50 Years Of The Doors

‘Peace Frog’ is one of the most compelling Doors tracks due to the misleading nature of its name. Comprised of distorted guitar hooks and haunting imagery, the song never actually comes to a peace settlement at all. In fact, the conflict lingers on as the final, startling chord echoes and the track ends as quickly as it started.

The content of Peace Frog is somewhat less eerie when put into its contexts. It appears on The Doors’ fifth album, Morrison Hotel, which represents the growth of the band from their bluesy rock and roll roots. This particular track powerfully testifies The Doors’ blues-rock background; Krieger’s wah-wah kinetics set an ironically whimsical backdrop against Manzarek’s chilling keyboards and Morrison’s hallucinogenic lyrics. The translucent melodies perfectly encapsulate the vivid memories that Jim recalls in the song. The trip begins to reach its peak as the keyboards and the guitar licks seem to climax, but suddenly Jim’s vocals ooze in with a hypnotic meditation on one of his most vivid memories- “Indians scattered on dawn’s highway bleeding, ghosts crowd the young child’s fragile eggshell mind.” He spoke of this memory that haunted him ever since, remembering the how the mysterious Indians bleeding on the highway left his “head floating in the breeze, man.” References to civil unrest in the “town of Chicago” refers to the wider picture of America at the time in which The Doors were writing; the Democratic Convention of 1968 saw copious killings in various riots against the callings for presidential elections after Robert Kennedy’s assassination. The blood shed must have influenced the trio to repeat the menacing phrase “Blood on the streets” nine times in the song.

All of these curdling facts make this particular song one of my favourites. On a less serious note, if you listen hard enough, the vibrating riff has a striking affinity to the nonchalant ribbit sound of a frog! Stylistic or not, ‘Peace Frog’ is one of The Doors’ best works.

Next