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Rhino Records and Bright Midnight Archives are opening new doors onto the early days of The Doors with a CD/LP box set due on December 9. London Fog 1966 captures Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger and John Densmore at The London Fog, a Sunset Strip bar located steps away from the Whisky a Go Go. This live gig, only recently discovered, marks the earliest known live recordings of the band, and kicks off The Doors' 50th anniversary celebration of 2017 - the year of their breakthrough.
The London Fog show took place the same year that The Doors recorded their Elektra debut which would be released in January 1967. These never-before-released recordings comprise covers of blues classics such as Muddy Waters' "Rock Me" and "I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man," as well as the band's takes on Wilson Pickett's "Don't Fight It," Little Richard's "Lucille," and Big Joe Williams' "Baby, Please Don't Go." In addition, the band worked two original songs into its setlist. "Strange Days" wouldn't be heard on record until it became the title track of the group's sophomore LP, while "You Make Me Real" wasn't officially released until 1970's Morrison Hotel. All audio on London Fog 1966 has been newly mastered by the band's veteran engineer, Bruce Botnick.
London Fog 1966 is an individually numbered limited edition of 18,000 copies. The seven-song set will be presented both on CD and a 10-inch vinyl record designed in the style of a test pressing. Both discs are housed in a lift-top package designed to look like a vintage storage box, and the box also includes a poster, the set list handwritten by John Densmore, a program for a Royce Hall UCLA student film screening, and a replica London Fog coaster. Liner notes are provided by Ronnie Haran-Mellen, the talent booker at the Whisky a Go Go, and by Nettie Peña. An attendee of the show and early fan of the band, Peña is responsible for this release, as she was the one who captured the audio on a ¼" reel to reel recorder, which was the property of the Los Angeles Unified School District. Her father was a teacher for LAUSD and let her borrow the recorder for the occasion. Peña photographed The Doors that night, as well, and London Fog 1966 boasts five black and white 8x10 reprints of these unpublished photos.
The Doors' London Fog 1966 is available from Rhino and Bright Midnight Archives on December 9. You can peruse the track listing and pre-order links below! Watch this space for more Doors news as it's revealed during the band's 50th anniversary festivities!
The Doors, London Fog 1966 (Rhino/Bright Midnight Archives, 2016) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Links TBD)
- Rock Me
- Baby, Please Don't Go
- You Make Me Real
- Don't Fight It
- I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man
- Strange Days
- Lucille
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Oh wow! I'm all over this, if it's not too extortionately priced. Looks good, and hopefully will sound fantastic. Love early Doors.
Is this a CD and an LP together or are they a separate buy?
As of now, this music is only available in the combined CD/LP set.
Thanks for the info.
$50 for 30 minutes of music? Sounds extortionate to me. Honestly, this is an EP and should be priced accordingly.
Compare that to the other significant 60's artist releasing his live 1966 output to put some perspective, step forward Bob Dylan
At last out of the fog! This is the white spot between the 65-demos and Martix (March 67) then. Should be interesting to hear what stage they are in here live, still just an unknown garage band with a shy singer. And yes. This should be more price friendly if focus was on music and not package. That's not really The Doors we recognize hence all the good value live albums we've received the last 15 years.
Ripoff!
shoudl have put teh 65 demos and London fog in one set would have made it a more reasonable buy.
Dont get me started on the Vinyl and CD mix in a box set why do record companies insist on mixing formats
I hear you, I want the CD but not the vinyl. I guess I'll have to let this one go. It's sad because I'd buy the CD.
This sort of gouge feeds the outlaw download sites, then the record companies scream bloody murder.
I remember a few years ago when they actually opened The Bright Archives and from what i understand there were hours and hours of bootleg quality music and if you go through the archives a number of them have been
available online or Amazon and as these are really not official live recordings but some of them are already to purchase, but once again to me this is similar to Hendrix's estate too, where they are raiding the vaults and the recent Hendrix recording sounded quite good, and releasing live material every year for a number of years. And the sound quality on some of the past live recordings are pretty poor and i'd imagine The Doors' vault will go down a similar path.