Search - The Doors :: When You're Strange (Songs From The Motion Picture)

Doors Songs, Morrison's Poetry Make Aural Documentary

Jym Cherry | Wheaton, IL United States | 04/06/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"When You're Strange: Songs From The Motion Picture is a mixture of readings of Jim Morrison's poems and non-sequiturs, interviews from all the members of The Doors, and, the music of The Doors. At first a CD which incorporates the poetry of Jim Morrison and the music of The Doors may seem like a sequel to An American Prayer, but the soundtrack to When You're Strange is quite unlike anything The Doors have released before. The soundtrack comes out Tuesday April 6th, and is the companion piece to the forthcoming release of the film the following Friday on April 9th.



The soundtrack includes the classic album versions of the songs such as Moonlight Drive, Hello, I Love You, Soul Kitchen, live performances, Light My Fire from The Ed Sullivan show where Morrison famously refused to leave out the word `higher` as requested by the censors, When The Music's Over from the Danish television broadcast, and Break On Through from the Isle of Wight.



Jim Morrison's poetry is read by Johnny Depp who is reputed to have recorded the pieces on his boat in a darkened candlelit room. At first I thought the inclusion of having Depp read Morrison's poetry was a nod to increase the commercial potential of the soundtrack, Depp being one of the biggest contemporary actors, even though he brings his own hip cache and was drawn to the project by allure and legend of The Doors (he's a fan). Depp's understated readings may not have the full dramatic weight in the reading that Morrison used when recording his poems, for the birthday recording sessions that were later used in An American Prayer. Anyone who has heard Morrison reading his poems find his voice compelling even without music. Depp's candlelit reading works, it sets the tone, his reading of the poems has a sultry almost dusky tone to it, you can almost hear the smoke of those black cigarettes Depp smokes curling around Morrison`s words.



The soundtrack of When You're Strange has a different feeling and tone from other Doors albums, CD's or previous anthologies. First of all it doesn't rely on the usual chronological placement of songs or necessarily including all "the hits," but aims more for giving the listener a sense of what The Doors were about, a fusion and interweaving of poetry with the music, the poetry segues very smoothly into the songs. The poems don't seem to have been picked to add any context to the songs, or compliment the songs, or even the reverse, the songs adding context to the poems, but they seem to naturally fit together, Morrison`s poetry and the music of The Doors has always seemed to fit together as if they were always meant to be there. There's a couple clips of interviews where the band speaks for itself following the film's agenda of using only period clips and quotes from the band, some of which may not be all that well known, Morrison`s "Dead Serious" gives you a bit of an idea of where their heads were at.



This one disc CD, includes a booklet with pictures of the band, quotes from the movie's director Tom DiCillo, Johnny Depp, and producer Dick Wolf. The booklet opens up into a mini-sized print of the movie poster. When You're Strange: Songs From The Motion Picture creates an aural documentary of the film that can either compliment the viewing of the film or as a stand alone piece that provides some of the documentary elements giving the listener a feel for the film."

Depp is not Deep

D. Schepart | 04/07/2010

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Depp is silly at best.Big deal some mono recordings get dragged out to squeeze one more dollar outta Jim.There is nothing here which will further the magic of Morrison and the ghouls his band mates have become.

Waste of time."

[I] Don't Get It

B. G Hutchings | Orlando, FL | 04/07/2010

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I have been an avid doors fan since my early teens (now in my mid-40s). Over the years, I have purchased just about everthing Doors that I could get my hands on (all official Electra releases, bootlegs, VHS/DVDs, the Bright Midnight releases (including the much-maligned Matrix release) and the innumerable 'Best Of' releases. I have em' all but this one confuses me. Don't get me wrong, I can't wait to see the movie and will be purchasing the DVD when it is released (hopefully with some bonus material) but this soundtrack escapes me. What we have here is YET another sampling of studio cuts that we all have heard, a couple live cuts that most (even casual) fans have seen/heard, and Johnny Depp reading Morrison poetry that is easily available from the man himself on American Prayer. So what is the point in this release? Who is it for? Can anyone tell me? Because I just don't get it..."