Doors – "Light My Fire" (1967)

The time to hesitate is through

No time to wallow in the mire

In 2000, NPR – which had listed “Light My Fire” as one of the 100 most significant American musical works of the 20th century – interviewed the surviving members of the Doors about the song.

The late Ray Manzarek

Here’s what the late Ray Manzarek – the Doors organist – had to say about what inspired “Light My Fire”:

We were aware of Muddy Waters.  We were aware of Howlin’ Wolf and John Coltrane and Miles Davis.  Plus, Jan and Dean and The Beach Boys and the surf sound.  Robby Krieger brings in some flamingo guitar.  I bring a little bit of classical music along with the blues and jazz, and certainly John Densmore was heavy into jazz.  And Jim brings in beatnik poetry and French symbolist poetry, and that’s the blend of The Doors as the sun is setting into the Pacific Ocean at the end, the terminus of Western civilization.  That’s the end of it.  Western civilization ends here in California at Venice Beach, so we stood there inventing a new world on psychedelics.

Whatever you say, Ray.

(You can click here to listen to that NPR interview.)

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One day, Jim Morrison gave his bandmates a homework assignment.  He told them all to go home and spend the weekend writing new songs.

Guitarist Robby Kreiger was the only one of the group who didn’t show up at the next rehearsal empty-handed.   The rest of the Doors liked “Light My Fire” – which  was what Krieger called the first song he had ever written – but it was far from a finished product.

Robbie Krieger

For example, Krieger had written only one verse:

You know that it would be untrue

You know that I would be a liar

If I was to say to you

Girl, we couldn’t get much higher

Jim Morrison came up with a second verse, the language of which sounded nothing like Krieger’s:

The time to hesitate is through

No time to wallow in the mire

Try now we can only lose

And our love become a funeral pyre

(“Wallow in the mire”?  “Funeral pyre”?)

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The Doors’ first single, “Break On Through (To the Other Side),” is a great song – arguably even better than “Light My Fire” – but it was a commercial flop.

A few months later, the band released a three-minute version of“Light My Fire” (which was originally just over seven minutes long) as a single.  It went to #1 on the Billboard “Hot 100” and stayed there for three weeks in the summer of 1967.

I was 15 years old that summer – too young to drive or have a job – so I spent a lot of time at the local country club.  (My parents didn’t move in the same social circles as the other members, but my mother was the club’s office manager, so we were allowed to play golf and hang out at the pool.)  

Swimming pool babes (circa 1967)

I vividly remember hearing “Light My Fire” playing on the pool’s public-address system.  I also vividly remember the mean cheeseburgers and excellent chocolate milkshakes the club’s snack bar served up. 

Because it was a country club, you didn’t pay cash at the snack bar – you simply signed the check with one of those short pencils that were also used by the club’s golfers to keep score.  (Make way for Mr. Big Shot, you hoi polloi!)

Click here to listen to the single version of “Light My Fire.”  (This is the 2 OR 3 LINES “GOLDEN DECADE” HIT SINGLES HALL OF FAME we’re talking about, after all.)

Click on the link below to buy the song from Amazon: