One of the earliest Doors riot scenes had started as far back as 1967, on July 15 at the Anaheim Convention Centre in Anaheim, California. The Doors "riot scene" had developed almost into an institution for the audience and 1968 had seen it’s fair share - venues such as the Coliseum in Chicago, the Singer Bowl in New York, the Public Hall in Cleveland and the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix where a riot had almost occurred, were really only just a glimpse of what was to happen in Miami. Jim had already started to question his audience as to why they would come to see a Doors concert. He slightly hinted this to his Swedish audience in Stockholm on September 20, 1968 and made it quite clear to the Los Angeles audience whom attended the L.A. Forum concert on December 14, 1968.

On February 28, Jim had gone with Tom Baker to the Bovard Auditorium at the University of Southern California, to watch Julian Beck’s avant-garde theatre production, Living Theatre. One of Beck’s shows that had inspired Jim was Paradise Now, which was basically a group of actors who protested about the state of the world. Living Theatre would actively involve the audience to participate with their show and would try to get people to think for themselves. Jim was really excited that such a performance attempted to tap into the audience’s subconscious mind. Jim used some of Beck’s confrontational techniques to try and promote audience awareness at the Dinner Key Auditorium.

Prior to departing L.A Jim had a fight with Pamela and as a result he missed his flight. When Jim finally caught his plane out from LA, he started drinking quite heavily and got drunk on his flight to Miami via New Orleans. During the stop over at New Orleans, Jim got off the plane and went for more drinks and missed his plane. Jim caught the next plane out of New Orleans and continued his drinking on his flight to Miami. Meanwhile in Miami, other events were taking place that were totally outside of Jim’s control and had contributed to the disastrous outcome of the concert.

Originally the students of a local Miami University had favoured The Doors to play at the Convention Hall, however local promoter Ken Collier and his Thee Image Productions had offered the group more money to play at the Dinner Key Auditorium. The Dinner Key Auditorium was a converted sea hanger constructed out of corrugated iron that was in a bad state of condition and needed repairing, including an old stage which was ready to collapse and not to mention a lack of air conditioning. The promoters crammed an odd 12,000 to 13,000 people into the auditorium, even though the auditorium was originally catered to take a maximum crowd capacity of 7,000. Ken Collier and his production group managed to squeeze in the additional 5,000 by removing seats from the auditorium. The original agreement as signed by Bill Siddons - Doors Manager and Ken Collier was for The Doors to receive a payment of $25,000. Siddons and the band were angry because their fee was based on an auditorium having a $42,000 maximum. As Thee Image Productions then took out more seats, ticket sales grossed close to $75,000 but The Doors never received any additional money. Even before the show started, their was a level of infighting between Siddons and Collier. Siddons was more or less held to ransom and the group had no choice but to play.

Finally Morrison arrived late and was completely "off his face", equipped with his leather pants, his beard, a leather hat that had a skull and crossbones on it and his personal hang-ups.

A drunken Morrison, a broken contractual agreement, Morrison’s confrontational approach and 13,000 people crammed like sardines in hot-stuffy tin can, were a perfect combination for a riot to happen that night in Miami and that’s exactly what happened.

The Doors started off the concert with "Break On Through", however the group played the introduction of this song over and over again, waiting for Jim to come in on his cue. Eventually after ten minutes or so, Jim did sing a verse or two but then kind of lost it.

The recording of this concert begins with Jim’s unsuccessful attempt to play the harmonica while sounding awful in the process. Jim then started to talk to his audience:

"Yeaaah ! Now looka here. I ain’t talking about no revolution....and I’m not talking about no demonstration. I’m talking about having a good time ! I’m talking about having a good time this summer. Now you all come out to L.A., you all get out there, we’re gonna lie down in sand and rub our toes in the ocean, and we’re gonna have a good time. Are you ready ? Are you ready ? Are you ready ? Are you ready ? Are you ready ? Are you ready ? Are you ready ? Are you ready ? Are, Are, Are, Are, Woooah ! Woooah ! Woooah ! Woooah ! Woooah ! Woooah ! "

As soon as Jim stopped rapping to his audience and started to scream, Robbie quickly cut in and took the opportunity to begin playing the introduction to "Back Door Man", thumping heavily away on his distorted sounding guitar. While Robbie was building up into the first verse of "Back Door Man", Jim continued yelling:

"FUCK ! Louder ! Come on band, get it louder ! Come on ! Get it up band ! Louder ! Yeah ! Yeah !"

Jim finally got around to singing, but he sounded sloppy and he was clearly "off his face". Jim didn’t stick to singing the whole song and went on with his rap.

"Yeeeaaaaah ! Yeeeaaaaah ! Yeeeaaaaah ! Suck Me baby. You got to OOOaaaa-ooohhh, aaaaoooh, All right, yeah. Eeee, ha. Hey softer baby, get it way down softer sweet heart. Get it way down low, soft, soft, soft, soft, soft, sock-it-to-me-gonna, softer."

Jim’s explicit sexual references may’ve been directed to Pam, as perhaps a way for him to try and get Pam back through some kind of psycho-macho-sexual degradation.

"Hey listen I’m lonely. I need some love you all, come on. I need some good time lovin’ sweetheart love me, come on. I can’t..I can’t take it without no good love, love, love, I want some love-a-love-a-love-a-love-a-love me sweet come on"

"Ain’t nobody gonna love my ass ? Come on !" Jim tauntingly asked his audience. The audience replied with booing and hissing remarks while others laughed.

" I need ya ! There’s so many of you out there, nobody’s gonna love me sweetheart, come on. I need it, I need it, need ya, need ya, need ya, need ya, need ya, need ya huh! Allright ! "

"Hey there’s a bunch of people way back there, that I didn’t even notice. Hey, how about if fifty or sixty of you people come up here and love my ass ? Come on. Yeah ! love ya, come on ! " Jim then started to sing along

"Yeah, la-la-la-la
Yeah, la-la-la-la
Yeah, la-la-la-la
Yeah, la-la-la-la"

"Nobody gonna come up here and love me, huh ? Come on."

The group then broke into "Five To One", hoping Jim would stop his ranting and raving. However, the trio’s music only became a back drop for Jim’s rap, fuelled and inspired by Julian Beck’s theatrical performance of Paradise Now. Jim continued with his rap:

"All right for you baby, that’s too bad. I’ll get somebody else, yeah"; Jim’s drunken state had really taken full effect, as he completely made a mess of the whole song whilst singing "Five To One" out of key;

"Let’s take over, yeah !"

Jim added, just before Robbie took off with his solo guitar lead break. Jim resumed his monologue with his audience, verbally abusing his audience, as he held them in contempt.

"You’re all a bunch of fucking idiots ! Let people tell you what you’re gonna do, Let people push you around ! How longer do you think it’s gonna last ? How longer are you gonna let it go on ? How longer are you gonna let them push you around ? How long ?"

"Maybe you like it ! Maybe you like being pushed around ! Maybe you love it ! Maybe you love getting your face stuck in the shit, come on !"

"Maybe you love getting pushed around ! You love it, you’re all a bunch of slaves, bunch of slaves, you’re all a bunch of slaves. Let people push you around."

"What are you gonna do about it ? What are you gonna do about it ?What are you gonna do about it ? What are you gonna do about it ? What are you gonna do ? What are you gonna do about ? What are you gonna do about it ?"

Jim’s rap was strongly inspired by Julian Beck’s show, Paradise Now.

Jim then picked up the remainder of the song and resumed singing, sloppy and off key - Robbie’s guitar playing had left a lot to be desired;

"Your ballroom days are over, babe
Woooooaaahh ! Aaaaahhh !
Let’s get it together"

The trio had paused momentarily, after having finished playing "Five to One", yet Jim was determined to continue with his rap;

"Hey I’m not talking about no revolution, I’m not talking about no demonstration, I’m not talking about getting out on the streets. I’m talking about having some fun, I’m talking about dancing, I’m talking about love your neighbour, till it hurts. I’m talking about grab your friend, I’m talking about love, I’m talking about some love, I’m talking about love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love."

"Grab your fucking friend and love him, come on !"

Robbie quickly cut in and started to play the introduction of "Touch Me", followed by Ray and John with Jim coming in and singing.

"Touch Me babe can’t you see that I am not afraid"

However Jim completely lost the song and in process the band lost Jim. Jim was pissed off with the band, and he started to yell and abuse the group, screaming at the top of his voice:

"Hey wait a minute ! Wait a minute! Wait a minute ! Hey wait a minute, this is all fucked up, now wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute ! You blew it, aaaah-come on ! Wait a minute, wait a minute, I’m not gonna go on ! Wait a minute, I’m not gonna take this shit ! I’m coppin’ out ! Now wait a minute"; Jim paused momentarily and seemed to cooled down;

"Bull-shit !";

Jim said, in a such way that he too thought the whole thing was a joke. The audience laughed and the trio tried to regain some order amongst all the chaos that was happening. Supposedly it was during "Touch Me" that Jim was alleged to have exposed himself, however there is no evidence that such an event occurred in this recording nor any photographs showing that Jim had exposed himself - perhaps the person responsible for this recording missed out on this event or perhaps as Ray once said, maybe it was a case of "mass hallucination".

The group opted for another more popular number, "Love Me Two Times" but unsuccessfully the band played another off key song, as Jim incoherently rambled on. Jim mixed up the lyrics to this song, as he sang:

"Two times babe, one just before"

"When The Music’s Over" was the group’s next choice, but this may’ve been a bad decision for the other three members, as there was plenty of room within the song for Jim to lyrically improvise during some of the quieter parts of this number, as he did:

"Now listen, I used to think the whole thing was a big joke. I used to think that it was something to laugh about. Then the last couple of nights I met some people, who were doing something. They’re trying to change the world and I wanna get on the trip. I wanna change the world, wanna change it."

"Yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah"
"Change it !";

"First thing we’re gonna do is take over all the schools." Jim paused for a while and resumed;

"After we take over all the schools, we’re gonna take all over the..........the ....................."

"Yeah-yeah-yeah- aaaah"

Jim sang along, followed by Robbie playing "Away In India".

"Huh ? What’s that ? What you say baby ? Say what ? Say what ? Say what ? Say what ? What’s that ? What’s that honey ? Come on tell me again, aaah come on. I can’t hear you, now tell me what you say. Do what to your what ?"

Jim pretended as if he didn’t understand what his audience was saying, purposefully pretending to be dumb - but the crowd knew too well that Jim was a master at tantalising and taunting his audience. The crowd booed at Jim, however Jim’s contempt for the Miami audience was way too strong to be outweighed by the audience’s frustration and impatient.

"Huh ? I can’t hear you ! Yeah, alright"

"He say’s his no animal, huh ?"

Jim said as he was holding Lee Marvin’s lamb in his arms. Lewis Marvin was a member of Moonfire who’s basic philosophy was focused towards non-violence and vegetarianism, as he carried his lamb around with him to emphasise his point.

"Hey who are you ? What’s your name, man ?..Huh ? I used to know someone who had that name."; said Jim as he spoke to the lamb.

"Does anybody out..anybody out there got a cigarette ?"; Jim asked his audience.

"Hey I’m getting lonely up here, I need some love. I (?) you man"; Jim continued with his taunting.

"Hey I can’t believe all those people sitting way up there man. Why don’t you all come down and get with us man, come on. What are, what are you in the fifty-cents section or what ? Come on."; the audience laughed at Jim’s joke.

"We’re gonna stay, way, way".

"You know I was born here in this state. You know that ? I was born right here, Melbourne Florida, 1943. I think they call it Cape ..something...hell I don’t know what they call it. Yeah, then I .. I left my little block and came and I went to ah.. a little aah little Junior High College in St. Petersburg, you know where that is ? Then I left there and I went up to er a little college in Tallahassee called F.S.U. Then I got smart..then I went out to a beautiful state, called California, went out to a little city named Los Angeles. "

"Now listen, I’m not talking about no revolution. I’m not talking about no demonstration. I’m talking about having fun. I wanna see you get up and dance. I wanna see you people dancing in the street this summer. I wanna see you have some fun. I wanna see you roam around the town. I wanna see you ringin’ out. I wanna see you shout. I wanna see some fun. I wanna see some fun, from everyone." Jim had really diverted from singing the lyrics to "When The Music’s Over" and made an attempt to sing again.

"Weee-are together, we’re together, we’re together baby, we’re together. Get it up, man."

By this stage, it seems as if the audience had lost interest in what Jim was trying to say, they were more concerned about their own safety, as one audience member screamed out:

"Somebody else get to this fucking place man ! "
"We want the same thing don’t we. We want the same thing, we want the whole hog don’t we baby."
"We want the world and we want it now ! "

Following "When The Music’s Over", The Doors went on to play "Wake Up/Light My Fire". After Robbie’s solo break, Jim started to speak to the audience, strongly encouraging them to take action over their own lives.

"Yeah, I wanna see some fun. I wanna see some dancing ! There are no rules, there are no laws, do what whatever you wanna do, Do it ! Allright "

From here and onwards, things only just started to get ugly. One of the audience members can be faintly heard as saying;

"Let’s get out man, this thing’s gonna break".

Jim was urging the audience to come up on stage and join him, however the stage was in poor condition and was slowly giving way just waiting to collapse.

"I’d fuck her, but she’s too young, you know that ?", Jim said.

"Yeah, now listen. Anybody that wants to come up here and join us, do some dancing, have some fun, just get up on here, come on. Come on."

Straight after the climax section of "Light My Fire", Jim gave his last "Miami-Speech" to his audience.

"Allright ! Allright ! Now I wanna see some action out there ! I wanna see some action out there ! I wanna see some action out there ! I wanna see some action out there ! I wanna see some action out there ! I wanna see you people come on up and here and have some fun. Now come on, let’s get on up here. No limits ! No laws ! Come on ! This is your show, anything you want goes, now come on ! Anything you want, now let’s do it, let’s do it, let’s do it !"

Ken Collier tried to talk sense in to the kids who climbing onto the stage;

"Come on, or some one’s gonna get hurt. Now hold it"; however this didn’t stop the kids from rushing the stage. The last words from Morrison that can be heard on this recording were:

"Allright, now we’re not gonna leave until we all get our rocks off" (the recording finishes here).

Following Jim’s last words, Jim started to push people off the stage, forcing them to land back in the main area. Jim had pushed Ken Collier’s brother off the stage, however one of the members of Thee Image Productions had a black belt in karate and flipped Jim into the audience. Jim then got up and started a snake like dance with his audience members following him up to the balcony, from there he just stared at all the chaos and mayhem that was occurring below. Finally the stage had collapsed and the speaker columns had collapsed. Jim made his way into the dressing room and the crowd cheered him on before they moved out of the auditorium. The crowd got what they came for - a freak show. This was the first and last time Jim was to ever perform in Miami

.

After the Miami concert, the following 20 cities had cancelled scheduled Doors concerts:

Jacksonville, Florida - March 9, 1969.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - March 17, 1969.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - March 18-19, 1969.

Toronto, Ontario, Canada - March 21, 1969.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - March 22, 1969.

Kent, Ohio - March 23, 1969.

Detroit, Michigan - March 28, 1969.

Cleveland, Ohio - March 29, 1969.

Cincinnati, Ohio - March 30, 1969.

Dallas, Texas - April 4, 1969.

Houston, Texas - April 5, 1969.

Boston, Massachusetts - April 25, 1969.

Buffalo, New York - April 26, 1969.

Syracuse, New York - April 27, 1969.

St. Louis, Missouri - June 13, 1969.

Honolulu, Hawaii - July 3-4, 1969.

Seattle, Washington - July 5, 1969.

Toledo, Ohio - September 21, 1969.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - September 23, 1969.

San Diego, California - October 26, 1969.