* I'm impressed ! It's about time someone is putting the parts of our music lyrics together. For those who missed it. Look how much better the lyrics of the 60s, and early 70s were then the lyrics of gangsta rap we've had to endure for the last 25 years ! 👊😎👍
@@Lyristoric ..... good work.... ive always connected the songs too. in fact, I see riders as the book end to, the end.... however, my connection lyrical & thematically were more societal, philosophical & even theological, then the more immediate narrative of the 2 lovers. heres the thing though thats underrated by morrison, both themes can be not only true, but converge into a bigger theme. you seem to understand lyrics well, so I'm sure your versed in poetic knowledge. when dealing w/ morrison, you have to be, b/c like dylan, he was very well read across several eras of poets. he was, maybe even more then dylan, very knowledgeable of western history & its literature & poetry dating back to egypt, greece & rome thru the renaissance to the modern 20th century poets. he incorporate several styles from those influences. but w/ long works such as these songs, he fell back technique wise to his most tried & true influence, william blake. morrison really understood symbolist poetry & like blake & greeks further back, used it to draw out long arcing & multilayered themes that transcended his own time but also incorporated it at the same time. both in the end & riders, he goes back to that wheelhouse & connects them to illuminate a larger view on humanity. And again, w/in that broader theme he uses the relationship between man & woman (agree his own relationship) to drive the narrative on the ground. my only difference w/ your conclusion is I think that woman was Mary & not Pam. at best a merging of both. Mary was his & hers first love. a deep one, through wh/ its break, haunted both deeply. she later followed him out of fla to calif. for 6 mo or so they were very tight again. but in mid '65 as the band was starting, they broke. but she stay in calif for another 2 years & they did communicate some. she eventually left for india to find herself. infact, there are live cuts in '70 of jim singing, away in india, wh/ was a plea to her. she just passed recently & to her credit never exploited their love for film or book profits. she only gave 1 interview from about 10 years ago to a fla paper & its well worth your time, reading.... Pam was close to him (wh/ is why it may indeed by an amalgamation of both of them), but Mary haunted him. & the first 2 albums in several cases lyrically are directly or indirectly greatly influenced by her.... I thought it would be good context for you to know. plus, it adds some context to my larger theme breakdown song connection, that I will post an hour or so beyond this one.
Jim also hitchhiked from FL to CA and used to tell interviewers his family was dead. The man emersed himself in his own poetic mythology. Legend status!
Great song, but don’t get it confused. He’s unstable and drowning in his own misery. This is why you gyros up and earn your living before you look for a significant other. If you expect someone to save you or help you save yourself, you’re making a huge mistake. Any real musician would know that. Difference between a good band here like the Doors and a master like Tom Waits.
wow, I research this on my own but you throw so many points and info I didn't know, great video and great channel. suscribed & like. I also liked the wind cries mary video, do more of hendrix please.
Amazing! Aside from common sense, 4:25 shows this interpretation to be rock solid. Ray Manzarek confirming it at the end (no pun intended) seals the case file. Another fascinating investigation!
But the love didn't save Jim from his demons. Seems Jim got confused in the Paris apartment between the coke and the heroin which the girl was addicted to. Taking the latter, he died. But what a band! What songs! Their music and melodies are as fresh today as they were well over 50 years ago.
Agreed! The musicianship behind The Doors is completely underrated. By the time you get to Morrison Hotel, they're a phenomenal band. And yes, the whole Paris episode was a terribly tragic irony.
Jim was captivated by Heidegger's concept of "thrown-ness," where a person is arbitrarily born into a situation at a particular moment in time without any control over it, and how they must learn to deal with it as they obtain consciousness. It would have been quite interesting to have had a philosophical discussion with Jim.
Your family upbringing and the values instilled have limitations. Once you’re grown, leave home and are on your own, YOU choose your fate, your path in life. And who you choose to spend time with, befriend and date is a crucial to your future. Anyone not grounded in principle will adopt the habits and value system of your chosen group. Values and principles are NOT relative, some are better and more successful than others. To know the difference is a mark of wisdom.
good work.... ive always connected the songs too. in fact, I see riders as the book end to, the end.... however, my connection lyrical & thematically were more societal, philosophical & even theological, then the more immediate narrative of the 2 lovers. heres the thing though thats underrated by morrison, both themes can be not only true, but converge into a bigger theme. you seem to understand lyrics well, so I'm sure your versed in poetic knowledge. when dealing w/ morrison, you have to be, b/c like dylan, he was very well read across several eras of poets. he was, maybe even more then dylan, very knowledgeable of western history & its literature & poetry dating back to egypt, greece & rome thru the renaissance to the modern 20th century poets. he incorporate several styles from those influences. but w/ long works such as these songs, he fell back technique wise to his most tried & true influence, william blake. morrison really understood symbolist poetry & like blake & greeks further back, used it to draw out long arcing & multilayered themes that transcended his own time but also incorporated it at the same time. both in the end & riders, he goes back to that wheelhouse & connects them to illuminate a larger view on humanity. And again, w/in that broader theme he uses the relationship between man & woman (agree his own relationship) to drive the narrative on the ground. my only difference w/ your conclusion is I think that woman was Mary & not Pam. at best a merging of both. Mary was his & hers first love. a deep one, through wh/ its break, haunted both deeply. she later followed him out of fla to calif. for 6 mo or so they were very tight again. but in mid '65 as the band was starting, they broke. but she stay in calif for another 2 years & they did communicate some. she eventually left for india to find herself. infact, there are live cuts in '70 of jim singing, away in india, wh/ was a plea to her. she just passed recently & to her credit never exploited their love for film or book profits. she only gave 1 interview from about 10 years ago to a fla paper & its well worth your time, reading.... Pam was close to him (wh/ is why it may indeed by an amalgamation of both of them), but Mary haunted him. & the first 2 albums in several cases lyrically are directly or indirectly greatly influenced by her.... I thought it would be good context for you to know. plus, it adds some context to my larger theme breakdown song connection, that I will post an hour or so beyond this one.
Great insight! You may just be right. I personally took the "The End" as his lament over his loss of Mary Werbelow and his pining for someone to replace her - "desperately in need of some stranger’s hand" - and that he filled that void with Pam.
@@Lyristoric ,,, thematical other angle: I agree w/ you, whether it was mary or pam, the story of 2 lovers in break up & longing for reembrace drive the narrative on the ground to varying degrees in both songs (moreso then end).... but the strength of the lyrics in both songs, is there is also a symbolic scaling up of themes from the verses thru very well placed symbolic dense phrase joiners in a symbolist technique. much like blake & other symbolist could do to add simultaneous multilayers that scale up but also converge. He was also influenced by joseph campbell works on mythologies of the west & what these symbols mean back to myths & theology of the romans, Christians, native americans & enlightment. hes able to also arc a long scale of the West back to ancient dna & forward it to modern times. in turn it transcends the present break up but also envelopes it to put it & the culture in context. I'll keep it short & you seem to get symbolism, so I dont have to go into deep detail w/ each symbol usage.... in the end: he uses the snake to show movement to both trace the arc of the west & illuminate its philosophical intent. its 7 miles (biblical 7 days of creation & also 7k from ancient egypt to modern LA). The snake is wisdom, power, conquest. the appetite of the West spawned in Rome. hes seeing both its danger but also its realistic power. hence, ride it (to understand the full context of the culture). the kings highway: the ancient routes of egypt (the genesis of the west) for trade & wealth. yet that highway in morrisons theme moves forward across the century & ridden by the snake (dna of powers evolution). gold mine: the lure of greed across the new world to n amer shores. the ancient lake: the implication that the cycle of the West is near the end. as he says the snake will return to that deep lake. in his mind, in his day (1966) usa & western culture was on the precipice of destruction. a vision quest or prophecy if you will. again, j campbell land. morrison hints to this by comparing his generation youth as lost (as in a roman wilderness of pain). implying rome (the snake) never died but soon will complete its cycle (return to sea)... the blue bus: metaphor for the present world he was in, influenced by what came before it, that I mentioned. notice its a movement metaphor again, but now modern. its hard to know for sure. blue could symbolize into death or the sea. it could be the blue buses used to take people off to nam. or it could just be the blue line that was in LA then. or all 3 merged. but it obviously used to show that he, living in the present, must find a transcending switch channel from past (snake) to present (blue bus) to find his own enlightment. the end isnt a death song. its a staring into the death of a culture & his own breakup, to examine it, then survive & learn from it & then transcend forward w/ this earned knowledge in a world he now fully understands. again vision quest like, wh/ natives did as a rite of passage to adulthood.... the controversial odepial section isnt literal, its symbolic of a breakage from order and tradition (father) & an embracement of fertility and new life & way (mother).... morrison wrote the song at age 22 soon after his breakup w/ mary. he was trying to form his own line in the sand & vision forward in a world that he knew was enveloped in power, lust but also opportunity if one can understand & find oneself. by the end of the song, though hurt, he has his self declaration to move onto his goal. hints in some way to greek tales of ulysses.... now the bridge to riders... ill out it on next post.
@@Lyristoric bridge to riders.... written in 1970 wh/ is important context wise. morrison was more mature, less dramatic, wary to a degree but also searching forward for anew, both w/ himself & the culture he embodied. riders is also a good bye in some sense like the end to an older way, but it also connects & transcends forward. both on a personal ground level, but also the culture itself.... this may be inspired by connecting to pam or finding mary again, in the realization that to move on he must find connection & sustainment.... again, blake land w/ symbolist usage, large scape, transcending of time, yet grounded in a story of challenge on the present ground. he again (as he does in several of his best songs) uses a symbol for movement. in this case, its the car. the modern conduit to movement, yet it can also encase you. that is a metaphor for modern LA. populated, yet people connect in a somewhat disconnected fearful way. this was written in the time of manson wh/ had created a mustard gas of paranoia in LA at that time. so the protagonist must leave the city to the canyons, winding roads & desert to find something.... the road- on a larger scale is time, both of the driver & the culture. in the rearview, the past (the city, the culture, ones personal baggage & history). the present, driving in real time, dealing w/ organic heat of the present culture, in this case, danger. the road forward- possibility oppty of sustainment (wife, child, play, family) or temptation of picking up the hitcher and align... the hitcher- on one level, literal &present. the '53 killer. manson. the dangerous drifter. On a deeper transcending level: evil, temptation, perhaps the devil. one can ride past him & seek sustainment. or what can pick him up & indulge in him. crossroad choice. to pick him up literal is to face danger maybe fun. yet on another level, you take on his persona & embrace the drifter & his bad deeds. I think morrison used that choice in the song as a statement about the usa in 1970. a nation at the crossroads. unlike the end, he does see hope for its possibilities to endure (find family, kids, love) but he also honestly sees it could implode in madness (manson, later bundy, napalm, race riots etc). the same theme of personal choices reflecting too the culture was explored in f gump. forrest seeks refuge after nam, jenny implodes to near suicide. choices, influences etc. yet their love heals each other. morrison is laying at the same personal & societal fork in the road. its why is an underrated song..... finally, the bridge to the end. as you said, on a personal level, its how important relationship breakage & union are to humans exsistence & sustainment. yet it also reflects & mirrors the same collective & cyclical breakage, convergence, growth or destruction a society or even a 5k way of life can play out. morrison was 26 when it was penned. he was seeking refuge. he had gone on a powerful path since he penned the end. but he was also weary & seeking new truth & a way forward. it connect to the end from the blue bus (danger, choice) to the car down a desert hiway w/ the hitcher looming). do you self destruct or do you grow. it was an indiv choice or perhaps prayer. but it was also amer & the culture its self on a larger metaphor scale. he was saying good bye perhaps to an amer he loved but also bled from. he was seeking to move on & is saying amer itself was in a similar situation. it could literally implode (as many could see by '70 w/ heroin, kent state, assasinations, napalm, race wars, generation brutal gap, nam etc) or it could ride past thru this & on this 'storm'. realize dark comes w/ light. yen yang. learn to deal w/ the storm rather then it destroy you. see the hitcher, understand him, but ride on beyond him to heal. crossroads. choices. risk. its always in the indiv hands but each new era also must makes it choices. jim was saying good bye perhaps for a while, but he was also saying though death looms, enlightment can be found, if you can ride thru & gather what will sustain.
Wow, a lot to take in there, but it's all very well thought out. Great, great insight! Especially lobe the analogy to Gorest Gump. A timeless classic, just like most of the the Doors' music.
Thanks for such a great video. Never knew there was the connection between the two song. Those two and LA Woman are some of my favorites. The phrases contain hidden meaning that when though through, reveal something different. Is that why the music of the 60s was so unique. I grew up then, it was awesome, music from everywhere. Again, thank you for explaining the connection between these two songs. Are you ever going to examine "LA Woman?" Another great song by the Doors.
The tittle Rider on the storm and the idea of a killer on the road combined with "the ends" line that the killer put on a face from the ancient galleries " and made me also think about several myths regarding the same God archetype. The most prominent is Odin/Wotan when he shapeshifts into a human and wanders all over the world. He is a a very wise man but always on the search for more, He is a "skald" a poet and singer, a shaman "much more" always on the move "the eternal wanderer" and he was also the God of Frenzy, possesion, Rage/Fury and he is a killer "God of death actually" , a storm god of war and death . When Odin/Wotan becomes possesed by the Frenzy/estacy he would like Shiva from hinduism when he opens his third eye he would loose all controll . They would be burning with fury of a hyppnotich unstoppoble primal state of total destruction /Berserker blood lust They have little to no controll over themselves when this beast awakens. Like a killer "on the road /crossroads:) losing controll over his bloodlust and go on a rampage of killing and destructine unless he can be stopped way before the frenzy is even starting to appear.
A very interesting comparison! In fact, paralleling that description of Odin is the Greek god Dionysus, whom Jim spoke and wrote about often, visiting Dionysian themes in The End at the very part you cited.
@@Lyristoric Yes both Odin and Dionoysus are part of a current of gods representing a very specific archetype. The face he took from the ancient gallery could be anyone of them and the fact that he used that line is also very interesting as even tough this god or Arvhetype comes in diffrent faces, settings, langueses/cultures he is is always the same in essence. Jesus is also part of this cycle. It part of something called the Baal cycle wich has allot to it but regarding this its about the struggle to find balance between two opposites within Its the ancient idea still prevolent in many religions and spiritual paths not to mention psychologi. The Ide that we all inhabbits to personalities like we do have two eyes and two parts of our brain, and if you focuse on just the one and neglect the other this other side to you becomes a shadow you see in other and jugde them for having when its also your own hidden neglected shadow. This developes to a dark passenger «your demons» and if a person do not find back to the balance within themselves and opens their true third eye «the pineal gland of the brain» another opposite dark third person will come at the moment you stand at the cross roads « in the moment clear moment/Ecstacy/hyonotic state of passion». Instead of beeing over taken by your higher self and reaching salvation its your lower self that drags you to damnation, The third Inner eye of darkness or the third outer eye of light. The inner eye is the positive one even tough darkness is seen as negative today it means what lies hidden and is eternal in this setting "wisdom" and light represent fire wich will burn its light out and uses up all energi around it , must destroy to grow/when you rather search within you strike out at the world. The Grail or cup of Christ and the water it contains also symbolised by a triangle with its tip down wiich also is the alchemichal symbol for water, against the Old testament God of Fire wich is a triangle turned with its tip up. Put them together Water and fire or rather fire and ice you get the story of how life came to be in many spiritual systems including the norse. The balance of the two creates the air of first breath in the oxygen it becomes when becoming air "the holy spirit". All life "all WORLDS" is a trinity of mother,father and still a third independet induvidual. Pluss and negative becomes energy and so the third spiritual eye within must be open to gain new life outside of this world "so limitless and free". Combine both the reciving/healing/growth, emotional/intuitive based "water" side with the active/passionate/sience/logic based/warrior/hunter/side of us or masculine/feminine brain as they used to call it. Among accepting our different personality traits also those we dont like as part of who we are "our" souls. Salvation tough foregivens as we are all born in original sin whish is in reality a symbolic metaphor for the fact that a we all have dark sides and hang ups and we can only rid us of them by confronting them or deal with them head on instead of denying them as are part ourselves. Not to live out these dark parts but find healthy ways ecspressing and living them out or else your dark side will become your evil deeds. Those who are the most jugdemental are always the ones with the darkest biggest clostet. Become the entire you, become Whole "holy" The two triangles also becomes a hexagram wich is found all over the world long before today when most people only assosiate it with the star of David "wich is arather new thing compared to for instance the hindus Shatkona. There is allot to this consept one can philosophy and do reasearch on it for lifetimes :)
I love it. There is a lot of occult wisdom in that comment. Something I can't help but to find myself constantly reading about and studying up on in my own life. The best means of understanding these mysteries, for me, is the Major Arcana in Tarot. The Fool's Journey depicts every aspect of them. As for "the face" he took from the ancient gallery, I wonder if that is a reference to the masks actors wore in ancient Greek plays when depicting different gods - a mask of Dionysus, perhaps.
@@Lyristoric Yes the greek mask is also a thing, and the different mask for instance of Dionysus or Janus are the different personalities acting as seperate to the person "god". Not all Gods within this cycle have the two mask to represent this, but the eye of war and the healing eye like Osiris Eye of Ra and eye of Horus represented by two bird gods. Same with Wotan/Odin and his Ravens huggin and Munnin. These to also correlates with the Sun "fire" and the Moon "controlls water"tides current". The Sun is the masculine wich provide the seed of life by light the Moons light is the suns reflective light and the moon creates the month which follow the human female menstrual cycle . Its starts "small" bicomes "full" then it Waxes down"bleeds". The life booth produce are on Earth Gaya. But Earth /gaia is not a free formed born form of of life, it is the womb. Mother earth. Spiriyual birth is the stages that leads us out of this womb and into true awakened life so to say. And that comes down to how every pregancy function. If the mother is careless etc iit may be born deformed or hurt and in the worse sake die, And thats the analogy for us needing to not deny any part of our selves as it is a nessesary part of us and in order to travel on to the next stage ones soul must be whole "holy" like a babie needs it vital organs in order to be born. But we should offcourse not live out our dark side in a evil manner but find alternative outlets in a a good moral riightous life souls re-birth or new-astral-birth. etc Tarrot is great these consepts and just like all the main gods of all religions and spiritual paths old are archetypes, they are also planets which our week days are named after. Its the ideo of Micro and Macro cosmos "As above so below" After identifying each Planet assosiated with each archetype the Gods became easy to identify behind their different names apperance etc. And understanding these archetypes according to the planets "patterns, distance etc" another door will open in understanding "it did for me at least" but i am not gonna spoil that here. The occult is occult "hidden" for a reason and should and in certain ways can only be truly understood without personal experience, work and revelation. So Hope i have reavealed to much. :D So yeah continue to look into the occult and all things spiritual because within them lies so many secrets of truth that is never changing aka Wisdom. Knowlegde a always in motion as a manmade tool"tech that keeps on changing with time "more and more rappid to it seams" while Wisdom are that wich is eternal and most have become completly blind to these days. I know Morrison was heavily into all these things himself as most of his songs have a hidden "occult" element of wisdom
It's so weird how the 27 club have lived lives that most people will never live, meaning seeing the entire country, meeting interesting people, and much more.
Jim Morrison was a heavy drinker who had a tumultuous relationship with his family, especially his father. The line “into this house we’re born, into this world we’re thrown” reflects this troubled upbringing. “Take a long holiday” refers to his time in Paris, while “let your children play” suggests that the rest of the band continued without him. The “killer on the road” symbolizes his inner demons and drinking companions. The line “if you give this man a ride, sweet family will die” indicates how his habits and indulgences could destroy his public image and persona. My interpretation of this song
The part is about the killer in the end is a reference to Oedipus from Greek mythology. He kills the father in the song. To the mother he says I want to fuck you all night long. Morrison says this in live versions. The album version is much more vague.
Absolutely! That's also why "he took a face from the ancient gallery." This is a reference to the masks ancient Greeks would wear when depicting gods, heroes, and villains in their stage shows.
I'm pretty sure this has a little bit to do with an actual hitchhiker killer that hitchhikers and killed an entire family after tormenting them for a long time. They just happened to be the one's that let him in...
I disagree. The End is not an instruction manual for killing people in their sleep. It's an observation of the despair from a broken relationship. "I'll never look into your eye, again. This is the end." Riders of the Storm is not a story about a hitchhiker. The killer is a metaphor for anything that destroys the family and that love is the only way to save us. The thing that all Hippies shared was a disagreement with their families over a young man's obligation to die for his country. The Vietnam War versus the war of our fathers. We all truly believed that we must give peace a chance and that love is all you need. My family still drives me away when I disagree with the government, and others still discount my opinion simply because I smoke marijuana. Jim was a poet, not a balladeer. Almost every word that he put to paper was shrouded in metaphor. As a teenager in the 70's, I wondered if LSD was necessary before I understood him. It certainly made the music incredibly haunting, but an appreciation of his words, like wine, was only possible with time and experience.
A very interesting interpretation! I loved a lot of that. I agree that The End is certainly about a breakup. It began as a breakup song about Mary, Jim's gf in Florida. However, just to correct some important misconceptions here. The theory in my video never claims The End is "an instruction manual for killing people in their sleep," nor does it claim Riders On The Storm is simply a song about a hitchhiker. Like you, I believe these are both metaphors. The difference being, I see them as metaphors for Jim's destructive nature - one that would consume and destroy him, in his view, if not for a loving force to soften and guide him. That loving force is unknown in The End, but searched for in the line, "desperately in need of some stranger's hand," and then found in Riders On The Storm in the form of the Girl, Pamela Courson - "take him by the hand... his world on you depends." But, to each their own.
@@Lyristoric Thank you for a very nice response. This world has not been kind to me. I have found that debate is only welcome if everybody already agrees. I'm going to engage with you, though, because I think you may be more interested in the truth than clicks and likes. It's very hard to take you back to the days when Morrison was still alive. We got our music off the radio. The Doors never got airtime, except for Light My Fire. DJ's just played a single without mentioning the name of the band. Albums rarely published the lyrics. Charles Manson and his girlfriends were sentenced to death for murders that the prosecution said were inspired by a combination of LSD and The Beatles. It was me, not you, that thought The Doors were telling me to kill my parents. I didn't believe it, but it wasn't until I had memorized every line that I could convince myself. As for his 'well known destructive nature', that's just gaslighting. We all did far too many drugs and drank far too much alcohol, but we didn't die. It was 1973 when I discovered The Doors, and I said to my friend, Dale, "Man, I would pay anything to see these guys live!" He replied, "Too bad. He's dead" Ten years before, I had watched Oswald die on live TV. I thought Bobby Kennedy was going to save us, but I was wrong. On my 15th birthday, I watched the Army kill Hippies that didn't want to go to Vietnam. By 1975 Nixon was pardoned and the only music on the radio was disco. My long hair and little red Beetle got me arrested fifty times over the next twenty years, mostly for things I didn't do. And would you believe it, I'm not an American, I live in Canada. The reason this ancient music still resonates is because nothing has changed. Every person I knew or met that tried to change things found themselves in an early grave, including Jim Morrison. One of the good things about the internet is that people can be assassinated, but they don't have to die, anymore. Just ask anyone who didn't get the jab. Strangely, once again I might be the only one who doesn't die. Morrison was a revolutionary who tried to get us to wake up. It's the first line from Celebration of the Lizard, "Wake Up!! Do you remember where it was? Has this dream stopped?" He deserves to be remembered in the proper context.
The first album or two in studio, and always when live, Ray played bass with his left hand. But in the studio, for the remainder of the albums, they would hire a studio musician to cover the bass parts.
7:15 to 7:26 - How do you know he wouldn't, and it was just literary fantasy? People become what they fantasize about. All deeds we commit come from first thinking, dreaming and fantasizing about. IMO, both songs are Jim Morrison confessing he had an incestuous relationship with his own mother, and that he has history of ending the lives of innocent people. Jim's father was involved in the incident in the Gulf of Tonkin incident that got us involved in the Vietnam war. Jim's father was an evil man.
This sort of academic analysis is precisely what Morrison abhorred when he attended Florida State . There's a recording of a phone call on the " American Poet " album on which Morrison's voice can be heard saying to an unknown person on the other end of the phone , he got into some sort of problem with some guy on the road and had to kill him . I've always believed that was what the songs were about . I could be wrong . Have a nice day .
And the reason he dropped out of film school. Ironically, he was an extremely well-read, analytical individual in his own right. The phone call in American Pastoral is made to Michael McClure, a noteworthy poet at the time. A brief rundown of the background to that project and the hitchhiker angle in general is in the video. Hope you enjoy!
@@Lyristoric Yeah , I heard it was McClure , but never saw any proof . Someone said it was to Ray Manzarek . I met McClure . Good poet but filled with himself . He reminded my of a charachter actor Richard Burton played in the movie " Candy " . In the film , every time Burton , as the poet , appeared on screen the wind would blow his hair and scarve back. McClure actually used to wear a scarve . All things considered , the World was fortunate to have a Jim Morrison . Thanks for the Video .
I used to love the doors but as I've grown closer to God I realise nothing he writes is happy or nice like the byrds. It's brilliant but dark and depressing.
Love the song, have for decades now, but you eventually hit an age where you start to think few things have any deep meaning, or at least not the deep meaning you think it might have had for you in the past. This is just obscure poetry slightly ahead of its time because it got set to popular music.
Was a Doors fan you got some thing right but some wrong. The end was a love sone about Jim's high school sweetheart in Malborne Florida. It started off very short but Jim kept inserting extra parts in the middle that changed every time they played it live. The killing the father is from Greek mythology. Oedipus is a god that killed his father to marry his mother and had children with her. He says nothing about killing his brother, sister or mother. Riders on the Storm was in part about a hitchhiker from a film Jim and his friends made called HWY (Highway) it is on youtube. Jim also knew he was moving to Paris and the Doors record contract was up and he wanted to write. So the "girl you gotta love you man" is about Pam. The song also was about how people are born into the world alone "like a dog without a bone an actor out on loan". So it has different meanings and has nothing to do at all with "The End". The song started out with Ray Manzerek goofing around playing "Ghost Riders in the Sky", the old country song. They changed the tempo, chords, etc. There is a video of Ray explaining the song on youtube also.
Thanks for the comment. I, too, am a lifelong Doors fan. I have seen the Ray video explaining Riders, as well as read the books in which Ray and others describe it to the best of their understanding. To this I'll return at the end of this reply. To your points first. The End originally began as a song depicting the emotions brought on by the breakup of Jim and his girlfrend Mary Werbelow - from Clearwater, Florida. It depicts his heading west afterward to forge a new life for himself and explores multiple themes and double entendres throughout - mainly likening the end of that relationship to the end of all things, an apocalypse of sorts. To your second point, the Oedipus analogy. You are correct, in a way. He is visiting ancient Greek themes in these lines, which is also why he "takes a face from the ancient gallery." Masks were worn in ancient Greek plays to depict heroes, gods, and villains - Oedipus himself being a character depicted by actors in a mask. The Killer is becoming Oedipus here. However, while he doesn't specifically say he killed his sister and brother, he doesn't have to. It is completely implied by his title and the scene that is painted - The "Killer" wakes up and visits every room in the house. It would be harder to argue that he didn't kill the entire family based on what is said. It's exactly what is being spelled out - although he does a little more with his mother first. However, it's metaphoric. I'd say it is Jim poetically depitcing himself leaving his family behind in Florida. They were, in a sense, dead to him. He cut them out of his life. He then went on to tell interviewers his family was dead for the next several years, solidifying this notion. More to the point, though. None of this negates the explanation in the video as it wasn't a dissection of The End. It only touches on what points need to be mentioned from that song in order to explain Riders on the Storm, which parallels themes in the End to a tee and works as a continuation of them. As The End depicts Jim leaving Florida and hitchhiking west to California to start a new life, Riders on the Storm depicts that new life - finding the Girl who extinguishes the Killer inside of Jim's nature. The quotes from Ray Manzarek in the video completely reinforce this theory: "Jim's lyrics were about HIS LIFE and the things he went through. Riders on the Storm captures the sense of loneliness and searching that was part of HIS JOURNEY." As Ray explains in the video you referenced, the Killer hitchhiker is an archetype in Jim's own mind of himself: “He was singing his love to Pam and trying to wipe out IN HIS MIND that killer on the road.” Hopefully one day soon I can do a deep dive specifically on The End. But I hope for now this helps put into context what was being said in this video on Riders on the Storm. It is a song about Jim and Pam, how he believed she saved him from the dark character in his mind depicted at certain parts of The End.
Your opinion is vastly overrated, which is ironic given that no one holds it in high regard. I'm convinced that people who throw around this term are closed-minded imbeciles.
* I'm impressed ! It's about time someone is putting the parts of our music lyrics together. For those who missed it. Look how much better the lyrics of the 60s, and early 70s were then the lyrics of gangsta rap we've had to endure for the last 25 years ! 👊😎👍
"Into this house we're born... into this world we're thrown."
Heidegger influenced
What an amazing poet i always have had a deep connection with their music and his life he will forever live in their music!
This is your best video yet! I love the way that you included The End. Well done.
Thank you very much!
@@Lyristoric ..... good work.... ive always connected the songs too. in fact, I see riders as the book end to, the end.... however, my connection lyrical & thematically were more societal, philosophical & even theological, then the more immediate narrative of the 2 lovers. heres the thing though thats underrated by morrison, both themes can be not only true, but converge into a bigger theme. you seem to understand lyrics well, so I'm sure your versed in poetic knowledge. when dealing w/ morrison, you have to be, b/c like dylan, he was very well read across several eras of poets. he was, maybe even more then dylan, very knowledgeable of western history & its literature & poetry dating back to egypt, greece & rome thru the renaissance to the modern 20th century poets. he incorporate several styles from those influences. but w/ long works such as these songs, he fell back technique wise to his most tried & true influence, william blake. morrison really understood symbolist poetry & like blake & greeks further back, used it to draw out long arcing & multilayered themes that transcended his own time but also incorporated it at the same time. both in the end & riders, he goes back to that wheelhouse & connects them to illuminate a larger view on humanity. And again, w/in that broader theme he uses the relationship between man & woman (agree his own relationship) to drive the narrative on the ground. my only difference w/ your conclusion is I think that woman was Mary & not Pam. at best a merging of both. Mary was his & hers first love. a deep one, through wh/ its break, haunted both deeply. she later followed him out of fla to calif. for 6 mo or so they were very tight again. but in mid '65 as the band was starting, they broke. but she stay in calif for another 2 years & they did communicate some. she eventually left for india to find herself. infact, there are live cuts in '70 of jim singing, away in india, wh/ was a plea to her. she just passed recently & to her credit never exploited their love for film or book profits. she only gave 1 interview from about 10 years ago to a fla paper & its well worth your time, reading.... Pam was close to him (wh/ is why it may indeed by an amalgamation of both of them), but Mary haunted him. & the first 2 albums in several cases lyrically are directly or indirectly greatly influenced by her.... I thought it would be good context for you to know. plus, it adds some context to my larger theme breakdown song connection, that I will post an hour or so beyond this one.
What a frigging awesome video..kudos to you
Very many thanks! I'm so glad you enjoyed it!
Jim also hitchhiked from FL to CA and used to tell interviewers his family was dead. The man emersed himself in his own poetic mythology. Legend status!
Great song, but don’t get it confused.
He’s unstable and drowning in his own misery. This is why you gyros up and earn your living before you look for a significant other. If you expect someone to save you or help you save yourself, you’re making a huge mistake.
Any real musician would know that.
Difference between a good band here like the Doors and a master like Tom Waits.
@@raddastronaut Tom Waits is nothing, hej just another boring matrix normie like you
@@sveu3pm You're nothing but typewritten words appearing on a screen.
This is undeniable. A perfect match. The language is exact in both cases. Too close for coincidence. The sources all echo the conclusion.
Jim Morrison was poetic master. Too bad he was never recognized for it as much he deserved.
wow, I research this on my own but you throw so many points and info I didn't know, great video and great channel. suscribed & like.
I also liked the wind cries mary video, do more of hendrix please.
Thanks! So glad to have you aboard! I'm sure more Hendrix will make its way onto the channel - the Doors, too!
Amazing! Aside from common sense, 4:25 shows this interpretation to be rock solid. Ray Manzarek confirming it at the end (no pun intended) seals the case file. Another fascinating investigation!
That list shows it clearly
Another great video!! Excellent job 👍👍👍
True story of the mossers early 50s impressed Morrison
But the love didn't save Jim from his demons. Seems Jim got confused in the Paris apartment between the coke and the heroin which the girl was addicted to. Taking the latter, he died.
But what a band! What songs! Their music and melodies are as fresh today as they were well over 50 years ago.
Agreed! The musicianship behind The Doors is completely underrated. By the time you get to Morrison Hotel, they're a phenomenal band. And yes, the whole Paris episode was a terribly tragic irony.
Shared
Awesome! Thanks!!!
The future's uncertain and the end is always near.
J. Morrison
A very dark but incredibly fantastic line! Let it roll, baby! Roll!
Jim was captivated by Heidegger's concept of "thrown-ness," where a person is arbitrarily born into a situation at a particular moment in time without any control over it, and how they must learn to deal with it as they obtain consciousness. It would have been quite interesting to have had a philosophical discussion with Jim.
Absolutely! He was an extremely well-read, thought-provoking guy.
which is why im an anti-natalist
Thanks
COOP
...
Right On 👊
Your family upbringing and the values instilled have limitations. Once you’re grown, leave home and are on your own, YOU choose your fate, your path in life. And who you choose to spend time with, befriend and date is a crucial to your future. Anyone not grounded in principle will adopt the habits and value system of your chosen group. Values and principles are NOT relative, some are better and more successful than others. To know the difference is a mark of wisdom.
I fully agree 👍 👍
good work.... ive always connected the songs too. in fact, I see riders as the book end to, the end.... however, my connection lyrical & thematically were more societal, philosophical & even theological, then the more immediate narrative of the 2 lovers. heres the thing though thats underrated by morrison, both themes can be not only true, but converge into a bigger theme. you seem to understand lyrics well, so I'm sure your versed in poetic knowledge. when dealing w/ morrison, you have to be, b/c like dylan, he was very well read across several eras of poets. he was, maybe even more then dylan, very knowledgeable of western history & its literature & poetry dating back to egypt, greece & rome thru the renaissance to the modern 20th century poets. he incorporate several styles from those influences. but w/ long works such as these songs, he fell back technique wise to his most tried & true influence, william blake. morrison really understood symbolist poetry & like blake & greeks further back, used it to draw out long arcing & multilayered themes that transcended his own time but also incorporated it at the same time. both in the end & riders, he goes back to that wheelhouse & connects them to illuminate a larger view on humanity. And again, w/in that broader theme he uses the relationship between man & woman (agree his own relationship) to drive the narrative on the ground. my only difference w/ your conclusion is I think that woman was Mary & not Pam. at best a merging of both. Mary was his & hers first love. a deep one, through wh/ its break, haunted both deeply. she later followed him out of fla to calif. for 6 mo or so they were very tight again. but in mid '65 as the band was starting, they broke. but she stay in calif for another 2 years & they did communicate some. she eventually left for india to find herself. infact, there are live cuts in '70 of jim singing, away in india, wh/ was a plea to her. she just passed recently & to her credit never exploited their love for film or book profits. she only gave 1 interview from about 10 years ago to a fla paper & its well worth your time, reading.... Pam was close to him (wh/ is why it may indeed by an amalgamation of both of them), but Mary haunted him. & the first 2 albums in several cases lyrically are directly or indirectly greatly influenced by her.... I thought it would be good context for you to know. plus, it adds some context to my larger theme breakdown song connection, that I will post an hour or so beyond this one.
Great insight! You may just be right. I personally took the "The End" as his lament over his loss of Mary Werbelow and his pining for someone to replace her - "desperately in need of some stranger’s hand" - and that he filled that void with Pam.
@@Lyristoric ,,, thematical other angle: I agree w/ you, whether it was mary or pam, the story of 2 lovers in break up & longing for reembrace drive the narrative on the ground to varying degrees in both songs (moreso then end).... but the strength of the lyrics in both songs, is there is also a symbolic scaling up of themes from the verses thru very well placed symbolic dense phrase joiners in a symbolist technique. much like blake & other symbolist could do to add simultaneous multilayers that scale up but also converge. He was also influenced by joseph campbell works on mythologies of the west & what these symbols mean back to myths & theology of the romans, Christians, native americans & enlightment. hes able to also arc a long scale of the West back to ancient dna & forward it to modern times. in turn it transcends the present break up but also envelopes it to put it & the culture in context. I'll keep it short & you seem to get symbolism, so I dont have to go into deep detail w/ each symbol usage.... in the end: he uses the snake to show movement to both trace the arc of the west & illuminate its philosophical intent. its 7 miles (biblical 7 days of creation & also 7k from ancient egypt to modern LA). The snake is wisdom, power, conquest. the appetite of the West spawned in Rome. hes seeing both its danger but also its realistic power. hence, ride it (to understand the full context of the culture). the kings highway: the ancient routes of egypt (the genesis of the west) for trade & wealth. yet that highway in morrisons theme moves forward across the century & ridden by the snake (dna of powers evolution). gold mine: the lure of greed across the new world to n amer shores. the ancient lake: the implication that the cycle of the West is near the end. as he says the snake will return to that deep lake. in his mind, in his day (1966) usa & western culture was on the precipice of destruction. a vision quest or prophecy if you will. again, j campbell land. morrison hints to this by comparing his generation youth as lost (as in a roman wilderness of pain). implying rome (the snake) never died but soon will complete its cycle (return to sea)... the blue bus: metaphor for the present world he was in, influenced by what came before it, that I mentioned. notice its a movement metaphor again, but now modern. its hard to know for sure. blue could symbolize into death or the sea. it could be the blue buses used to take people off to nam. or it could just be the blue line that was in LA then. or all 3 merged. but it obviously used to show that he, living in the present, must find a transcending switch channel from past (snake) to present (blue bus) to find his own enlightment. the end isnt a death song. its a staring into the death of a culture & his own breakup, to examine it, then survive & learn from it & then transcend forward w/ this earned knowledge in a world he now fully understands. again vision quest like, wh/ natives did as a rite of passage to adulthood.... the controversial odepial section isnt literal, its symbolic of a breakage from order and tradition (father) & an embracement of fertility and new life & way (mother).... morrison wrote the song at age 22 soon after his breakup w/ mary. he was trying to form his own line in the sand & vision forward in a world that he knew was enveloped in power, lust but also opportunity if one can understand & find oneself. by the end of the song, though hurt, he has his self declaration to move onto his goal. hints in some way to greek tales of ulysses.... now the bridge to riders... ill out it on next post.
@@Lyristoric bridge to riders.... written in 1970 wh/ is important context wise. morrison was more mature, less dramatic, wary to a degree but also searching forward for anew, both w/ himself & the culture he embodied. riders is also a good bye in some sense like the end to an older way, but it also connects & transcends forward. both on a personal ground level, but also the culture itself.... this may be inspired by connecting to pam or finding mary again, in the realization that to move on he must find connection & sustainment.... again, blake land w/ symbolist usage, large scape, transcending of time, yet grounded in a story of challenge on the present ground. he again (as he does in several of his best songs) uses a symbol for movement. in this case, its the car. the modern conduit to movement, yet it can also encase you. that is a metaphor for modern LA. populated, yet people connect in a somewhat disconnected fearful way. this was written in the time of manson wh/ had created a mustard gas of paranoia in LA at that time. so the protagonist must leave the city to the canyons, winding roads & desert to find something.... the road- on a larger scale is time, both of the driver & the culture. in the rearview, the past (the city, the culture, ones personal baggage & history). the present, driving in real time, dealing w/ organic heat of the present culture, in this case, danger. the road forward- possibility oppty of sustainment (wife, child, play, family) or temptation of picking up the hitcher and align... the hitcher- on one level, literal &present. the '53 killer. manson. the dangerous drifter. On a deeper transcending level: evil, temptation, perhaps the devil. one can ride past him & seek sustainment. or what can pick him up & indulge in him. crossroad choice. to pick him up literal is to face danger maybe fun. yet on another level, you take on his persona & embrace the drifter & his bad deeds. I think morrison used that choice in the song as a statement about the usa in 1970. a nation at the crossroads. unlike the end, he does see hope for its possibilities to endure (find family, kids, love) but he also honestly sees it could implode in madness (manson, later bundy, napalm, race riots etc). the same theme of personal choices reflecting too the culture was explored in f gump. forrest seeks refuge after nam, jenny implodes to near suicide. choices, influences etc. yet their love heals each other. morrison is laying at the same personal & societal fork in the road. its why is an underrated song..... finally, the bridge to the end. as you said, on a personal level, its how important relationship breakage & union are to humans exsistence & sustainment. yet it also reflects & mirrors the same collective & cyclical breakage, convergence, growth or destruction a society or even a 5k way of life can play out. morrison was 26 when it was penned. he was seeking refuge. he had gone on a powerful path since he penned the end. but he was also weary & seeking new truth & a way forward. it connect to the end from the blue bus (danger, choice) to the car down a desert hiway w/ the hitcher looming). do you self destruct or do you grow. it was an indiv choice or perhaps prayer. but it was also amer & the culture its self on a larger metaphor scale. he was saying good bye perhaps to an amer he loved but also bled from. he was seeking to move on & is saying amer itself was in a similar situation. it could literally implode (as many could see by '70 w/ heroin, kent state, assasinations, napalm, race wars, generation brutal gap, nam etc) or it could ride past thru this & on this 'storm'. realize dark comes w/ light. yen yang. learn to deal w/ the storm rather then it destroy you. see the hitcher, understand him, but ride on beyond him to heal. crossroads. choices. risk. its always in the indiv hands but each new era also must makes it choices. jim was saying good bye perhaps for a while, but he was also saying though death looms, enlightment can be found, if you can ride thru & gather what will sustain.
Wow, a lot to take in there, but it's all very well thought out. Great, great insight! Especially lobe the analogy to Gorest Gump. A timeless classic, just like most of the the Doors' music.
Well done!
Thanks! So glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks for such a great video. Never knew there was the connection between the two song. Those two and LA Woman are some of my favorites. The phrases contain hidden meaning that when though through, reveal something different. Is that why the music of the 60s was so unique. I grew up then, it was awesome, music from everywhere. Again, thank you for explaining the connection between these two songs.
Are you ever going to examine "LA Woman?" Another great song by the Doors.
Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it! I plan on doing more Doors in the future, for sure. LA Woman is one I'm strongly considering.
Jim was on a spiritual search; it seems nothing fulfilled him no matter how much he indulged himself.
The tittle Rider on the storm and the idea of a killer on the road combined with "the ends" line that the killer put on a face from the ancient galleries " and made me also think about several myths regarding the same God archetype.
The most prominent is Odin/Wotan when he shapeshifts into a human and wanders all over the world.
He is a a very wise man but always on the search for more, He is a "skald" a poet and singer, a shaman "much more" always on the move "the eternal wanderer" and he was also the God of Frenzy, possesion, Rage/Fury and he is a killer "God of death actually"
, a storm god of war and death . When Odin/Wotan becomes possesed by the Frenzy/estacy he would like Shiva from hinduism when he opens his third eye he would loose all controll . They would be burning with fury of a hyppnotich unstoppoble primal state of total destruction /Berserker blood lust They have little to no controll over themselves when this beast awakens. Like a killer "on the road /crossroads:) losing controll over his bloodlust and go on a rampage of killing and destructine unless he can be stopped way before the frenzy is even starting to appear.
A very interesting comparison! In fact, paralleling that description of Odin is the Greek god Dionysus, whom Jim spoke and wrote about often, visiting Dionysian themes in The End at the very part you cited.
@@Lyristoric Yes both Odin and Dionoysus are part of a current of gods representing a very specific archetype. The face he took from the ancient gallery could be anyone of them and the fact that he used that line is also very interesting as even tough this god or Arvhetype comes in diffrent faces, settings, langueses/cultures he is is always the same in essence. Jesus is also part of this cycle.
It part of something called the Baal cycle wich has allot to it but regarding this its about the struggle to find balance between two opposites within
Its the ancient idea still prevolent in many religions and spiritual paths not to mention psychologi. The Ide that we all inhabbits to personalities like we do have two eyes and two parts of our brain, and if you focuse on just the one and neglect the other this other side to you becomes a shadow you see in other and jugde them for having when its also your own hidden neglected shadow. This developes to a dark passenger «your demons» and if a person do not find back to the balance within themselves and opens their true third eye «the pineal gland of the brain» another opposite dark third person will come at the moment you stand at the cross roads « in the moment clear moment/Ecstacy/hyonotic state of passion». Instead of beeing over taken by your higher self and reaching salvation its your lower self that drags you to damnation, The third Inner eye of darkness or the third outer eye of light. The inner eye is the positive one even tough darkness is seen as negative today it means what lies hidden and is eternal in this setting "wisdom" and light represent fire wich will burn its light out and uses up all energi around it , must destroy to grow/when you rather search within you strike out at the world.
The Grail or cup of Christ and the water it contains also symbolised by a triangle with its tip down wiich also is the alchemichal symbol for water, against the Old testament God of Fire wich is a triangle turned with its tip up. Put them together Water and fire or rather fire and ice you get the story of how life came to be in many spiritual systems including the norse. The balance of the two creates the air of first breath in the oxygen it becomes when becoming air "the holy spirit".
All life "all WORLDS" is a trinity of mother,father and still a third independet induvidual. Pluss and negative becomes energy and so the third spiritual eye within must be open to gain new life outside of this world "so limitless and free".
Combine both the reciving/healing/growth, emotional/intuitive based "water" side with the active/passionate/sience/logic based/warrior/hunter/side of us or masculine/feminine brain as they used to call it.
Among accepting our different personality traits also those we dont like as part of who we are "our" souls.
Salvation tough foregivens as we are all born in original sin whish is in reality a symbolic metaphor for the fact that a we all have dark sides and hang ups and we can only rid us of them by confronting them or deal with them head on instead of denying them as are part ourselves. Not to live out these dark parts but find healthy ways ecspressing and living them out or else your dark side will become your evil deeds. Those who are the most jugdemental are always the ones with the darkest biggest clostet.
Become the entire you, become Whole "holy"
The two triangles also becomes a hexagram wich is found all over the world long before today when most people only assosiate it with the star of David "wich is arather new thing compared to for instance the hindus Shatkona.
There is allot to this consept one can philosophy and do reasearch on it for lifetimes :)
I love it. There is a lot of occult wisdom in that comment. Something I can't help but to find myself constantly reading about and studying up on in my own life. The best means of understanding these mysteries, for me, is the Major Arcana in Tarot. The Fool's Journey depicts every aspect of them. As for "the face" he took from the ancient gallery, I wonder if that is a reference to the masks actors wore in ancient Greek plays when depicting different gods - a mask of Dionysus, perhaps.
@@Lyristoric Yes the greek mask is also a thing, and the different mask for instance of Dionysus or Janus are the different personalities acting as seperate to the person "god". Not all Gods within this cycle have the two mask to represent this, but the eye of war and the healing eye like Osiris Eye of Ra and eye of Horus represented by two bird gods.
Same with Wotan/Odin and his Ravens huggin and Munnin. These to also correlates with the Sun "fire" and the Moon "controlls water"tides current". The Sun is the masculine wich provide the seed of life by light the Moons light is the suns reflective light and the moon creates the month which follow the human female menstrual cycle .
Its starts "small" bicomes "full" then it Waxes down"bleeds". The life booth produce are on Earth Gaya. But Earth /gaia is not a free formed born form of of life, it is the womb. Mother earth. Spiriyual birth is the stages that leads us out of this womb and into true awakened life so to say. And that comes down to how every pregancy function. If the mother is careless etc iit may be born deformed or hurt and in the worse sake die, And thats the analogy for us needing to not deny any part of our selves as it is a nessesary part of us and in order to travel on to the next stage ones soul must be whole "holy" like a babie needs it vital organs in order to be born. But we should offcourse not live out our dark side in a evil manner but find alternative outlets in a a good moral riightous life souls re-birth or new-astral-birth. etc
Tarrot is great these consepts and just like all the main gods of all religions and spiritual paths old are archetypes, they are also planets which our week days are named after. Its the ideo of Micro and Macro cosmos "As above so below"
After identifying each Planet assosiated with each archetype the Gods became easy to identify behind their different names apperance etc. And understanding these archetypes according to the planets "patterns, distance etc" another door will open in understanding "it did for me at least" but i am not gonna spoil that here. The occult is occult "hidden" for a reason and should and in certain ways can only be truly understood without personal experience, work and revelation. So Hope i have reavealed to much. :D
So yeah continue to look into the occult and all things spiritual because within them lies so many secrets of truth that is never changing aka Wisdom. Knowlegde a always in motion as a manmade tool"tech that keeps on changing with time "more and more rappid to it seams" while Wisdom are that wich is eternal and most have become completly blind to these days. I know Morrison was heavily into all these things himself as most of his songs have a hidden "occult" element of wisdom
I fully agree with all of that!
It's so weird how the 27 club have lived lives that most people will never live, meaning seeing the entire country, meeting interesting people, and much more.
Yes! A very interesting observation, indeed!
They were robots and the batteries only last 27 years
Jim Morrison was a heavy drinker who had a tumultuous relationship with his family, especially his father. The line “into this house we’re born, into this world we’re thrown” reflects this troubled upbringing.
“Take a long holiday” refers to his time in Paris, while “let your children play” suggests that the rest of the band continued without him. The “killer on the road” symbolizes his inner demons and drinking companions.
The line “if you give this man a ride, sweet family will die” indicates how his habits and indulgences could destroy his public image and persona.
My interpretation of this song
The part is about the killer in the end is a reference to Oedipus from Greek mythology. He kills the father in the song. To the mother he says I want to fuck you all night long. Morrison says this in live versions. The album version is much more vague.
Absolutely! That's also why "he took a face from the ancient gallery." This is a reference to the masks ancient Greeks would wear when depicting gods, heroes, and villains in their stage shows.
About life
Note to self: never pick up any hippies thumbing a ride.
😆 😂 😆
I'm pretty sure this has a little bit to do with an actual hitchhiker killer that hitchhikers and killed an entire family after tormenting them for a long time. They just happened to be the one's that let him in...
I agree with you that this does not sum up the two songs.
the girl in swimsuit photo is jim's sister from what ive read altho many claim it's mary werbelow...jim's brother andy is on her other side
It may be. But, based on other photos I've seen, that appears to be Mary, his girlfriend - a bonafied beauty queen.
I'm pretty sure it's about people who ride something and they happen to be on some sort of storm.
A half a wit is a dangerous thing.
@@commontater8630 sorry. I didn't mean to offend the "intellectul" crowd.
@@nortescarpetcleaning No offense taken by the "intellectul" crowd. Just by those who have seen this kind of 'joke' a few too many times before.
Why discount the killer on the road as a myth...
I disagree. The End is not an instruction manual for killing people in their sleep. It's an observation of the despair from a broken relationship. "I'll never look into your eye, again. This is the end." Riders of the Storm is not a story about a hitchhiker. The killer is a metaphor for anything that destroys the family and that love is the only way to save us. The thing that all Hippies shared was a disagreement with their families over a young man's obligation to die for his country. The Vietnam War versus the war of our fathers. We all truly believed that we must give peace a chance and that love is all you need. My family still drives me away when I disagree with the government, and others still discount my opinion simply because I smoke marijuana. Jim was a poet, not a balladeer. Almost every word that he put to paper was shrouded in metaphor. As a teenager in the 70's, I wondered if LSD was necessary before I understood him. It certainly made the music incredibly haunting, but an appreciation of his words, like wine, was only possible with time and experience.
A very interesting interpretation! I loved a lot of that. I agree that The End is certainly about a breakup. It began as a breakup song about Mary, Jim's gf in Florida. However, just to correct some important misconceptions here. The theory in my video never claims The End is "an instruction manual for killing people in their sleep," nor does it claim Riders On The Storm is simply a song about a hitchhiker. Like you, I believe these are both metaphors. The difference being, I see them as metaphors for Jim's destructive nature - one that would consume and destroy him, in his view, if not for a loving force to soften and guide him. That loving force is unknown in The End, but searched for in the line, "desperately in need of some stranger's hand," and then found in Riders On The Storm in the form of the Girl, Pamela Courson - "take him by the hand... his world on you depends." But, to each their own.
@@Lyristoric Thank you for a very nice response. This world has not been kind to me. I have found that debate is only welcome if everybody already agrees. I'm going to engage with you, though, because I think you may be more interested in the truth than clicks and likes. It's very hard to take you back to the days when Morrison was still alive. We got our music off the radio. The Doors never got airtime, except for Light My Fire. DJ's just played a single without mentioning the name of the band. Albums rarely published the lyrics. Charles Manson and his girlfriends were sentenced to death for murders that the prosecution said were inspired by a combination of LSD and The Beatles. It was me, not you, that thought The Doors were telling me to kill my parents. I didn't believe it, but it wasn't until I had memorized every line that I could convince myself. As for his 'well known destructive nature', that's just gaslighting. We all did far too many drugs and drank far too much alcohol, but we didn't die. It was 1973 when I discovered The Doors, and I said to my friend, Dale, "Man, I would pay anything to see these guys live!" He replied, "Too bad. He's dead" Ten years before, I had watched Oswald die on live TV. I thought Bobby Kennedy was going to save us, but I was wrong. On my 15th birthday, I watched the Army kill Hippies that didn't want to go to Vietnam. By 1975 Nixon was pardoned and the only music on the radio was disco. My long hair and little red Beetle got me arrested fifty times over the next twenty years, mostly for things I didn't do. And would you believe it, I'm not an American, I live in Canada. The reason this ancient music still resonates is because nothing has changed. Every person I knew or met that tried to change things found themselves in an early grave, including Jim Morrison. One of the good things about the internet is that people can be assassinated, but they don't have to die, anymore. Just ask anyone who didn't get the jab. Strangely, once again I might be the only one who doesn't die. Morrison was a revolutionary who tried to get us to wake up. It's the first line from Celebration of the Lizard, "Wake Up!! Do you remember where it was? Has this dream stopped?" He deserves to be remembered in the proper context.
I thought the base was done on a special organ track?
The first album or two in studio, and always when live, Ray played bass with his left hand. But in the studio, for the remainder of the albums, they would hire a studio musician to cover the bass parts.
7:15 to 7:26 - How do you know he wouldn't, and it was just literary fantasy?
People become what they fantasize about. All deeds we commit come from first thinking, dreaming and fantasizing about. IMO, both songs are Jim Morrison confessing he had an incestuous relationship with his own mother, and that he has history of ending the lives of innocent people. Jim's father was involved in the incident in the Gulf of Tonkin incident that got us involved in the Vietnam war.
Jim's father was an evil man.
This sort of academic analysis is precisely what Morrison abhorred when he attended Florida State . There's a recording of a phone call on the " American Poet " album on which Morrison's voice can be heard saying to an unknown person on the other end of the phone , he got into some sort of problem with some guy on the road and had to kill him . I've always believed that was what the songs were about . I could be wrong . Have a nice day .
And the reason he dropped out of film school. Ironically, he was an extremely well-read, analytical individual in his own right. The phone call in American Pastoral is made to Michael McClure, a noteworthy poet at the time. A brief rundown of the background to that project and the hitchhiker angle in general is in the video. Hope you enjoy!
@@Lyristoric Yeah , I heard it was McClure , but never saw any proof . Someone said it was to Ray Manzarek . I met McClure . Good poet but filled with himself . He reminded my of a charachter actor Richard Burton played in the movie " Candy " . In the film , every time Burton , as the poet , appeared on screen the wind would blow his hair and scarve back.
McClure actually used to wear a scarve . All things considered , the World was fortunate to have a Jim Morrison .
Thanks for the Video .
Very cool! And very funny! I'll have to see that movie. Thanks for the comment! I fully agree!
WHAT a tall tail?
I used to love the doors but as I've grown closer to God I realise nothing he writes is happy or nice like the byrds. It's brilliant but dark and depressing.
Love the song, have for decades now, but you eventually hit an age where you start to think few things have any deep meaning, or at least not the deep meaning you think it might have had for you in the past. This is just obscure poetry slightly ahead of its time because it got set to popular music.
Windshield Wipers
Like a dog without a bone..an actor out on loan
Maybe he did something wrong
Is it a coincidence he knew Charles Manson according to many people?
sebring cutting morrison's hair yrs before manson hit is the closest connection they had, they never met or communicated
Was a Doors fan you got some thing right but some wrong. The end was a love sone about Jim's high school sweetheart in Malborne Florida. It started off very short but Jim kept inserting extra parts in the middle that changed every time they played it live. The killing the father is from Greek mythology. Oedipus is a god that killed his father to marry his mother and had children with her. He says nothing about killing his brother, sister or mother.
Riders on the Storm was in part about a hitchhiker from a film Jim and his friends made called HWY (Highway) it is on youtube. Jim also knew he was moving to Paris and the Doors record contract was up and he wanted to write. So the "girl you gotta love you man" is about Pam. The song also was about how people are born into the world alone "like a dog without a bone an actor out on loan". So it has different meanings and has nothing to do at all with "The End". The song started out with Ray Manzerek goofing around playing "Ghost Riders in the Sky", the old country song. They changed the tempo, chords, etc.
There is a video of Ray explaining the song on youtube also.
Thanks for the comment. I, too, am a lifelong Doors fan. I have seen the Ray video explaining Riders, as well as read the books in which Ray and others describe it to the best of their understanding. To this I'll return at the end of this reply.
To your points first. The End originally began as a song depicting the emotions brought on by the breakup of Jim and his girlfrend Mary Werbelow - from Clearwater, Florida. It depicts his heading west afterward to forge a new life for himself and explores multiple themes and double entendres throughout - mainly likening the end of that relationship to the end of all things, an apocalypse of sorts.
To your second point, the Oedipus analogy. You are correct, in a way. He is visiting ancient Greek themes in these lines, which is also why he "takes a face from the ancient gallery." Masks were worn in ancient Greek plays to depict heroes, gods, and villains - Oedipus himself being a character depicted by actors in a mask. The Killer is becoming Oedipus here. However, while he doesn't specifically say he killed his sister and brother, he doesn't have to. It is completely implied by his title and the scene that is painted - The "Killer" wakes up and visits every room in the house. It would be harder to argue that he didn't kill the entire family based on what is said. It's exactly what is being spelled out - although he does a little more with his mother first. However, it's metaphoric. I'd say it is Jim poetically depitcing himself leaving his family behind in Florida. They were, in a sense, dead to him. He cut them out of his life. He then went on to tell interviewers his family was dead for the next several years, solidifying this notion.
More to the point, though. None of this negates the explanation in the video as it wasn't a dissection of The End. It only touches on what points need to be mentioned from that song in order to explain Riders on the Storm, which parallels themes in the End to a tee and works as a continuation of them. As The End depicts Jim leaving Florida and hitchhiking west to California to start a new life, Riders on the Storm depicts that new life - finding the Girl who extinguishes the Killer inside of Jim's nature. The quotes from Ray Manzarek in the video completely reinforce this theory:
"Jim's lyrics were about HIS LIFE and the things he went through. Riders on the Storm captures the sense of loneliness and searching that was part of HIS JOURNEY."
As Ray explains in the video you referenced, the Killer hitchhiker is an archetype in Jim's own mind of himself:
“He was singing his love to Pam and trying to wipe out IN HIS MIND that killer on the road.”
Hopefully one day soon I can do a deep dive specifically on The End. But I hope for now this helps put into context what was being said in this video on Riders on the Storm. It is a song about Jim and Pam, how he believed she saved him from the dark character in his mind depicted at certain parts of The End.
@@Lyristoric I was more than happy to correct the mistakes in the video. Overall it was well done.
It is a cover song.....
No, it's not. Do you know what a cover song is?
Had a few good tunes but vastly overrated.
Your opinion is vastly overrated, which is ironic given that no one holds it in high regard.
I'm convinced that people who throw around this term are closed-minded imbeciles.