The Doors
Cobo Hall
Detroit, MI
05-08-1970
Source: SBD

DISC 1: 
01. Tuning 
02. Roadhouse Vamp 
03. Hello To The Cities 
04. Dead Cats, Dead Rats 
05. Break On Through (To The Other Side) 
06. Alabama Song (Whisky Bar) 
07. Back Door Man 
08. Five To One 
09. Roadhouse Blues 
10. You Make Me Real 
11. Ship Of Fools 
12. When The Music's Over 
13. People Get Ready 
14. Mystery Train 
15. Away In India 
16. Crossroads 

DISC 2 
01. Tuning 
02. Carol 
03. Light My Fire 
04. Been Down So Long (with John B. Sebastian on Guitar) 
05. Love Hides (with John B. Sebastian on Guitar) 
06. Mean Mustard Blues (with John B. Sebastian on Guitar) 
07. Carol [Reprise] (with John B. Sebastian on Guitar) 
08. Close To You (with John B. Sebastian on Guitar) 
09. I'm A King Bee (with John B. Sebastian on Guitar) 
10. Rock Me Baby / Heartbreak Hotel (with John B. Sebastian on Guitar) 
11. The End (includes "Across The Sea", "Ghost Song" & "Wake Up") 


Every once in awhile, rather than performing the usual encore, if the 
audience was really lucky, Jim Morrison would throw away the time limits
and perform until he couldn't stand up anymore. Jim had this thing about
limits - he liked them best broken. This performance at Detroit's Cobo
Arena was such a night. It easily contains the longest Doors' set ever
performed and extends about an hour over the standard concert running
time during this period.

It was performed when The Doors were working on 'L.A. Woman' in
Los Angeles. On the weekends -Friday, Saturday and Sunday- the band
would go out and play. 'Morrison Hotel,' the album they released before
'L.A. Woman,' was on the charts and the critics were hailing it as a 
comeback. So the band was into playing songs from 'Morrison Hotel' such
as "Roadhouse Blues,""You Make Me Real" and "Ship Of Fools."

They were also returning to their musical roots. And in Detroit this 
was quite evident. Starting with "Crossroads" through "Carol" and into
"Been Down So Long." And then onto "Been Away Baby," "Close To You,"
"I'm A King Bee," "Rock Me Baby" and "Heartbreak Hotel" where, on the 
latter tracks, they are joined by 'Morrison Hotel' "Roadhouse" harp 
player and ex-Lovin Spoonful member John Sebastian on both harmonica 
and guitar. The band, as you can hear, is clearly having a great time 
indulging in their love of The Blues.

Also notable is their performance of "The End" which is a real rarity 
among recorded live shows. I think three, maybe four, versions exist. 
On this one, Morrison, who always loved to poetically improvise, diverges
from the song's published lyrics as heard on the first Doors' album:
"Come with me, across the sea" unexpectedly jumping into the climactic
"Come on, baby, take a chance with us" in a menacing voice. Fragments 
of what would later become the album 'An American Prayer' appear throughout
this version. "A vast radiant beach..." "Everything is broken up and 
dances..." And his feverish call to the audience to "Wake Up!" which begins
"Celebration Of The Lizard." Jim called to the audience to "Wake Up!"
hundreds of times, taking his lead from playwright/performance 
artist/revolutionary Antonin Artaud who wrote "They are asleep, they do not
know they are asleep and I want to awaken them from their self-imposed 
lethargy." Jim's admonition was a cry to take action towards a more conscious 
state of being.

During the concert, following the "Wake Up!" plea, Morrison exploded into a
fury of motion, climaxing with his collapse on the stage as dozens of audience
arms reached out in the attempt to make contact with the man already becoming
myth. Union regulations demanded that the show end at midnight but Morrison 
pushed the envelope again. "Don't let them push us out!" he declares and the 
show goes an hour overtime. And Cobo Arena permanently bars The Doors from 
entering their doors again.