For an encore, I found a few more to give you a sense of what he's been doing since the Doors. First, from October 1992, Robbie with the Ramones doing "Take It As It Comes."
From Canada in 2007, Robbie doing a great live version of "Spanish Caravan"
Here's Robbie with the Virginia Symphony doing a live performance of "Roadhouse Blues," and we'll close today with a live performance in LA in 2010 of the Robbie Krieger Band doing "Let It Slide."
Happy Birthday, Robbie! Thanks for giving us all the guitar weaving the very strange music of the Doors, and keeping the sound alive after so many years. Your playing is truly unique.
© Copyright 2013 Robert Wilkinson
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