Artist: Doors, The
Label: Atlantic Records
Release: 1969
Rating: 3/5
The fourth album, The Soft Parade, is the least like a record that The Doors would actually put out, and it clearly suffers above all from the lack of involvement of its key man Jim Morrison, who was getting less and less interested in being in the band as he turned his thoughts mainly to poetry and film. Even more troubling, his drug and alcohol abuse had snowballed to the point where their producer was forced to take the reins himself. A lot of the headaches during the recording came from the Miami show, where Morrison supposedly incited the crowd to riot and even exposed himself in public, which kept him tied up in court most of the time. Interestingly, this is also the first time the lyric writing is split evenly between Morrison and Krieger — in fact, the songs on the album are strictly divided by author. You’ll also notice that all of Krieger’s tracks are decked out with orchestral arrangements, while Morrison’s have none.
The Soft Parade is definitely an atypical album for The Doors, and as the title itself hints, it’s downright “soft.” The title track “The Soft Parade” is a kind of return to the typical longer masterpieces like “The End” and is one of the brighter spots on this album. Musically it’s very varied, with sections of jazz, rock and even some Oriental passages. “Shaman’s Blues” expresses Morrison’s fascination with shamanism, which he often identified with, and the message of the song is about his longing to escape real life into some other, mystical world. In obvious contrast to those two is Krieger’s politically provocative “Tell All The People,” which Morrison absolutely hated because it went against his beliefs. Musically it was fleshed out with trombone, oboe and saxophone, the latter played by well-known Texas saxophonist Curtis Amy. Answering it is Morrison’s “Wild Child,” easily the only track that comes anywhere near what you could call the old Doors. It’s hypnotic, with a touch of menace, and shows Morrison’s devotion to blues music. “Wishful Sinful,” with its love/hate, good/evil themes, is another of Krieger’s compositions, with a full orchestral sound that’s fantastic in itself, just not for a band like The Doors. The track “Runnin’ Blue,” dedicated to the late Otis Redding, is very hard to pin down, a sort of mix of soul and country with touches of R&B and the sound of a mandolin. It’s also special because Krieger takes the lead vocal, with Morrison only joining him on the chorus. The only collaboration between the two is “Do it,” which is just the same phrase repeated over and over on top of dry musical backing. Nothing special either about the bouncy “Easy Ride,” with its country flavor and Morrison’s downright goofy vocals. One of the biggest hits, though, was “Touch Me,” which, like all of Krieger’s other songs, is backed by orchestral instruments, among them a surprising sax solo from Curtis Amy.
With The Soft Parade the band wanted to break into the mass market, but lost most of its real fans in the process. They were probably blinded by the popularity of Blood, Sweat and Tears, who were famous everywhere for adding an orchestral sound. Their expectation of success still looks questionable, though, with no input whatsoever from the band’s most important member, who firmly resisted the whole thing.
Lineup
Jim Morrison: vocals
Robbie Krieger: guitar
John Densmore: drums
Ray Manzarek: keyboards
Production
Paul A. Rothchild
Tracklist
1. Tell All The People
2. Touch Me
3. Shaman’s Blues
4. Do It
5. Easy Ride
6. Wild Child
7. Runnin’ Blue
8. Wishful Sinful
9. The Soft Parade
