The Doors “Strange Days” 1967. Today, December 8th, is Jim Morrison’s birthday (b. 1943, d. 1971). I went through a short but intense obsession with Strange Days, the Doors’ second album, back in high school, probably spurred by Echo and the Bunnymen’s 1987 cover of “People Are Strange” which appeared as a B-side to “Lips Like Sugar” and as the intro to The Lost Boys movie (rumor had it that one of the group of punks pictured in the intro had several runaways, including a guy from our hometown who was supposedly in Santa Cruz during filming. I’ve watched The Lost Boys probably a hundred times, pausing it and examining that crowd of kids – haven’t spotted him yet.) The Doors’ “People Are Strange” is still one of my favorites; the single reached #12 on the US charts. Also great is the second and final single released from the album, “Love Me Two Times,” along with many of the non-singles: the title track “Strange Days,” “Moonlight Drive” and exotically psychedelic “My Eyes Have Seen You.” The final track, “When the Music’s Over” is an exhausting 11 minutes long with lots of 60′s-style noodling and an example of Morrison’s often questionable poetry, i.e. “Before I sink into the big sleep I want to hear the scream of the butterfly” and “What have they done to the earth? What have they done to our fair sister? Ravaged and plundered and ripped her and bit her, Stuck her with knives in the side of the dawn and tied her with fences and dragged her down.” That said, 50 years after Strange Days initial release, it’s still a completely great album (though I doubt I’ll listen to it on repeat the way I did 30 years ago).