Born Again Madman Delivers An American Prayer

Born Again Madman Delivers An American Prayer is a UK-only bootleg EP released in 1983 under catalog number 4520, pressed on gray vinyl with a yellow and black insert. This is one of the scarcest Doors-related releases in any format, with a documented pressing of just 25 copies. The EP carries no official label imprint, consistent with the underground nature of the release. Its three tracks pull from separate live performances, making it a compact but pointed document of Morrison-era concert recordings.

The physical presentation here is about as stripped-down as it gets for a collectible of this caliber. The insert is yellow and black, a high-contrast combination that reads more like a handbill or photocopied flyer than a conventionally designed record sleeve. Given the 25-copy run, the production was almost certainly done by hand or on basic print equipment, and that DIY quality is part of what defines this object. The gray vinyl itself is the kind of pressing variant that immediately signals a non-standard or limited underground release. Standard black pressings dominate the bootleg market; gray vinyl in a 25-copy run places this squarely in the category of items that were meant for a very specific, very small audience, or simply reflected whatever materials were available at the time of pressing. The insert text lists the tracks as they appear on the sleeve, though the matrix runouts tell a different story: the runouts label the B-side as the A-side and vice versa, with Rock Me assigned to the A-side in the matrix and Break On Through to the B-side. This kind of internal inconsistency is common in small-run underground pressings and adds another layer of interest for collectors who track matrix detail. There are no photos, no liner notes beyond basic track identification, and no additional inserts. What you have is the vinyl, the sleeve, and the contradiction baked into the runouts.

The track selection on this EP overlaps directly with Rock Me / Break On Through, a related release also documented in the DoorsInfo catalog. That release shares two of the three tracks here, making this EP an expanded variant of that pairing with the addition of the Hitler Graveyard Poem on the A-side. The Break On Through performance is sourced from Chicago 1968, a concert cycle that produced several circulating recordings; the Rock Me track originates from San Francisco 1969, a show that has also appeared on other bootleg configurations including material adjacent to Live In San Francisco 1967. The Hitler Graveyard Poem is the track that gives this EP its distinctive title and separates it from a straight repackage. Morrison's spoken word and poetry recordings have always occupied a niche within the bootleg ecosystem, and having one pressed alongside live concert tracks on gray vinyl in an edition of 25 is the kind of combination that makes this item genuinely unusual rather than just scarce by accident. On Discogs, 14 collectors currently report owning a copy and 18 have it on their want list, a want-to-have ratio that reflects how difficult this is to track down in the open market. For context, most Doors bootleg EPs from this period with even modest circulation show want lists that are eventually satisfied; a ratio like this one, where wants exceed haves, points to persistent scarcity. The genre tags on Discogs list both Rock and Blues, which fits the live material here, particularly the Rock Me performance, which draws on the raw electric blues territory The Doors explored in their later live sets. Collectors who have followed the various bootleg threads around the 1968 and 1969 concert recordings will recognize these sources, but the specific combination here, on this format, in this pressing, is not something you encounter regularly.

At 25 copies documented, this is among the rarest physical Doors releases cataloged here. It will not turn up in crate digs or on casual Discogs searches, and when it does surface, expect serious competition. The gray vinyl and yellow-black insert are the key identifiers to confirm you have the genuine article rather than a later copy or unrelated pressing sharing the catalog number 4520. If you are building a comprehensive UK bootleg run or specifically chasing Jim Morrison spoken word and live material on physical formats, this EP belongs near the top of your list.