The Soft Parade

The Soft Parade, released July 18, 1969 on Elektra Records under catalog number EKS-75005, is the fourth studio LP from The Doors, pressed in the United States. This specific entry covers the standard US commercial pressing. Label collectors should pay close attention here: the Allentown-pressed copies with gold/tan labels represent the true first pressing of this title, and EKS-75005 is the very last Elektra release to carry those gold/tan labels. Copies pressed at other US plants came out on red labels only. Runout etchings are hand-etched, and the presence of "AL" and "ARC" in the runouts identifies an Allentown origin. For a full picture of how this release evolved across formats and regions, the other documented pressings of The Soft Parade in our catalog are worth cross-referencing.

The cover photograph is immediately recognizable: a dark, nearly black background with all four members of The Doors standing in a loose cluster at center frame. Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger, and John Densmore are lit subtly against the dark field, giving the image a moody, slightly theatrical quality that fits the album's orchestrated ambitions. The band members appear casually dressed, and the composition has a candid, unforced feel rather than a staged promotional pose. The title treatment is minimal and clean: "the doors / the soft parade" appears in small white lowercase sans-serif type in the upper middle third of the front cover, letting the portrait do the heavy lifting. The back cover continues with additional text and track information. The overall design aesthetic is restrained compared to the more visually ornate covers of the era, which suits the album's strange internal tension between pop accessibility and psychedelic sprawl. The gatefold or single-sleeve configuration pairs with a lyrics inner sleeve insert, which is a significant detail for completeness-minded collectors. Finding a copy with the original inner sleeve fully intact and untorn adds real value to any example of this pressing.

What separates The Soft Parade from the first three Doors LPs is not just the sonics but the credits. For the first time in their discography, individual songwriting credits replaced the standard collective group attribution. Robby Krieger authored "Tell All the People" and "Touch Me," the latter being the album's biggest commercial moment; Morrison handled "Shaman's Blues," "Do It," "Easy Ride," "Wild Child," and the side-two title suite. "Runnin' Blue" carries a co-credit, and its overt country-and-bluegrass leanings, complete with a brief Otis Redding tribute, mark it as one of the more stylistically unusual tracks in The Doors' catalog. The band's willingness to bring in brass and string arrangements on multiple tracks drew criticism at the time and continues to divide listeners, but the production ambition is audible throughout and recorded well at Elektra Sound Recorders in Los Angeles. The nine-minute title track that closes the album remains one of Morrison's most structurally complex vocal performances. On Discogs, this release shows over 10,000 collectors reporting ownership with more than 2,200 active want-list entries, numbers that reflect both the album's broad popularity and the healthy market for original US Elektra pressings. For comparison purposes, the European pressings of The Soft Parade and various later US reissues each have their own label and matrix distinctions documented in our catalog. If you are specifically after a gold/tan label copy, expect to pay a meaningful premium; the red-label US pressings are far more common. The quad and specialty pressings represent another category entirely. The lyrics inner sleeve, when present, should show clean printing with no moisture damage or edge tears; degraded inserts are common given the sleeve's light stock.

The standard red-label US pressing of EKS-75005 is a solid acquisition for any serious Doors collection but is not scarce. The gold/tan Allentown pressing, however, is the one to prioritize; it carries both historical significance as the last Elektra gold/tan label release and genuine collector demand. If you come across a clean example with hand-etched "AL" runouts, the lyrics insert intact, and a well-preserved cover, pick it up. The international variants and later domestic reissues are fine for listening but do not carry the same provenance.