Danbury High School Auditorium 11.10 1967 - CDr
Master 7" Reel (3.75 ips) > Reel To Reel > DAT(2) > CDR > EAC > WAV > Flac Frontend > FLAC (lvl 8, SBE aligned)

1. Introduction 0:59

2. Moonlight Drive 6:29

3. Money 3:40

4. Break On Through 6:11

5. Back Door Man 4:41

6. People Are Strange 2:49

7. The Crystal Ship 3:02

8. Wake Up 1:44

9. Light My Fire 8:57

10. The End 19:37

"The master reel was made by a faculty member at Danbury High School (at the time) who ended up teaching at Wesleyen University in the early 1980s. A student there, who I've long since lost touch with, borrowed the master reel and I made a reel copy of that in the early '80s. The master was a 7" 3.75 ips reel and my reel copy was the same. A metal cassette with Dolby B was made from my reel (as well as an XL2 cassette for my friend ) and I'm fairly sure most circulating copies are from those cassettes which would be 2nd generation from the master. I made many copies of my cassette for various people over the years because my Revox was packed away in storage. A few years ago, my original reel copy was finally transfered to DAT and CD and I have traded that a few times since so a digital copy of the first gen reel is also now circulating."

Despite its first generation origins, there are still some problems with the recording. First, while The Doors were setting up, Jim's friend Tom Baker did a poetry reading (perhaps as much as 25 minutes worth) and this reading is said to be on the original master. In fact, it's Baker's voice you hear at the start of "Moonlight Drive" introducing the band. Also, throughout the show, there are some amplification issues and different parts come through louder/clearer than others. These may be problems present on the original master tape or on the reel to reel copy. "Break On Through" has the most issues as there were dropouts which were fixed by the person who transferred the tape by copying over the intact channel. I tried matching up the audio channels where there was an obvious difference in amplification (only two or three spots) and also ran the tape through ClickRepair (on a low setting of 50 with DeCrackle off) to remove some clicks and pops which were present during the quietest portions -- most audibly between "Light My Fire" and "The End." No noise reduction or other "remastering" was applied to this recording.

All in all, this is the best sounding source for this show I've ever heard and unlike many other copies it even appears to run at the correct speed. So enjoy this great upgrade.