Strange Days

The Doors' Strange Days, released on Elektra Records as catalog number EKS-74014 in October 1967, is the original US first pressing on the distinctive tan Elektra label. This stereo pressing carries a specific label variation: the word "Stereo" appears on the right-hand side of the label only, set in an elongated font. Engineered at Sunset Sound Recorders in Hollywood and mastered at Madison Sound in New York, this is the pressing that collectors mean when they say they want the real thing. If you are comparing across variants, be sure you are looking at the correct entry; several other pressings and reissues share the same title and are catalogued separately, including the reel-to-reel, the cassette, and 8-track.

The cover photograph is one of the more immediately recognizable images in rock history. Shot on a narrow urban street with a brownstone backdrop, the image presents a troupe of street performers rather than the band itself. A heavyset strongman in a zebra-patterned skirt dominates the right foreground, arms raised wide. To the left, a mime in white face paint and dark costume gestures upward, while a small, formally dressed man in a suit and hat stands at center, arms also raised. Behind them, other figures including what appears to be a juggler and additional performers fill the narrow lane. The overall palette is warm but slightly desaturated, with the brick and stone of the street giving the scene a gritty, almost theatrical quality. Text on the cover is minimal: "THE DOORS" runs across the upper portion and "STRANGE DAYS" is positioned toward the lower section, both in a clean, period-appropriate typeface. The back cover continues with band and production credits. The gatefold was not part of this pressing; this is a single-pocket sleeve. What is included, however, is the original lyrics inner sleeve, a detail that matters considerably when assessing completeness. A copy missing that inner sleeve is, by most collector standards, incomplete. The sleeve itself carries the full lyric text for all ten tracks and was printed on a standard white paper stock with black text. Condition of both the sleeve and the inner sleeve should be assessed separately when grading any copy of this pressing.

The Doors recorded Strange Days quickly, in part because the label wanted product in the market while the debut album was still generating momentum. The results are anything but rushed. The ten tracks across the two sides draw from a period when Jim Morrison was sleeping on a rooftop in Venice Beach, and that material, stripped of whatever comfort a conventional living situation might have provided, carries real weight. "Moonlight Drive," famously the song Morrison sang to Ray Manzarek when they met on the beach and which effectively formed the creative nucleus of the band, finally appeared here in its studio form. "When The Music's Over" closes out Side Two in the same extended, exploratory format that "The End" established on the debut. "People Are Strange," occupying the B1 position, became the album's commercial touchstone, while tracks like "Horse Latitudes" and "Unhappy Girl" push into stranger, less radio-friendly territory. The sequencing rewards side-by-side listening and is best experienced on the original pressing rather than any later remaster or reissue. For collectors who want to compare across formats and territories, the catalog here also includes the CD variant and re-issue cassette worth examining. The tan Elektra label with the elongated "Stereo" font is the identifier that separates this earliest US pressing from subsequent runs. On Discogs, this exact variant shows over 15,000 collectors marking it as owned and more than 4,000 listing it as wanted, numbers that reflect both its historical importance and the fact that it changed enough hands over the decades to be relatively findable, if not inexpensive in excellent condition. A companion compilation pairing this album's material with another classic is documented over at Strange Days and LA Woman for those tracking multi-album releases.

This is the pressing to own if you are serious about Strange Days in its original US form. The tan label with the elongated stereo font, the lyrics inner sleeve, and the Sunset Sound engineering all combine to make EKS-74014 the definitive domestic version. Copies in VG+ or better with the inner sleeve intact command real money and are worth it. Common enough to find, uncommon enough in top condition to require patience.