Synopsis
The Doors perform "People Are Strange" amid surreal images of 1960s New York. Jim Morrison sings while the band appears without instruments in an urban plaza, surrounded by masked and oddly dressed passersby. The footage shifts between staged performance shots, street scenes, and television material, creating a deliberately disorienting portrait of city life. Rather than following a conventional storyline, the video turns the song's outsider perspective into a restless visual collage of strangers, spectacle, and public spaces.
Factoids & Trivia
- The central performance footage was filmed for Murray the K's 1967 New York television special, which was broadcast on September 22, 1967.
- The Doors were filmed at Chase Manhattan Plaza, where they lip-synced to a prerecorded performance while appearing to play no instruments.
- People wearing pantyhose over their heads appear among the surrounding "strangers," giving the segment its unsettling, Halloween-like atmosphere.
- The version commonly circulated as a music video combines the Murray the K footage with material from The Ed Sullivan Show and, in some releases, later Los Angeles street footage.
- The clip was later included in Dance on Fire, the Doors' 1985 video compilation, and in the expanded Doors Collection released on home video.