Live At The Matrix (Limited) (LP5+7")

LPA FIRST SET (March 7, 1967)

1. Back Door Man
2. My Eyes Have Seen You
3. Soul Kitchen
4. All Blues – Instrumental

LPB FIRST SET (March 7, 1967)

1. Get Out Of My Life Woman
2. When The Music’s Over

LPC SECOND SET (March 7, 1967)

1. Close To You
2. Crawling King Snake
3. I Can’t See Your Face In My Mind
4. People Are Strange
5. Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)

LPD SECOND SET (March 7, 1967)

1. Crystal Ship (Second Set) (March 7, 1967)
2. Twentieth Century Fox (Second Set) (March 7, 1967)
3. Moonlight Drive (Third Set) (March 7, 1967)
4. Summer’s Almost Gone (Third Set) (March 7, 1967)
5. Unhappy Girl (Third Set) (March 7, 1967)

LPE THIRD SET (March 7, 1967)

1. Woman Is A Devil/Rock Me Baby
2. Break On Through (To The Other Side)
3. Light My Fire

LPF THIRD SET (March 7, 1967)

1. The End
2. The End (Partial) / Let’s Feed Ice Cream To The Rats (from March 8 or 9, 1967)

LPG FIRST SET (March 10, 1967)

1. My Eyes Have Seen You
2. Soul Kitchen
3. I Can’t See Your Face In My Mind
4. People Are Strange

LPH FIRST SET (March 10, 1967)

1. When The Music’s Over (First Set) (March 10, 1967)
2. Money (Second Set) (March 10, 1967)
3. Who Do You Love (Second Set) (March 10, 1967)

LPI SECOND SET (March 10, 1967)

1. Moonlight Drive
2. Summer’s Almost Gone
3. I’m A King Bee
4. Gloria

LPJ SECOND SET (March 10, 1967)

1. Break On Through (To The Other Side) (Second Set) (March 10, 1967)
2. Summertime – Instrumental (Third Set) (March 10, 1967)
3. Back Door Man (Third Set) (March 10, 1967)
4. Alabama Song (Whisky Bar) (Third Set) (March 10, 1967)

7” A

1. March 7, 1967 (First Set)

7” B

1. Bag’s Groove – Instrumental

The Doors were a few months away from stardom in March 1967 when they played five sparsely attended shows at a small club in San Francisco called The Matrix. These uninhibited performances would have been fleeting if not for Peter Abram, who co-owned  the pizza parlor-turned-nightclub with Jefferson Airplane founder Marty Balin. An avid recordist, Abram taped concerts at The Matrix regularly and his recordings of The Doors, made between March 7-11, 1967, spawned one of the band’s most storied bootlegs.  At long last, all known Matrix recordings, sourced entirely from Abram’s original master recordings, will be released on September 8.

Production of the vinyl version is limited to 14,000 numbered (CD 21,000) copies worldwide. The band’s March 7 performance of the jazz instrumental “Bag’s Groove” is exclusive to the vinyl set and comes on a 7” single. “Bag’s Groove” is one of two never-before-heard recordings.

Bootlegs of The Matrix shows have circulated among fans for years and were popular despite the poor audio quality of most copies. The sound began improving in 1997 when the first two songs from The Matrix shows were officially released on The Doors: Box Set. Even more performances followed in 2008 on Live at the Matrix 1967; regrettably, it was discovered soon after that all the recordings were sourced from third-generation tapes, not the originals.

Today, Abram’s original recordings have been remastered by Bruce Botnick, The Doors’ longtime engineer/mixer, for official release. The vinyl version of Live At The Matrix 1967: The Original Masters includes all 37 songs from the shows sourced from the master tapes. Except for 15 songs released in 2017 and 2018 as Record Store Day exclusives, most of the newly upgraded live recordings are making their debut in the collection, including eight that have never been featured on any of the previous Matrix releases.

It’s easy to understand the enduring appeal of these vintage performances by Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger, and John Densmore. Recorded only a few months before “Light My Fire” propelled the band to worldwide success, the tapes capture The Doors playing a wide range of songs, including several from their self-titled debut, like “Break On Through,” “Soul Kitchen,” and “The End.” They also performed half the songs destined for the group’s soon-to-be-recorded second album, Strange Days, including early performances of “Moonlight Drive” and “People Are Strange.” 15 Sets of music over five nights at The Matrix gave the band time to indulge its love of the blues with extended covers of “I’m A King Bee” and “Crawling King Snake.” The Doors even delivered an instrumental version of “Summertime.”

Joel Selvin writes in the collection’s liner notes: “They were young, fresh, and uninhibited, spreading their wings to fly. The tapes are raw, savage, rough around the edges. This is pure Doors: unselfconscious and unspoiled.”