ROBBY KRIEGER'S GUITAR IN THE DOORS "RIDERS ON THE STORM"

 

The last of the tracks recorded by The Doors for their sixth LP "L.A. Woman" (released in April 1971), "Riders On The Storm" also represents the end of the artistic journey undertaken by the band as a quartet.

In fact, the merciless sickle of death would take over the life of lead singer Jim Morrison only three months after the album's release.

The long track that closes the album is full of interesting insights, already partially reviewed in this blog: the use of rain effect in the song (here’s the link to article), the magnetic dialogue between electric bass and drums (here’s the link to article), and Ray Manzarek's fascinating electric piano solo (here’s the link to article).

Although "Riders On The Storm" is an accomplished example of collaboration among all members of the group, Robby Krieger's electric guitar remains the least prominent instrument along the track's flow.

The essentially rhythmic role entrusted to the guitarist's Gibson SG puts itself at the service of an overall musical climate marked by gloomy and mysterious tones, which remains among the most appreciated and celebrated within The Doors' discography to this day.

The song derives its initial inspiration from a 1948 Western (that is a sub-genre of Country) tune: "Ghost Riders In The Sky" by Stan Jones (here’s the link), on whose main theme the band was playing and improvising freely.

By reworking the general feel of this song in a rock key and using some of its harmonies to construct something completely different, the group proved capable of devising an original composition emblematic of the cultural/musical transition between the 1960s and 1970s in the United States.

Other bands before The Doors had approached the marked Western cadences in pop-rock and rock compositions during the 1960s: from The Beatles with "Things We Said Today" (1964) to Quicksilver Messenger Service with the short cover of "Happy Trails" (1969).

Starting with a sound suggestion decidedly far removed from their usual references in terms of musical genres, The Doors here combine imagination and artistic elasticity in producing a vision with hypnotic and somber tones, which is still remarkably evocative and meaningful today, after fifty-four years.

The element most reminiscent of "Ghost Riders In The Sky" within the arrangement of "Riders On The Storm" is Krieger's guitar.

It enters at min. 0.47, echoing Morrison's voice with some phrasing that retains much of the Western tune from which the group's creative process had begun.

These brief interventions float on notes made fragmented and ethereal by the tremolo pedal, a distortion that here adds a profile of dark tension to the Western soundtrack theme played with four consecutive variations by Krieger (listen from min. 0.47 to min. 1.03).

Immediately thereafter, the guitar abandons the tremolo effect to assume, with extroverted consistency, the task of sustaining the progress of the piece from a relatively subordinate position.

Both the oscillating rhythmic movements described by Krieger in unison with Manzarek's electric piano, and the refined accompaniment that winds tastefully under the keyboardist's solo, absorb almost all the guitar playing in the development of the song.

The exception is the brief solo (listen from min. 1.42 to min. 2.08) where Krieger's six strings, again under the spell of the dense reverberations of tremolo distortion, reprise the western theme already presented to the listener at min. 0.47.

Admirably diluting the scores of Ennio Morricone in “The Dollar Trilogy films" with faded, faint psychedelic memories, The Doors' guitarist here sets aside technical licks in favor of emotional and atmospheric impact.

From min. 5.30, the track slides toward the end by traversing an extended and evanescent coda of nearly two minutes in length, to which the guitar contributes by making use, for the third time, of the tremolo pedal.

Although the latter’s nuanced vibrations are less intense here, they still lend a texture at once allusive and caressing to the sinuous guitar line that penetrates the song's concluding section.

This closing, a kind of solo between the lines shared with the electric piano, is surrounded by the ominous noise of thunder and Morrison's voice. The guitarist releases notes arched by bending, vibrato and glissando creating an evocative and elusive expressiveness.

Krieger's guitar part is crowned, beginning at min. 6.20, by a series of tenuous, dreamy, enigmatic chords, which sway softly until they disappear under the curtain of rain beating down on the last seconds of the track.

My book "The Doors Through Strange Days"- The most comprehensive journey ever made through The Doors' second LP, is available on Amazon.com, .uk, .it, .mx, .ca, etc.

Here’s a link:

Amazon – “The Doors Through Strange Days”