Strange Days by The Doors turned 48 this year. What are your thoughts on this album?

Question

Rock & Pop, how do you feel about Strange Days by The Doors? Personally, I feel that Strange Days is a fantastic album. I just love how the dark, ominous and extremely atmospheric sound of the album; The Doors became even more gloomy on Strange Days, and the album is also more subdued and overtly psychedelic than The Doors' self-titled debut. The production on Strange Days is fantastic, too, and the album has such a strong and mysterious vibe to it. In conclusion, Strange Days is one of the many gems from the year of 1967, and it's probably The Doors' best overall effort, in my eyes.

BQ: Favorite songs from Strange Days?
BQ2: What are your thoughts on Jim Morrison's vocals and lyrics on Strange Days?
BQ3: Which band was darker and more controversial, in your opinion: The Doors, or The Velvet Underground.
BQ4: What are your thoughts on the front cover of Strange Days? Do you feel that it adds to, or detracts from the overall quality of the album?

Answer 1

It's an excellent album -- consistency-wise it might be The Doors' best album. While it lacks a hit quite as striking as "Break on Through" or "Light My Fire", it also lacks any losers (except the short "Horse Latitude"). It is a gloomy, atmospheric work -- almost like the afternath or hangover of the debut's celebration ("Strange Days" indeed). It culminates in my favorite Doors song -- "When the Music's Over", with its trippy jam and masterful shifts in tension. In the top echelon of '67, for sure -- a masterpiece of psychedelia.



BQ1: "When the Music's Over", "Strange Days", "Moonlight Drive", "Love Me Two Times", "People Are Strange"



BQ2: Excellent -- Jim's one of my favorite singers, and the guy who got me into reading and writing poetry. Any moment that gets a bit cartoonish ("Horse Latitudes") is made up for tenfold by "When the Music's Over". As an epic-style number, it improves upon "The End" and betters "Celebration of the Lizard" because it never really sags at any point -- the tension keeps rising with the steady threat of the guitar and organ riffs, with Jim getting into full Shaman mode. The moment he says "Now" and lets out that scream ranks up there with "Careful With That Axe, Eugene" in terms of most intense musical moments.



BQ3: The Doors were more controversial in terms of notoriety and publicity, given their far greater commercial success. In terms of content, it kind of depends on how you define "controversial". Musically, The Doors were exemplary, but not as radical as VU in terms of melodic structure and experimentation. Jim's lyrics were far more fantastical than Lou's -- they're both heavily indebted to the Beat poets, but Jim's style also shows the influence of Rimbaud and the Romance poets (Blake, Keats, etc.). Jim could be dark, but in a classical, epic-like way -- decadence gone wrong, revolution, even Hell. Lou favored a more frank approach, with bleak, darkly humerous portraits of drug use, hustling, homosexuality, and violence -- stuff like "Lady Godiva's Operation" is chilling. Then again, this all came out of a rather cold, detached voice (be it Lou's or John Cale's), which certainly adds to its macabre nature -- but what Jim lacked in graphicness or realism, he made up for in energy and charisma. Jim could sell a revolution in his shaman persona -- Lou preferred to sit back and analyze the New York environment than to radicalize it.



BQ4: The album cover isn't one of my favorites, but it matches the bizarre, gothic nature of the band's music.

Answer 2

It's good but I much prefer there debut album.



BQ: Unhappy Girl, Moonlight Drive



BQ2: The main focus for good reason, great.



BQ3: The Velvet Underground considering that there music was pounded by critics and never seen much success as a band while The Doors blew up into the mainstream and critics loved there music, The Doors were hated by a lot of adults though because of there "edginess" but loved by teenagers as this is what typically happens.



BQ4: It's just a cover and they made it strange, good job by them. Doesn't do anything to the quality of the album, some of my favorite albums have horrible artwork and some I hate have amazing artwork.

Answer 3

Love Me Two Times has always been my favourite song by The Doors. I think Lost Boys just increased People are Strange's popularity to overshadow some of their other great songs by them. But what do I know? I'm 21.

Answer 4

Very good album, but it's not amazing in my personal opinion. I would rate "Waiting for the Sun" and their self-titled much higher. Granted, I haven't listened to it in a while, so my opinion COULD change on it, sometime.



BQ: "Love Me Two Times", "People Are Strange", "Strange Days", "You're Lost Little Girl"



BQ2: Amazing, as usual. He was truly a skilled frontman.



BQ3: Probably The Doors. They were both quite shocking for the time, but The Doors take the cake. Morrison's antics and rebellious ways, of course, contributed to their reputation.



BQ4: It's a cool cover, but even if it weren't, it wouldn't take away any actual quality away from the album. At least, for me it wouldn't.



Speaking of The Velvet Undergroud, Brandon, I finally listened to "White Light/White Heat", which you recommended to me some months back. It was fantastic and probably even better than their debut. I also listened to "Loaded", which was pretty good. I have more of their stuff on my list.

Answer 5

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