The Doors "Strange Days 1967: A Work In Progress" (2025 Record Store Day LP)
For Record Store Day 2025, an album of rough mixes from the Doors' 1967 sophomore album Strange Days was issued as a translucent blue vinyl LP, limited to 7,500 copies. Strange Days 1967: A Work In Progress contains unfinished -- though apparently almost finished -- mixes of six of that album's 10 songs, along with "We Could Be So Good Together" from Waiting For The Sun, which was the band's third album. These early 1967 mixes were (reportedly) just recently uncovered after 58 years by Bruce Botnick, who was the engineer on the album.
How much difference is there between these mixes and the mixes on the final album(s)? Not much. They are mainly just missing the final overdubs, making them sound like they needed just one more layer of polish before becoming the familiar finished versions. The title track is the one that sounds the most different to my ears, as it is without some of the echo effects added to Jim Morrison's vocals on the album version. Otherwise, the differences seem marginal, mostly having to do with the sound coming across just a bit less cleanly than on the album versions. So, this item will mostly be of interest only to the Doors diehards.
And I'll leave it to those diehards to pore over all 11 minutes of "When The Music's Over" in search of any significant differences. But I did enjoy listening to some of these mixes which have fewer effects and slightly different vibes. In fact, I may actually prefer this mix of the title track to the album version; it shows that the song did not need the amount of now-dated echo effects that were added to the vocal track. "Love Me Two Times" sounds like it was mixed at different levels, and the result is pleasing to the ear. The less-clean-sounding mix of "We Could Be So Good Together" also serves as a pleasant alternate version; it loses a bit of edge, but doesn't suffer for it. The same can be said for "I Can't See Your Face In My Mind", on which Morrison's vocals sound a bit more distant and dreamlike. I feel indifferent toward the less-clean-sounding mix of "You're Lost Little Girl". And "Horse Latitudes" -- the spoken-word Morrison poem accompanied by odd and eerie sounds -- is flat and ineffectual here.
If you are able to listen to Strange Days 1967: A Work In Progress online, then it's worth a look for the curious. But only serious collectors are likely to want to pay big bucks for the LP.
The Doors "Strange Days 1967: A Work In Progress" (Rhino RCV1 727372) 2025
Track Listing:
1. Strange Days
2. You're Lost Little Girl
3. Love Me Two Times
4. Horse Latitudes
5. We Could Be So Good Together
6. I Can't See Your Face In My Mind
7. When The Music's Over
How much difference is there between these mixes and the mixes on the final album(s)? Not much. They are mainly just missing the final overdubs, making them sound like they needed just one more layer of polish before becoming the familiar finished versions. The title track is the one that sounds the most different to my ears, as it is without some of the echo effects added to Jim Morrison's vocals on the album version. Otherwise, the differences seem marginal, mostly having to do with the sound coming across just a bit less cleanly than on the album versions. So, this item will mostly be of interest only to the Doors diehards.
And I'll leave it to those diehards to pore over all 11 minutes of "When The Music's Over" in search of any significant differences. But I did enjoy listening to some of these mixes which have fewer effects and slightly different vibes. In fact, I may actually prefer this mix of the title track to the album version; it shows that the song did not need the amount of now-dated echo effects that were added to the vocal track. "Love Me Two Times" sounds like it was mixed at different levels, and the result is pleasing to the ear. The less-clean-sounding mix of "We Could Be So Good Together" also serves as a pleasant alternate version; it loses a bit of edge, but doesn't suffer for it. The same can be said for "I Can't See Your Face In My Mind", on which Morrison's vocals sound a bit more distant and dreamlike. I feel indifferent toward the less-clean-sounding mix of "You're Lost Little Girl". And "Horse Latitudes" -- the spoken-word Morrison poem accompanied by odd and eerie sounds -- is flat and ineffectual here.
If you are able to listen to Strange Days 1967: A Work In Progress online, then it's worth a look for the curious. But only serious collectors are likely to want to pay big bucks for the LP.
The Doors "Strange Days 1967: A Work In Progress" (Rhino RCV1 727372) 2025
Track Listing:
1. Strange Days
2. You're Lost Little Girl
3. Love Me Two Times
4. Horse Latitudes
5. We Could Be So Good Together
6. I Can't See Your Face In My Mind
7. When The Music's Over
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