No. 37: Satellite Party Feat. Jim Morrison, “Woman In The Window”

noah | October 29, 2009 1:00 pm

Envision, if you will, a world remade in the image… of late Doors singer Jim Morrison.

Lollapalooza/Jane’s Addiction founder Perry Farrell’s project Satellite Party was more “conceptual wankery that resulted from dude needing something to do” than anything else, with Farrell bringing together disparate elements of the now—flash mobs! Fergie! Nuno Bettencourt?—to create a finished product that was more “interesting way to teach people how not to use Photoshop” than “album you would want to listen to.” The concept album is loosely based on the story of “a collaborative brain trust of artistic visionaries, including writers, musicians and environmentalists called The Solutionists, who seek to redesign and come up with solutions for the world”; it uses the oh-so-courant-then term “flash mob” in a way that more resembles “bitchin’ rave DJed by DJ Peretz, yo.” And it reaches its, er, artistic peak with “Woman In The Window,” which employs a previously unheard loop of the Lizard King musing about love and gardens and riding off into the sunset; either the tape was warped or he was, because his voice wavers and wilts all over the place. What results is one of those zombie creations that sounds slightly out of time, like a backstory-value-added “Free As A Bird” that’s been dragged through the trip-hop mire and grafted to a vaguely “Manzarekian” keyboard noodle. Farrell describes the song’s “story” as such:

The Heavenly Host sitting with the Solutionists watching the world from above, and he’s telling the Solutionists to legitimize, and with the power of their creativity, they will transform this world. And “Just try and stop us, we’re going to love.” That is the mantra of the Solutionists.

I guess if you’re going to try and make sense of Morrison’s barely coherent ravings, you might as well aim big and accept the Doors singer’s vision of him being God. (“The Doors epitomized everything that I loved about musicians and music. They were the voice of their generation,” Farrell once told the Los Angeles Times. Sigh. And I liked “Been Caught Stealing” so much, you guys!) But unfortunately the other members of Satellite Party weren’t feeling the Jim-preached love, as Bettencourt departed the band shortly after the album was released and Perry went back to Jane’s Addiction Reunion No. 4,857. At least we still have this song! Thank God—er, Jim—for that, right? Satellite Party ft Jim Morrison – Woman in the Window [YouTube] Satellite Party [MySpace] F2K: Idolator Counts Down The 50 Worst Songs Of The ’00s, One By Ear-Splitting One