Well, the clock says it's time
to close now
I guess I'd better go now
I'd really like to stay here all night

The cars crawl past all stuffed with eyes Street lights shed their hollow glow
Your brain seems bruised with
numb surprise

Still one place to go
Still one place to go

Let me sleep all night in your
soul kitchen
Warm my mind near your gentle stove
Turn me out and I'll wander, baby
Stumbling in the neon groves

Your fingers weave quick minarets
Speak in secret alphabets
I light another cigarette
Learn to forget, learn to forget
Learn to forget, learn to forget

Let me sleep all night in your
soul kitchen
Warm my mind near your gentle stove
Turn me out and I'll wander baby
Stumbling in the neon groves

Well the clock says it's time
to close now
I know I have to go now
I really want to stay here
All night, all night, all night



Early in the summer of 1965, Jim Morrison did some of his most important writing for the Doors while living on a Venice rooftop and surviving primarily on a diet of acid and poetry.

By the end of that summer he had moved into a small beach house with Ray and Dorothy and quickly discovered that he could get cheap, substantial meals at Olivia's, a tiny, somewhat seedy soulfood restaurant near the intersection of Main and Ocean Park.

Olivia herself was happy to cook for the ragtag bunch that patronized her place, but she was implacably strict about getting her customers out of the door when it was closing time. Morrison may well have been one of those patrons whose dining pleasure was cut short when Olivia was ready to call it quits for the day; if so, then Soul Kitchen was Jim's bluesy rejoinder - a plea to be allowed to sta" in the warm comfortable kitchen all night rather than face the "cars. . .stuffed with eyes" and the formidable 'neon groves" of Los Angeles.

The song was another remarkable lyrical triumph for Morrison, as he again created mysteriously compelling words to describe a very small, human moment. Especially notable is the refrain "learn to forget", which could be taken as something of a Morrison motto of the time, given his attempts to distance himself from his family and his past.

Even before the song was recorded, Soul Kitchen had already served an important purpose for the Doors. At a very early rehearsal, when Jim and Ray were still looking for the right drummer, Ray showed a lyric sheet for the song to John Densmore as an example of Jim's work. John was impressed enough to become a band member.


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