This was the last song Jim Morrison recorded. He went to France and died a few weeks later. The single was released in June, 1971, shortly before Morrison's death. The song can be seen as an autobiographical account of Morrison's life: he considered himself a "Rider on the storm." The "killer on the road" is a reference to a screenplay he wrote called The Hitch-hiker (An American Pastoral), where Morrison was going to play the part of a hitch-hiker who goes on a murder spree. The lyrics, "Girl you gotta love your man" can be seen as a desperate plea to his long time girlfriend Pamela. As it says in Jim Morrison: Life, Death, Legend by Stephen Davis, in 1962, while Jim was attending Florida State University in Tallahassee, he was seeing a girl named Mary Werbelow who lived in Clearwater, 280 miles away. Jim would often-times hitch-hike to see her. "Those solitary journeys on hot and dusty Florida two-lane black-top roads, with his thumb out and his imagination on fire with lust and poetry and Nietzsche and God knows what else - taking chances on red-neck truckers, fugitive hobos, and lone cruisers - left an indelible psychic scar on Jimmy, whose notebooks began to obsessively feature scrawls and drawings of a lone hitch-hiker, an existential traveller, faceless and dangerous, a drifting stranger with violent fantasies, a mystery tramp: the killer on the road."
Riders on the stormRiders 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
"Riders On The Storm" by The Doors is an epic rock song that takes a large place among the rock songs of the 1970's. It was released just before Jim Morrison's death in France. It's clear the the song tells the general story of people who are on a journey through the storms of life. In the first lines of the track it is more particular to a person who has lost control. Perhaps these are lyrics that come from Morrison's own experience, perhaps he is one of the riders on the storm, perhaps he feels that he is out of control - who knows? Jim Morrison was found dead in his bathtub from an suspected heroin overdose. I wonder what It would have been like for Jim to travel those last few weeks of his life and weather he knew that he was heading for a unknown future and unknown ending. This of course is speculation. We all have a journey to make through life, and sometimes that journey is through the storms of life and we wonder if we are really going to make it unscathed.
This week in the Christian church is "Passion Week" or "Holy Week" and it is full of the journey theme. This week we see the final journey of Jesus through the gates of Jerusalem to the Cross, the Tomb and what is beyond.
At the heart of our faith is the Passion, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. All of salvation history leads up to and goes forth from these events. The purpose of this devotion is to describe Jesus’ final week. We call this “Holy Week” or "Passion Week" because Jesus’ public ministry culminates with His suffering, death, and resurrection.
What follows is a brief description of each day in the last week of Jesus life.
Some scholars of Scripture scoff at the idea that we can construct a day-by-day journal of Jesus’ last week. There are historical gaps and things in the different accounts that don’t add up perfectly. Further, St. John records a slightly different time frame (shifted by one day) for the Last Supper relative to Passover. The following sequence follows the timing of Matthew, Mark, and Luke's accounts. Despite certain scholarly doubts, the accounts really do add up pretty well if one uses a little imagination and sees the differences not as factual discrepancies but rather only as variations in the level of detail.
SUNDAY – The celebration of Holy Week begins on Palm Sunday as we remember the triumphal entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem to begin His final week and initiate His Passion. All four Gospels recount this triumphant entry that Sunday morning so long ago, but made present to us today. Why not consider that you are part of that vast crowd. How will you journey with Jesus this week? Let this story remind you to praise. According to Mark 11:11, Jesus returned that evening to Bethany, a suburb of Jerusalem. Perhaps He stayed with his friends Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. Pray with Jesus this evening as He considers the difficult days.
MONDAY– According to Matthew 21, Mark 11, and Luke 19, Jesus returned to Jerusalem this day and, seeing shameful practices in the Temple area, cleansed it. John’s Gospel also records that Jesus rebuked the unbelief of the crowds. Mark 11:19 records that Jesus returned to Bethany that night.
TUESDAY – According to Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus again returned to Jerusalem where He was confronted by the Temple leadership for what He had done the previous day; they questioned His authority. Jesus also taught extensively using parables and other forms. There was the parable of the vineyard (cf Mt 21:33-46), the parable of the wedding banquet (cf Mt. 22:1), the teaching on paying taxes (cf Mt 22:15), and the rebuke of the Sadducees who denied the resurrection (cf Mt. 22:23). There was also the fearful prophecy about the destruction of Jerusalem if the inhabitants did not come to faith in Him: Jesus warned that not one stone would be left on another (cf Mt 24).
WEDNESDAY - Traditionally this day was called “Spy Wednesday,” for it was on this Wednesday before the crucifixion that Judas conspired to hand Jesus over. For this he was paid thirty pieces of silver (cf Mt. 26:14). Jesus likely spent the day in Bethany. In the evening, Mary of Bethany anointed Jesus with costly perfumed oil. Judas objected but Jesus rebuked him, saying that Mary had anointed Him for His burial (cf Mt 26:6). The wicked are besetting Jesus and plotting against Him.
THURSDAY marks the beginning of the “three days.” Earlier in the day, Jesus had given instructions to the disciples on how to prepare for this most holy meal, which would be His last supper. Throughout the day they made these preparations (cf Mt 26:17). Imagine that you are in the upper room with Jesus and the apostles. After the Last Supper, Jesus and the apostles made a short journey across the Kidron Valley to the Garden, where He asked them to pray while He experienced His agony (cf Mt 26:30). It was nearly midnight when Jesus was betrayed by Judas, was arrested, and was taken to the house of the high priest (cf Mt. 26:47).
FRIDAY - All through the previous night, Jesus had been locked in the dungeon of the high priest’s house. Early in the morning He was brought before Pontius Pilate, who transferred the case to Herod. Herod promptly sent Him back to Pilate who, sometime in mid-morning, bowed to the pressure of the Temple leadership and the crowds and condemned Jesus to a horrible death by crucifixion. In the late morning, Jesus was taken by soldiers through the city and up the hillside of Golgotha. By noon He had been nailed to the Cross, where He hung in agony for some three hours. Jesus died at around three in the afternoon. He was taken down from the Cross and hastily placed in the tomb before sundown.
SATURDAY – The body of Jesus was in the tomb but His soul was among the dead, announcing the Kingdom. The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear it will Live (John 5:25). Consider what it must have been like for the dead in Sheol to awaken to the voice of Jesus! Meanwhile, the disciples, heartbroken at the death of Jesus, observed the Jewish Sabbath in sorrow. They had forgotten Jesus’ promise that He would rise.
SUNDAY - Death is defeated, sin is conquered, life abundant is free for evermore. The bible tells us that the body of Jesus is not in the tomb when the women come to prepare it. An angel or angels appear and announce the good news. The gospel accounts are rich in their descriptions of the visits to the tomb and the return to tell the disciples who are in the upper room for fear f the Jews and the Romans. Peter and John visit the tomb on the word from the women that Jesus is not there. they arrive and find that it is as the women have said. Then comes the many appearances of Jesus to his disciples on the road to Emmaus and in the upper room. Death has been conquered and live knows know end. For those who are riders on the storm everywhere there is now the promise of peace with God through the death and resurrection of Jesus. The storms may never go away but strength to endure those very storms is given to you by God. No matter the journey in life there is strength for the storm you are facing at this moment.
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