Lighting The Fire Of Rock And Roll Dreams

In 1965 the gates of musical history opened its doors to a new sound that would affect young teenage angst minds and many others forever, this new sound was called: The Doors. It’s members consisting of the late front man Jim Morisson, organist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore, and guitarist Robby Krieger met while residing near the U.C.L.A. area. The four musicians were completely aware of the “surf doo wop” music that was infesting the Los Angeles, California area and were destined on doing something about it.(Raz) By indulging in the influences of musical genres such as rock ‘n’ roll, jazz, blues, and classical, The Doors had made a recipe for musical success. Their first released single “Break on Through”was met with mild response. Just when it was seeming like their careers were over before they had began their second single “Light My Fire” lit up the air waves like wild fire, thus insuring The Doors a place in musical history. While The Doors compsed many other hits in their short careers “Light My Fire would be the song that would leave their impact in musical history and in N.P.R’S “Top 100 Most Influencial American Works of the 21st c

Analytically the vocals are simple explains Ray Manzarek. He declares that the lyric “The time to hesitate is through.” actually means to “seize the LSD moment”. “Wallow in the mire. Try now. We can only lose.” Manzarek states ‘The worst that can happen is death.” In the next lyric “Our love becomes a funeral pyre...” Manzarek says it really means “Our love is consumed in a fiery funeral.(Gross) As for the musical analyzation Ray Manzarek explains the song starts out going from A minor to F sharp major, in the 4-4 common time. Going from 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4 on the beat measure. Densmore the suggested a Latin groove, to make things bouncy. Simply going from a verse, to a chorus, to a verse, to a chorus, then adding the solos. As quoted in Renee Montagne’s interview with John Densmore the solos go on the tempo of “Three, four, one, two , three, one, three against the two, three, four, two, three, four”. The John Coaltrain’s “My Favorite Things” influence then appears here. In comparison to “my Favorite Things” which is in D minor, “Light My Fire” has A minor flowing into E major. Chord structure is A minor to B minor. The organ in 3-4 time starts going against the drums in 4-4 time giving it an airy feel. Next the turn around, which consists of the circle of fifth’s, going to B flat. Following that the chords go in progression G, D, F

Some topics in this essay:
Ray Manzarek, Angeles California, John Densmore, Favorite Things”, Gross Personally, Prochnicky July, Robby Krieger, Guy Raz, Jim Morisson, Roll Dreams, “light fire”, ray manzarek, john densmore, musical history, “my favorite things”, jim morisson, “my favorite, favorite things”, flat flat, robby krieger, circle fifth’s, drummer john densmore, musical history doors, love funeral pyre”,