YOU KNOW
I LOVE YOU SO
BABY, PLEASE DON'T GO...
London Fog 1966
is a live album
by the American
Rock Band
released on
December 16, 2016,
by Rhino Records.
It contains a
previously unreleased
live performance
at the
London Fog
in Los Angeles
in May 1966.
It was recorded by
spectator
Nettie Peña
before the band
released their
highly successful
debut album
on
January 4, 1967.
Considered to be the
earliest known
live recording
of
the Doors,
London Fog 1966
includes versions
of eventual
album tracks
and covers of
blues standards.
London Fog 1966
was overseen by
the band's
longtime
sound engineer/producer
Bruce Botnick
and Peña.
Among the
lavish packaging
for the live album,
each disc appears
in an
enlarged box set,
and each copy
of the set
is
individually numbered.
Background
A few months after
The Doors formed,
they earned their
first steady gig
in February
or March 1966
at the London Fog,
a nightclub on
the Sunset Strip.
The band earned
$5 per night,
playing for
relatively few patrons;
new to performing,
Jim Morrison
frequently sang
with his back
toward the
small crowd.
Ray Manzarek
remarked that the
London Fog
was where the group
"became a collective entity,
this unit of oneness".
Although they covered
some blues standards,
most of the time
the Doors honed
their signature sound
and material that
later appeared
on their first two albums
The Doors
and
Strange Days
also adding
improvised solos
to extend
the set times
In May 1966,
UCLA film student
Nettie Peña
watched and
recorded some
of a
Doors performance
at the
London Fog
with a reel-to-reel.
Two of the songs
the band played
on the occasion
included
"You Make Me Real"
(which would later appear on Morrison Hotel)
and
Strange Days
(which would later appear on the album Strange Days).
The remaining recordings
on the album
are renditions
of blues standards,
including B. B. King's
"Rock Me Baby",
Little Richard's
"Lucille",
and
"Baby, Please Don't Go",
which was recorded by
The Group
Them
in 1964
and hence
became a
rock standard.
However,
"You're really only hearing
half of that
evening's performance"
John Densmore
said as
he alluded
to early versions of
"Light My Fire"
and
"The End"
that were performed
during that gig.
Release and design
The box set
was issued on
Rhino Records
on
December 16, 2016;
it features the
earliest known
live recordings
of the Doors.
Originally,
London Fog 1966
was intended for
release in 2012
the
"Year of the Doors"
when the
reel-to-reels
were discovered
a year prior.
Announcing the release
in December 2016,
The Guardian
described it as
"genuinely important"
in comparison to
the cache of
live material
by the Doors
that has been
distributed over
the years
while Rhino
noted Peña
was a
"pivotal force in
this release
coming together".
London Fog 1966
coincided with
Rhino's reissues
of the group's
studio albums in 2017,
celebrating the
50th anniversary
of their
self-titled debut.
TRACK LIST
Tuning (I)
Rock Me Baby
Baby Please Don't Go
You Make Me Real
Tuning (II)
Don't Fight It
I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man
Strange Days
Lucille
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