The End -
This was the last song recorded by the members of the Doors, according to Manzarek, as well as Morrison's last recorded song to be released in his lifetime. The single was released in 1971, shortly before Morrison's death, entering the Billboard Hot 100 on July 3, 1971, the day that Morrison died. The song can be seen as an autobiographical account of Morrison's life: he considered himself a "Rider on the storm." The "killer on the road" is a reference to a screenplay he wrote called The Hitchhiker (An American Pastoral), where Morrison was going to play the part of a hitchhiker who goes on a murder spree. Also, Jim Morrison mentions spree killer Billy Cook, in passing, during at least one interview. Cook killed six people, including a young family, while hitchhiking to California. In all likelihood, the Cook murders were inspiration for the song's lyric, "There's a killer on the road / His brain is squirming like a toad ... if you give this man a ride/sweet family will die ;..." Morrison recorded his main vocals and then whispered the lyrics over them to create the echo effect.
This evolved out of a jam session when the band was messing around with " that was later recorded by Johnny Cash, Bing Crosby and many others. It was Jim Morrison's idea to alter the title to "Riders On The Storm." The Doors brought in bass players Marc Benno and Jerry Scheff to play on the album. Scheff came up with the distinctive bass line after Manzarek played him what he had in mind on his keyboard. It took a while to figure out, since it was much harder to play on a bass than a keyboard.
Ghost Riders In The Sky is a really awesome and unique song, so I'm not surprised there was some inspiration from it.
I think you accidentally copy-pasta'd the "Riders on The Storm" comment.
Ooooops, not enough coffee yet :). Here.
I'll be the first to say it about Jim Morrison - "There was something deeply wrong with that boy":
"The killer awoke before dawn, he put his boots on
He took a face from the ancient gallery
And he walked on down the hall...
He went into the room where his sister lived, and then he
Paid a visit to his brother, and then he
He walked on down the hall, and
He came to a door, and he looked inside
Father, yes son, I want to kill you
Mother, I want to fuck you"
But somewhere in that troubled mind sprung some of the most poetic, immersive musical landscapes in rock. Just remember kids that "Drugs and alcohol are bad, mmkay".
In John Densmore's autobiography Riders on the Storm, he recalls when Morrison explained the meaning:
"At one point Jim said to me during the recording session, and he was tearful, and he shouted in the studio, 'Does anybody understand me?' And I said yes, I do, and right then and there we got into a long discussion and Jim just kept saying over and over kill the father, fuck the mother, and essentially boils down to this, kill all those things in yourself which are instilled in you and are not of yourself, they are alien concepts which are not yours, they must die. Fuck the mother is very basic, and it means get back to essence, what is reality, what is, fuck the mother is very basically mother, mother-birth, real, you can touch it, it's nature, it can't lie to you. So what Jim says at the end of the Oedipus section, which is essentially the same thing that the classic says, kill the alien concepts, get back reality, the end of alien concepts, the beginning of personal concepts."
I understand rejecting alien concepts, but I'd argue that he's framing it all wrong like a kid who was abused. You have to be taught concepts from somewhere, otherwise all concepts are alien. Thing is that a return to reality doesn't involve fucking your mother, but walking away from all maternal and paternal forces altogether.
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