Soul Kitchen

"Soul Kitchen" is a song by the Doors from their self-titled debut album The Doors. Singer Jim Morrison wrote the lyrics as a tribute to the soul food restaurant Olivia's in Venice Beach, California. Because he often stayed too late, the staff had to kick him out, thus the lines "let me sleep all night, in your soul kitchen". Composition The song is notated in the key of A Major with Jim Morrison's vocal range spanning from E4 to A5. It has a Dorian alternation of i and IV. Like the other songs from their debut album, the songwriting credit was given to each members of the Doors; the performance rights organization ASCAP list the song as a group composition. Despite the songwriting credit, its lyrics were written by Morrison during the summer of 1965. Guitarist Robby Krieger acknowledged soul-singer James Brown's influence on the song, stating that he wanted to simulate a horn section by Brown, with the riff heard throughout. Music journalist Stephen Davis characterized it as a hard rock track, while Gillian G. Gaar called it "funky blues-rock". Critical reception Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine declared "Soul Kitchen" as a "classic Doors song". According to rock critic Greil Marcus, "Soul Kitchen" is the Doors' version of "Gloria" by Van Morrison, a song the Doors often covered in their early days. Marcus writes, "It was a staircase—not, as with 'Gloria' in imagery, but in the cadence the two songs shared, slowed down so strongly in 'Soul Kitchen' that a sense of deliberation, so physical that it was more body than thought, became the guiding spirit of the song."