Were you there?
We would be very interested to hear any stories you may have if you attended any of the concerts that are represented here on our website. And… if you have any photos of your experience we would love to see them and share them here as well.
Doug did take some crowd shots and we are working on getting them ready to put on the Blog here soon. So dig into your memories and share with us any stories you may have of the Rock N Roll era of Arizona!
I hope you find this story interesting.
My name is Steven Johnson and on Feb 17 1968 I attended the Doors concert held at the Coliseum in Phoenix. I was 17 and very fortunate to have a seat on the 2nd tier to the right of the band. I was less than 50 feet from the stage.
When the band started playing Light My Fire, a couple of guys in front of me lit a couple of sparklers and threw them towards the stage but they fell short. I asked them for a sparkler, lit it up and chucked it as hard as I could and my sparkler actually landed on the stage. Jim went over to it and picked it up while he continued singing. The camera flashes light up and the crowd went wild. Unfortunately for me, about two to five minutes later, while Morrison was still singing Light My Fire, two burly security guards picked me up out of my seat and hauled me away. I missed the rest of the concert and my DAD had to come and pick me up. What a bummer.
A few years later I saw a photo of Morrison holding a sparkler and the caption said this was shot at the Phoenix Coliseum in 1968. I knew at that point that was the sparkler and I started to share my story. For some reason I could never find that album again but the search started…but with no internet at that time.
As the years went by I told my story to my wife, my children and as many people as would listen to my story. I could see in their eyes they were thinking…ya right. I mean…who wouldn’t want to claim that sparkler as the one they threw.
For the past 45 years I had always wished there was a way to prove, as best as possible, that photo was taken in Phoenix the night of Feb 17th 1968. I’ve looked off and on over the years but nothing had ever popped up until just a few days ago when a longtime friend came to visit and we started talking about all of the rock bands we had seen when we were young.
Well as usual I jumped in with my story about “the sparkler”, and my wife started rolling her eyes again…here we go with Steve telling this lame story. My friend and I prodded my wife to check on her ipad to see what she could find and she reluctantly agreed. In just a few minutes she found the first link, the album cover of Bright Midnight with that famous photo. She asked me what month and year I thought I attended the concert and I said it was around Christmas. She found a site that listed the Doors concert dates and found that the Doors were at the Coliseum Feb 17 1968. As she scrolled down the page she saw the photo’s Doug had taken.
http://thedoors.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=18638&st=20
Finally, after 45 years I had some proof.
There was some controversy as to exactly where that famous photo was taken. Some said it was from a California concert date but fortunately for me I now had proof from two separate sources (Paul Ferrara, the official photographer for the Doors and photo’s from Doug) proving that the photo of Jim Morrison holding the sparkler was in fact from the Feb 17 concert I attended and got thrown out from for throwing a sparkler.
Had it not been for 2 things that happened this story would never have this ending. One, the most important is that Doug took photo’s of the event. Number two is that both photo’s ( Paul’s photo and Doug’s photo)captured the exact same paper drinking cups sitting next to the drums. Finally…proof that the photo of the “sparkler” was in fact from the Feb 17 concert in Phoenix.
I know for a fact that at that concert, my sparkler was the one that Morrison picked up while singing…how…because I saw it with my own eyes. This part I can’t physically prove…except for the fact that I saw it happen. But the photo’s have brought me enough proof…my memories take care of the rest.
I can now say with confidence that my actions that night helped create one of the most iconic photographs of the Doors…perhaps one of the most iconic photographs of the 60’s and I can talk about this until the day I die and have the proof that it happened.
I hope this story will brighten your day and bring fond and warm memories of Doug and I hope that somehow Paul Ferrara will find out that I was the unknown individual that that helped create one of his most famous photos.
Feel free to contact me if you wish…I know that Doug has since passed on but I want to thank Doug… and his family for publishing his photos of this concert.
Had you not published them, my story would never have had this happy ending for me.
As we said in the 60’s…peace and love to all of you than read this story.
Steve Johnson
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[And… for those of you who may Doubt Steve…]
Jim Morrison with “The Sparkler”.
PhotoFlashbacks
Hi Steve. I was wondering if you would allow me to quote a segment from this blog posting in a story I’m writing about Doug Hartley and photoflashbacks for The Noise, a free monthly newspaper that covers northern Arizona.
Thanks! Love the story.
Sarah
Great story! I believe you and congratulations on having this cool connection to this iconic image. What a great memory for you! Cheers, Tim
Thanks Tim. It’s a 100% true story and knowing that the sparkler Morrison is holding on that album cover was mine makes me a part of history. How cool is that.