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

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


Its catchy tune belies the profession of alienation inherent within People Are Strange, and it worked so well to depict the surreal nature of the times partly due to this seeming contradiction. Jim's bleak imagery of ugly faces, uneven streets and wicked women were set against a rollicking tune, suitable for whistling on a sunny day.

During the first days of recording the Strange Days album, Jim showed up at the house which Robby and John shared together, agitated and depressed. It was, by this time, unusual for the band members to spend time together outside of work. Robby was very surprised that Jim wanted to talk openly about his conflicted feelings regarding the band. "He just didn't think it was all worth it anymore, and life was horrible." Robby recalls. "So we spent all night talking him out of killing himself, like we did many times, and in the morning he said, 'Well, I'm going to take a walk to the top of the hill.'" Jim hiked up the hill from the house to a street named Appian Way, which offers, on a clear day, various panoramic views of L.A. Awhile later, Jim showed up back at the house wildly happy. "He was in the best mood I'd ever seen him in," says Robby. "He said 'Man, I've just seen the light, It is so beautiful up there, and I just wrote a song on the way down the hill.'"

Jim proceeded to sing Robby his new song about how strange the world is when you're a stranger yourself. It sounded like a winner to Robby, and the band worked it up over the first few weeks of recording. It was released as a single b/w Unhappy Girl before the album was released, reaching #12 on the Billboard charts, and helping Strange Days become a top 10 album.


Copyright 2003 by The Doors, Chuck Crisafulli/Waiting-forthe-Sun.net