Have you heard of this song by "the Doors"? ?

Question

Celebration of the Lizard.

I just heard of it, and listened to it, and found it really odd...but yet i enjoyed it. does anyone know what its about??

Answer 1

I heard it from the album An American Prayer and it's really cool The Doors will lie forever

Answer 2

What version did you listen to? I am guessing it was from the studio outtakes, i actually don't like that version any much at all, it just seems awkward, and not in a good way. However I think the Aquarius version is pretty good, and the NYC version is great, it took it to a whole new level that by far passed the studio one. Either way it is an incredible poem, the musical failure is more so on the other band members.

Anyway, the meaning of it would be really hard to interpret it is the type of thing that for me, after listening to for years is still questionable in its exact meaning. The most insight into it is from what Jim said at the NYC concert, this is what Jim said about the song before it started, "Maybe I better tell you what this stories about, it's about a bunch of young people who got fed up with where they were living and what was happening, they got a group of them together and went out to the desert to live away from everyone. And each night they would build a fire and gather around and they'd sing songs and discuss what was happening and where they were at and all of that."

There can be nothing better than a  description of a song/poem by the writer himself, but this is just some additional info that may help to understand. Celebration is mainly a bunch of smaller poems put together to make a whole story, so the meaning may not be as definite as something that was fluid in the way it was written.

In the simplest possible way, it is a song about life, however there are many deeper meanings that could be determined on how you see life or how you feel about certain things, so the meaning of it will differ between each person.

The link I included just has some interesting information about the song and working in the studio, it doesn't share the meaning or anything, but it shows the importance of the song to Jim.

If you want I can do a full analysis of the song but that again is open to interpretation and bias on the person describing it.