THE DOORS' "UNHAPPY GIRL" AND WOMEN'S SOCIAL ISSUE IN THE 60s

Throughout the 1960s, British and American groups and artists sought to explore deeper and more complex themes in their lyrics.

Among them were women's feelings, a subject that was becoming more important than it had been in the past. In fact, this theme was struggling to overcome the stereotypes and clichés accumulated by the music of previous decades.

In the analysis of the problems faced by women at this historical moment, sadness and loneliness also appear, in this case considered apart from sentimental disappointments.

In fact, it became important for many musicians to explore the reasons for a personal dissatisfaction that saw women involved in dynamics other than the ones related to love. Jim Morrison, poet and composer of most of The Doors' songs, was no exception.

Within the LP "Strange Days", released on September 25, 1967, we find an example of this trend in track number four: "Unhappy Girl".

The song takes an original and unexpected look at the state of sad resignation experienced by a girl. The young woman is a prisoner of a lifestyle that compromises her aspirations and personal fulfillment.

The relative difficulty of conveying this unconventional content does not prevent the band from giving space to the dissatisfaction experienced by the female component of a generation undergoing radical changes.

The music is infused with psychedelic studio effects, such as the presence of some instruments recorded backwards, which provide a fascinating backdrop to the words sung with subdued passion by Morrison.

The song just mentioned, however, is not the only one in which the feelings of women suffering from the social situations in which they are somehow trapped are expressed. Let us cite two other great pieces from the 1960s that analyze this topic and its consequences in new and original ways.

The first example, which anticipates "Unhappy Girl" by about a year, is The Beatles' song "Eleanor Rigby", released on the album "Revolver" in August 1966.

Here, the female character lives a life of regret and loneliness that leads her to an equally lonely death. The song's wonderful melodies are accompanied by the surprisingly experimental nature of the arrangement, which consists of only eight strings.

The second example, also from 1966, is "Mother's Little Helper" by the Rolling Stones, released on the LP "Aftermath" in April of that year. In this case, the female protagonist of the lyrics spends her existence in the role of a housewife.

Meanwhile, her desires are frustrated by this social condition in which she seems to be hopelessly stuck. In order to cope with the role that life has assigned her and from which she seems unable to escape, she takes increasing doses of psychotropic drugs.

After the mid-1960s, more famous musicians with larger audiences embarked on this new conceptual path.

The latter would gradually lead to women being considered in all their facets in popular culture and no longer being relegated to lyrics that more or less superficially spoke of love relationships.

The Doors were also part of this important trend, with the lyrics of "Unhappy Girl" exploring the female universe in the context of their contemporary society.

Most of the credit goes to Morrison's lyrics, which in a few poetic lines cast such a penetrating glance at the problems of women in the 1960s that they are still valid and useful almost sixty years later.