Arnold Layne

Arnold Layne had a strange hobby
Collecting clothes
Moonshine washing line
They suit him fine
On the wall hung a tall mirror
Distorted view, see through baby blue - he dug it
Oh, Arnold Layne
It's not the same, takes two to know
Two to know, two to know
Why can't you see?
Arnold Layne, Arnold Layne, Arnold Layne, Arnold Layne
Now he's caught - a nasty sort of person.
They gave him time
Doors bang - chain gang - he hates it
Oh, Arnold Layne
It's not the same, takes two to know
Two to know, two to know
Why can't you see?
Arnold Layne, Arnold Layne, Arnold Layne, Arnold Layne
Don't do it again



- Although it was not included on the band's first album, this is the first single released by the band.

- The single reached #9 on the record charts for 1967. Reference

- This is the band's alternative promotional film, which featured the band goofing around in a forest and in front of a church. It is also the only known footage of Syd Barrett lip syncing to the song.



- "Arnold Layne had a strange hobby, collecting clothes, moonshine washing line, they suit him fine" - The song's title character is a transvestite whose primary pastime is stealing women's clothes and undergarments from washing lines. According to Roger Waters, "Arnold Layne" was actually based on a real person, and that this person routinely stole underwear from the mothers of (Syd) Barrett and Waters during their childhood days in Cambridge.

- Despite finding a place in the Top 20, the song's unusual transvestism theme attracted the ire of Radio London, which deemed the song too far-removed from "normal" society for its listeners before eventually banning it from radio airplay altogether.

-It took (Joe) Boyd 40 years to discover the song's origins - too late to include them in his book.

"After the book came out [in England], I was on the phone with Nick Mason from Floyd," Boyd says. "He told me that Syd Barrett's and Roger Waters' mothers used a room in each of their houses as a boardinghouse for students. And girl students in the house means underwear in the washing machine or on the line. So they grew up with this image, and then there was a case in Cambridge of some guy caught stealing lingerie. All of this was going on while Syd and Roger were 13, 14, 15. And they get to be 19, 20, and it turns into a song - "Arnold Layne." Reference

Astronomy Domine

Lime and limpid green
A second scene
A fight between the blue you once knew
Floating down the sound resounds around the icy waters underground
Jupiter and Saturn
Oberon, Miranda, Titania,
Neptune titan stars can frighten
Blinding signs flap
flicka flicka flicka blam pow
Stairway scare, Dan Dare, who's there?
Lime and limpid green, the sound surrounds the icy waters underground
Lime and limpid green, the sound surrounds the icy waters underground



- Its working title was "Astronomy Dominé (An Astral Chant)", although the accented "é" is an improper spelling. "Domine" ("Lord" in Latin) is a word frequently quoted in Gregorian chants.

- Domine

- As of 2008, Uranus is known to possess 13 inner moons. Their orbits lie inside that of Miranda. All inner moons are intimately connected to the rings of Uranus, which probably resulted from the fragmentation of one or several small inner moons. Uranus has five major moons: Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania and Oberon. The first two moons to be discovered, Titania and Oberon,

- William Herschel, instead of assigning names from Greek mythology, named the moons after magical spirits in English literature: the fairies Oberon and Titania from William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream

- The song opens with the voice of the band's manager at the time Peter Jenner, reading the names of stars through a megaphone. The intention of this opening is to replicate the feeling of outer space, with Jenner's voice sounding like an astronaut's over an intercom. Reference

- At 0:26, (Nick) Mason's distinctive drum fills emerge, followed closely by (Syd) Barrett's bluesy, sinister-sounding guitar (perhaps reminiscent of Duane Eddy) in a figure suggestive of the brass motif from "Mars, the Bringer of War" in (Gustav) Holst's The Planets.



- (Video of Gustav Holst's "Mars, the Bringer of War")

- The last time the song was ever performed with Roger Waters was on 20th June, 1971 at the Palaeur, Rome, Italy.

Riders on the Storm

Riders on the storm
Riders on the storm
Into this house we're born
Into this world we're thrown
Like a dog without a bone
An actor out on loan
Riders on the storm.

There's a killer on the road
His brain is squirming like a toad
Take a long holiday
Let your children play
If you give this man a ride
Sweet family will die
Killer on the road, yeah.

Girl you gotta love your man
Girl you gotta love your man
Take him by the hand
Make him understand
The world on you depends
Our life will never end
Gotta love your man, yeah.

Riders on the storm
Riders on the storm
Into this house we're born
Into this world we're thrown
Like a dog without a bone
An actor out on loan
Riders on the storm.

Riders on the storm (X4)



- "Riders on the Storm" According to band member Robby Krieger, it was inspired by the song, "(Ghost) Riders in the Sky: A Cowboy Legend".

- This is the Johnny Cash version of the song, "Ghost Riders in the Sky"



- Lyrics of the original Stan Jones version of Ghost Riders in the Sky

- The song is played in the E Dorian mode, and incorporates real sound effects of thunder and rain, along with Ray Manzarek's Fender Rhodes electric piano playing, which emulates the sound of rain.

- Jim Morrison recorded his main vocals and then whispered the lyrics over them to create the haunting effect. Reference

- The song's lyrics allude in part to the notorious spree killer Billy Cook, who posed as a hitchhiker and murdered an entire family. ("There's a killer on the road... // His brain is squirmin' like a toad... ") According to a widespread urban legend the song was conceived as an allusion to a tragic accident caused by another car's reckless driving, ending in several deaths of Navajo tribesmen as his car hit a truck where they were traveling.

- The film, Hitch-Hiker, inspired by the events of Billy Cook.

-Featured on The Doors’ 1971 album LA Woman, Riders on the Storm was written by Jim Morrison and reached number 14 on the music charts. According to band member Robby Krieger, it was inspired by the Stan Jones song, (Ghost) Riders in the Sky: A Cowboy Legend. However popular myth tells us that in fact, Riders on the Storm was possibly written about three different incidents.

1. The killing spree of Billy Cook who posed as a hitchhiker and murdered an entire family – highlighted by the lyrics “There's a killer on the road, His brain is squirmin' like a toad, Take a long holiday, Let your children play, If ya give this man a ride, Sweet memory will die, Killer on the road”
2. A tragic accident involving a reckless driver and several deaths of Navajo tribesman when the car hit them head on
3. The poem, Chevaliers de l'Ouragan (literally, "Riders of the Hurricane"), by French Communist poet Louis Aragon

-Doors expert Dan Keating, suggests that “Morrison's standard joke of the word Dog spelling God backwards slides in (to the song) as does the notion that we are all but acting out a part in this life, souls on loan to this world. But this world can be harsh, evident in the sedate presentation of the deadly reality of killer hitchhikers on freeways. The imagery is blunt, and the gentle undercurrent of the song's music and lyrics now harbors the threatening edge of death.”

The lyrics, “Into this house we're born, Into this world we're thrown, Like a dog without a bone, An actor out alone, Riders on the storm,” help to illustrate Keating’s point that “Jim's message was act now, search later. Life is a journey, but any journey will be painful. Life is pain, love is pain, and fear prevents people from experiencing life, from accepting what The Doors ultimately come to realize, that we are all just Riders On The Storm”. Reference

- This was the last song Jim Morrison ever recorded.

L.A. Woman

Well....I just got into town about an hour ago
Took a look around see which way the wind blows,
See the little girls in their Hollywood bungalows.
Are you a lucky little lady in the City of Light
Or just another lost angel?
City of Night.
City of Night.
City of Night.
City of Night.
Whoo! C'mon!

L.A. Woman.
L.A. Woman.
L.A. Woman. Sunday afternoon.
L.A. Woman. Sunday afternoon.
L.A. Woman. Sunday afternoon.
Drive thru your suburbs
Into your blues.
Into your blues.
Yeah, yeah.
Into your blues.
Into your blues.
Oh!

I see your hair is burnin'.
Hills are filled with fire.
If they say I never loved you,
You know they are all liars.

Drivin' down your freeway.
Midnight alleys roam.
Cops in cars. The topless bars.
Never saw a woman
So alone.
So alone.
So alone.
So alone.

Motel. Money. Murder. Madness.
Let's change the mood from glad to sadness.

Mr. Mojo Risin'.
Mr. Mojo Risin'.
Mr. Mojo Risin'.
Mr. Mojo Risin'.
Gotta keep on risin'.
Mr. Mojo Risin'.
Mr. Mojo Risin'.
Mr. Mojo Risin'.
Mr. Mojo Risin'.
Mr. Mojo Risin'.
Gotta keep on risin'.
Risin', risin'.
Risin', risin'.
Risin', risin'.
Risin', risin'.
Risin', risin'.
Risin', risin'.

Well, I took a little downer about an hour ago
Took a look around see which way the wind blows,
See the little girls in their Hollywood bungalows.
Are you a lucky little lady in the City of Light
Or just another lost angel?
City of Night.
City of Night.
City of Night.
City of Night.
Oh! Oh!

L.A. Woman.
L.A. Woman.
L.A. Woman.
L.A. Woman.
L.A. Woman.
L.A. Woman.
L.A. Woman...



- "L.A. Woman" was Jim's (Morrison) despairing salute to Los Angeles, a city he now saw as diseased and alienated. Los Angeles was a "city of night" for Jim. (He took the phrase from a novel by John Rechy).

- "Mr. Mojo Risin'" is an anagram of Jim Morrison's name.

- "Are you a lucky little lady in the City of Light, or just another lost angel?" Refers to Jim Morrison's "cosmic mate" Pamela Courson.

- (Jim) Morrison recorded his vocals in the studio bathroom to get a fuller sound. He spent a lot of time in there anyway because of all the beer he drank during the sessions. Reference

- The Doors needed extra musicians to record 'L.A. Woman.'Jerry Scheff was brought in to play bass, Marc Benno to play guitar. Scheff and Benno were going to tour with the band, but (Jim) Morrison's death canceled those plans. Reference

-In 1970, 10 people were killed and some 400 houses destroyed when a 20-mile (32 km) wall of fire burned over a mountain ridge toward the town of Malibu and the sea. A year later, acclaimed crime writer Ross MacDonald published "The Underground Man," in which the so-called Rattlesnake Fire rages in hills as the backdrop to a murder investigation. "Unless the Santa Ana stopped blowing ... Rattlesnake might strike across the city all the way to the sea," he wrote. That same year, that The Doors released the band's evocative "L.A. Woman," featuring singer Jim Morrison intoning: "I see your hair is burning, hills are filled with fire." Reference

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

Five to One

Yeah, c'mon
Love my girl
She lookin' good
C'mon
One more

Five to one, baby
One in five
No one here gets out alive, now
You get yours, baby
I'll get mine
Gonna make it, baby
If we try

The old get old
And the young get stronger
May take a week
And it may take longer
They got the guns
But we got the numbers
Gonna win, yeah
We're takin' over
Come on!

Yeah!

Your ballroom days are over, baby
Night is drawing near
Shadows of the evening crawl across the years
Ya walk across the floor with a flower in your hand
Trying to tell me no one understands
Trade in your hours for a handful dimes
Gonna' make it, baby, in our prime

Come together one more time
Get together one more time
Get together one more time
Get together, aha
Get together one more time!
Get together one more time!
Get together one more time
Get together one more time
Get together, gotta, get together

Ohhhhhhhh!

Hey, c'mon, honey
You won't have a long wait for me, baby
I'll be there in just a little while
You see, I gotta go out in this car with these people and...

Get together one more time
Get together one more time
Get together, got to
Get together, got to
Get together, got to
Take you up in my room and...
Hah-hah-hah-hah-hah
Love my girl
She lookin' good, lookin' real good
Love ya, c'mon



- The song took its title from the first line, "Five to One," a statistic that went unexplained by Jim.

- Statistics between 1960-1969

• Population 177,830,000
• Unemployment 3,852,000
• National Debt 286.3 Billion
• Average Salary $4,743
• Teacher's Salary $5,174
• Minimum Wage $1.00
• Life Expectancy: Males 66.6 years, Females 73.1 years
• Auto deaths 21.3 per 100,000
• An estimated 850,000 "war baby" freshmen enter college; emergency living quarters are set up in dorm lounges, hotels and trailer camps.

The sixties were the age of youth, as 70 million children from the post-war baby boom became teenagers and young adults. The movement away from the conservative fifties continued and eventually resulted in revolutionary ways of thinking and real change in the cultural fabric of American life. No longer content to be images of the generation ahead of them, young people wanted change. The changes affected education, values, lifestyles, laws, and entertainment. Many of the revolutionary ideas which began in the sixties are continuing to evolve today. Reference

- Paul Rothchild's theory is that, "Five to one is the same as one in six, the approximate ratio of blacks to whites in the U.S., and one in five I remember being reported as the dope-smoking ratio in Los Angeles." But whenever he was asked, Jim (Morrison) would only say that he didn't consider the song political. (pg 152, No One Here Gets Out Alive)

- Listened to in its entirety, the song seems to be a parody of all the naive revolutionary rhetoric heard on the streets and read in the underground press in the late sixties This interpretation is strongly supported by the final verse, the verse Jim's audience paid little attention to. In it Jim addressed some of the young people in his constituency, the "hippie/flower child" hordes he saw in growing numbers, panhandling on the city sidewalks outside every concert hall.

Your ballroom days are over, baby
Night is drawing near
Shadows of the evening crawl across the years
Ya walk across the floor with a flower in your hand
Trying to tell me no one understands
Trade in your hours for a handful dimes
Gonna' make it, baby, in our prime
(pg 152, No One Here Gets Out Alive)

- He (Jim Morrison) was so drunk when he recorded this song, he needed help from the studio staff on when to begin singing. If you listen closely, you can hear someone in the background say "One more" before Jim starts his first verse. The opening part ("Yeah, c'mon - I love my girl. She lookin' good...") is some of Jim's nonsensical drunk rambling. Reference

- The song's most famous performance was at the 1969 Miami concert at the Dinner Key Auditorium. Towards the end of the performance, a drunken Morrison declared the audience "idiots" and "slaves". The concert would end with Morrison being accused of "attempting to incite a riot" among the concert goers, resulting in his arrest, and later conviction, for indecent exposure.

Author's Note: The above paragraph stated that this event occurred "towards the end of the performance" when rather it was actually near the beginning of the performance as evidenced by the link to the live recording I posted.

- If the lyric "Five to one" is taken to be the mathematical odds against "getting out of here alive," then the next line, "One in five" is incorrect. Five-to-one odds against success represents a one-in-six chance. "Four to one" would correspond to "One in five." Reference

- One of the more common interpretations was that "Five to One" was about the Vietnam War, the title a reference to the oft-repeated statistic that the Viet Cong forces outnumbered American troops by a ratio of five to one. Reference

- Most likely Morrison selected the song's title not because it echoed a ratio that had any particular referent, but simply because he like the sound and meter of the phrases 'five to one' and 'one in five.' Reference

- "Night is drawing near, shadows of the evening crawl across the years" is an adaption of the Victorian-era hymn "Shadows of the Evening," whose first verse is:
Now the day is over,
Night is drawing nigh.
Shadows of the evening
Steal across the sky. Reference

Soul Kitchen

Well, the clock says it's time to close now
I guess I'd better go now
I'd really like to stay here all night
The cars crawl past all stuffed with eyes
Street lights share their hollow glow
Your brain seems bruised with numb surprise
Still one place to go
Still one place to go

Let me sleep all night in your soul kitchen
Warm my mind near your gentle stove
Turn me out in a wander baby
Stumblin' in the neon groves

Well, your fingers weave quick minarets
Speak in secret alphabets
I light another cigarette
Learn to forget, learn to forget
Learn to forget, learn to forget

Let me sleep all night in your soul kitchen
Warm my mind near your gentle stove
Turn me out and I'll wander baby
Stumblin' in the neon groves

Well the clock says it's time to close now
I know I have to go now
I really want to stay here
All night, all night, all night




- "Let me sleep all night in your soul kitchen" The song is in reference to a soul food restaurant in Ocean Park called Olivia's.

- The Stone Poneys were discovered at the same soul food restaurant: Discovered by a couple of music executives, while rehearsing at a nearby soul food restaurant called Olivia's which was located in Ocean Park , a community between Venice Beach and Santa Monica, and which was famous for its food and clientle, including the The Doors.

- "Well, the clock says it's time to close now, I guess I'd better go now." Jim Morrison often used to stay too late and the staff had to persistently ask him to leave so they could close for the night.

- "The cars crawl past all stuffed with eyes, street lights share their hollow glow, your brain seems bruised with numb surprise" This sentence is an obvious reflection of Jim Morrison sitting inside the restaurant (Olivia's), very late at night, most likely inebriated, and describing the world outside his window with poetic vision. If you've ever sat at a diner very late at night and watched the cars and people move slowly by- this is precisely how they behave during those wee hours when most of the city is asleep.

Break On Through (To the Other Side)

You know the day destroys the night
Night divides the day;
Tried to run
Tried to hide
Break on through to the other side
Break on through to the other side
Break on through to the other side

We chased our pleasures here
Dug our treasures there,
Can you still recall
The time we cried?
Break on through to the other side
Break on through to the other side
Break on through to the other side

Everybody loves my baby
Everybody loves my baby

She gets, she gets
She gets, she gets

I found an island in your arms
A country in your eyes
Arms that chain,
Eyes that lie
Break on through to the other side
Break on through to the other side
Break on through to the other side

Made the scene from week to week
Day to day, hour to hour
The gate is straight
Deep and wide
Break on through to the other side
Break on through to the other side
Break on through







- The Doors first single, released in January 1967

- This billboard with the message, THE DOORS: Break On Through with an Electrifying Album" was the first of its kind for a rock band. It was displayed on the Sunset Strip.

- "She gets, she gets" Jac Holzman suggested the band remove the word, "high" at the end of the line because he felt as though the word, "high" would discourage radio airplay. A video on Jac Holzman.

- "You know the day destroys the night, night divides the day." From Genesis 1. First God made heaven & earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. And God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.

- It is believed that the song was inspired, as well as the group's name, The Doors, by Aldous Huxley's book, The Doors of Perception, which was inspired by William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.

- Author's Note: I believe the song is actually the four parts that make up a life. The first stanza represents "creation" or birth. "You know the day destroys the night, night divides the day, tried to run, tried to hide, break on through to the other side." This is representative of leaving the mother's womb and "breaking" into a new life.

The second stanza represents childhood: "We chased our pleasures here, dug our treasures there, can you still recall the time we cried?"

The third stanza, beginning with the line "Everybody loves my baby...she gets...I found an island in your arms, a country in your eyes, arms that chain, eyes that lie." This confirms a relationship and/or love.

And then the final stanza represents death and the final transition to another world-
Made the scene from week to week, day to day, hour to hour, the gate is straight, deep and wide, break on through to the other side

Jim Morrison created a beautiful and arresting song here. He is not content with just a normal life- he seeks something higher and more meaningful in every aspect of his life: birth, childhood, love, and death.

The following is a quote from Aldous Huxley, confirming the desire to elevate our senses:

- "If we could sniff or swallow something that would, for five or six hours each day, abolish our solitude as individuals, atone us with our fellows in a glowing exaltation of affection and make life in all its aspects seem not only worth living, but divinely beautiful and significant, and if this heavenly, world-transfiguring drug were of such a kind that we could wake up next morning with a clear head and an undamaged constitution-then, it seems to me, all our problems (and not merely the one small problem of discovering a novel pleasure) would be wholly solved and earth would become paradise."

End of the Night

Take the highway to the end of the night
End of the night, end of the night
Take a journey to the bright midnight
End of the night, end of the night
Realms of bliss, realms of light
Some are born to sweet delight
Some are born to sweet delight
Some are born to the endless night
End of the night, end of the night
End of the night, end of the night

Realms of bliss, realms of light
Some are born to sweet delight
Some are born to sweet delight
Some are born to the endless night
End of the night, end of the night
End of the night, end of the night



- End of the Night = The song is loosely inspired by one of Jim Morrison's favorite novels, Journey to the End of the Night, by Louis-ferdinand Celine. Upon reading the classic novel, it is not difficult to conclude what a profound effect this novel had on Morrison considering that the novel is about Bardamu, the sarcastic and brilliant antihero of the novel. The book addresses almost every base and negative aspect of the human experience: warfare, cowardice, lies, corruption, betrayal, slavery, manipulation, exploitation, perversion, persecution, cheating, greed, sickness, loneliness, madness, lust, gossip, abortion, disease, vengeance, and murder. (A thank you to John M. Lemon) These are all the things that appealed to Morrison; including the fact, the novel is lyrical, hallucinatory, and hilariously scathing toward nearly everybody and everything. It is no wonder Morrison dedicated this song to Celine's famous novel.

- "Some are born to sweet delight, some are born to the endless night." This line is inspired by the William Blake poem, Auguries of Innocence.

The last few stanzas of the Blake poem:

Every night and every morn
Some to misery are born,
Every morn and every night
Some are born to sweet delight.

Some are born to sweet delight,
Some are born to endless night.

We are led to believe a lie
When we see not thro' the eye,
Which was born in a night to perish in a night,
When the soul slept in beams of light.

God appears, and God is light,
To those poor souls who dwell in night;
But does a human form display
To those who dwell in realms of day

- "Realms of bliss, realms of light." = Shakyamuni Buddha taught about a Buddha named Amitabha ("Boundless Light," also known as Amitayus, or "Boundless Life") who presides over a Buddha-realm known as Sukhavati, a realm of rebirth in which all impediments to the attainment of final Enlightenment are nonexistent. This realm, or Pure Land (also known as the Realm of Bliss) is the result of the accumulated merit of the Bodhisattva Dharmakara, who practiced for eons before becoming the Buddha Amitabha.

The Crystal Ship

Before you slip into unconsciousness
I'd like to have another kiss
Another flashing chance at bliss
Another kiss, another kiss

The days are bright and filled with pain
Enclose me in your gentle rain
The time you ran was too insane
We'll meet again, we'll meet again

Oh tell me where your freedom lies
The streets are fields that never die
Deliver me from reasons why
You'd rather cry, I'd rather fly

The crystal ship is being filled
A thousand girls, a thousand thrills
A million ways to spend your time
When we get back, I'll drop a line



- Released April 1967

- "The Crystal Ship" is regarded as a goodbye love song to Jim Morrison's first love, Mary Werbelow. Reference

- The inspiration for the "crystal ship" is an oil rig off of Sand's beach in Isla Vista, California.

Author's Note: This song has nothing to do with drugs and everything about Jim Morrison's heavy relationship with his first love, Mary Werbelow. As a poet, he did nothing more than use transparent images for his relation to the past. He (Jim Morrison) hasn't let go of her as evidenced in the first line, "Before you slip into unconsciousness, I'd like to have another kiss."

That means the protagonist had already left her in the physical realm, but has not left her subconsciously. The thought of her still burdens him and he just wants another kiss to somehow make it feel better.

"Another flashing chance at bliss, another kiss." Again, he cannot seem to let go of their love, their relationship, and how much she meant to him.

"The days are bright and filled with pain." He's moved on and is now doing very well as a singer/songwriter in a rock band in L.A., but he still has feelings for her and this song is his testament to her that he still has feelings for her.

"The time you ran was too insane." Jim was one to mock even his girlfriends- he would tease others, but mostly, he was testing them. This line very well could be a reference to a time he felt bad about verbally teasing her- knowing that it upset her.

"The streets are fields that never die, deliver me from reasons why, you'd rather cry, I'd rather fly." A simple line that confirms the end of the relationship and that the protagonist is willing to move on. The streets are fields are his memories, and because they are vague memories now, they also present a reason why he can forget.

And that last stanza confirms his growing popularity as a lead singer for a rock band with an ever-growing popularity. The beauty of it though is how he is saying to her that no matter how big he becomes, he will still think of her, and even call her, when he gets the chance.