How The Album "The Soft Parade" by the Doors Explains The Entire History of Mankind

Part Two: Historical Turning Points, Barack Obama and "Shaman's Blues"

Friends, with inauguration day not long past, I want to address the serious subject of the Obama Presidency through my preferred prism, the lyrics of the late Jim Morrison. Could he see the future? Was there some cracked wisdom to his chemically aided pronouncements? It is safe to view him as a modern day Socrates imbibing Michelob hemlock? The answer to all of these questions is an urgent yes. As proof, I humbly offer "Shaman's Blues."

The music is urgent from the outset, befitting for a song filled with such portent. The beat is as steady and constant as the persistent march of time. Manzerek's organ alternately wails and hums while Krieger's guitar always threatens to shoot off in some new direction before riffing back to the beat in a satisfying series of ripples. Then Morrison, ever the drunken master, peps up to deliver an almost breathless stream of words which may have told more than even the master had foreseen.

There will never be another one like you.
There will never be another one
Who can do the things you do, oh!

Obama is and will forever be the first African American President in the history of the US. It is important to keep in mind that the political machine he built was a mixture of the old and the new.

Will you give another chance?
Will you try, little try?
Please stop and you'll remember
We were together, anyway… All right!

The Internet which had been to that point a crude tool in the marshaling of a campaign became central to his campaign. What was interesting was the way the Obama team used the Internet to bring together Democrats of every kind and stripe to function as foot soldiers in their local communities. They indeed gave old politics another chance by combining the kind of door to door glad handing with the massive electronic reach of the information super highway.

And if you have a certain evening
You could lend to me,
I'd give it all right back to you.
Know how it has to be with you.
I know your moves and your mind,
And your mind, and your mind,
And your mind, and your mind,
And your mind, and you're mine!

In his 1995 book Dreams of My Father President Obama seems to answer Jim. "With our eyes closed, we uttered the same words, but in our hearts we each prayed to our own masters; we each remained locked in our own memories; we all clung to our own foolish magic." It is as if the "certain evening" is the closing of ones eyes and simply speaking one's mind is all we have to do.



Will you stop to think and wonder
Just what you'll see
Out on the trainyard nursing penitentiary?
It's gone, I cry out long.
Play it, brother.

President Obama again in Dreams of my father: "maybe once you stripped away the rationalizations, it always came down to a simple matter of escape."
So yeah Wikipedia is not always the way.

Did you stop it to consider how it will feel,
Cold grindin' grizzly bear jaws hot on your heels?
Do you often stop and whisper in Saturday's shore
"The whole world's a Savior?"
Who could ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever ask for more?

I think this quote from his inaugural address needs no further explanation as to how it helps to answer even explain what Jim was trying to tell us. "Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many.
They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America — they will be met." Kind of chills up a spine, doesn't it?

Do you remember?
Will you stop, will you stop the pain?

Again we turn to our President's Inaugural Address. He answers Jim it not directly then in at least in a hopeful yet oblique manner. "Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end."

And there will never be another one like you.
There will never be another one
Who can do the things you do, oh!
Will you give another chance?
Will you try a little try?
Please stop and you'll remember
We were together, anyway… All right!

"Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency."

How you must of think and wondered,
How I must feel
Out on the meadows
While you're on the field?
I'm alone for you, and I cry.

Again from Dreams of My Father:"Was the collaboration of some slaves any different than the silence of some Iranians who stood by and did nothing as Savak thugs murdered and tortured opponents of the Shah? How could we judge other men until we had stood in their shoes?"

He's sweatin', look at him…

Actually President Obama keeps it pretty cool. It's really his touchstone. The man doesn't let much get to him and believe me that is hard because ignorance and violence go together in this country like the Anglos and the Saxons.

Optical promise…

You think it's easy coming up with this shit? Okay Jim, optical promise. Now can we get back to future President Obama?

(Heh, heh, heh.)

Maybe he meant to say optimal pilsner? That would be more like Jim. That's a Jim, I understand.

You'll be dead and in hell before I'm born…

Yeah I'm going with optimal pilsner.

Sure thing…

Exactly Jim.

Bridesmaid…

Okay, Bridegroom.

The only solution —
Isn't it amazing?

It is Jim for you to have predicted and engaged in one of your imitable Q & A's with our future president is amazing.