THE DOORS' "THE SPY": A MORRISON'S ROCK BLUES POEM

Track number eight on "Morrison Hotel" (The Doors' fifth album, released in February 1970) is "The Spy" (link here), a composition attributed to Jim Morrison, the band's lead singer.

Written during 1969, probably between summer and fall, based on a poem by Morrison himself, it was recorded along with the other tracks of the album in November of that same year.

The song has the peculiar virtue of taking a usually dynamic musical genre, rock blues, and turning it into a slow tempo.

In fact, the verse unfolds along the lines of an atmospheric blues, imbued with a guarded mystery, as if carrying a hidden secret.

This first section is traversed and guided by the languid riff of Robby Krieger's electric guitar, which, without distortion, takes elusive steps that end with an enigmatic vibrato.

The same instrumental solution, the guitar crossing the verse by inserting the technique of vibrato into its phrasing, had already appeared in The Doors' discography.

Krieger had used it two years and nine months earlier on "My Eyes Have Seen You" (part of The Doors' great second album, “Strange Days”), although the sound context was very different from that of "The Spy" and the use of vibrato was at the beginning rather than the end of the guitar phrase.

The short chorus, a variation of the verse itself, grows in power thanks to Manzarek's mighty piano chords and the drums, which punctuate the rhythm of the song with relentless determination (listen, for example, from min. 0.57 to min. 1.05).

We are here in the realm of rock, as in the middle eight, where the spaces in the arrangement are filled by the slight distortion applied to the guitar (listen, for example, from min. 1:50 to min. 2:15).

The combination of the blues (adapted to 1970) of the verse and the rock of the chorus and middle eight allows us to hear a rock-blues immersed in the shade of an overall moderately paced rhythm.

This peculiarity (in fact, most rock-blues have a sustained rhythm) is wrapped up in the inquisitive and mysterious atmosphere of the tune.

In the verses that make up the song's lyrics, Morrison mysteriously tells how he is able to know the secrets, actions, preferences, fears, and desires of his loved one without being seen or heard.

This concise declaration is conveyed through a fascinating metaphor: he describes himself as a spy operating in the house of love.

His voice perfectly matches the scene the words sketch, conspiring a seductive whisper in the verse, then rising forcefully and becoming deeper in the chorus and middle eight.

John Densmore hits the snare drum with brushes instead of traditional drumsticks, while session man Ray Neopolitan traces the path of his electric bass with circumspection, in search of a double bass-like sound.

The result is a rhythmic accompaniment that does not hide its exterior and stylistic references to jazz, while keeping the blues as the real musical reference.

In the coda, the song slowly fades away, with hinted piano and electric guitar solos, on Morrison's final, veiled admonition, "I'm a spy / I can see / What you do / And I know".

An unusual and daring alternative version of "The Spy" also exists, coming from the "Morrison Hotel" sessions, which is surprising in its carefree, jolting tempo.

Slightly faster than the one chosen for the vinyl release and less intense in the emotions it conveys, it is carried by electric bass and drums to a country-rock atmosphere. An atmosphere that is as unusual for The Doors as it is in blatant contrast to the words of the lyrics (here is the link to the alternative version).

A few weeks after recording the song, in January 1970, the band began the long tour in support of the album "Morrison Hotel", which would end on August 22nd of that year.

Among the songs included in the set lists of these concerts we also find "The Spy". As an example, we mention the version of this song that The Doors performed in Boston on April 10, '70 (link here).

In this case the performance time is extended to 5.40 minutes and the rhythm section (consisting of the drums and the Fender Rhodes piano bass played by Manzarek with his left hand) is slightly modified.

The result is a pulsating progression, a little sharper in rhythm when compared to the song on the album: a suspicious beat accompanying Morrison's vocal performance.

The singer is less persuasive and smooth here than he is on the album track, his vocals at times rippling with a certain harshness and an attitude more resolute than charming.

"The Spy" remains one of the least celebrated compositions penned by Jim Morrison. Nevertheless, it confronts us with an original treatment of the rock blues genre and allows us to hear the sinuous and passionate inner surges of a timeless musician and poet.

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