THE VILLAGE RECORDER - 1970

(JIM MORRISON BIRTHDAY TAPES)

Recording Date: December 8th - 1970
Studio: The Village Recorder - Studio B
Location: 1616 Butler Ave. - Los Angeles, CA 
Sound Engineer: John Haeny
Recording Engineer: Baker Bigsby

Jim Morrison, Kathy Lisciandro, and Florentine Pabst - Photograph By Frank Lisciandro

For his birthday in 1970, Frank Lisciandro buys Jim Morrison studio time to record his poems. Like the poetry session from 1969, various portions of these recordings were also used for the raw materials to construct the 1978 poetry album. During this 1970 session, Jim Morrison gives a complete reading of his privately published poetry book An American Prayer, and recites portions of his poetry with Kathy Lisciandro and Florentine Pabst. Jim also attempts acapellas known from the previous 1969 session including Bird Of Prey, Woman In The Window, and Whisky & Mystics & Men. A selection of other finished poems are also attempted, including Cassandra At The Well, The Crossroads, and Lament For The Death Of My Cock.

This recording session takes place over three hours of studio time and produces four reels of tape. Frank Lisciandro is present at the studio with camera in hand. After two hours of recording, a break in the session is called by Jim Morrison, announcing to his friends and studio engineer John Haeny "Okay. Now, let's go get a taco". Following their break at the Lucky U restaurant, Jim Morrison and the group returns to the studio to record for one more hour.

Various poems are attempted more than once, producing outtakes. In 2021, the estate of Jim Morrison and Frank Lisciandro compiles various completed takes for the audiobook version of The Collected Works Of Jim Morrison. Approximately forty minutes of finished or near-finished takes from The Village Recorder tapes are now available for listening by fans and collectors.

Tracklist: Far Arden       "In that year we had a great visitation of energy..."       "Back in those days everything was simpler & more confused..."       -Bird Of Prey       -Underwaterfall       -Winter Photography Tales of the American Night >       "& the cool fluttering rotten wind..."*       "Gently they stir..."*       "My name is the Holy Shay..."       -Woman In The Window       "They haven't invented musak yet..." Science Of Night       "Earth Air Fire Water..." An American Prayer       "Do you know the warm progress under the stars?..."       "Do you know we are ruled by television..."       "I touched her thigh and death smiled..."       "Resident mockery, give us an hour for magic..."       "We used to believe in the good old days..."       "We can invent Kingdoms of our own..."       "Cruel bindings..."       "They are waiting to take us into the severed garden..."       "Great screaming Christ..."       "An iron chuckle rapped our minds..."       "Here come the comedians..."       "I'll be, the Irish loud..."       "Arrogant prose tied in a network..."       "Matchbox..."       "A hot sick lava flowed up..."       "A ship leaves port..." Lament For The Death Of My Cock       "Lament for my cock..."       "Lost cells..."       "I can forgive..." Awake       "Shake dreams from your hair..." Curses, Invocations       "Weird bait-headed mongrels..." The Crossroads       "Meeting you at your parents gate..." Untitled Poems       "I walked thru the panther's living room..."       "The flowering of god-like people..."       "The Wild whore laughs..."       "Come for all the world lies..."       "Of the Great Insane American Night..."       "Blessings..." Untitled Poems       "The Politics of ecstacy are real..."       "Ledger domain..."       "Cobra sun / Fever smile..." Cassandra At The Well       "Help! Help! Save us!..." Untitled Poems       "When radio dark night existed..."       "Where are my dreamers..."       "It was the greatest night of my life..."       "Indians scattered on dawn's highway bleeding..."       "Cemetary cool & quiet..."       "In this full throated Sex'd cry..." >       "For those people who died..."       "All these monstrous apologies..."       "Argue with breath..."       "I fell on the earth & raped the snow..."       "If the writer can write..."       "To have just come wondering if the world is real..."       "Round-up, Rondolay, Rhonda..." >       "Taxi From Africa..." >       "Feeling streams led to losers..." >       "Rib-bait squalor the women of the quarter yawned..." >       "Buildings gilded no interuptions..."       "Those who Race Toward Death..."       "The Endless quest a vigil..."       "Fence my sacred fire..." Desire For a Perfect Life       "Why the desire for death..." * Featuring Kathy Lisciandro & Florentine Pabst On Vocals

NOTE: This tracklisting is incomplete and does not appear in chronological order.

TRANSCRIPTS FROM THE VILLAGE TAPES:

UNTITLED #1 All these monstrous apologies Words foraken, forgotten by all Hell loose walls, falling Tumbling down into Night Fast friends fellows of the one true cross earthly lovers crash and sweet sorrow blackness falling Soft rivers of guilt on spilled roadside down, into fire Silence, cry

UNTITLED #2 Argue with breath nice while I cry Midnight! it must come like dream sperm uncalled from the center Borderlands where liquor's made flow it must come unbidden like the dawn soft haste No hurry hairs curl The phone rings We create the dawn

UNTITLED #3 When radio dark night existed & assumed control and we rocked in its web consumed by static and stroked w/fear We were drawn down the distance of long cities riding home thru the open night, alone launching fever & strange carnage from the back seat.

Copyright © James Douglas Morrison