The Unknown Soldier (song)

Infobox Single
Name = The Unknown Soldier


Artist = The Doors
from Album = Waiting for the Sun
B-side = We Could Be So Good Together
Released = March 1968
Format =
Recorded = February 1968
Genre = Psychedelic rock
Length = 3:10
Label = Elektra
Writer = Jim Morrison
Robby Krieger
Ray Manzarek
John Densmore
Producer = Paul A. Rothchild
Certification =
Chart position = * #39 (U.S. Hot 100)
Last single = "Love Me Two Times"
(1967)
This single = "The Unknown Soldier"
(1968)
Next single = "Hello, I Love You"
(1968)"The Unknown Soldier" was the first single from The Doors' 1968 album "Waiting for the Sun", and was also the subject of one of the band's few, inventive music videos. The song was Jim Morrison's reaction to the Vietnam War and the way that conflict was portrayed in American media at the time. Lines such as, "Breakfast where the news is read/Television children fed/ unknown living, living dead/bullets strike the helmet's head", concern the way news of the war was being presented in the living rooms of ordinary people.

In the middle of the song, the Doors produce the sounds of what appears to be an execution; in live performances Robby Krieger would point his guitar towards Morrison like a rifle, drummer John Densmore would emulate a gunshot by producing a loud rimshot, by hitting the side of the cymbal, therefore, breaking the sticks to the drum set, and Morrison would fall screaming to the ground. After this middle section, the verses return and the song ends with Morrison's ecstatic celebration of a war being over. In the studio version of the song, the sounds of crowds cheering, and bells tolling, can be heard.

The single for "Unknown Soldier" was a commercial disappointment as it reached only #39 in the US, possibly due to its controversial theme and downbeat atmosphere. However the second single from "Waiting for the Sun", Hello, I Love You, went all the way to the top of the charts.