THE DOORS - STRANGE DAYS

"Strange days have found us

Strange days have tracked us down

They're going to destroy

Our casual joys . . . . . "

On this day in music history: September 23, 1967 - “People Are Strange” by The Doors is released. Written by The Doors, it is the third single release for the rock band from Los Angeles, CA. Written in early 1967, the initial idea for “People Are Strange” comes while Jim Morrison and Robby Kreiger are hiking to the top of Laurel Canyon. Feeling depressed at the time, Morrison’s lyrics reflect his feelings of alienation, outsider status, and vulnerability. Though the song is penned by Morrison and Krieger alone, the entire band receives writing credit. The musicial portion of the song is also inspired and influenced by The Doors’ fascination with European cabaret music (explored on tracks such as “The Crystal Ship” and their cover of Berthold Brecht and Kurt Weill’s “Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)” on their debut album). The song is issued as the first single from the bands second album “Strange Days”, two days before the LP. “People Are Strange” peaks at #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 on October 28, 1967. “Strange” is covered a number of times over the years, most notably by Echo & The Bunnymen, whose version appears in the film “The Lost Boys” in 1987.

Now 'Strange Days' is way up there in my favourite albums of all time and always features in my top three favourite Doors album. It has a unique affect upon yours truly when it came out and has the most extraordinary atmosphere of any album I believe. Quite it's own unique and peculiar flavour, temper and vibe at once mysterious but elemental somehow and with it's own mystical power. swimming to the moon, the doldrums where horses were thrown overboard ship to aid movement through these dangerous latitudes, peons to ecology years ahead of it's time.

People are strange when you're a stranger,  . . . . . . faces come out of the rain . . . . 

Side A

No. Title Length

1. "Strange Days" 3:11

2. "You're Lost Little Girl" 3:03

3. "Love Me Two Times" 3:18

4. "Unhappy Girl" 2:02

5. "Horse Latitudes" 1:37

6. "Moonlight Drive" 3:05

Side B

No. Title Length

7. "People Are Strange" 2:13

8. "My Eyes Have Seen You" 2:32

9. "I Can't See Your Face in My Mind" 3:26

10. "When the Music's Over"

I learned all of these by heart and could recite the lyrics at will but it contained some genuinely odd songs despite them having been written around the same time as much of the first album. It contains perhaps my favourite rock lyric of all time in 'Moonlight Drive' segueing from 'the truly inquire  and disquieting 'Horse Latitudes' (a real place and feature of the open ocean . . . . . 

The single meant less to me here as it was the album as an entirely that totally transported us to a world of teenage angst and fear, neurosis and horror

oh you want more? . . . . . . 
I have said I think I was lucky enough to attend the press launch in London of 'Alive She Cried' at the ICA where the remaining members of the band (John, Ray and Robbie) were interviewed by Robin Denselow

this is the version launched on that album . , . , . , . , . , . , 

Alive, She Cried is a live album by the American rock band The Doors; the title of the album is taken from a line in the song "When the Music's Over". Following the resurgence in popularity for the band due to the 1979 film, Apocalypse Now, and the release of the first Doors compilation album in seven years, Greatest Hits, released in 1980, the push was on to release more Doors music. The recordings are from various concerts during the period 1968–1970; they include "Gloria", originally a hit for Them, and an extended version of The Doors' best known song "Light My Fire". John Sebastian of The Lovin' Spoonful joined the band on stage to play harmonica on Willie Dixon's "Little Red Rooster". The album was discontinued as 1991 saw the release of In Concert, a double-album which included all of the songs from Alive, She Cried and Absolutely Live, as well as a few other live tracks. The version of "Light My Fire" from this album is actually from a variety of sources. "The Graveyard Poem" is actually a recited poetry piece from Boston in April 1970. It was inserted into the break of "Light My Fire" for this album. "Gloria" was also edited to exclude some risque verses. Later releases of "Gloria" on the Bright Midnight label restored the edited verses.
Let's swim to the moon, uh huh Let's climb through the tide Penetrate the evenin' that the City sleeps to hide Let's swim out tonight, love It's our turn to try Parked beside the ocean On our moonlight drive 
Let's swim to the moon, uh huh Let's climb through the tide Surrender to the waiting worlds That lap against our side 
Nothin' left open And no time to decide We've stepped into a river On our moonlight drive 
Let's swim to the moon Let's climb through the tide You reach your hand to hold me But I can't be your guide 
Easy, I love you As I watch you glide Falling through wet forests On our moonlight drive, baby Moonlight drive 
Come on, baby, gonna take a little ride Down, down by the ocean side Gonna get real close Get real tight Baby gonna drown tonight Goin' down, down, down

+ Horse Latitudes (about the doldrums)

When the still sea conspires an armor

And her sullen and aborted

Currents breed tiny monsters

True sailing is dead!

Awkward instant

And the first animal is jettisoned

Legs furiously pumping

Their stiff green gallop

And heads bob up

Poise

Delicate

Pause

Consent

In mute nostril agony

Carefully refined

And sealed over

What have they done to the earth?
What have they done to our fair sister?
Ravaged and plundered and ripped her and bit her
Stuck her with knives in the side of the dawn
And tied her with fences and dragged her down
I hear a very gentle sound
With your ear down to the ground
We want the world and we want it
We want the world and we want it now
Now?
Now!

 . . . . . when the music's over . . . turn out the light