The Doors – Live at Konserthuset, Stockholm – September 20, 1968 – Sveriges Radio
Something rare and special this weekend. The Doors, in concert from Stockholm Sweden – recorded on September 20, 1968 by the venerable and forward-thinking Sveriges Radio.
For a long time it was thought that precious little existed of good or even decent sounding examples of bands from the 1960s. If anyone wanted to hear what a particular favorite band sounded like in a live setting, it was usually up to that slightly underground member of society known as “the bootlegger” to provide the needed historic records. Sadly, the vast majority of those recordings did more to discredit the historic reputation of a band than they did to give a sense of the excitement of the time, and to hear what group really sounded like, outside the rarified air of the studio setting.
One of the first, and for a long time only, bands to allow what are known as Soundboard recordings was The Grateful Dead, where fans with recorders could “plug into” the sound mixer and get excellent examples of a band in a live setting. For bands like The Dead, that was a great thing, because how they sounded live was vastly different from how they sounded in the studio. One of the big problems Warner Brothers had with the band early on, was the seeming impossibility of capturing how exciting and revolutionary they were live, in the studio.
But as time has gone on, more and more examples of other bands, recorded in concert, in excellent sound and previously thought not have existed, have been surfacing. Most via the radio networks around Europe, such as this concert, recorded by Sveriges Radio and presumably aired shortly after. The Doors, outside of a studio setting, were always an exciting experience to catch.
As is evidenced by the recent airing on the cable channel Palladia of the Doors Hollywood Bowl concert, Jim Morrison was a charismatic figure who fairly exploded on stage before an audience – but you only got a small portion of that via the confines of an lp.
So this concert comes as a welcome addition to the recorded legacy of The Doors. Collectors have no doubt heard this, but if you haven’t, crank it up and enjoy.
