The Doors went right back into the studio to work out the alienation and experimentation of their second-ring circus sideshow. Like their eponymous debut, 'Strange Days' was recorded at at Sunset Sound Recorders in Hollywood. Many of the songs had been written during the same period as the songs on the first album. Robby Kreiger remembers: "We were ready. We had tons of material for the first two albums...Paul Rothchild, our producer, was a real perfectionist...It really differed from album to album. On the first one, he just turned on the mic and stepped out of the way. The second album, when we actually had a budget, Paul really got involved in the sound...One time, we were getting ready to leave for the night and Jim didn’t want to stop because he was feeling good. He kept saying, 'Man, I want to play all night.' But we were all tired and wanted to go home. Jim finally left, but he came back half an hour later, climbed over the fence, broke into the studio, took out the fire extinguisher and sprayed it into the piano and all over everything. It was quite a surprise in the morning."
Ray Manzarek proclaims: "'Strange Days': That was my favorite album to do, to perform, to play in the studio because we went from four tracks to eight tracks. We had a super recorder with one inch of tape and eight tracks. So everything we did on the first album we could do on the second album, and still have four more tracks for experimentation. So we just had the grandest time, and that was when Robbie and I learned to utilize a recording studio. Up until that time we were just novices. The first album is just straight ahead, Whiskey a Go Go, burning kickass rock and roll. But on the second album, we’re the mad scientists in the laboratory. So I love that album, that’s my favorite album."
John Densmore admits: "I'm still not real crazy about the first album. The second album I like a lot because we were more relaxed in the studio and we were experimenting a lot. Each of us individually had played for years and Jim had read every book written so he was certainly a word man. When Ray and I met we talked about Coltrane and Miles and we had the same influences. When we played it all came together real quick. Recently, I went to hear Elvin Jones who was John Coltrane s drummer. I gave him my book backstage. I was pretty nervous because jazz is such an art form and it was possible that he would look down at rock 'n' roll. I said to him, 'I wrote in here that you gave me my hands.' And he was so sweet and appreciative that it made my day. Oh man, it felt great just to give something back to somebody. I copied every lick of his and could play his style exactly. I didn't play his style on Doors records but that was my roots, it gave me my technique."
Jim Morrison pronounced at the time: "I hated that cover on the first album. So I said, 'I don't want to be on this cover. Where is that? Put a chick on it or something. Let's have a dandelion or a design.' The title, 'Strange Days' came and everybody said yeah, 'cause that was where we were, what was happening. It was so right. Originally, I wanted us in a room surrounded by about thirty dogs, but that was impossible 'cause we couldn't get the dogs and everybody was saying, 'What do you want dogs for?' And I said that it was symbolic that it spelled God backwards. Finally we ended up leaving it up to the art director and the photographer. We wanted some real freaks though, and he came out with a typical sideshow thing. It looked European. It was better than having our fucking faces on it, though...The mentality of the writer is like the 'psychology' of the voyeur. Journalists never seem to speak about themselves like other people do. They absorb like a sponge and never really discuss their own psyche. I think that. . .like. . .I think art, which is like beauty, is the revelation of beauty, beauty is an absolute, you dig? And I think it's rooted in a disinterested perception of the real world. Striking an evenness, a balance between object and receiver, like revealing the world with no connotation at all. None, no bullshit. You know when you've done it, and if you haven't, you are still on the way. But me, if I get something really good, I'm gonna lay it out, do you dig? But a lot of it gets into that 'He was standing there on the street step with his eyeball exposed.' My perspective when people ask me questions is like I tell them where it's at over and over and over again. Me, me, me. . .But then, that's only part of it, part of the thing; not the whole answer. There's a little more to it than that. Yeah, like I think that there is a sub-world in which everybody is sleeping. This whole other world that everybody's trying to forget, but which we remember, immediately everybody knows it. But people love the game. The Game. They really dig it and nobody is supposed to admit that it's a game. They won't. If they did, then they would ruin the game."
'Strange Days' only charted at number ten in France and number three in the US; but it has been certified platinum in Canada and the US, gold in Germany and the UK, and twice gold in France.
http://www.thedoors.com/
'Love Me Two Times' hit number twenty-five in the US and seven in Canada.
'People Are Strange' went to number twelve in the US, nine in New Zealand, and six in Canada.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3CHi_9sxj0
'Strange Days'
full album:
1.Strange Days 0:00
2.You're Lost Little Girl 3:10
3.Love Me Two Times 6:13
4.Unhappy Girl 9:30
5.Horse Latitudes 11:30
6.Moonlight Drive 13:06
7.People Are Strange 16:10
8.My Eyes Have Seen You 18:22
9.I Can't See Your Face In My Mind 20:52
10.When The Music's Over 24:19
