Jim Morrison: The Lizard King

Jim Morrison: The Lizard King was released in Germany in 1973 on the Round LP label, catalog number LIZLP 1968. This is an unauthorized bootleg LP capturing The Doors live at the New Roundhouse, London, in September 1968. The release saw multiple pressings between 1973 and 1987, appearing on both standard black vinyl and a rarer white vinyl variant. Both versions share the same black and white cover design. The copy under review is the black vinyl pressing, and the label text on both sides reads NOT FOR COMMERCIAL USE, a familiar disclaimer on Round LP releases of this era.

The cover photography is stark and immediately recognizable to anyone who has handled a few of these. The front presents four cropped, high-contrast black and white portraits of Jim Morrison arranged in a horizontal row, each slightly different, giving the layout a repeated, almost contact-sheet quality. Above the portraits, text reads Live, never before released in quotation marks, followed by JIM MORRISON in bold capitals, then leader of the DOORS in a smaller typeface. Below the portraits, the title THE LIZARD KING appears in bold, with the Round LP catalog designation sound lp-1968 printed at the lower right. The entire front cover design is monochrome, no color anywhere, which gives it a rough, underground press aesthetic consistent with the bootleg market of the early 1970s.

The back cover continues the black and white motif with a close-up photograph of Morrison, heavily shadowed, slightly blurred, and raw in a way that suits the material. The track listing runs down the left side of the back, printed in a plain serif font: Break on Through, When The Music's Over, Five To One, Light My Fire, The End, followed by the notation recorded live at the New Roundhouse, London '68. Below the track listing, a Jim Morrison quote is printed in larger, slightly stylized type: We have fun / The kids have fun / The cops have fun / It's a weird triangle. No liner notes, no personnel credits, no session information beyond that brief notation. The back is functional, spare, and gives nothing away about the label's origins or the recording's provenance beyond the London 1968 date.

The labels on both sides are plain black with white text. Side A lists Light My Fire at 10:08 and The End at 12:31. The label also confirms stereo and live recording status, prints the Round LP catalog number LIZLP 1968, and carries the NOT FOR COMMERCIAL USE disclaimer. There are no additional inserts, inner sleeves with printing, or any supplementary material. The pressing itself on the black vinyl copy is typical of German bootleg production from this period: serviceable but not audiophile-grade, with some surface noise consistent with the age and origins of the source tape.

The recording documents the complete Doors concert at the New Roundhouse in London from September 1968, one of the band's celebrated European dates that autumn. The five tracks here represent a solid cross-section of the band's then-current set, with extended versions of Light My Fire and The End taking up the entirety of Side A. Collectors interested in the full range of Roundhouse documentation should also be aware of several related releases in this catalog, including Live At The Roundhouse, Roundhouse London UK 07.09.1968 (Early Show), and Roundhouse Blues, each drawing from the same or related Roundhouse tapes with varying degrees of completeness and audio fidelity. The Lizard King Plays London release covers similar ground and is worth comparing directly. The Live Doors, Live In Europe September 1968 provides additional context for this European run.

On Discogs, 164 collectors currently have this pressing logged and 55 have it on their want list, which suggests it circulates well enough to surface at record fairs and through online sellers with some regularity, particularly from European sources. The existence of a white vinyl variant of the same release does add a secondary layer of collectibility for those chasing the more scarce pressing. The black vinyl version reviewed here is the more commonly encountered of the two. The track sequencing on the Discogs listing places Break On Through as B1, while the back cover of this copy lists it first in the Side Two sequence, which is consistent across known copies of this pressing.

This is a bootleg release with a clearly defined identity: a German pressing from 1973 capturing a legitimate piece of Doors history from the London Roundhouse in 1968. It is not a rarity in the strict sense, but the white vinyl variant is a different matter. For the black vinyl pressing under catalog number LIZLP 1968, expect to find it at moderate prices through European sellers. It belongs in any serious collection documenting The Doors' 1968 European performances, and the five-track set is well chosen for what it represents, even if the sound quality reflects the bootleg origins of the source material.