Strange Days (1967)

Strange Days is the second studio album by the American rock band the Doors, released on September 25, 1967 by Elektra Records. Arriving eight months after the successful release of their self-titled debut album, on this record the band started experimenting with both new and old material in early 1967. Upon release, Strange Days reached number three on the US Billboard 200, and eventually earned a platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It contains two Top 30 hit singles, "People Are Strange" and "Love Me Two Times".

Despite the album's failure to match the success of its predecessor, it was "arguably the one the band itself most appreciated musically and creatively", according to David V. Moskowitz. Music journalist Stephen Davis considers Strange Days the best Doors album and "one of the great artifacts of the rock movement."

Recording and concept

Strange Days was recorded during tour breaks between February and August 1967 at Sunset Sound Recorders in Hollywood (the same studio as their first LP). In contrast to the 1966 sessions, producer Paul A. Rothchild and engineer Bruce Botnick employed a then cutting-edge 8-track recording machine. The protracted sessions allowed the band to experiment in the studio and further augment their sound with unusual instrumentation and sonic manipulation. Botnick said that the Doors were determined to pursue "new techniques of recording. No holds barred."

Unlike The Doors, Strange Days incorporates various instruments, ranging from marimba to Moog synthesizer, which has been described as one of the first uses of the synth in rock music history. The contribution of the synthesizer was programmed with the help of Paul Beaver and played by lead singer Jim Morrison. Session musician Doug Lubahn occasionally played bass during the recording of the album.

The band explored musique concrète techniques during the album's recording sessions.

While recording "Unhappy Girl" for example, keyboardist Ray Manzarek played his keyboard introduction backwards, and the corresponding overdubs were later made. On the track "Horse Latitudes", Botnick took the white noise of a tape recorder and varied the speed by hand-winding it (resulting in a sound akin to wind) as the four band members played a variety of instruments in unusual ways. Further varispeed was then employed to create different timbres and effects.

Also recorded during the album sessions are the songs "Summer's Almost Gone" and "We Could Be So Good Together", both of which were ultimately left off the album but included on the subsequent album, Waiting for the Sun in 1968.

Composition

Strange Days has been described alternately by music critics as acid rock, psychedelic pop, psychedelic rock, or simply psychedelia; Barney Hoskyns labeled it as "post-psychedelic pop". Several of the album's songs had been written around the same time as the ones that appeared on The Doors. Two ("My Eyes Have Seen You" and "Moonlight Drive") had been demoed in 1965 at Trans World Pacific Studios before Robby Krieger joined the group; indeed, the latter had been conceived by Morrison prior to his fateful reunion with Manzarek in the summer of 1965. Although the song was attempted twice during the sessions for the band's debut, both versions were deemed unsatisfactory. A conventional blues arrangement, "Moonlight Drive" features a defining slightly off-beat rhythm and Krieger's bottleneck guitar, which create an eerie sound.

The LP's first single, "People Are Strange", was composed in early 1967 after Krieger, drummer John Densmore, and a depressed Morrison had walked to the top of Laurel Canyon. Densmore recalled the song's writing process in his book Riders on the Storm: Densmore and Krieger, who had then been roommates, were visited by a seemingly dejected Morrison. At the suggestion of Densmore, they took a walk along Laurel Canyon. Morrison returned from the walk "euphoric" with the early lyrics of "People Are Strange".

Although Morrison was the Doors' primary songwriter, Krieger wrote several of the group's hit singles, with his first composition being "Light My Fire". His bluesy "Love Me Two Times" was about a soldier/sailor on his last day with his girlfriend before shipping out, ostensibly to war. Manzarek said lyrically the song can be about "lust and loss, or multiple orgasms, I'm not sure which." Manzarek played the final version of this song on a harpsichord, which Manzarek described as "a most elegant instrument that one does not normally associate with rock and roll." It was edited to a 2:37 length and released as the second single (after "People Are Strange") from the album, and reached No. 25 on the charts in the US. Upon release, "Love Me Two Times" was considered to be somewhat risqué for radio airplay, and was banned in New Haven, Connecticut, for being "too controversial", much to the dismay of the band.