Riders On The Storm

This song is about being a small part of a largly chaotic universe.

They were thinking of ideas for songs, and they were listening to a song called "Ghost Riders In The Sky," a cowboy song by Stan Jones. And came up with this song. Jim was working on a screenplay for a movie at this time, he used alot of parts from his screenplay in the lyrics. And the movie is about a hitchiker who kills people when they pick him up. Kinda like The Hitcher with Rutger Hauer.

This is one of the songs that got me into The Doors, because this is song is what life really is. We are thrown into this world on alone, we have our false hopes, dreams, and gods, we may have those around us, there are dangers and threats that can happen to anyone, and life is a storm that we are riding out.

[Riders on the storm] Well, life is hell, impredictable. [Into this house we're born, Into this world we're thrown Like a dog without a bone, An actor out alone] We are here, but why? Life is unfair, stupid, senseless.. we are just like a gods without a bone, beings without purpose. There's a killer on the road, His brain is squirmin' like a toad [Gotta love your man, yeah, Wow!] We have to love, society tell us that. But if life makes no sense at all, why sould we care about it? Life is all about living the absurd. I have doubts in the part of the serial killer. Maybe, as Jim is a clear nihilist, is a metaphore of death, the only thing that will happen for sure in our lives. (just my point, to understand this song study some philosophy)

OK here it is the real meaning of ROTS............... You are born, you live and you die. Morrison hated the randomness of life and saw death as the only certainty. Thus he empathises with psycho killers who are compeled to kill in there efforts to garner control and order in their lives. Morrison was obsessed with the Ida Lupino movie the Hitch-hiker about a sadistic pyscho who is picked up by two holidaying businessmen. Being the misogynist that he was it was up to women to help and comfort men as they rode the turbulant random storm of life.

This evolved out of a jam session when the band was messing around with "Ghost Riders In The Sky," a cowboy song by Stan Jones.

Morrison practiced 'consciousness flow' which allowed him to mix and match whatever thoughts coursed through his mind that rhymed, in this song, it just happened to be women and Serial killers like manson. There is no 'hidden' meaning.

"You guys are so silly. To truly understand this song you have to take 5 hits of acid. Then and only then can you truly appreciate and understand what jim morrison is trying to say. Come on let your children play man." really, an idiotic comment, show some responsibility towards those who might be reading this. i can say after having spent many hours on acid as a youth, including a six week solid period on mushrooms after being given a bag of 5000 of wales' finest freshly picked (we somehow lost two weeks there), acid wont make any difference in your understanding of anything, but your normal thoughts will seem more relevant, what's needed to form understanding is simply intelligence. which you will lose if you take acid as it causes malfunctions in the brain circuitry that can last forever, i still see visual traces due to my first ever acid tab, that was some 20 years ago when i was about 13. dont do acid :\ that said, badly prescribed meds for my depression dropped my iq from 118 to 97 with just one pill (i got dumbed down), still recovering from that one 10 years later. dont do prescribed meds from angry pre breakdown psychiatrists who cant argue with logic :\

I’ll just comment on the first verse now. My take is that although many people seem to adapt perfectly to this world system, other people are very sensitive, feeling more that after birth, they have been “thrown” rather than just “born” into this stormy world. Young children do SEE the disasters and injustices in the world around them. Many parents aren’t forthright with their children about the cold hard facts, but fluff over the true facts with “white lies,” thinking they are protecting their children. Most children accept the “fluff.” Many parents even teach their children that appearances are of upmost importance in order to be accepted by society. Inadvertently they teach their children to act, lie and pretend so they will be looked upon and be accepted by society, rather than teaching their children to just be their own genuine self. Some children see through the “big lie” and refuse to conform. When they don’t conform they are alienated from society and feel lost and alone, like “a dog without a bone and an actor out alone.” That is why many people accused Jim Morrison of being a rebel. He just refused to conform to the “big lie,” and remained true to himself. Tragically, it remains the same, even for parents who teach and encourage their children to be true to themselves. They too are often rejected by society. It’s very sad….something Shakespeare seemed to grasp so very well.

While the part about picking a killer up is mostly refering to a screenplay morrison was writing, the lines "into this world we're thrown etc." clearly are a product of the world-weariness morrison experienced.