Riders on the Storm is a rock anthem and most loved song by The Doors with Jim Morrison. May have been used more in movies than any other song in rock history (don’t quote me on that), it’s because of the lyrics.
Riders On The Storm
Riders on the storm
Riders on the storm
Into this house we’re born
Into this world we’re thrown
Like a dog without a bone
An actor out alone
Riders on the storm
There’s a killer on the road
His brain is squirmin’ like a toad
Take a long holiday
Let your children play
If ya give this man a ride
Sweet memory will die
Killer on the road, yeah
Girl, ya gotta love your man
Girl, ya gotta love your man
Take him by the hand
Make him understand
The world on you depends
Our life will never end
Gotta love your man, yeah
Riders on the storm
Into this house we’re born
Into this world we’re thrown
Like a dog without a bone
An actor out on loan
Riders on the storm
Riders on the storm
Riders on the storm
Riders on the storm
Riders on the storm
Source: LyricFindSongwriters: John Densmore / Ray Manzarek / Robby Krieger / James MorrisonRiders On The Storm lyrics © Doors Music Company
Background and composition
“Riders on the Storm” is a psychedelic rock and jazz rock song, notated in the key of E Minor. According to guitarist Robby Krieger and keyboardist Ray Manzarek, it was inspired by the country song “(Ghost) Riders in the Sky: A Cowboy Legend,” written by Stan Jones and popularized by Vaughn Monroe. Portions of the song’s lyrics were allegedly inspired by spree killer Billy Cook, whom Morrison referenced in a 1970 interview with The Village Voice, citing Cook as an inspiration for his short film HWY: An American Pastoral. Cook had killed six people, including a young family, while hitchhiking to California.
It is popularly believed that “Riders on the Storm” is the song that longtime Doors producer Paul A. Rothchild disparaged as “cocktail music”, precipitating his departure from the L.A. Woman sessions, as corroborated by guitarist Robby Krieger. Rothchild himself denied this claim, stating that he actually applied this moniker to “Love Her Madly“. Following Rothchild’s departure, longtime engineer Bruce Botnick was selected to take over production duties, alongside the Doors themselves.
“Riders on the Storm” was recorded at the Doors Workshop in December 1970 with the assistance of Botnick. Morrison recorded his main vocals and then whispered the lyrics over them to create an echo effect. This was the last song recorded by all four members of the Doors, as well as Morrison’s last recorded song to be released in his lifetime. The single was released in June 1971, entering the Billboard Hot 100 the week ending July 3, 1971, the same week that Morrison died.
Heidegger’s influence
Speaking with Krieger and Manzarek, the German philosopher Thomas Collmer argues that the line “Into this world we’re thrown” recalls Heidegger‘s concept of thrownness (human existence as a basic state). In 1963 at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Jim Morrison heard an influential lecture for him, in which were discussed the philosophers who critically dealt with the philosophical tradition, including Friedrich Nietzsche and also Martin Heidegger. In 2009, Simon Critchley dedicated his column in The Guardian to Heidegger’s thrownness and explained it using the aforementioned verse of the song. The connection between the thrownness into the world and a dog’s life was anticipated by the anti-Heideggerian author Ernst Bloch in his main work The Principle of Hope (1954–9).[18][19]
Legacy
The Doors’ drummer, John Densmore, released a book in 1990 entitled Riders on the Storm, detailing the story of his life and his times with the group. In November 2009, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame under the category Rock (single)
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