When The Music's Over
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| "When the Music's Over" | ||
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| Song by The Doors | ||
| Released | October 1967 | |
| Recorded | May-August 1967 | |
| Genre | Rock | |
| Length | 10:58 | |
| Label | Elektra | |
| Producer(s) | Paul Rothchild | |
"When the Music's Over" is a song, regarded as one of The Doors' epic poems set to music, featured on the group's second studio album, Strange Days. The song, being at almost eleven minutes long, is their third longest recorded song, behind only The End (11:42), and Celebration Of The Lizard (17:01) When the band originally recorded the song, Jim Morrison did not show up for the session, so the band recorded it with Ray Manzarek singing. The next day when Jim ended up coming in and had to rerecord the vocals.
The song starts out with a jazzy riff featuring Ray Manzarek on organ and John Densmore on drums. Right at the beginning of the song, you can hear Jim Morrison say "Yeah, come on," as if he is adding to the feel of the intro. The band kicks in to start the first verse, which they repeat twice, and then Morrison sings the chorus. A guitar solo by Robby Krieger then commences, which lasts about 45 seconds. The volume of the song gradually decreases as the epic poem begins. This very quiet portion of the song, which lasts about four minutes, features Morrison singing with a quiet bassline from Manzarek, soft guitar by Krieger and drums by Densmore. The poem portion is occasionally sparked from loud bursts from Densmore's drums. The song is almost silent when the famous lyric "We want the world and we want it now!" is declared by all four members of the Doors. A drum roll crescendo is then heard. The song abruptly kicks into gear again as Morrison screams out the rest of the lyrics. The final one and a half minutes is the first verse of the song sung once again.
