Strange Days

The Doors On their 1967 debut album, the Doors more than fulfilled the promise of their infamously challenging gigs around Los Angeles throughout the previous year. Whether belting out a standard like "Back Door Man" or talk-singing such originals as "The Crystal Ship" and "I Looked at You...	L.A. Woman The last official Doors studio album, L.A. Woman was still high on the charts when, like the "actor out on loan" of its closing track, "Riders on the Storm," Jim Morrison died in a Paris bathtub in the summer of 1971. Via such tracks as "The Changeling," "Crawling King Snake," an...	Waiting for the Sun With the massive success of the single "Light My Fire" and their initial two albums, L.A.'s the Doors quickly built a sizable reputation for edgy, often over-the-top musical drama. Perhaps wary of stereotyping, or simply worn out from their grueling early success, the band took a...	Morrison Hotel The next-to-last Doors album, recorded prior to Jim Morrison's still mystery-shrouded death in a Parisian bathtub, eschewed much of the band's previous penchant for baroque musical, poetic, and philosophical pretensions (this was, after all, the back-to-roots era of the Beatles' ...	The Soft Parade After considerably broadening their sound on Waiting for the Sun, the Doors decided to continue pushing the envelope with their next release. Incorporating brass, strings, and even a full orchestra, The Soft Parade is easily the most challenging album in the Doors' catalog--if no...
Are You Experienced As emblematic of its time as of its sorcerer-like creator, 1967's Are You Experienced unleashed Jimi Hendrix onto a world in the midst of such cultural and musical shakeups that it really didn't seem as "far out" as it actually was. It wasn't just Hendrix's virtuosic skill as a p...	An American Prayer The Doors recorded six studio albums with Jim Morrison as their singer from 1967 to 1971, hitting the charts with a series of pop songs that were at least as good as Tommy James and the Shondells. On their albums, they indulged in Morrison's pretentious obsessions that included e...	Axis: Bold as Love Jimi Hendrix's second album doesn't resonate through rock history the way its gatecrashing predecessor, Are You Experienced?, does. In places, it almost seems as if Hendrix is cruising, albeit sublimely. Yet it's a vital album, containing some of rock's molten milestones. There's...	The Doors On their 1967 debut album, the Doors more than fulfilled the promise of their infamously challenging gigs around Los Angeles throughout the previous year. Whether belting out a standard like "Back Door Man" or talk-singing such originals as "The Crystal Ship" and "I Looked at You...	Electric Ladyland N

An Opinion
I never spend time breaking down my take of each track and giving a deep psycho analysis of what each song means to me. I think other people do a fine job of that kind of review. I think that it is even legit to differ as to what one thinks a definition of a review is or should be. I simply give my opinion or my overall impression of the impact of a disc taken as a whole and I try not to look at each song as simply a cut from a compilation of individual tracks. If this is too simplistic, I do apologize up front. In the case of Strange Days, I read a good portion of the reviews and I echo all the good commentary to be found here. I wanted to "pile on" with a super 5 review so as to further diminish the effect of the pitiful few who just "don't get it" on this one. Morrison's lyrics had more impact and insight on Strange Days than on any other disc, but some of the shear energy in delivery that was so intense on the first album had diminsihed in the darkness of the mood. Otherwise Strange Days easily equaled the genius of "The Doors" and simply was a continuation on a theme of murky observations into the darkness of the mind. The Doors were simply one of the 5 greatest bands that ever cut a record and one of only a handful that truly were unique with a sound so distinct that it can never be said that they sounded like any other. Having said that I will give my opinion as to where Strange Days falls in the order of Doors greatness. Order of appearance and quality: Doors (I can still feel the summer it came out), Strange Days (totally unique and erie), Waiting For The Sun and then Morrison Hotel. Waiting always gets panned, but for me it is close to their best and creates a mood that puts you right square in the center of the love generation. Strange Days is like an acid trip that leaves you stunned by the journey. With Hotel they simply get heavy and prove once and for all that their muscianship was equal to anything out there. There is no such thing as a less than five star Doors disc at least not for the first five releases. Soft Parade (maybe)....? LA Woman - I love it but to deny that Morrison was gasping at times would be a rough go.

The very best of their oeurve
There are great Doors albums, but "Strange Days" is in a class by itself. Many second albums are problematic because there was a lifetime to make the first, and 2 months in the midst of a tour to write and record the second. "Strange Days" was helped by solid writing, musicianship and great production (including the graphics-the cover is beautiful). In retrospect, the songwriting combination was a one-two punch of Morrison and Kreiger. Guitarist Robbie Krieger, author of "Light My Fire" also wrote "Love Me Two Times" and other great gems. His symbiotic creative relationship with Morrison was bedrock for Doors material. All four of them made the tune into a track, hence the collective writing credit. I saw much of this album performed live in 1968. It was a great show. Great album. Incidentally, people ARE strange when you're a stranger, but you knew that.

Strange Days
The Doors-Strange Days ***** Darker then the bands purple hued debut album could not be more true. Strange Days is simply one of the darkest and greatest albums in all of rock n' roll history. The band came close with their debut but Strange Days is where The Doors sealed the deal as the greatest band in all of the psycadelic genre of rock n' roll. All bets were off when this was released no more then six months after their emphamous debut. Anything experimental was a must on this record. Paul Rothchilds amazing production is at its stunning best here. Strange Days sounds more like it was recorded in 1997 rather then in 1967. The sound is big and phenomonal musician ship sure helped out. Robby Krieger played some of the best guitar of his career, while John Densmore became more experimental on this album then the first, and Ray Manzerek laid down some outstanding keyboard playing here, proving he is in fact the king of the keyboards. Jim "The Lizard King" Morrison showcases some of his most powerful vocals here, and his lyrics are as we all know are amazing, a true poet in a rock gods body. The album opens with the errie title track 'Strange Days' which is not only the perfect way to start the album, but also one of the bands very best songs. The dark keyboards set the stage for the rest of the album. 'You're Lost Little Girl' is very out there and a hard track to describe much less define, one that honestly has to be heard to appreciate. 'Love Me Two Times' as we all know is one of the greatest songs of all time. The guitar is phenomenal, and Morrisons vocals are top notch here. 'Unhappy Girl' is an amazing song. It some how manages to mesh the bright happy go lucky Beachboys/early Beatles/Supremes sound of the 1960's with a darker twist to make one of the bands most creative creations. 'Horse Latitudes' is mearly just a Morrison poem set to music. Mainly just spoken word, but makes for a very interesting track none the less. 'Moonlight Drive,' the very song Jim Morrison sung for Manzerek in hopes if getting him to start a band with himself. Some impressive slide guitar work from Krieger makes for one classic song. 'People Are Strange' is yet another rock n' roll classic. The movie "The Lost Boys" used the song as their theme. One of the most errie songs in all of rock n' roll and also one of the best. 'My Eyes Have Seen You' may be a bit repetitive but it is one of the very best songs the band ever did. The guitar is out of this world and Morrisons vocals are the best here that they are on the entire album. Fantastic song. 'I Cant See Your Face In My Mind' is the weakest song on the album, and really the only weak song on the album. It is just missing something. But still really not a bad song, just not memorable. 'When The Musics Over' is quite simply one of the very best songs ever written and recorded in all of music...ever! 'When The Musics Over' is to Strange Days what 'The End' was to the bands selftitled debut The Doors. Robby Krieger plays the best guitar of his career on this song, and the solo alone is worth every penny of the album cost. The lyrics are maybe Morrisons best. The whole band plays together as if they are on one eleven minute acid trip, which makes for an amazingly interestingly never boring yet very long song. The Doors couldnt have recorded a better song to end the album with. The song may be teh very best song to ever end a rock n' roll album. The Doors was an amazing album, and L.A. Woman was better then that, but Strange Days is easily the singlegreatest thing The Doors ever recorded. Even if they had stayed together and Morrison had not went to the otherside, they might have come close but would have never topped this. Esentially one of the greatest albums in all of musical history, Stranges Days by The Doors is one of those albums that changed the world and is esential to every music collection along with Srg. Pepper, Kind Of Blue, Dark Side Of The Moon, Highway 61 Revisited, and Nevermind.

Good but uneven followup
After their maiden album that was so great, The Doors' Strange Days is not as strong as their first. There's solid stuff on it but it runs out of steam in the last three songs. The album's magnum opus (When the music's over) is too long for its own good. Standout tracks: -Strange Days. -You're lost little girl. -Love me two times. -Unhappy girl. -Moonlight drive. -People are strange. I give it four stars.

My favorite Doors album
I've always taken the Doors with a grain of salt--I love the cosmopolitan influences that contribute to their unique, dark fusion of hard rock and psychedelia, and I really love Jim Morrison's inimitable baritone voice. However, I've found Morrison to be a constantly overrated lyricist who had a few transcendental moments but produced equal amounts of uninspired, shallow, and atrociously-rhymed lyrics, often obviously choosing predictable rhymes or choosing a word that doesn't fit the idea just because it rhymes. However, I do enjoy their music very much, and I find that Strange Days (along with their debut) is the album I come back to most often. Any radio-listener will recognize several songs--the gnarly blues-guitar riff and hot harpsichord of "Love Me Two Times," the sing-song paranoia of "People are Strange," and the trippy hard rock of "Strange Days." Unlike a large number of Doors albums, though, the rest of Strange Days is pretty uniformly strong as well. From slower, jazzier numbers like "You're Lost Little Girl" to the driving rock of "My Eyes Have Seen You," to the downright spooky "I Can't See Your Face in My Mind," the album contains strong examples of the Doors' trademark musical mishmash of jazz, classical, blues and psychedelic influences. "Horse Latitudes" is also one of the most compelling and creepy piece of Jim Morrison's poetry ever recorded. Finally, the album's closer, "When the Music's Over" is an instant epic classic. Its deliciously funky organ riff intro gives away to a classic Morrison howl and some classical episodes of scary imagery and dark hippie ethos. As usual, the flamenco-inspired guitar is lively and varied, the jazz-inflected drumming is spot-on, and the keyboards are virtuosic and range across several instruments and styles. The Doors may have hit hardest on their debut, but with Strange Days they showed their staying power and even improved their formula. Highly recommended for radio fans of the Doors looking to dig a bit deeper.