"Riders on the Storm" is notated in the key of E Minor. According to guitarist Robby Krieger and keyboardist Ray Manzarek, it was inspired by the country song "," written by Stan Jones and popularized by Vaughn Monroe. Portions of the song's lyrics were allegedly inspired by spree killerBilly Cook, whom Morrison referenced in a 1970 interview with The Village Voice, citing Cook as an inspiration for his short film . Cook had killed six people, including a young family, while hitchhiking to California. It is popularly believed that "Riders on the Storm" is the song that longtime Doors producer Paul A. Rothchild disparaged as "cocktail music", precipitating his departure from the L.A. Woman sessions, as corroborated by guitarist Robby Krieger. Rothchild himself denied this claim, stating that he actually applied this moniker to "Love Her Madly". Following Rothchild's departure, longtime engineer Bruce Botnick was selected to take over production duties, alongside the Doors themselves. "Riders on the Storm" was recorded at the Doors Workshop in December 1970 with the assistance of Botnick. Morrison recorded his main vocals and then whispered the lyrics over them to create an echo effect. This was the last song recorded by all four members of the Doors, as well as Morrison's last recorded song to be released in his lifetime. The single was released in June 1971, entering the Billboard Hot 100 the week ending July 3, 1971, the same week that Morrison died.
Heidegger's influence
Speaking with Krieger and Manzarek, the German philosopher argues that the line "Into this world we're thrown" recalls Heidegger's concept of thrownness. In 1963 at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Jim Morrison heard an influential lecture for him, in which were discussed the philosophers who critically dealt with the philosophical tradition, including Friedrich Nietzsche and also Martin Heidegger. In 2009, Simon Critchley dedicated his column in The Guardian to Heidegger's thrownness and explained it using the aforementioned verse of the song. The connection between the thrownness into the world and a dog's life was anticipated by the anti-Heideggerian author Ernst Bloch in his main work The Principle of Hope.
Legacy
The Doors' drummer, John Densmore, released a book in 1990 entitled Riders on the Storm, detailing the story of his life and his times with the group. In November 2009, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame under the category Rock.
