"Summer's Almost Gone" is a folk-blues composition credited to Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, John Densmore, and Robby Krieger of The Doors. Morrison wrote it as one of his earliest songs, performing it for Manzarek at Venice Beach in July 1965, a meeting that helped spark the formation of the band. An initial demo was recorded in September 1965 at World Pacific Studios by Morrison, Manzarek, and Densmore before Krieger had joined the group. The song captures a dreamy, bittersweet mood through imagery of fading summer days, morning calm, noon sun, and swimming in a "laughin' sea," all anchored by the recurring refrain of the title. Manzarek described the harmonic character as a "cool Latino-Bolero kind of thing with a Bach-like bridge," blending blues swing with a European classical sensibility. Though originally recorded during the 1967 sessions for Strange Days, it went unused until it found a place on the 1968 album Waiting for the Sun, filling space left when the band abandoned the lengthy "Celebration of the Lizard" suite. Its companion from those early demos, "Hello, I Love You," was also rescued for the same album. The composition reflects possible influences from Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys in its evocation of California summer atmosphere, filtered through The Doors' characteristic psychedelic and poetic sensibility.
