I always liked the guitar part of this song. I’m not a huge Doors fan but there are some songs I do like by them.
Jim Morrison went to Robby Krieger’s house, they went to a canyon to watch a sunset, at which time Jim realized he was depressed because “if you’re strange, people are strange.” He then wrote the rest of the lyrics, which are about feeling alienated. Krieger wrote the music… He did his guitar solo in one take
The Doors played this on their only Ed Sullivan Show appearance. They also played “Light My Fire,” and Sullivan never asked them to come back because Morrison sang the lines, “Girl we couldn’t get much higher.”
People are Strange appeared on their second album Strange Days.
The song peaked at #12 in the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, and #9 in New Zealand in 1967.
From Songfacts
This was covered by horror-core rap duo Twiztid on their album Freekshow.
In 1987 the Liverpool band Echo & The Bunnymen covered this song, reaching #29 in the UK charts. Their version, which was featured in the film The Lost Boys, was produced by Ray Manzarek, who also played on the track. In a scene from the movie, the vampires’ cave contains a huge poster of Jim Morrison in his Jesus pose.
Manzarek also played keyboards on the Echo & the Bunnymen song “Bedbugs And Ballyhoo”; Echo also covered the Doors song “Soul Kitchen,” which appears on their album It’s All Live Now. Their guitarist, Will Sergeant, told Songfacts: “We used to get compared to The Doors. I don’t know why. It’s probably because Mac [lead singer Ian McCulloch] had that kind of lower voice, similar to Jim Morrison. He never liked The Doors when we started out. He sort of got into them, as weeks went on, because I was always playing the tapes in the van. Then he got into the whole thing.”
In the 1994 movie Forrest Gump, Forrest improves his ping pong game as this plays.
People Are Strange
People are strange
When you’re a stranger
Faces look ugly
When you’re alone.
Women seem wicked
When you’re unwanted
Streets are uneven
When you’re down.
When you’re strange
Faces come out of the rain
When you’re strange
No one remembers your name
When you’re strange
When you’re strange
When you’re strange.
When you’re a stranger
Faces look ugly
When you’re alone.
Women seem wicked
When you’re unwanted
Streets are uneven
When you’re down.
When you’re strange
Faces come out of the rain
When you’re strange
No one remembers your name (X3)
When you’re strange
When you’re strange
When you’re strange.
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Great video. Morrison was always a bit strange.
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Really strange
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Almost included the Echo version in one of my posts today, coincidentally. A great song, probably has ended up being one of the Doors more under-rated singles.
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I’ve always liked this one…it has a mood to it.
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I am with you. The Doors are hit and miss for me, although they do have some good songs. I did, however, gain a new appreciation for them after the movie with Val Kilmer came out, about 25 years ago, maybe more. Val Kilmer did a great job in that movie.
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He did a great job playing Morrison. Jim can get really far out there at times…they are hit and miss.
Good morning and happy Easter!
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The eerie organ stands out here.
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It really sets a mood with this song.
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Sullivan was allegedly so enraged by Morrison singing “Girl, we couldn’t get much higher” that he caught Morrison backstage and said “you’ll never play the Ed Sullivan Show again!” Morrison supposedly answered “who cares? We’ve already done the Ed Sullivan Show.” If you ever see tape of that, you’ll notice Robby Krieger had a black eye from an altercation with Morrison…
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I didn’t know his black eye was because of Morrison. The lack of appearances really didn’t hurt them…in this case Jim was right…I’m not a big Morrison fan.
Jagger gave in on Let’s Spend The Night Together to “time together”…
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I’ m currently reading Linda Ronstadt’ s bio…interesting so far, though she is obviously a private person so she doesn’ t reveal much. But she toured briefly with the Doors & does not paint a good picture of Morrison at all.
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You know not many people do paint a good picture of him. I can imagine she got hit on for sure by him…well as well as everyone else back then.
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yeah, she does say he was generally out of control and after one night out with friends he tried to force his way in to her room, it took like his personal assistant and one of her friends to keep him out, and that she saw a girlfriend of his a few days later who was all bruised up and she told her “I ran into a Door”…
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He seemed to be drunk most of the time or high. I wonder what the real Jim was like?
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Strange can be within or without. His looks belie his strangeness. This song ties for “Love me Two Times” as my favorite Doors tune. When I look at Ed Sullivan, this could be his theme song! lol
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I like The Doors music. Had a box set at one time. Morrison was a pain in the ass.
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Yes he was a severe pain in the ass.
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