Riders On The Storm

Background

"Riders On The Storm" is a song by The Doors from their 1971 album, L.A. Woman, which was released only three months before Jim Morrison's death. This was the last song recorded by all the original members of The Doors as well as Morrison's last recorded song to be released in his lifetime. It was inspired by Stan Jones' song "(Ghost) Riders in the Sky: A Cowboy Legend" as well as by spree killer Billy Cook's murders.

Jim Morrison recorded his main vocals and then whispered the lyrics over them to create the echo effect. The song also incorporates recordings of rain and thunder, along with Ray Manzarek's Fender Rhodes electric piano playing, which emulates the sound of rain.

"Riders On The Storm" was covered by Santana in their 2010 album Guitar Heaven: The Greatest Guitar Classics Of All Time with the lyric "sweet family will die" being changed to "sweet memory will die". The track features vocals by Chester Bennington and keyboards by The Doors member Ray Manzarek. The producer on the album, Howard Benson, had previously worked with Chester on Dead By Sunrise's 2009 album Out Of Ashes.

This wasn't the first time Ray Manzarek and Chester met either. In 2006, Chester, Perry Farrell (of Jane's Addiction) and Slash joined The Doors to celebrate the band's 40th Anniversary at the Whisky a Go Go.

When he was young, Chester was a big fan of The Doors. He and a friend learnt every The Doors song they could and this eventually led him to join his first band. "We liked them as they were so poetic, spacey and deep," he said.

"Riders On The Storm" has been covered by numerous other bands such as Annabel Lamb, Cameo, Creed, Escape with Romeo, Snoop Dogg, Dancing Fantasy, Ray Manzarek & Bal, Dezperadoz, Wolfmother, Yonderboi, Incubus, Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13, Bob Sinclar, Megan Washington, Kamyaniy Gist, and Lisa Bassenge.

Versions

Note: Only the date of the very first release of each version is listed.

Title	Album	Length	Recorded	Released	Notes
Riders On The Storm (featuring Chester Bennington & Ray Manzarek)	Guitar Heaven: The Greatest Guitar Classics Of All Time	5:23		September 21, 2010	Features vocals by Chester Bennington and organ by Ray Manzarek.

Live

Santana performed the song sporadically throughout 2010 and 2011, but Chester never ended up performing the song with him at any point.

Ironically, Chester has performed with The Doors themselves (at their 40th Anniversary show), but performed four different songs with them.

Personnel

• Lead Vocals – Chester Bennington
• Organ – Ray Manzarek
• Congas – Karl Perazzo
• Drums – Dennis Chambers
• Keyboards – Freddie Ravel
• Keyboards – Howard Benson
• Lead Guitar – Carlos Santana
• Percussion – Karl Perazzo
• Rhythm Guitar – Tommy Anthony

Production

• Arranged By Howard Benson
• Edited by Paul Decarli
• Engineer – Hatsukazu Inagaki
• Producer – Howard Benson
• Recorded By – Mike Plotnikoff
• Written By – Jim Morrison, John Densmore, Ray Manzarek, Robbie Krieger

Lyrics

Riders on the storm
Riders on the storm
Into this house we're born
Into this world we're thrown
Like a dog without a bone
An actor out on loan
Riders on the storm

There's a killer on the road
His brain is squirmin' like a toad
Take a long holiday
Let your children play
If you give this man a ride
Sweet memory will die
Killer on the road, yeah

Girl, you gotta love your man
Girl, you gotta love your man
Take him by the hand
Make him understand
The world on you depends
Our life will never end
Gotta love your man, yeah

Riders on the storm
Riders on the storm
Into this house we're born
Into this world we're thrown
Like a dog without a bone
An actor out on loan.
Riders on the storm

Riders on the storm
Riders on the storm
Riders on the storm
Riders on the storm
Riders on the storm

External Links

• Santana - "Riders On The Storm" Behind-The-Scenes

References

• http://www.soundspike.com/features/tour/192-carlos_santana_tour_dates_and_tickets_q_amp_a__carlos_santana.html
• http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/scott-weiland-chris-cornell-jacoby-shaddix-on-new-santana-album/
• http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/957645/santana-recruits-nas-daughtry-weiland-for-classic-rock-covers#/news/santana-recruits-nas-daughtry-wieland-for-1004100477.story