Released February 1970 Label Elektra | Recorded November 1969 Producer(s) Paul A. Rothchild | |
Length 2:50 (5:02 with "Blue Sunday") Writer(s) Jim Morrison
Robby Krieger | ||
"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".
Contents
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:
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. A similar line about Chicago probably refers to the conflict surrounding the 1968 Democratic National Convention.