Customer Reviews

Riders on the Storm: My Life with Jim Morrison and the Doors

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4 star:		(30)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I enjoyed this book immensely. Densmore has a personable, clear, consise style of writing and expresses himself very well. I felt I was there as he described events that happened 30 years ago. I laughed out loud at certain anecdotes in the book, especially when he describes avoiding the draft. For being the "uptight" one in the Doors, Densmore does have a sense of humour that comes through in his writing. He neither trashes Jim, nor does he gloss over Jim. He just tells it like it was. I never sensed any jealousy, just frustration, intimidation, fear, anger, but also admiration and brotherly love. Complex feelings. Clearly that's what Densmore is trying to get through, he wants to explain himself and isn't trying to hide or gloss over. There are many great anecdotes in this book, some funny, some sad, some plain scary! I could understand why Densmore felt the way he did at any given time, he explains it so well. The Doors were 4 very different personalities, obviously. I don't see any of them as being "the bad guy", but they obviously bumped heads due to personality clashes. That's life! Densmore was a teenager when he joined the Doors, so he pretty much grew up with them as well. That's another thing I found so interesting, Densmore sharing his growing-up with the reader, the things he learned along the way. He often addresses Jim directly in the book, telling Jim he learned integrity from him. I couldn't put this book down, very addictive reading.

John Densmore's account of his life with Jim Morrison is a sensitive, searching memoir that invites readers to share its intimate point of view. Densmore details the genesis, breakthough, and dissolution of The Doors with an honesty made palpable by his obvious need for truthful answers. Anchoring the narrative are excerpts from a long letter Densmore wrote to Morrison after his death, and it is through this letter that the drummer enables us to understand how haunted he is by his time working and touring with Morrison, a gifted and difficult artist capable of both clear-eyed transcendence and frustrating childishness, of lucid grace and drunken mumblings. Densmore's reconciliation allows us access not only to his life with Morrison, but to our own lives with people who might similarly inspire and baffle us. RIDERS ON THE STORM makes for a wonderfully moving read, and Densmore's deft placement of Morrison's lyrics and poetry throughout illuminates what a fine and pioneering rock lyricist he was.

I feel sorry for John Densmore. Despite having been a rock star, the member of what was one of the world's top half dozen rock groups, with all the groupies and money and glamor that that entailed, he remains at this book's writing phenomenally insecure - a nebbish who never found himself despite immersing himself in the California human potential culture purported to deliver exactly that.

He's insecure about girls, insecure about who's his friend, insecure about his drab middle-class roots, insecure about his life prospects and failure to have accomplished much of anything until he became part of the Doors. Some of the introspection in here is so bare and revealing it's almost embarrassing to read. The picture of this naïve Everyman locked into a creative foursome with Jim Morrison, the quintessential dangerous and destructive rock star, is priceless.

America was transiting from harmless British Invasion into superficially benign Flower Power, but Morrison meanwhile was wearing black, singing about sex and death, leading concerts that were like dark seances with somber endings, and challenging bandmates and audiences alike to confront their darker selves and deeper fears. He scared the hell out of the likes of John Densmore.

Morrison, as we know from organist Ray Manzarek's book "Light My Fire", once demanded that Densmore be kicked out of the group; he was just too neurotic and got on Morrison's nerves. Densmore found Morrison, particularly as his alcoholism and erratic behavior grew, so disturbing that Densmore had chronic skin rashes from the stress.

Densmore represents a certain sad byway of that era - people whose pursuit of peace and love, meditation and marijuana, sought to cover or compensate for intense feelings of inadequacy. Many young people who haven't quite found their way in life can feel lost in this way. Marijuana seducing them into compulsive introspection certainly couldn't have helped much. But accomplishing something - like, say, being a pretty fine jazz-rock drummer as Densmore was and putting out a unique body of work like the Doors' music - ought to have helped someone get past that. Densmore doesn't seem to have done so, remaining both lost and searching well into middle-age, and failing to see that maturity required moving beyond that. (Although later chapters touching on his men's movement involvement with Robert Bly suggest that perhaps he was getting a clue about this.)

Densmore's insecurity notwithstanding, this is still a worthwhile book. His painful honesty renders his memoir less varnished than Manzarek's and occasionally more convincing. Densmore gets us a little closer to what really happened with Morrison's death. Most signs point to an accidental heroin overdose, with the heroin provided by girlfriend Pam Courson, who later OD'ed herself, and who was being pursued by a French count who also used and also died of it. Densmore also gets us closer than Manzarek to the tragic sense Morrison projected and held of himself, that he told people he didn't think he'd live beyond youth, that he started every day rebelling against the universe before breakfast. Densmore found playing live behind him "intoxicating ... my new religion," but saw what a price Morrison paid for the edge-living that fed his fire, too brightly and too quickly consumed. A Doors concert, Densmore says, left "everyone in attendance ... cleansed - security guards included. What a show. A truly religious experience. Much better than church. Almost as good as sex! Better! A communion with twenty thousand people."

Densmore loved him as well as fearing him; some passages of the book are written as the letters Densmore would be writing him, if he could. Densmore finds common themes in Morrison's self-destruction and the suicide of Densmore's own mentally ill brother, including his own survivor's guilt and wondering if he could have done more to have saved either - concluding, ultimately, that no, he couldn't. Morrison in a later age might have gone through rehab, but at that time his associates had no clue about what he was doing or how to deal with it. A pity. There have been many dead rock musicians but few took so much potential with them when they went.

OK, book reviews are subjective. John's John and I'm me. I definitely don't agree with previous reviews where it's stated that John didn't like Jim Morrison or respect him. My take after reading this book in 3 days (I didn't want to put it down, but family and work obligations intervened) is that John loved Jim deeply, was in awe of him and therefore afraid to confront Jim with his concerns about his self-destructive behavior. He felt an extremely strong connection with Jim, hence this long letter to him years after Jim's death. Having played in bands before, I loved the details surrounding the formation of the band and John's drumming roots and understood John's statements about the live creation of music with these other artists as the most intense and greatest moments of his life. Tapping into the primal stream, losing the ego. John was amazingly candid concerning his personal life, his libido, his social awkwardness, his constricted upbringing, and his troubled relationships. Very refreshing. The photos were great. I've always enjoyed the music of the Doors, found it to be unique, unduplicatable. John's book actually shares much in common with the movie, which also fascinated me. 3 cheers for Val Kilmer there. Mention was made in the book about Jim's belief that the spirit of an Indian dying in a desert motor vehicle accident entered him as he as a child drove by the site with his family. Looking at Jim's life, through both movie and John's accountings, sends chills up my spine. Can you see how this event might have been responsible for shaping Jim's life, his soul? Do you like the Doors and their music but wish you knew more about what made them tick, click, and then disintigrate? Then you really can't go wrong reading this book. John's drumming drove that crystal ship right into our souls, and I thank him for sharing his recollections.

As a growing fan of the doors' music, I wanted to read a truthful account about the band and Jim Morrison, without the usual 'God-like' worship authors direct towards Jim Morrison. I got that with this book, but there were some major short-comings as well.
PROS:
- A truthful account about the band, without any underlying motives. Densmore's stories are quite funny, and he paints a good picture of the band's disfuntional relationship towards one another. Also does a good job of showing Morrison's unstable personally and how he began to unravel.

CONS:
- And there are some major ones. The writing is very poor, almost as though done by a twelve year old. It reads almost like a script in some parts (but he's a drummer, not a writer). Passages about his personal life pop-up out of nowhere, which is tolerable until five pages are dedicated to his second divorce proceedings near the end of the book. No fault of his, but the story only starts around 1965 when The Doors formed, so there is nothing about Jim Morrison's childhood or years at the UCLA.

All in all a worthwhile book and not very long (319 pages). A recommended purchase but you may be wanting more.

I have read most of the books on Morrison and the Doors and I feel this one is the most insightful,interesting and believable. Although John Densmore's short bio on himself isn't very interesting, it focuses mainly on Morisson's demise and how it affected the band and takes you through the Door's amazing journey through fame and tragedy. This book also has several cool photograghs. Densmore's writing feels deep and honest throughout. I read Ray Manzarek's(keyboard) book and it came off to me as highly glamourized. Ray is known for glamourizing his accounts and even contradicts himself in interviewes.

This is Doors drummer, John Densmore's account of life with and without Jim Morrison. His feelings and relationship with Morrison from the beginning of the Doors to the end of Morrison's life. He never holds back his thoughts on Morrison and the Doors as a whole. A wonderful read.

This book is, in my opinion, the best of any about The Doors. It is very well written by one of the band's own members. Densmore, unlike Manzarek, reveals more. Manzarek makes everything seem happy and perfect, as though he is covering something up, while Densmore seems to tell the real story. Robby Krieger (Doors' guitarist) himself even said that this was the REAL story! He doesn't nag on Manzarek and say nasty things about how Morrison disliked him or anything like that. Densmore tells the story in a mature and orderly way. Densmore also surfaces on Jim Morrison's drinking problem, admitting that Jim, his bandmates, and he himself weren't perfect. If at all interested about the Doors, I would definately pick this one up!

John Densmore is a musician involved in multiple projects. He has also been involved in the theater. But the like it or not, he will be forever remembered by millions of people as the drummer for The Doors, a rock band that had a 72-month run from 1965 to 1971. In this book, he recounts those days.

"Riders on the Storm" is a combination of his first person recollection of the events and a letter to Jim Morrison the charismatic artistic leader of the Doors who died in Paris in 1971 from drug/alcohol abuse. In this letter, the author pours out his feelings about those days, questioning Morrison's motivation and expressing the things he never did while the lead singer was alive.

John Densmore, Ray Manzarek, and Robby Krieger, although competent musicians and talented songwriters, have always stood in the shadow of Jim Morrison. In fact, on the cover of this book, we find Densmore behind Morrison, peering over his shoulder. The author tries to move of the background, asserting that he had a more important role in the band and several times that he is a superior drummer.

Densmore give us little to indicate that he thinks very much of Manzarek. We also see a bit about his maturation as a person - remember that these were four young men in their twenties, trying to figure things out with the extra distraction of fame, fortune and all that comes with it. He shares a lot about his relationship with his girlfriend, his philosophical growth and the conflicts of his lifestyle with his Catholic upbringing.

We see the conflicting thoughts as he recalls the good old days of the Door's sometimes dark music and riotous concerts but bemoans its use in dark, riotous and violent movies - a'la Apocalypse Now. The young Densmore put down materialism yet owned a home and a Jag. We see how he and the remaining members of the band did not want to `sell out', yet continue to produce books, collections and videos. Hey, everyone's got to make a living. Morrison was spared from "selling out" by drinking himself to death - hence the mystique.

This is not supposed to be a work of literature but one man's thoughts and feelings. As such there will be conflicts, contradictions and emotion. This is what make us human. This is not written as an official history, but as a personal one. As such, there will be discrepancies from other accounts. If you add this to other accounts of those days, you will probably get a fairly accurate picture of how it really was. Doors fans should pick this one up.

The book not only aided Oliver Stone signifigantly in his movie THE DOORS but enables the reader to connect with Jim Morrison through the eyes of John Densmore. Many fascinating accounts that only John had with Jim leave the reader wondering how crazy Morrison really was. It is fascinating but doesn't leave the reader with an untruthful perception by any means. Morrison was special and he was undoubtedly a poetic genius who seemed to be having an inner battle with good and and evil. Densmore justifies his feelings for Jim based on his ignorance of the seriousness of Jim's drinking problem and inner battle. A must read for any true doors fan complete with Jim's aswell as many others poetry from the time period and including many interesting stories from a racist limo driver to how John and Ray dodged the draft and how the doors seperated and became more independent and much more.