Set the night on fire : living, dying, and playing guitar with The Doors

Set the night on fire Living, dying, and playing guitar with The Doors

Robby Krieger

Book - 2021

In his tell-all, legendary Doors guitarist, Robby Krieger, one of Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time," opens up about his band's meteoric career, his own darkest moments, and the most famous black eye in rock 'n' roll. Few bands are as shrouded in the murky haze of rock mythology as The Doors, and parsing fact from fiction has been a virtually impossible task. But now, after fifty years, The Doors' notoriously quiet guitarist is finally breaking his silence to set the record straight. Through a series of vignettes, Robby Krieger takes readers back to where it all happened: the pawn shop where he bought his first guitar; the jail cell he was tossed into after a teenage drug bust; his paren...ts' living room where his first songwriting sessions with Jim Morrison took place; the empty bars and backyard parties where The Doors played their first awkward gigs; the studios where their iconic songs were recorded; and the many concert venues that erupted into historic riots. SET THE NIGHT ON FIRE is packed with never-before-told stories from The Doors' most vital years, and offers a fresh perspective on the most infamous moments of the band's career. Krieger also goes into heartbreaking detail about his life's most difficult struggles, ranging from drug addiction to cancer, but he balances out the sorrow with humorous anecdotes about run-ins with unstable fans, famous musicians, and one really angry monk. SET THE NIGHT ON FIRE is at once an insightful time capsule of the '60s counterculture, a moving reflection on what it means to find oneself as a musician, and a touching tale of a life lived non-traditionally. It's not only a must-read for Doors fans, but an essential volume of American pop culture history.

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Subjects
Krieger, Robby.
Doors (Musical group)
Guitarists > United States > Biography.
Rock musicians > United States > Biography.
Biographies.
Autobiographies.
Genres
Biographies
Autobiographies
Published
New York : Little, Brown and Company 2021.
Language
English
Main Author
Robby Krieger (author)
Other Authors
Jeff Alulis (author)
Edition
First edition
Item Description
Includes index.
Physical Description
vi, 422 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
ISBN
9780316243346
  • The Henry Hudson Hotel
  • The Worst Hair in Rock 'n' Roll
  • Beware the Stare That Threatens All Mankind
  • Wicked Go the Doors
  • Send My Credentials to the House of Detention
  • The Living Room
  • The Riot Concert
  • Guitarras Ramírez
  • Three Words
  • Between Clark and Hilldale
  • Unknown Soldiers
  • A Quest for Enlightenment: Part I
  • Ronny
  • A Quest for Enlightenment: Part II
  • Eleven Minutes, Forty-One Seconds
  • Pain Is Something to Carry, Like a Radio
  • The First Album
  • Me and Willie
  • Love Street
  • 1967
  • Let's Feed Ice Cream to the Rats
  • The Teenage Awards Music International Show
  • Strange Days
  • Lynn
  • Lifetime Achievement
  • Pam
  • A Really Big Shoe
  • Carry Me, Caravan, Take Me Away
  • Feast of the Resurrection
  • Waiting for the Sun
  • Ship of Fools
  • Time to Aim Your Arrows at the Sun
  • Keep Your Eyes on the Road, Your Hands upon the Wheel
  • The Incident
  • The 27 Club
  • Chasing the Dragon
  • Waylon
  • The Soft Parade
  • The Black Eye
  • The Wings of Madness
  • The Trial
  • One Froggy Evening
  • Enough to Base a Movie On
  • Morrison Hotel
  • Blue Jacarandas
  • Immoral in Nature
  • The New Creatures
  • The Other Trial
  • L.A. Woman
  • In Tribute
  • Other Voices and Full Circle
  • The King
  • This Is the End
  • The Greatest Par Three Hole in America
  • An American Prayer
  • Occupation: Musician, Organist
  • Nirvana
  • Acknowledgments
  • Photo Credits
  • Index
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Doors guitarist Krieger riffs melodiously through the discordant and harmonious measures of his life and times with the band in this galloping, episodic debut. He starts with his 1950s youth "in perpetually sunny Southern California," where he discovered guitar and an abiding love of music. After laying eyes on Chuck Berry's Gibson ES-335 at a show in 1965, Krieger swapped his acoustic guitar for a Gibson SG Special. In college, he reconnected with his old friend, John Densmore, who was playing drums with the Doors and invited Krieger to audition. While every year in the Doors was a strange one, he writes, 1967 set a whole new bar as the band went from "touring in a van as unproven unknowns... to headlining gigs as number one artists." Krieger chronicles the notorious ups and downs of the band and its lead singer, Jim Morrison, whose antics onstage and off attracted zealous fans and police looking to make a bust. He also sets the record straight about discrepancies in Oliver Stone's 1991 film The Doors--for one, "the Doors never did peyote in the desert." His most insightful moments come in his reflections on songwriting, "a constant reminder that music is infinite." Krieger's engrossing stories are sure to be relished by fans. (Oct.)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review

Doors guitarist Krieger reflects on his life, his career, and his memories of the great Jim Morrison, whose story still captures the imagination of music lovers everywhere; the band's official website receives over 37 million impressions monthly. With a 60,000-copy first printing.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

The Doors guitarist reminisces about music and life in the fast lane. Krieger's story of fragmented "moments" and "sensations" reads like it was dictated into a tape recorder. Regardless, rock fans will be looking for substance rather than style, and the author provides enough. A Southern California kid, he writes about dealing with poor eyesight, vandalism, and drugs. Then, bang, he supposes he should recount the "infamous" 1967 New Haven concert when a drunk, raucous Jim Morrison was arrested on stage, a "moment of double-edged mythmaking that affected everything from then on." Then, abruptly, Krieger moves on with his life story. Trading his acoustic guitar for an electric "was a major turning point in my life." When he first met the itinerant Morrison, a "shaky-voiced, corduroy-clad introvert," Krieger was unimpressed. John Densmore said they were starting a band; they had a deal with Columbia Records (which fell through) and a few songs. They worked for months on "Light My Fire," their first hit and by far the most lucrative. For "Love Me Two Times," Krieger contributed words and music, which he borrowed from a John Koerner song. Morrison welcomed the collaboration, and early shows at the "always-packed, scene-making" Whiskey a Go Go gave the band a chance to jell and for Morrison to transform his shyness into a "complete, unflinching honesty." Signing with Elektra in 1966 was their first step to success. Krieger capsulizes their first two albums as "fun and fast" and "experimental and exciting." Waiting for the Sun was a "chore," and The Soft Parade was recorded when Morrison's "drinking was at its peak." Throughout, the author chronicles Morrison's alcoholism and drug problems. In 1971, L.A. Woman "showed that we still had something to offer." Musicians will enjoy reading about Krieger's composing process and will likely be unsurprised that he calls Oliver Stone's Doors film "laughable as a historical artifact." Krieger's dry, chatty, wistful memoir will appeal primarily to Doors' aficionados. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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