The Soft Parade

The Doors

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Original Release Date: July 1969
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Elektra / Wea
• ASIN: B000002I2G
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (114 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #39,809 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
After considerably broadening their sound on Waiting for the Sun, the Doors decided to continue pushing the envelope with their next release. Incorporating brass, strings, and even a full orchestra, The Soft Parade is easily the most challenging album in the Doors' catalog--if not the most accomplished. Though the hit "Touch Me" and other tracks ("Shaman's Blues," "Wild Child") hearken back to the band's edgier self, the title track is a multipart rock suite that evokes some of the psychedelic era's worst excesses. Robby Krieger's "Wishful Sinful" serves up some uncharacteristic melancholy, but elsewhere there's a sense that some of the "experiments" here just might be filler. --Jerry McCulley

Product Description
Digitally remastered pressing of The Doors fourth studio album from 1969, which saw them experimenting with brass and strings. The Doors' mixture of Rock, Blues and Jazz combined with vocalist Jim Morrison's poetic lyrics and powerful vocals created a musical Molotov cocktail that could make your senses explode...in a good way! Nine tracks including 'Wild Child', 'Shaman's Blues' and the huge hit 'Touch Me'. Warner. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Doors' failed equivalent of SGT PEPPER, June 11, 2004

By	Mike London "MAC" (Oxford, UK) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

THE SOFT PARADE, The Doors' fourth album, struggles to be musically inventive. What made the first two albums so wonderfully successful is their very unique sound, and that sound encapsulated the growing, revolutionary thought processes that were spreading throughout America's youth at the time of the 1960s. The Doors were both original and very much of their time, although those first two records never feel dated. Then The Doors released WAITING FOR THE SUN, which has several good songs, but only approaches the quality of the first two records in isolated moments. After the wake of SGT PEPPER and all the psychedelic music that was coming out at the time, The Doors decided to do their own version of SGT PEPPER. By this, I mean they decided to totally reinvent their sound and style and popular music in general, giving the world a radical look how high rock and roll can really climb on the artistic ladder. Unfortunately, The Doors were never as consistently good as The Beatles, and instead of turning in an amazing LP, we end up with the weakest set of songs The Doors ever put to tape.

To understand the state of THE SOFT PARADE, it helps to look at the album before that, WAITING OF THE SUN. The Doors seem to operate in twos, with their first two records brilliant, their middle two rather mediocre, their last two good blues albums, and then there's the two (out of print) records The Doors made after Morrison's death (OTHER VOICES and FULL CIRCLE). WAITING FOR THE SUN was little more than a holding action, product put out because they had to, although there are some great songs on it. At least on THE SOFT PARADE they were trying to do something different, even though it ends up being just as mediocre an album as its predecessor.

The Doors talk about the `third album syndrome' effecting WAITING FOR THE SUN. They had handpicked their best material for their debut, then the rest went onto STRANGE DAYS. At the third album, they were in a quandry, because all their best material had already been issued. The Doors found it difficult to write compelling, commercial songs, and so turned in their rather lackluster third album. What really hurt WAITING FOR THE SUN was the decision to cut "Celebration of the Lizard," which would have been a very long opus taking up the majority of the second side of the song. So when it came time to record THE SOFT PARADE, The Doors wanted to strike out in a different direction.

While not wholly a failure, THE SOFT PARADE turns out to be, along with WAITING FOR THE SUN, The Doors' weakest album. By this time, Morrison was so out of control Kreiger wrote half the tracks on the album, and it shows. (Also, Morrison didn't want to be credited with calling people to get their guns on the first track). Because the third album didn't have a real tangible identity as far as sound goes, The Doors wisely decided to reinvent themselves and broaden their musical horizons.
While we must admire them for this ambition, the end results are very mixed. Taking over eight months to record, the album proved a difficult record to make. In the end, Morrison described the album the band trying to do something new but that it got bogged down. How true.

Trading in their psychedelic sound they so successfully displayed on their first two records, we get a big band sound instead. The reason they turned from this sound was by the third album the well was clearly running dry. On several of the songs this new sound works, especially the first three tracks. If the rest of the songwriting had been as strong as it was on the first three, then THE SOFT PARADE would stand proudly among The Doors' best work. Unfortunately, this is not the case. THE SOFT PARADE, quite simply, boasts the weakest set of the original six albums. "Do It," "Easy Ride," and "Running Blue," simply don't gel, though "Running Blue" is a very funny song. The title track I really like for about the first four minutes. I find the last (and longest) musical section gets rather monotonous as the song [goes on for over eight minutes] [ploughs onward,] lurches toward its closing eight minute running time. And where is "Who Scared You?" Had "Do It" been deleted and that included in the running order, the album would be much stronger. "Shaman's Blues" is a masterpiece, and "Wild Child" harkens back to that dark, careening undercurrent of their first two albums. Very good song. "Wishful Sinful" is nice as well.

By this point in their career, The Doors were rather falling apart artistically, no thanks to Morrison's increasingly difficult behaviour. After turning in two rather lackluster LPs after two great albums, The Doors seemed headed on a downward spiral. Fortunately, The Doors went into the blues after this album, producing two good albums (even though they couldn't touch the first two's quality) before Morrison died.

Overall, I admire The Doors for their ambition in trying to come up with a highly artistic, progressive record. I just wish they had done a better job at it.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More Than The Voice Of A Generation, July 31, 2000

By	Reviewer - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This fourth album by The Doors, "The Soft Parade," is probably their most ambitious album (though not necessarily their best). For this one they brought in a full orchestra to add strings and horns to their already definitive sound. The highlight of this one is the title cut, "The Soft Parade," a four-part offering that begins with an almost wistful feeling and escalates into blood-pumping, straight out rousing rock, played over Jim Morrison's cryptic and enigmatic lyrics (Catacombs/ nursery bones/ winter women growing stones/ carrying babies to the river). Also included is the poetic "Wishful Sinful," a song somehow benignly disturbing when you consider the darkness of the message that emerges from such a lilting melody: "Wishful, sinful/ wicked blue/ water covers you/ wishful, sinful/ wicked you/ can't escape the blue." There's a promise of freedom (but at a cost) in the anthem-like "Tell All The People (Can't you see me growing/ get your guns/ the time has come/ to follow me down)." The most well known cut from this album is "Touch Me," with lyrics by Robby Krieger and an interpretation by Morrison that is open to speculation. More equivocal lyrics accentuate "Shaman's Blues (Did you stop to consider/ how it will feel/ cold grinding grizzly bear jaws/ hot on your heels), during which another Morrison persona emerges, one apparently close to his heart and in being with his connection to the earth. A call to the youth of the world to step forward and take charge of their destiny is the subtle message of "Do It," while the eternal quest for freedom of mind and soul come to the fore in "Wild Child," which ends with the cryptic "You remember when we were in Africa?" which helps to fuel the myth that Morrison "pulled a Rimbaud" and actually disappeared into the Dark Continent in 1971. Rounding out "The Soft Parade" are "Easy Ride," and "Runnin' Blue." Listening now to this album from the distance of years, Morrison's insights and attitudes seem every bit as powerful now as they did then. When all is said and done, this was a guy who had a lot to say, and he is much more than the voice of a generation gone by; the songs here are further proof that The Doors were, and are, a force to be reckoned with, and their impact on society and a world diminishing in size and resources daily is still being felt. There are those who would dismiss rock n' roll out-of-hand, and it's time, perhaps, for them to listen to The Doors; for the words and music here can put a whole new spin on things. After all, it's all a matter of perspective. And great music, which is what this album provides.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Favorite..., February 14, 2007

By	Bob Barr "Guitarist Extraordinaire" (Kansas City) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I don't care if it sounds "pop." I don't care if it has strings. I don't care who thinks the album is a "sell out." I've even heard the mighty Jim Morrison didn't much like it, but I don't care, I just don't care.

I love it.

Sure, "Morrison Hotel" and "LA Woman" ARE funkier. "The Doors" is the record that set THE standard for this kind of music (the boys didn't make "Strange Days" for me, so I won't comment about it).

Regardless, this is a solid, meaty record that I have enjoyed on a regular basis since the day it dropped, and I'm as serious a Doors fan as anyone who will read this. What really matters is that the record is fun (yes, it is, and it's okay to be fun), it's cool, and it is the Doors, for pity's sake. What more do you want?

When I hear people quibble about this album, I'm always reminded of the people who claim that there are too many songs on the Beatles' "White album." No there weren't, and there's nothing at all wrong with this record either.

The song, "Soft Parade" has always been a favorite of mine, and I can dance to "Touch Me" without beer. What else do you need?

No qualifications. This is a great record. Try it out.