THE DOORS' "BLUE SUNDAY": A DAYDREAM BY JIM MORRISON

 

A broad unison chord suddenly interrupts the syncopated rush of "Peace Frog", a rock masterpiece as well as track number four on side A of "Morrrison Hotel", the Doors' fifth LP (released in February 1970).

Emerging from this thin curtain of sound are the reflective thoughts of sessionman Ray Neopolitan's electric bass, which transport us to a slow rock with a very different atmosphere: "Blue Sunday" (written by the band's lead singer Jim Morrison).

The setting of this short, poetic song is suggestively traced by an instrument that conveys its dreamy musical current with limpid serenity.

It is the soft luminosity projected by Ray Manzarek's electric organ (in this case a Gibson G101), which creates a pleasantly pervasive background on the high notes of the keyboard, like the warm light of a summer afternoon.

Against this lazy and ecstatic backdrop, John Densmore's drums, played with brushes to soften their carefully rhythmic strokes, and the delicate arpeggio produced by Robby Krieger's guitar treated with reverb make their cautious entrance.

The guitarist embellishes his rhythmic accompaniment with glissandi and vibrato, emphasizing the sentimental and intimate nature of the composition with smoothed emotionality.

The result is an arrangement that stands in stark contrast to that of "Peace Frog" even though the two pieces flow into each other seamlessly on the disc.

The dark voice of Jim Morrison stretches out against this gentle, rarefied soundscape.

A long way from the vitriolic outbursts he had screamed during the Miami concert incident some eight months earlier, here the musician's vocals are sensitive, calm, composed, as if restrained by the modesty he felt in speaking publicly about his feelings.

Overall, the vocal performance is characterized by the famous "Frank Sinatra-esque" timbre and singing style, also used by Morrison in some other The Doors’ tunes (here is the link to the article where I discuss it in detail).

Lastly, there are the abstract vocals hinted at from 1:21 to 1:26, which, although more poetically subdued here, are reminiscent of those used at the end of "Love Street" almost two years earlier.

A peculiarity of this song can be found in its construction.

The verse is the main point of interest, yet it appears only at the beginning of the piece (from min. 0.18 to min. 0.43), followed by the short chorus and two middle eight - chorus sequences.

This unusual structure is varied by Krieger's incisive electric guitar solo, which, while not one of his most inspired features, realistically evokes the languid gaze of a lover lost in contemplation of his own heart.

This lead guitar part is built on another Krieger solo, the one we hear on "You're Lost Little Girl", a song included on the band's second, wonderful LP ("Strange Days", released on September 25^th, 1967).

"Blue Sunday" came to life in the early summer of 1969 as Morrison's romantic declaration of love to Pamela Courson, with whom the frontman had a complicated and on-and-off relationship for several years.

The lyrics, seemingly conventional in terms of language and subject matter, actually reveal a very personal facet of Morrison's private life.

By celebrating his feelings for Pamela and painting the soft tones of the resulting happiness, he idealizes an aspect of his own life that was actually fragmented and at times confrontational.

In fact, the love affair that spanned the last part of Morrison's short life was marked not only by frequent and violent arguments and misunderstandings, but also by other relationships that were as fleeting and lacking in continuity as they were recurrent.

The composition thus attempts to exorcise or conceal the contradiction between the singer's deep affection for Pamela and his transgressive behavior, made worse by the fame he had achieved.

The song was performed in concert long before the recordings of "Morrison Hotel" (which took place in November and December 1969), in fact its first appearance is at the Aquarius Theatre in Los Angeles in July 1969 (link here).

Here we find the piece already connected to "Peace Frog" (which was still performed in an instrumental version), thus confirming that the idea of presenting the two compositions seamlessly had matured many months before the official studio recording.

Structure and arrangement as well as the vocal line were already fully defined here, emphasizing that the California group's creative drive was not exhausted after the grueling recordings of the previous album ("The Soft Parade").

Beginning in the summer of '69, "Blue Sunday" was performed live on several occasions, especially during the promotional tour for the "Morrison Hotel" album on which it was included (the tour began in January 1970 and ended in August of the same year).

In this context it is worth mentioning the version of the song that appeared in the set list of one of the concerts of the tour itself: the one held at the Felt Forum in New York on January 17^th  and 18^th , 1970 (link here).

Mistakenly dismissed by many as a filler, "Blue Sunday" reveals itself to a more attentive listener as a daydream of evanescent, nuanced musicality, a sweet illusion translated by Morrison's most tender vocal depths into heartfelt, vain verses of love.

P.S.: My book "The Doors Through Strange Days"- The most comprehensive journey ever made through The Doors' second LP, is out and available on Amazon.com, uk, mx, ca, etc.

Here’s the link:

Amazon – “The Doors Through Strange Days”