[6] The 40th Anniversary remastered edition of the album reinstates an intro before the 'Petition the Lord with Prayer' section of the song, where Jim Morrison laments he's "troubled immeasurably" by the eyes of an unknown figure or subject.
"[10] The lyrics draws comparison to William Blake as well as T. S. Eliot's poem "Ash Wednesday",[11] much like many other selections of Morrison's poetry, which are heavily influenced by other poets and authors, notably "Break On Through (To the Other Side)" and "Not to Touch the Earth".
[12] "The Soft Parade" itself was an expression coined by Morrison to indicate the bizarre and varied humanity that populated Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles daily.
[14][15] In a contemporary review of The Soft Parade, Rolling Stone critic Alec Dubro found the title track to be a highlight of the album; however, he also expressed that "the thing is so mangled, so jammed together and frequently so silly that it’s kind of hard to listen all through its 8:40 for the good.
[18] Writing for AllMusic, Richie Unterberger described "The Soft Parade" as "a multi-part suite" and praised it as "one of the band's best attempts to mix rock with poetry".
[19] Stereogum's Ryan Leas found it one of the Doors' weirdest lengthy album closers, adding that its final section sounds "like the kind of thing that should've soundtracked a lot of weird druggy late-'60s parties in the woods, or something".