BIRD OF PREY,
BIRD OF PREY,
FLYING HIGH
FLYING HIGH
IN THE SUMMER SKY
is the title
given to a
recorded collection
of unedited poems
and songs by
rock musician and poet
lead singer of
The Doors.
Although Morrison
intentionally made
the recordings,
they are
considered bootlegs
because they were never
officially released
to the public
in their
unedited form
by Morrison
or his heirs.
The title of the collection
is however a misnomer,
because the bulk
of the recordings
were made in
Los Angeles in
February 1969;
long before
Morrison
traveled to Paris.
Morrison took these
Los Angeles recordings
with him to Paris,
where they were found
among his belongings
after his death.
Background
An almost identical copy
of the February 1969
original recording
with the very
same track listings,
that had been in
Morrison's possession
during his final stay
in Paris,
was given to composer
Fred Myrow
in May 1969.
Myrow who had composed
original music for
Morrison's film
was provided with the
only known copy
possibly to
"give Myrow a better sense
of [Morrison's] own work,
either while he
composed music
for HWY
or perhaps with plans
to have him work on his
[forthcoming]
poetry album."
In a 1994 interview,
The bootleg also contains
Earth, Air, Fire, Water,
a poetry piece
taken from
Feast of Friends,
a film produced by
Paul Ferrara,
Jim Morrison,
and the Doors,
as well as
Dawn's Highway
and
Phone Booth,
both taken from
Recording
According to producer,
John Haeny,
the spoken word part
of the recordings
was in fact recorded
in Los Angeles,
not in Paris
as previously thought,
and were made at
Elektra West Coast studios
on
February 9, 1969.
The February 1969
recording session
features a serious
but relaxed
Morrison taping
spoken-word versions
of his own written poetry.
Morrison can be heard
repeating certain sections
of poems for technical
or aesthetic reasons,
and he can be heard
giving occasional
production cues,
such as when certain
sound effects
should be added
at a later date.
Morrison's efforts
to obtain clear recordings
and his
additional verbal directions
suggest that he planned
to use the recordings
in a much more
ambitious project
that would merge
his smoothly edited
voice-overs
with
background sounds
and music.
Previously
it had been believed
the later segment
of the tape featuring an
apparently
drunken Morrison
playing around in a studio
with two equally inebriated
"American street musicians"
was recorded in
Paris due to the
ever changing promotional
storytelling
Philippe Dalecky,
who came into possession
of a number of
Morrison's belongings,
was telling.
Avid listeners
however have determined that
recording session
took place in the spring
of 1969
during the recording of
The Soft Parade.
The people present
at the recording were
Morrison,
poet
Michael McClure
on auto-harp,
and a so-far
unidentified musician.
Paul A. Rothchild
recorded the session
and can be heard
on the tape.
Morrison offhandedly labeled
the resulting
reel-to-reel tape
of the session
"Jomo and the Smoothies",
Jomo being a
pseudonym for Morrison.
The final pieces
of spoken word
were recorded
almost two years later
at Village Recorder Studio C,
on
December 8, 1970,
which was
Morrison's birthday.
Some of these recordings
were later mixed
with new music tracks
recorded by
surviving Doors members
Ray Manzarek,
Robby Krieger,
and
John Densmore,
and released as
the official Doors album
The February 1969
recording of
"Orange County Suite"
with Morrison on piano
was later used
and mixed with
new music recorded
by the surviving
Doors members,
and released as
part of their 1997
4 CD "Box Set".
This new
Doors version
also appears on
the 1999 box set
compilation CD
Essential Rarities
No comments:
Post a Comment