Feature Song: “Riders on the Storm”
I featured The Doors just over a year ago (DUTC#59), and their song “Strange Days” from their 1967 album of the same name. We fast forward four years to 1971 for “Riders on the Storm,” a song from their sixth studio album, L.A Woman. Aside from being a hypnotic song that has been described and classified as psychedelic rock, jazz rock, and art rock, as well as being the precursor of gothic music, it is also known to be the last song Jim Morrison recorded prior to his death in Paris that same year. According to guitarist Robby Krieger and keyboardist Ray Manzarek, the song was actually inspired by the country song, “(Ghost) Riders in the Sky: A Country Legend,” written by Stan Jones. The lyrics for “Strange Days” were written and brought to rehearsal by Morrison. A portion of the lyrics refer to the hitchhiker killer Billy “Cockeyed” Cook, who was the subject of the 1953 Noir/Thriller, The Hitch-Hiker.
The song was recorded at the Doors Workshop in December 1970 with the assistance of their long-time engineer, Bruce Botnick. Later, in January 1971, after Morrison had recorded the main vocals, the group gathered at Poppi Studios to complete the mixing of L.A. Woman, where Morrison then whispered the lyrics over them to create an echo effect. In a conversation that Krieger and Manzarek had with German philosopher Thomas Colimer, it was argued that the song line, “into this world we’re thrown,” recalls philosopher Martin Heiddeger’s concept of “thrownness” (geworfenheit) – human existence as a basic state. The reason for this is said to be due to the fact that Morrison heard a lecture on Heidegger at Florida State University in 1963. This lyric appears in the first verse, which goes like this: “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 on loan/Riders on the storm.”
As I am sure I have mentioned in the past, I was and still am a huge fan of The Doors and, in particular, Morrison’s lyrics. There are, of course, many singer/songwriters both past and present who are considered “poets” for the way the substantive nature of their lyrics tell many different stories, but Morrison has always held a special place for me as a “poet,” much in the same way Gordon Downey did about 20 years later during his tenure with The Tragically Hip. It is not just about that line, “into this world, we’re thrown” but that whole first verse that sets the tone for what is to follow, which is, as mentioned above, the story of a hitchhiker killer. There have been many interpretations of that verse, not surprising since it has been around for some time, but I have always gravitated to “riders,” in the first two lines, suggesting that people tend to “navigate through life’s chaos” rather tumultuously, as the word “storm” suggests, and the next two lines suggesting an involuntary “entry into existence.” The next two lines, “Like a dog without a bone/An actor out on loan,” invoke an image of a “lack of purpose,” (the dog without a bone), and a feeling of a “temporary and uncomfortable placement,” (an actor out on loan, fitting as the song was recorded in Los Angeles), all of which point to the “existential experience of being cast into life.” A feeling, I am willing to bet, that most of us have experienced at some point in our lives! For the recording of the song the original lineup – Morrison, Manzarek, Kreiger, and Dunsmore – are joined by Elvis Presley’s bassist, Jerry Scheff, who is the one that gets the song going, with an awesome bass run.
László Fogarasi Jr. (1980), known by his stage name Yonderboi, is a Hungarian composer, music producer, and visual artist. His debut album, Shallow and Profound, released in 2000, brought Eastern European music to the Western European electronic music scene, and was met with critical acclaim by several producers, including BBC Radio 1. He has performed on diverse stages over the years, including festivals such as Sónar, Pukkelpop, Lowlands, Big Chill, Sziget, ADE, as well as at venues such as Razzamatazz (club) in Barcelona, Melkweg, and Paradiso in Amsterdam. His music is often licensed to films, TV, fashion shows, and video games, and he has also scored movies and theater pieces. Yonderboi started experimenting with music in his teens, and his first release in 1998, while he was still in high school, was a song called “Pink Solidism,” which is an instrumental cover of “Riders on the Storm.” I first discovered this several years ago and was instantly hooked. Let’s just call it an example of the 20th century melding with the 21st century.
Enjoy!
The Doors. “Riders on the Storm” 1971.
Yonderboi. “Riders on the Storm” cover. This is a live performance from August 19, 2001, at the Milleniumi Utcabál festival in Budapest, Hungary.
And because I can, here is a 1948 performance of Stan Jones’s “Ghost Riders in the Sky.”
Los Angeles 2025
Not a favorite Doors song for me. Maybe just too dark. I do love Ghost Riders in the Sky, though. It takes me back to when America was great – the first time.
Very cool story about this song and you make a good point about the poetic aspects. Yonderboi cover is well, creative shall I say. Good ole Stan Jones, if you are only going to write one big song, this was the way to go!
Very creative!
I’m a long-time fan of The Doors too, and have always loved “Riders on the Storm”. Yonderboi’s interpretation of the song is enchanting and mesmerizing.