Structure
The track "Celebration of the Lizard" was intended to take up an entire album side, but the group was never able to get it right (they would revisit it later in its full-length form on their 1970 album Absolutely Live). Many fans have suggested once "Celebration of the Lizard" was shelved, two of the band's earliest tracks were resurrected and re-recorded for use to fill in the void, those tracks being "Hello, I Love You" and "Summer's Almost Gone". These two tracks had been recorded in an earlier arrangement for the band's original 1965 demo. Waiting for the Sun ended up as the shortest studio album by the band.
"Celebration of the Lizard" and two early takes of "Not to Touch the Earth" were included as bonus tracks on the 40th anniversary expanded edition release of this album.
Though a strong album lyrically, musically it has often been criticized for its softer, mellow sound, a departure from the edgier, more ambitious sound for which the band had become well-known (and notorious). Nonetheless, the album contains some rarely disputed classics, most notably the menacing "Five to One", the controversial anti-war anthem "The Unknown Soldier", and the evocative "Not to Touch the Earth".
The title track "Waiting for the Sun" was left off this album, but would be included on the 1970 album Morrison Hotel.
This album marked keyboardist Ray Manzarek's transition from a Vox Continental to Gibson G-101, the organ he is best known for playing live.
The US monophonic pressing - though only a fold down of the stereo mix to mono - is one of the rarest pop/rock LPs and has been sought after by collectors for years.
Read more about this topic: Waiting For The Sun
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