Runnin' Blue
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| "Runnin' Blue" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by the Doors | ||||
| from the album The Soft Parade | ||||
| B-side | "Do It" | |||
| Released | August 1969 | |||
| Recorded | 1968–1969 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 2:33 | |||
| Label | Elektra | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Robby Krieger | |||
| Producer(s) | Paul A. Rothchild | |||
| The Doors singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"Runnin' Blue" is a song written by guitarist Robby Krieger and performed by the Doors. Elektra Records released it in August 1969 as the fourth single from the band's fourth album The Soft Parade, backed with "Do It". The single peaked at No. 64 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and at No. 40 on the Cash Box Top 100 chart.[3][4][5][6]
Robby Krieger shares vocals with Jim Morrison for the chorus of the track, the only Doors song on which Krieger had a lead vocal while Morrison was alive.[3]
"Runnin' Blue was inspired by the recent death of Otis Redding.[1] Morrison sang the introduction to the song, which referenced Redding's death and was based on a Lead Belly song, "Poor Howard", to which Morrison inserted Redding's name:[3]
Poor Otis, dead and gone
Left me here to sing his song
Pretty little girl with the red dress on
Poor Otis, dead and gone
The lyrics also reference Redding's song "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay."[7] Music critic Bart Testa found it ironic that this Doors song was extolling "The Dock of the Bay", which for Redding was a place of defeat and "where he wasted time having found the struggle for life useless", when earlier Doors songs such as "The End" and "When the Music's Over" call vehemently for revolution.[7] Testa also notes that the line from "Runnin' Blue" stating "Don't fight/Too much to lose" contradicts those earlier songs.[7]
Rolling Stone critic Alec Dubro criticized the poetry of the introduction for being "excessive".[8]
