Waiting for the Sun includes the band's second chart topper, "
Hello, I Love You", one of the last remaining songs from Morrison's 1965 batch of tunes. It had been demoed by the group for Aura Records in 1965 before guitarist
Robby Krieger had joined the group, as had "Summer's Almost Gone". In the liner notes to
The Doors: Box Set, Krieger denied the allegations that the song's main riff and vocal melody were stolen from
Ray Davies, with a similar riff having been featured in
the Kinks' "
All Day and All of the Night". Instead, he said the song's vibe was taken from
Cream's song "
Sunshine of Your Love".
Waiting for the Sun contains two songs with military themes: "
Five to One" and "
The Unknown Soldier". Journalists
Nathan Brackett and
Christian Hoard speculate that "Five to One" seems to be a revolutionary anthem, spouted by the "hippie/ flower child" hordes Morrison saw in growing numbers. Regardless of this interpretation, Morrison confirmed that the lyrics were not political. The lines "Night is drawing near/ Shadows of the evening/ crawl across the years" may have been lifted by Morrison from the 19th-century hymnal and bedtime rhyme "Now the Day is Over" ("Now the day is over/ Night is drawing nigh/ Shadows of the evening/ Steal across the sky"). "The Unknown Soldier" exemplified the group's cinematic approach to their music. In the beginning, as well as after the middle of the song, the mysterious sounds of the organ are heard, depicting the mystery of the "Unknown Soldier". In the
bridge, the Doors produced the sounds of a
marching cadence. It begins with military drums, plus the sound of the sergeant counting off in 4 seconds ("HUP, HUP, HUP, 2, 3, 4"), until he shouts "COMPANY! HALT! PRESENT! ARMS!", followed by the sounds of loading rifles and a long military drum roll, a pause and then rifle shots. After this middle section, the verses return, with Morrison, singing in a sadder tone to "make a grave for the Unknown Soldier". The song ends with sounds of crowds cheering and bells tolling. The lyrics are generally viewed as Morrison's reaction to the
Vietnam War and the way that conflict was portrayed in American media at the time, with lines such as "Breakfast where the news is read/ Television children fed/ Unborn living, living dead/ Bullets strike the helmet's head" reflecting how news of the war was being presented in the living rooms of ordinary people. The band also shot a promotional film for the single. At the conclusion of "Not to Touch the Earth", Morrison utters his iconic personal maxim, "I am the Lizard King/ I can do anything." The opening lines of the song, "Not to touch the earth/ not to see the sun" were taken from the table of contents of
The Golden Bough. Krieger's skills with the
flamenco guitar can be found on "Spanish Caravan", with Granainas intro and a reworking of the melody from the classical piece
Asturias (Leyenda) composed by
Isaac Albéniz. The optimistic "We Could Be So Good Together" had been recorded during the sessions for
Strange Days, even appearing on an early track listing. A review in
Slant Magazine described the song as "categorically pre-fame Morrison," pointing out that the line "The time you wait subtracts from joy" is the kind of hippie idealism the singer had long abandoned. The single version quotes the opening theme from
Thelonious Monk's "
Straight, No Chaser". The whimsical "Wintertime Love" and the mournful "Summer's Almost Gone" address seasonal themes, while the gentle "Yes, the River Knows" was written by Krieger. In the liner notes to the 1997 Doors retrospective
Box Set, Manzarek praises the latter: "The piano and guitar interplay is absolutely beautiful. I don't think Robby and I ever played so sensitively together. It was the closest we ever came to being
Bill Evans and
Jim Hall." In the same essay, Manzarek refers to "Summer's Almost Gone" as "a cool Latino-Bolero kind of thing with a
Bach-like bridge. It's about the ephemeral nature of life. A season of joy and light and laughter is coming to an end." While recording "My Wild Love", the band eventually gave up on the music and turned it into a work song by getting everyone in the studio to clap their hands, stamp their feet and chant in unison. Robby Krieger has cited "My Wild Love" as his least favorite Doors song, recalling that when a
bodyguard said to him that his most-liked tune of the band is "My Wild Love", Krieger responded: "Oh shit, man, I hate that song". Morrison wrote "
Love Street" for his girlfriend
Pamela Courson and like all of his other songs about or dedicated to her, there was a hesitancy or biting refusal at the end ("I guess I like it fine, so far"). ==Releases==