THE DOORS - STRANGE DAYS @ 55

 

Released 55 years ago today, it’s the sophomore LP by The Doors, Strange Days, which was issued on September 25th, 1967. While its popularity was muted by the towering success of the group’s debut, creatively, it takes more chances and pushes the group into new artistic territory.

Part of the impetus for the experimentation employed for Strange Days was the receipt of an advance copy of The Beatles Sgt. Pepper album. The Doors were blown away by what they heard on Sgt. Pepper and immediately committed to pushing themselves in the studio for their next release. Technically, this was aided by being able to record on a state of the art 8 track system, which opened up a new range of production possibilities. The group and their production team also employed a wide range of experimental techniques such as vari-speed recording (changing the record/playback speeds of tracks to alter their pitch and tone) back-masking (reversing the direction of the tape) and incorporating unusual instrumentation. This included the use of the MOOG synthesizer system, which was - along with The Monkees on Daily Nightly & Star Collector in the same year, one of the first uses of the instrument in pop music. The band made every effort to explore new instruments and techniques wherever they could.

Upon its release, it sold and charted very well, but the shadow cast by their debut was impossible to escape and inevitably gave the follow-up a perception of being less successful. The fact that many of the songs on their second album were around during the recording of the first album gave some the impression that the best of the batch had been cherry-picked for their debut. But the reality is that Strange Days only lacks in comparison and, taken on its own merits, is a remarkably crafted example of psychedelic music which eschews the usual cliches of the genre and establishes itself with its own distinctive voice.