Riders on the Storm: My Life with Jim Morrison and the Doors by John Densmore
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"You know the day destroys the night
Night divides the day
Tried to run
Tried to hide
Break on through to the other side
[...]"
(Break On Through (To The Other Side) lyrics, by The Doors)

I clearly remember that magical moment from over 51 years ago. My senior year in high school in September or October 1967. Along with three classmates I am sitting on the floor in an apartment in the Wola district of Warsaw, Poland, listening to Light My Fire by The Doors. This is the first time I hear the song and I am totally overwhelmed and enraptured by the music. It was clear to me at that moment that I had never before heard music so powerful, so new, so captivating. The memory is vivid in my mind to the extent that I can visualize my exact position in the room.

I have read John Densmore's Riders on the Storm (1990) (in Polish translation) and in one of the passages he mentions how many people have personal stories related to Light My Fire: making love for the first time, first time smoking a joint, first record bought. To me this is one of the best songs of the 20th century, a song which could well serve as a symbol for the entire generation that grew up in the 1960s, the most interesting decade that I have lived through.

The subtitle of Mr. Densmore's book is My Life with Jim Morrison and The Doors; the author who was the drummer of the band, indeed focuses more on Morrison, the vocalist, than on the band as a whole. In a sort of Prologue John Densmore relates how he and Robby Krieger, the guitarist, visit Jim Morrison's grave in the Père Lachaise cemetery in 1975. Then he recollects his last phone conversation with Morrison, three weeks before his death.

The book follows Mr. Densmore's childhood and youth and then, almost chronologically, relates the history of Jim Morrison and The Doors. In fact I find the these parts of the book the most interesting. The author's childhood experiments with drumming, his musical growth that leads to fascination with John Coltrane and incomparable Elvin Jones, Coltrane's drummer. All that plus the captivating images of Los Angeles in the early-to-mid 1960s, read much better than the somewhat pretentious pathos of the Prologue.

Then come the years with the band, from playing small local clubs, through their big break - getting hired by the Whiskey a Go-Go club, to opening for more popular bands and finally their own fame. In the late 1960s The Doors were one of the most popular bands in the world. Their phenomenal success was mainly due to Jim Morrison: his handsome boy physique, charismatic personality, riveting stage performances, unforgettable singing voice, and accomplished writing of lyrics to their songs. Morrison created the band and Morrison slowly destroyed it by gradually increasing the range of his excesses, both in substance abuse and in unconventional behavior. Along with Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Brian Jones, Morrison is a member of the "27 club," that includes the great rock musicians who died at 27 years of age, at the peak of their fame, mainly due to heavy substance abuse.

I found one sad passage in the later part of the book particularly memorable. Mr. Densmore recounts how he and his bandmates, Robby Krieger and Ray Manzarek - not being able to reach Jim Morrison at that time - sold the permission to use Light My Fire in a Buick commercial. Morrison never forgave them that the icons of the 1960s hippie counterculture turned into businessmen.

Very readable book and my major complaint is that it could have been edited more thoroughly: from the Acknowledgments it is clear that the book was co-written by Mr. Cousineau - as a professional writer he could have tightened and generally improved the prose in many places.

Three-and-a-half stars.

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