The Jukebox Rebel

As with many creative groups of the mid 60s, the Doors were bursting at the seams with so much high quality material that one album per year was not enough. “Strange Days” was issued in September ’67, whilst sales of their debut LP from January showed no signs of slowing down. They prove to be well worthy of the fans’ emotional and financial investment, although producer Paul Rothchild, who had fantastical visons of a world leading phenomenon, considered it a commercial failure as it only peaked at #3: “We all thought it was the best album. Significantly, it was also the one with the weakest sales. We were confident it was going to be bigger than anything The Beatles had done. But there was no single. The record died on us.” Despite his disappointment, the album did yield two top 30 hit singles; “People Are Strange”, an excellent track which continues the group’s penchant for contemporary cabaret and “Love Me Two Times”, another gritty classic which coolly melds a blues rock template with ye olde harpsichord. Before we get to those, the woozy “Strange Days” sets the album’s tone musically and lyrically from the start. It’s them vs us: “Strange days have found us, strange days have tracked us down, they're going to destroy our casual joys, we shall go on playing or find a new town, YEAH.” A relationship is being built here; it’s little wonder the gigs were so intensely intimate. On the challenging “Horse Latitudes”, Morrison takes his listeners on a wild fantasy trip, screaming the tale of a ship at sea, forced to jettison the on-board horses to lighten their load. All the while, the group re-enact the hellish scene with a suitably terrifying sonic assault. The weird fantasies continue on the rather more sedate “Moonlight Drive”, as we are invited to “swim to the moon.” He’s got some imagination that boy…

The Jukebox Rebel
16–Apr–2007

A1	[03:09] The Doors - Strange Days (Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger, John Densmore) Psychedelia
A2	[03:03] The Doors - You’re Lost Little Girl (Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger, John Densmore) Psychedelia
A3	[03:16] The Doors - Love Me Two Times (Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger, John Densmore) Blues Rock / Soul Rock
A4	[02:00] The Doors - Unhappy Girl (Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger, John Densmore) Psychedelia
A5	[01:35] The Doors - Horse Latitudes (Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger, John Densmore) Avant-Garde
A6	[03:04] The Doors - Moonlight Drive (Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger, John Densmore) Blues Rock / Soul Rock
B1	[02:12] The Doors - People Are Strange (Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger, John Densmore) Crooner / Cabaret
B2	[02:29] The Doors - My Eyes Have Seen You (Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger, John Densmore) Blues Rock / Soul Rock
B3	[03:26] The Doors - I Can’t See Your Face In My Mind (Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger, John Densmore) Psychedelia
B4	[10:59] The Doors - When The Music’s Over (Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger, John Densmore) Psychedelia

ratings by TJR