Strange Days

Performer: The Doors
Producer: Paul A. Rothchild
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: The Doors: Jim Morrison (vocals), Robby Krieger (guitar), Ray Manzarek (keyboards, marimba), John Densmore (drums). Additional personnel: Douglas Lubahn (bass). Recorded at Sunset Sound Recorders, Hollywood, California. The Doors: Jim Morrison (vocals); Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger (guitar); John Densmore (drums). Additional personnel: Douglas Lubahn (bass instrument). Many of the songs on Strange Days had been written around the same time as the ones that appeared on The Doors, and with hindsight one has the sense that the best of the batch had already been cherry picked for the debut album. For that reason, the band's second effort isn't as consistently stunning as their debut, though overall it's a very successful continuation of the themes of their classic album. Besides the hit "Strange Days," highlights included the funky "Moonlight Drive," the eerie "You're Lost Little Girl," and the jerkily rhythmic "Love Me Two Times," which gave the band a small chart single. "My Eyes Have Seen You" and "I Can't See Your Face in My Mind" are minor but pleasing entries in the group's repertoire that share a subdued Eastern psychedelic air. The 11-minute "When the Music's Over" would often be featured as a live showstopper, yet it also illustrated their tendency to occasionally slip into drawn-out bombast. ~ Richie Unterberger The Doors' second album redefined their uncompromising art. The disturbing timbre of Ray Manzarek's organ work provided the musical cloak through which guitarist Robbie Kreiger and vocalist Jim Morrison projected. Few singers in rock possessed his authority, where every nuance and inflection bore an emotional intensity. STRANGE DAYS contains some of the quartet's finest work, from the apocolyptic vision of the epic "When The Music's Over" to the memorable quirkiness of "People Are Strange" and "Moonlight Drive." The graphic "Horse Latitudes," meanwhile, confirmed Morrison's wish to be viewed as a poet, a stance ensuring that the Doors would always be more than just another rock band.

Q (11/00, p.124) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...Sets the tone for the next 3 years [1968-71]....a mixture of hefty pop singles, bullfrog rockers and nonsense poetry..." Down Beat (p.69) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he album closes with the sprawling beauty of 'When The Music's Over,' driven by Morrison's riveting vocals."

Like a trippier, more mystical, West Coast equivalent of the Velvet Underground, the Doors went against the 1960s flower-power grain, taking an uncompromising look at the underbelly of the American psyche. Jim Morrison's dark, surreal poetry gave the band's blues-based rock a cerebral edge, and his wild, shamanistic on-stage presence electrified audiences. From their debut single, "Light My Fire," to their later recordings such as "Riders on the Storm," the Doors remained consistently intriguing even when their songs didn't, a feat largely credited to Morrison and his volatile personality. Eventually, Morrison's hard living caught up to him--he died in Paris at only 27 years of age, leaving behind a legacy that would inspire countless younger musicians.

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