The Soft Parade / Stripped — Clear Vinyl - Record Store Day

The Soft Parade / Stripped on Elektra/Rhino, catalog numbers RVC1 625142 and 603497848256, was released September 26, 2020 as part of the fall Record Store Day drops. This is the clear vinyl pressing, limited to 12,000 stamped units worldwide. It is a single LP presenting eight tracks drawn exclusively from the 1969 Soft Parade sessions, all remixed to strip out the orchestral and brass overdubs that divided opinion on the original release. This specific variant is the one to chase for the clear vinyl format; do not confuse it with any standard black vinyl reissue of the parent album.

The sleeve is immediately distinctive. As seen in the first photo, it is a clear or very pale ice-blue stock, nearly translucent in feel, printed with restrained typography rather than any bold imagery. The front carries the title the soft parade/stripped in lowercase lettering across the upper portion, with a circular logo treatment for "the doors" centered below it, rendered in a faded, almost ghostly blue-grey. Beneath the band name, four individual member credits are printed in small type: Jim Morrison, Robby Krieger, Ray Manzarek, and John Densmore. The overall palette is monochromatic, cool, and minimal, a deliberate contrast to the warm, busy original 1969 Elektra sleeve. A Record Store Day sticker is affixed to the upper corner of the front, confirming its RSD exclusive status. The back of the sleeve, visible in the second photo, continues the same pale blue-grey palette. The large stylized "the doors" lettering bleeds across most of the rear panel in a washed-out, almost watermark fashion, giving it a semi-transparent quality that plays well against the light stock. Track listing and credits are printed in small blocks of text in the lower sections of the back cover. The clear vinyl disc itself is visible through the sleeve where the stock allows, reinforcing the cohesive design concept. An insert is included containing full production credits, which Discogs confirms. The pressing quality on the clear vinyl is clean, with no significant reports of widespread pressing defects circulating in the collector community.

The core concept here is the "Doors Only Mix," meaning the string arrangements, horn sections, and additional studio overdubs commissioned by Paul Rothchild for the original Soft Parade release have been removed, leaving the four band members isolated. For tracks like "Tell All the People", the difference is significant; the song loses its orchestral swell and becomes a leaner, more direct rock track. "Touch Me" undergoes the most dramatic transformation, stripped of the brass arrangement that defined its chart run. Side B adds a further layer of interest with three tracks presented in a "Doors Only Mix w/New Robby Krieger Overdub" configuration, meaning Krieger recorded fresh guitar parts specifically for this release. These are not archive outtakes; they are new performances grafted onto 1969 session stems, which makes this LP a genuinely hybrid artifact rather than a straightforward archival dig. "Who Scared You," the non-album B-side originally paired with "Love Her Madly" in 1971, closes Side B and its inclusion here gives the set a slight bonus feel for collectors who focus on the band's deeper catalog rather than just the headline albums. The Discogs numbers as of this writing show 3,687 collectors marking it as owned and 490 in the want list, which is a reasonable ratio for a 12,000-copy RSD pressing and suggests it has spread fairly well into collections globally without becoming impossible to find. Secondary market pricing has settled into a moderate premium over original retail, nowhere near the territory of a genuinely scarce release like some of the early Elektra promos or the limited pressings catalogued elsewhere on this site. Anyone who followed the band's later period will recognize that stripped or alternate-mix releases have a precedent; the surviving members have revisited session material across various reissue campaigns, and this sits alongside projects like The Lost Boys soundtrack contributions as a reminder of how the catalog has been managed across decades.

At 12,000 copies this is not a scarce item in the strictest sense, but the clear vinyl variant with the RSD sticker and the Krieger overdub tracks does give it a distinct identity that separates it from any standard reissue. If you track the Soft Parade in all its permutations, this belongs in the collection. The stripped mix concept is genuinely interesting rather than a gimmick, and the physical presentation, with its pale translucent sleeve and clear disc, holds up well on a shelf. Recommended for collectors focused on the 1969 studio period and for anyone curious how that album sounds with the orchestration removed.