Runnin' Blue

"Runnin' Blue was inspired by the recent death of Otis Redding. Music critic Bart Testa found it ironic that this Doors song was extolling "The Dock of the Bay", which for Redding was a place of defeat and "where he wasted time having found the struggle for life useless", when earlier Doors songs such as "The End" and "When the Music's Over" call vehemently for revolution. ==Musical style and reception==

The Doors execution with the song, was to feature elements from R&B The song begins with a fiddle played by Jimmy Buchanan and builds to a refrain which Testa compares to "Touch Me", the Doors earlier hit from The Soft Parade. while AllMusic critic Richie Unterberger dismissed it as a "strange bluegrass-soul blend" and regarded it as one of the weakest songs on Soft Parade. Rolling Stone critic Dave Marsh called it the Doors' "only really humane song", saying that it is "puppy-dog-charming in its clumsiness and lack of anything approaching soulfulness." Cash Box described it as "smooth, adaptable for dance-minded teens, and even more commercially potent than" the Doors' recent singles, and incorporating a touch of country music. Record World said "features some heavy production touches and a stompin' beat the kids will dig." Ultimate Classic Rock included it among the "Top 10 Robby Krieger Doors Songs". Chris Ingalls of PopMatters overviewing the 50th Anniversary edition of The Soft Parade, declared "Runnin' Blue" as one of the "oddities" of the album, and deemed its chorus as "cringe-worthy". The song was also included on the Doors 1972 compilation album Weird Scenes Inside the Gold Mine. ==Personnel==

The Doors • Jim Morrison – lead vocals • Ray Manzarek – Gibson Kalamazoo organ • Jimmy Buchanan – fiddle • Jesse McReynolds – mandolin ==References==