Wednesday, December 31, 2008

The Unknown Soldier

Wait until the war is over
And we're both a little older
The unknown soldier

Breakfast where the news is read
Television children fed
Unborn living, living, dead
Bullet strikes the helmet's head

And it's all over
For the unknown soldier
It's all over
For the unknown soldier

Hut
Hut
Hut ho hee up
Hut
Hut
Hut ho hee up
Hut
Hut
Hut ho hee up
Comp'nee
Halt
Preeee-zent!
Arms!

Make a grave for the unknown soldier
Nestled in your hollow shoulder
The unknown soldier

Breakfast where the news is read
Television children fed
Bullet strikes the helmet's head

And, it's all over
The war is over
It's all over
The war is over
Well, all over, baby
All over, baby
Oh, over, yeah
All over, baby
Wooooo, hah-hah
All over
All over, baby
Oh, whoa-yeah
All over
All over
Heeeeyyyy




- More time was consumed by the pefectionism of Paul Rothchild. Nearly every song on the album required at least twenty takes- admittedly a lot of the blown takes where Jim's fault- while "The Unknown Soldier," recorded in two parts required a total of 130 starts. (pg. 179, No One Here Gets Out Alive)

- Jim Morrison's father (George Stephen Morrison) was the youngest admiral in the U.S. Navy until 1964.

-
Jim Morrison would graduate high school in 1960 from George Washington High School in Alexandria, Virginia - not too far from the tomb of the Unknown Soldiers in Arlington National Cemetary.

- "
Breakfast where the news is read, television children fed" Jim Morrison is referring to the late 60's and how the Vietnam War was the first "living-room war." Each and every household in the United States received daily news of the Vietnam War via the local newspapers, or aired daily on television sets everywhere- particularly in front of the children.

-
The Saigon bureau was for years the third largest the networks maintained, after New York and Washington, with five camera crews on duty most of the time. Reference

- "
Unborn living, living, dead" This has absolutely nothing to do with abortion. It is merely a reflection of how children in the United States were being fed so much television that they were the 'unborn living,' and 'living dead' is a reflection of how they were numbed by by that entertainment.

- The song was Jim Morrison's reaction to the Vietnam War and the way that conflict was portrayed in American media at the time. Lines such as, "Breakfast where the news is read/Television children fed/ unknown living, living dead/bullets strike the helmet's head", concern the way news of the war was being presented in the living rooms of ordinary people. Reference

- The middle of the song acts out a ritual in the ancient tradition of the shaman. Morrison, the artist incarnate of the shamanic spirit, sacrifices himself in a ritual – one of military execution, the firing squad – to purge us of the burden of war. Then he softly invites us to make a grave for all this death. The song recants the breakfast and television fed images, but Jim doesn’t repeat unborn living, living dead, allowing the listener to fill in that hollow space before the bullet hits the helmet’s head and The Doors close by chanting that the war is over. Reference

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