Horse Latitudes (The Doors song)

Song infobox
Name = Horse Latitudes


Artist = The Doors
Album = Strange Days
Released = October 7, 1967
track_no = 5
Recorded = 1967
Genre = Psychedelic rock, experimental rock, spoken word
Length = 1:35
Writer = Jim Morrison
Ray Manzarek
Robbie Krieger
John Densmore
Label = Elektra
Producer = Paul A. Rothchild
prev = "Unhappy Girl"
prev_no = 4
next = "Moonlight Drive"
next_no = 6"Horse Latitudes" is the fifth song from The Doors second album, Strange Days. The song is a spoken word piece by Jim Morrison with the band providing frightening noises similar to a Satanic ritual as a backdrop. Morrison screams the lyrics, telling of a ship at sea forced to jettison the onboard horses to lighten their load. The words are taken from one of the first poems Jim Morrison ever wrote, inspired by a book cover he saw at a local bookstore as a child [Danny Sugerman, No One Here Gets Out Alive, 1980, ISBN 0-7607-0618-2 ] .

Several of the references in this set of lyrics seem to be metaphors for ejaculation and the spurt of semen as they are "jettisoned", i.e "Currents breed tiny monsters", "...Awkward instant...and the first animal is jettisoned,legs furiously pumping..."

Keyboardist Ray Manzarek mentions in his book "Light My Fire" he never believed Morrison wrote "Horse Latitudes" at such a young age, claiming the words were "too mature".

This song often segued into Moonlight Drive, or vice versa, which follows it on the album.

References