Peace Frog
- For the clothing company see Peace Frogs.
| "Peace Frog" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Song by The Doors from the album Morrison Hotel | ||||
| Released | February 1970 | |||
| Recorded | November 1969 | |||
| Length | 2:50 (5:02 with "Blue Sunday") | |||
| Label | Elektra | |||
| Writer(s) |
Jim Morrison Robby Krieger | |||
| Producer(s) | Paul A. Rothchild | |||
| Morrison Hotel track listing | ||||
| ||||
"Peace Frog" is a song by The Doors which appears on their fifth studio album Morrison Hotel. It was released on vinyl in February 1970 by Elektra/Asylum Records and produced by Paul Rothchild. It has a fairly short running time of 2:50 and blends seamlessly into the next track on the album, "Blue Sunday", making it easy for radio stations to play the two songs consecutively. The lyrics were adapted from a couple of Morrison's poems, one being entitled "Abortion Stories".
Overview
The hook of the song is a distorted G5 chord played three times by guitarist Robby Krieger, followed by a brief percussive Wah-wah effect. Morrison begins nearly every line with the word blood, often referring to "Blood in the streets...". A brief musical interlude is next, followed by a guitar solo, and a spoken word verse ("Indians scattered on dawn's highway bleeding..."). The song ends with a final chord as it segues into the next track, "Blue Sunday".
Imagery
The line "Indians scattered on dawn's highway bleeding/Ghosts crowd the young child's fragile eggshell mind" originates from his poem, "Newborn Awakening" (and it also appears at the end of "Ghost Song"). The line is born out of "Dawn's Highway", a poem in which Jim describes an event that occurred when he was young. Morrison described the incident, using a rare mention of his parents, in An American Prayer:
| “ | Me and my — mother and father — and a grandmother and a grandfather — were driving through the desert, at dawn, and a truck load of Indian workers had either hit another car, or just — I don't know what happened — but there were Indians scattered all over the highway, bleeding to death." "So the car pulls up and stops. That was the first time I tasted fear. I musta' been about four — like a child is like a flower, his head is floating in the breeze, man. |
” |
The line "Blood in the streets in the town of New Haven" likely refers to Morrison's December 9, 1967 arrest at the New Haven Arena during a concert. After an altercation with a police officer backstage, Morrison made the incident known to the concert audience, and was arrested for attempting to incite a riot.[1] A similar line about Chicago probably refers to the conflict surrounding the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
In other media
- The song is in the 1998 movie The Waterboy.
- The song is in the 1994 movie Forrest Gump.
- It is on the soundtrack of the 2005 video game Tony Hawk's American Wasteland.
- The song is played during the credits of episode 6 of the first season of the TV series Entourage.
- The song is played during an episode of My Name Is Earl.
- The song is available as downloadable content for the music video game Rock Band 3.
- The song is sampled in "The Cactus" by "3rd Bass" from the album "The Cactus Album".
- The song is featured in the opening scene of the Season 3 premiere of the NBC show The Blacklist.[2]
References
- Peace Frog songfacts.[3] Accessed on August 2, 2009.
- ↑ "Jim Morrison". Morbid-curiosity.com. Retrieved 2011-06-01.
- ↑ "Music from The Blacklist - Season 3: "The Troll Farmer"". tunelyrics.com. Retrieved 2015-10-07.
- ↑ "Peace Frog by The Doors Songfacts". Songfacts.com. Retrieved 2011-06-01.
- The Official Doors Website. The Doors | Jim Morrison. Accessed on October 20, 2011.
- Peace Frog Lyrics - The Doors. Accessed on October 20, 2011.
