Strange Days is the second studio album by American rock band the Doors, released on September 25, 1967 by Elektra Records. The album was a commercial success, reaching number 3 on the US Billboard 200, and eventually earning RIAA platinum certification. The album contains the Top 30 hit singles “People Are Strange” and “Love Me Two Times”.
Strange Days was recorded during tour breaks between May 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 cutting-edge 8-track recording machine. The protracted sessions allowed the band to experiment in the studio and further augment their otherworldly sound with unusual instrumentation and sonic manipulation. According to Botnick, this approach was inspired by the band obtaining an advance copy of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album and “absolutely flipping out” at what they heard. Botnick said that, following the Beatles’ example, the Doors were determined to pursue “new techniques of recording. No holds barred.”
Developed with the assistance of Paul Beaver, the title track constitutes one of the earliest uses of a Moog synthesizer in rock. On the Morrison poem “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. The band also explored musique concrète techniques on the album.
Session musician Douglass Lubahn played bass during the recording of the album.[3]
Composition
Several of the songs on Strange Days 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 Krieger joined the group; indeed, the latter had been conceived by Morrison prior to his fateful reunion with Manzarek in the summer of 1965.[4] 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”‘s defining features were its 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.[6] 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 dejected Morrison, who was acting “deeply depressed.” 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”.
The Doors, live at the Fog, London, 1966
Although Morrison was the Doors’ primary lyricist, Robby Krieger wrote several of the group’s hit singles, with his first composition being “Light My Fire”. According to band members, 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 described the song as “Robby’s great blues/rock classic about lust and lost, or multiple orgasms, I’m not sure which.” In 1997, Krieger stated to Guitar World’s Alan Paul that the musical idea for “Love Me Two Times” came from a lick from a Danny Kalb album. Manzarek played the final version of this song on a harpsichord, not a clavichord. Manzarek described the instrument 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 that album, and reached No. 25 on the charts in the US. “Love Me Two Times” was considered to be somewhat risqué for radio airplay, being banned in New Haven for being “too controversial,” much to the dismay of the band.
The album concludes with the 11 minute-long epic, “When the Music’s Over”.
The album cover of Strange Days, photographed by Joel Brodsky, depicts a group of street performers in New York. The location of the photograph is at Sniffen Court, a residential alley next to East 36th Street between Lexington and Third Avenue in Manhattan. The availability of such performers pictured was low, so Brodsky’s assistant stood in as a juggler while a random cab driver was paid $5 to pose playing the trumpet. Twin dwarfs were hired, with one appearing on the front cover and one appearing on the back cover, which is the other half of the same photo on the front cover. However, a group shot of the band does appear on a poster in the background of both covers, bearing captions of the band and album name. (The same photograph previously appeared on the back cover of the band’s debut album.) Because of the subtlety of the artist and album title, most record stores put stickers across the cover to help customers identify it more clearly.
Strange Days was released on September 25, 1967 by Elektra Records. Although the album was quite successful, reaching No. 3 in the United States during a sixty-three-week chart stay in November 1967, its impact was attenuated by the enduring success of the band’s debut album, which remained in the Top Ten over ten months after its release during a 122-week stay. According to producer Paul Rothchild, “We all thought it was the best album. Significantly, it was also the one with the weakest sales. We were confident it was going to be bigger than anything The Beatles had done. But there was no single. The record died on us.”
Personnel:
John Densmore (drums)
Robby Krieger (guitar)
Ray Manzarek (keyboards, harpsichord background vocals on 07.)
Jim Morrison (vocals, percussion, synthesizer on 07.)
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Douglas Lubahn (bass)
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background vocals on 07.:
Paul A. Rothchild –Bruce Botnick
Tracklist:
01. Strange Days 3.09
02. You’re Lost Little Girl 3.03
03. Love Me Two Times 3.170
04. Unhappy Girl 2.00
05. Horse Latitudes 1.35
06. Moonlight Drive 3.04
07. People Are Strange 2.12
08. My Eyes Have Seen You 2.30
09. I Can’t See Your Face In My Mind 3.27
10. When The Music’s Over 10.59
All songs written – Jim Morrison – Ray Manzarek – Robby Krieger – John Densmore
It Always Will Be is the fifty-second studio album by country singer Willie Nelson. It includes a cover of the Allman Brothers Band’s “Midnight Rider”, recorded here as a duet with Toby Keith. This cover was released, but did not chart. (by wikipedia)
This gem is one of the few available shows from this time period, probably the most productive of their career (coming on the heels of arguably their best albums, Village Green Preservation Society and Arthur, both of which were complete failures in the U.S.). This show was one of their first in the States after the ban barring them from appearing in the U.S. was lifted (after almost 4 years!). The exact reason for the ban by the American Federation of Musicians was never made quite clear (even to this day), but Ray and the boys did not perform in the U.S from 1966 through most of 1969. Anyway, here in their appearance at the the Fillmore West, the band was in fine form, and they delivered a very eclectic set that scattered some of their hits (‘Tired of Waiting’, ‘You Really Got Me’, ‘Till the End of the Day’, ‘Well-Respected Man’) with numerous relatively obscure album tracks (‘Your Looking Fine’, ‘Big Sky’, ‘Mr. Churchill Says’, ‘Brainwashed’, etc), that were virtually unknown in the U.S., and were not often performed in concert in subsequent years. So enjoy this unique taste of ’60’s-era Kinks. (bbchron.blogspot.com)
The Kinks, live in 1969
Kathleen Alice Mattea (born June 21, 1959) is an American country music and bluegrass singer. Active since 1984 as a recording artist, she has charted more than thirty singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, including four that reached No. 1: “Goin’ Gone”, “Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses”, “Come from the Heart”, and “Burnin’ Old Memories”, plus twelve more that charted within the top ten. She has released fourteen studio albums, two Christmas albums, and one greatest hits album. Most of her material was recorded for Universal Music Group Nashville’s Mercury Records Nashville division between 1984 and 2000, with later albums being issued on Narada Productions, her own Captain Potato label, and Sugar Hill Records. Among her albums, she has received five gold certifications and one platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). She has collaborated with Dolly Parton, Michael McDonald, Tim O’Brien, and her husband, Jon Vezner. Mattea is also a two-time Grammy Award winner: in 1990 for “Where’ve You Been”, and in 1993 for her Christmas album Good News. Her style is defined by traditional country, bluegrass, folk, and Celtic music influences.
Over the last seven years the Chicago Jazz Festival clearly has become the best-programmed, most consistently exciting jazz event in the country – one that attracts Chicagoans of all races, ages and income levels and knits them together into a big swinging family.
Alternate front cover
Wendy Orlean Williams (28 May 1949 – 6 April 1998) was an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Born in Webster, New York, she came to prominence as the lead singer of the punk rock band Plasmatics. Her onstage theatrics included partial nudity, exploding equipment, firing a shotgun, and chainsawing guitars. Dubbed the “Queen of Shock Rock” and the “Metal Priestess”, Williams was considered the most controversial and radical female singer of her time. Performing her own stunts in videos, she often sported a mohawk hairstyle. In 1985, during the height of her popularity as a solo artist, she was nominated for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance.
Candy Goes to Hollywood. That year manager Rod Swenson recruited her to the Plasmatics and the two became romantically involved. The band quickly became known on the local underground scene, performing at clubs such as CBGB.
Plasmatics Media and Powerage). (by wikipedia)
