"Summer's Almost Gone" is a melancholic, blues-structured track from The Doors' 1968 album Waiting for the Sun, featuring a Robby Krieger electric guitar solo that perfectly complements the song's wistful atmosphere. Built on a 12-bar blues form in C minor, the song reflects the transitional mood of the album, which found the band moving away from the psychedelic intensity of their first two records toward more polished, song-oriented material. Krieger's guitar solo is melodic and restrained, his tone warm and slightly fuzzy as he traces lines that echo the song's theme of fading beauty and passing time. His approach draws on blues vocabulary but with the distinctive fingerpicking technique and flamenco-influenced sensibility that set his playing apart from other rock guitarists of the era. Ray Manzarek's organ provides the harmonic foundation that The Doors used in place of a conventional bass guitar, while John Densmore's drumming is subtle and supportive. Jim Morrison's vocal performance is unusually tender, and Krieger's solo extends that gentleness into instrumental territory. The track demonstrates The Doors' range as a band, proving they could be as effective in quiet, reflective moments as in their more famous outbursts of psychedelic intensity.
