Understanding 'People Are Strange'

This song is 2 minutes and 12 seconds long.

The Doors are one of the most important bands in rock history, which is a strange thing to say when their music sounds so... unique. No one sounds like The Doors: Guided by the singular voice of Jim Morrison, the band played a pivotal role in the genre's reinvention in the late '60s, and while their career was short due to Morrison's untimely death, they left an indelible mark on rock music for generations to come, and songs like People Are Strange remain culturally relevant, if somewhat anachronistic, to this day.

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[tone]

Some additional thoughts/corrections:


2) I forgot to include it in the script but Krieger is definitely bending the G in the walkdown up to something resembling a neutral third. Not all the way there, but sharper than a basic G natural. I talk about blue notes later on, but that's another example of one right at the start of the song.

3) Probably could've just said shuffle tresillo and let y'all work out the rest, but I wanted to dive into the math a bit to make clear just how interesting a rhythm it actually is underneath the surface, even if it's really just a combination of two relatively straightforward ideas.

4) To be clear, when I say the B is "pretty much impossible to hear", I don't mean it's literally impossible. Now that I know it's there, if I really listen really carefully, I can hear it. It just would never occur to me to listen for it if I hadn't been poking around with the stems.

5) Another thing that hidden B does is it makes the high G pop a bit more: In the first bar it blends into the existing chord voicing, but in the second, the discontinuity of the supporting harmony makes it feel more prominent. But I think that's also because he has to drop the high A to hit it, and also it sounds like he's just plucking it harder, so there's a lot of factors there.

6) Call me pretentious if you want, but axis theory genuinely was my first thought when looking at those chords. I think it's probably easier to explain that the Imi and bIII have similar functions, but given how much of the explanation about V-I resolutions centers around the leading tone, just saying that didn't feel sufficient. I had to get to "B7 can resolve to G major", and that's not all that intuitive without some more advanced models. (It's also probably true that the simpler Axis Theory explanation would be "G is a secondary tonic on an alternate branch", but this way let me tie back to better-known theories in regards to dominant substitutions.) Was it necessary? No, but it's nice to be able to talk about these things sometimes. I'm excited to see what happens to my viewer retention graph at that point.

7) The D# Morrison sings in the stopping bar I played is actually pretty good, pitch-wise. My comment on him being between D and D# is more an observation of the general pattern, because he is wildly inconsistent in that space.

8) So, about the cross-stick thing. Like I said, I think I screwed up the picture and implied something incorrect, so to clarify, a cross-stick is when you lay a drumstick across a drumhead (typically on a snare) and then tap the end of it onto the rim of the drum. It's a way of playing chiller snare hits that emphasize the initial strike while still getting a somewhat snare-like sound. Apologies for any confusion.

9) I should note that I wouldn't actually describe the bass here as a walking bass, for various technical and stylistic reasons. My point was that it was reminiscent of one, not that it was identical.

10) Fun fact that I didn't know what to do with: Krieger starts his solo on the same note that Morrison ends the preceding verse on.

11) Another observation: In both the second half of the chorus and the guitar solo, Manzarek must play multiple consecutive bars of B7, and while he starts both off the same way, the differences in development are fascinating: In the chorus, he wants to emphasize the start-stop vibe, so he just loops his first-bar pattern over and over, while under the solo it's supposed to feel more continuous, so he evolves the pattern slightly, adjusting the rhythm to create a genuine two-bar phrase.

[mattbeatgoeson]

I always knew people were strange, but I never realized just how strange this song was. :)

It was an honor to collaborate with you!

[alxnotorious]

Morrison adjusting his vocal range to follow Krieger isn't real. It cant hurt you.
Morrison adjusting his vocal range: 8:14

[aquamarinerose]

"Don't look at the runtime"
Me, a fool: *Immediately looks at the runtime*

[notoriouswhitemoth]

The Doors' music has always had a _haunted_ quality for me, sense of something surreal and otherworldly. This song exemplifies that perfectly.

[BuddhaMonkey]

I want to address how cool it is when Morrison introduces Manzarek's solo by moaning "alright yeah." One of the classic examples of a classic blues/rock move.

[Ft.Gagiano]

Always said. The band played around Morrisons singing/talking. Rather then the singer following the band beat.

[OOdhamhorde]

Thanks for this! I have a special place for the Doors. They were my Mom's favorite band. She called Jim Morrison, "Jimbo". She saw them live. RIP Mom!

[JoeJohnston-taskboy]

The Doors == "Haunted Cabaret music." I love them.

[ahobimo]

12Tone: "I never really got the Doors"

Also 12Tone: makes this video

[all_bets_on_Ganesh]

I have a huge appreciation for the Doors. I don’t care how big your house is, if you dont have a door, you are either homeless or in prison, no other way about it.

[rawbylaw]

Wait, you like it because it has "a dark, complex soundscape, driving beat and cryptic story...?  That's *every* frickin Doors song!

[leoiunti]

One of the best songs by one of my favorite bands. Great to get a double feature for The Doors

[thomaswilliams]

That intro isolated guitar part sounded like it was going into Don't Fear the Reaper. I never heard that in the original.

[williamcampbell]

The Echo and the Bunnymen cover was produced by Doors' keyboardist, Ray Manzarek.

[ociemitchell]

I listened to a lot of the Doors in the late 90's and early 2000's. That wasn't the time when it came out and it probably meant something different to me than it meant to the people who first heard it in the 60's. It meant something else to you and it will mean something else to someone discovering it today. I think that is what makes it great and sort of timeless when new generations discover it and what it means for them.

[deBebbler]

You don't have to be an "EXPERT". Personally, I'm glad you aren't.
Remember, you are 12Tone, and that is why we keep coming back. Just do your thing.

Thank you for taking the time to explain the Tritone sub/backdoor var/secondary dom relationship resolving B to G. I've never felt I understood their relationship, and why it works (beyond G being the relative major to Em). This made a lot of sense to me.

[JordynPi]

Is that the MBTA logo you drew at 15:40 to represent "this uneven start-stop pattern"? 10/10. Your drawings are, as always, perfectly on point.

[Bedrockbrendan]

I first heard the doors on a record player from my dad's collection. It was the late 80s, so it still wasn't that distant from the period when it was made, and the 60s still were having an influence on the world were grew up in, so I found it easy to connect to

[CirWot]

"Aggressively unstable" is a perfect description of most Doors songs and probably the band too. Great video.