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Rating: I love this album..
It is dark, wrapped in cold clouds, it is an album with no way out.
No way out like a labyrinth, a labyrinth of solitude, where alienation in the face of a foreign and therefore frightening reality is tackled without rhetoric and without pathetic embellishments, a reality that is a non-reality, a reality that, as Jim would say, lent itself as "a common hostess you took to bed", a reality that invites discovery and then prostrates itself in the quality of death.
"Strange days have found us," strange days have indeed found us, and that's already saying everything. The little man who is alone, the man "orphan of God," thrown into the world, begins his process of self-destruction, a self-destruction that starts from the subconscious, that starts "from crossing those doors of perception" so frequently cited by Aldous Huxley and William Blake, a self-destruction consisting of wiping the slate clean of the prejudices, disputes, and moralism of society, a self-destruction that is actually a new beginning, a saying yes to life, the pursuit of sublimation and derangement of the senses, in order to perceive every form of emotion, to accept every form of pain.
Yes because pain is part of life, accepting it means accepting life, and this Morrison seems to have understood well and thus in the portraits of "You are lost little girl", "Love me two times" and "Unhappy girl" he takes care to describe, sometimes with a touch of sincere emotion, sometimes with a cold and ruthless detachment, the pain and suffering of others, these are desolate, decadent episodes that leave no room for any commiseration, for any blame.. "you will die in a prison you built yourself"..
The words of this album's lyrics are heavy as boulders but, as often happens with the "Doors", they are lifted by the musical fabric, in a wonderful interpenetration, reaching truly impeccable levels on the album in question.
It starts again with "horse latitudes", once again with death as the protagonist, the death of the day with the night, the search for infinity that unfolds in the drowning of horses that, thrown into the sea to lighten the weight of the boat, flounder and thrash their limbs in the sea while their dilated nostrils exhale their last breaths, images again incredibly powerful, images of the end. "Moonlight drive" is not just a song, this "rock tango," initially harmless, is actually a mix of hallucinated colors, a madly gushing fountain, an invitation, once more, to go further, an invitation to sink into the darkness of the night, an invitation to live.. "down, down, down, below."
"People are strange" exemplifies, as if it were still necessary, the superb lyrical abilities of Morrison: a few verses, short but concise, mark the most total alienation, walking precariously on a cold wire, walking with one's head down among people, an estrangement that, however, allows things to be seen as they really are, an estrangement that allows one to rise above life's rains and look darkness in the face. After the cabaret-like tones of the previous track, and after the frantic "My eyes have seen you" and the funereal "I can't see your face in my mind" comes the masterpiece of the album, that "When the music's over", worthy counterpart of the Oedipal "The end" from the first album.
Lights off, a few organ notes with a bit of a jazz flavor, Ray's bass line on keyboards, the drum's tam-tam and then, Jim's cry at the top of his lungs.. "the Superman fears nothing, he dances in the fire and plays with death" these words from the German philosopher Nietzsche perfectly match this musical-theatrical composition, Jim knows very well that morality is the brain's weakness and doesn't fall into easy ethical stereotypes, he renounces resurrection to waltz the bacchanalian mazurka of Manzarek's organ, and thus the piece takes on the semblance of a purification ritual supervised by the god Dionysus, Jim gazes into the abyss, just as he will let the abyss gaze into him, and all this until the end. When the music's over.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
04 Unhappy Girl (02:00)
You're lost little girl
You're lost little girl
You're lost
Tell me who
Are you?
I think that you know what to do
Impossible? Yes, but it's true
I think that you know what to do, yeah
I'm sure that you know what to do
You're lost little girl
You're lost little girl
You're lost
Tell me who
Are you?
I think that you know what to do
Impossible? Yes, but it's true
I think that you know what to do, girl
I'm sure that you know what to do
You're lost little girl
You're lost little girl
You're lost
05 Horse Latitudes (01:35)
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
06 Moonlight Drive (03:02)
Let's swim to the moon
Let's climb through the tide
Penetrate the evening that the
City sleeps to hide
Let's swim out tonight love
It's our time to try
Park besides the ocean
On our moonlight drive
Let's swim to the moon
Let's climb through the tide
Surrender to the waking world that
Laps against our side
Nothing left open and
No time to decide
We'll stop into a river
On our moonlight drive
Let's swim to the moon
Let's climb through the tide
You'll reach your hand to hold me
But I can't be your guide
It's easy to 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
Come on, down by the oceanside
Gonna get real close, get real tight
Baby, gonna drown tonight
Gonna drown, drown, drown
07 People Are Strange (02:12)
People are strange when you're a stranger
Faces look ugly when you're alone
Women seem wicked when you're unwanted
Streets are uneven when you're down
When you're strange
Faces come out of the rain
When you're strange
No one remembers your name
When you're strange
When you're strange
When you're strange
People are strange when you're a stranger
Faces look ugly when you're alone
Women seem wicked when you're unwanted
Streets are uneven when you're down
When you're strange
Faces come out of the rain
When you're strange
No one remembers your name
When you're strange
When you're strange
When you're strange
Alright, yeah
When you're strange
Faces come out of the rain
When you're strange
No one remembers your name
When you're strange
When you're strange
When you're strange
08 My Eyes Have Seen You (02:29)
My eyes have seen you
My eyes have seen you
My eyes have seen you
Stand in your door
Meet inside
Show me some more
Show me some more
Show me some more
My eyes have seen you
My eyes have seen you
My eyes have seen you
Turn and stare
Fix your hair
Move upstairs
Move upstairs
Move upstairs
My eyes have seen you
My eyes have seen you
My eyes have seen you
Free from disguise
Gazing on a city
Under television skies
Television skies
Television skies
My eyes have seen you
My eyes have seen you
Eyes have seen you
Let them photograph your soul
Memorize your alleys
On an endless roll
Endless roll
Endless roll
Endless roll
Endless roll
Endless roll
Endless roll
Endless roll
Endless roll
Endless roll
Endless roll
Endless roll
Endless roll
Endless roll
09 I Can't See Your Face in My Mind (03:26)
I can't see your face in my mind
I can't see your face in my mind
Carnival dogs consume the lines
Can't see your face in my mind
Don't you cry
Baby, please don't cry
And don't look at me with your eyes
I can't seem to find the right lie
I can't seem to find the right lie
Insanity's horse adorns the sky
Can't seem to find the right lie
Carnival dogs consume the lines
Can't see your face in my mind
Don't you cry
Baby, please don't cry
I won't need your picture until we say goodbye
10 When the Music's Over (10:56)
When the music's over
When the music's over, yeah
When the music's over
Turn out the lights
Turn out the lights
Turn out the lights
When the music's over
When the music's over
When the music's over
Turn out the lights
Turn out the lights
Turn out the lights
For the music is your special friend
Dance on fire as it intends
Music is your only friend
Until the end
Until the end
Until the end
Cancel my subscription to the resurrection
Send my credentials to the house of detention
I got some friends inside
The face in the mirror won't stop
The girl in the window won't drop
A feast of friends, alive she cried
Waiting for me
Outside
Before I sink into the big sleep
I want to hear
I want to hear
The scream of the butterfly
Come back, baby
Back into my arms
We're getting tired of hangin' around
Waitin' around with our heads to the ground
I hear a very gentle sound
Very near yet very far
Very soft yet very clear
Come today
Come today
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!
Persian night, babe
See the light, babe
Save us, Jesus
Save us
So when the music's over
When the music's over, yeah
When the music's over
Turn out the lights
Turn out the lights
Turn out the lights
Well the music is your special friend
Dance on fire as it intends
Music is your only friend
Until the end
Until the end
Until the end
Eh? Okay, let's do one more.
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Other reviews
By Grasshopper
"Strange Days manages not to make us miss its predecessor too much."
"The absolute, breathless despair of 'The End' is replaced by a hard and concrete rage in 'When The Music's Over.'"
By expresuntuoso
"An atmosphere like a haunted house with a voice that seems to sing through a megaphone underwater."
"When you’re strange, no one remembers your name..."
By joe strummer
The piano is the absolute protagonist in creating the hypnosis; the words perfectly fit into the musical fabric giving life to something subliminal.
‘Cancel my subscription to the resurrection’ is the emblematic phrase, Morrison leads us to explore the depths of the subconscious.
By Alevox
"Jim Morrison is no longer a singer: he is an angel of the apocalypse."
"Strange Days found them at the height of theatrical and poetic expression, capturing the anomaly beneath the era's surface."
By paolofreddie
Jim is a cursed rock poet, a solitary author who reads books by Blake and writes poem after poem, song after song.
"When the Music's Over," a love declaration from Jim to music (music is your only friend until the end).
