‘Riders on the Storm’ is a song by American rock band the Doors, released in June 1971 by Elektra Records as the second single from the band's sixth studio album, L.A. Woman. It is famous for being the last song that Jim Morrison recorded prior to his sudden death in Paris on July 3, 1971. The song reached number 14 on the U.S Billboard Hot 100, number 22 on the UK Singles Chart, and number seven in the Netherlands.
‘Riders on the Storm’ has been classified as a psychedelic rock, jazz rock, art rock song, and a precursor of gothic music. 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. The lyrics were written and brought to rehearsal by Morrison, of which a portion of it refers to hitchhiking killer Billy "Cockeyed" Cook, who was the subject of the 1953 film, The Hitch-Hiker. Manzarek noted that some lines express Morrison's love to his companion Pamela Courson.
As it says in Jim Morrison: Life, Death, Legend by Stephen Davis, in 1962, while Jim was attending Florida State University in Tallahassee, he was seeing a girl named Mary Werbelow who lived in Clearwater, 280 miles away. Jim would oftentimes hitchhike to see her. "Those solitary journeys on hot and dusty Florida two-lane blacktop roads, with his thumb out and his imagination on fire with lust and poetry and Nietzsche and God knows what else - taking chances on redneck truckers, fugitive homos, and predatory cruisers - left an indelible psychic scar on Jimmy, whose notebooks began to obsessively feature scrawls and drawings of a lone hitchhiker, an existential traveller, faceless and dangerous, a drifting stranger with violent fantasies, a mystery tramp: the killer on the road."
‘Riders on the Storm’ was recorded at the Doors Workshop in December 1970 with the assistance of Botnick. Later in January 1971, after Morrison had recorded his main vocals, the group gathered at Poppi Studios to complete the mixing of L.A. Woman, at which Morrison then whispered the lyrics over them to create an echo effect. It was the last song recorded by all four members of the Doors, as well as the last song recorded by Morrison 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 Morrison died.
Label – Elektra
Songwriters – John Densmore, Robby Krieger, Ray Manzarek, Jim Morrison
Producers – Bruce Botnick, The Doors
SONG LYRICS
[Instrumental Intro 00:00-00:47][Chorus]
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
[Verse 1]
There's a killer on the road
His brain is squirmin' like a toad
Take a long holiday
Let your children play
If you give this man a ride
Sweet family will die
Killer on the road, yeah
[Instrumental Break 01:42-02:15]
[Verse 2]
Girl, you gotta love your man
Girl, you 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
[Instrumental Break 02:43-05:03]
[Electric Piano Solo]
[Chorus]
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
[Outro]
Riders on the storm
Riders on the storm
Riders on the storm
Riders on the storm
[Instrumental Outro]