We begin with Jim Morrison and The Doors. Written by Jim Morrison / John Paul Densmore / Robert A Krieger / Raymond D Manzarek, the song Riders on the Storm is one heavy song. Not heavy metal, heavy duty lyrics.
Genius.com tells us it’s the last song Morrison recorded. After recording, Morrison left for France and died soon after. Released in June 1971, the song came into being during a jam session when the band tried riffing on Ghost Riders in the Sky (Stan Jones, cowboy song and what a lovely song that is, btw). Morrison altered the title to Riders on the Storm. Manzarek created the rain effect playing an electric piano. Morrison “overdubs” the song, whispering beneath the vocal, you can hear the whisper voice and it’s damn creepy.
Lyrics to 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 on loan
Riders on the stormThere’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 memory will die
Killer on the road, yeahGirl, 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, yeahRiders 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
Ok, got that brain worm going in your head? Second verse: his brain is squirming like a toad — he’s definitely a killer on the road.
Now let’s bring up my favorite Southern gothic writer (although she didn’t like being called that) and yours, Flannery O’Connor.
A Good Man Is Hard to Find.
I propose this: Jim Morrison must have read A Good Man Is Hard to Find and wrote the song in reference to it.
This is one incredible story, eh? Published in 1953, O’Connor offers up a dysfunctional family and follows them on a road trip. You owe it to yourself to read the story [link to pdf of story] if you’re not familiar with it and come back here when you’re finished. if you don’t have time or you want to skip over that requirement — a quick synopsis:
The story begins with a talkative, manipulative grandmother trying to convince her son, Bailey, to take the family to Tennessee instead of Florida. She warns them about an escaped convict, The Misfit. Her son and his family ignore her, pack up their car, and set out for Florida. Along the way, they stop at a roadside restaurant owned by Red Sammy Butts, where the grandmother and the owner bond over their shared belief that “a good man is hard to find”. Truer words never spoken, in this case.
After the roadstop, the grandmother convinces her son and his family to go down a seemingly random dirt road she thinks she remembers from her youth. She wants to see an old plantation.
The son crashes the car into a ditch. It’s the South, y’all, a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. You know what the ditch is like, right? Seed ticks. Beggar lice. Sawtooth briar. Summer, so of course no water in it, just dust and dirt and perhaps a dead possum or a big ass snake slithering away across the dust. Smell that? Smell a Southern corn field, dried up and crackling in the faint breeze? Feel it? The humidity at 99% with no rain.
While stranded in aforementioned ditch, three men approach the family. Of course, the grandmother recognizes The Misfit. He and his accomplices murder the family, taking them into the woods, one by one, and The Misfit shoots granny.
Ok, are we all on the same page now? Know who The Misfit is? Think his brain is squirming like a toad?
I like to believe Jim Morrison read Flannery O’Connor’s books and stories and that her influence on this and other songs seems obvious. I’ll be back here soon with more of O’Connor’s suspected influence on The Doors. See y’all in a bit.
