Music Which one The only Doors song with Jim Morrison on backing vocals
Famously, Jim Morrison achieved a lot in his short but effervescent life, with being the prolific frontman of the Doors being just one of the strings to his artistic bow. As the LA psychedelic 1960s counterculture leader, Morrison was the primary emblem of not just the Doors’ sonic legacy but an entire era infused with freedom and revolution.
However, as the heights of their career wore on, so too did Morrison’s addictions become much more of a plaguing issue. Increasingly dependent on alcohol and drugs, the former shine of Morrison’s frontman persona began to tarnish over time, and as such, his contributions to the band became ever more erratic.
This started to manifest on the Doors’ 1969 album, The Soft Parade, which features the band’s only song during Morrison’s tenure where he did not sing lead vocals. Instead, on the tune ‘Runnin’ Blue’, he was on backing while guitarist Robby Kreiger took the main reins.
In many ways, this predicament spoke to the atmosphere in which much of the album was created. With Morrison increasingly suffering from addiction’s effects and subsequently distancing himself from much of the music, Kreiger assumed the majority of the songwriting and production responsibilities, penning all four of the record’s singles, including ‘Touch Me’. This sad slide into the background for Morrison was, in certain respects, a foreshadowing of the untimely and mystifying end to his life some two years later, leaving the Doors’ legacy somewhat shrouded in tragedy.
What was the Doors’ song ‘Runnin’ Blue’ about?
The inspiration for the song itself, unfortunately, was also rooted in similarly stark circumstances. ‘Runnin’ Blue’ was written in tribute to the late, great Otis Redding, who had died in 1967 at the age of 26. In fact, the Doors themselves had been set to perform with him two weeks after his passing, on December 28th, 1967, at the Winterland Arena in San Francisco. Chuck Berry took Redding’s place, and in tribute when performing the song ‘When the Music’s Over’, Morrison opened with the lines: “Poor Otis dead and gone/ Left me here to sing his song.”
As a result of this, it’s clear to see what traces of the event played on Kreiger’s mind in drawing him to write the song. However, as much as it became symbolically significant of Morrison’s tragic decline and the increasing roles the rest of the band bore to keep the ship afloat during the time, within the context of The Soft Parade itself, its impact was much more muted. Critics described the release and its B-side, ‘Do It’ as bland compared to the rest of the Doors’ discography, thus leaving the legacy of the song to be representative of one devastating blow after another.
As much as this chapter of the Doors’ story was one mired in heartbreak, it would do their legacy a disservice to define them by their pain points, no matter how acute. Ultimately, Jim Morrison will always be remembered as a rockstar figure of charismatic brilliance, and although ‘Runnin’ Blue’ wasn’t the song to showcase him in his prime, so many others do.