I think that you only way you can make a case for that is to disqualify thousands of other songs. Have you even listened to the radio in the past 20 years?
The Doors’ incredibly cleverly titled Box Set has the CD cases decorated with handwritten lyrics, presumably in Morrison’s hand. It’s “family.”
Riders On The Storm isn’t the best representation of Morrison’s talent with words. Has everyone describing his ‘poetry’ as ‘dreck’ heard the album An American Prayer? That is one of the best marriages of music and words I have ever heard.
“When the true king’s murderers are allowed to roam free, a 1,000 magicians will arise in the land.”
I always thought that was a reference to Kennedy’s death, but I’m open to being wrong.
Well, you’re not alone.
I like the poetry of this song, but I really like the interesting production that gives the song a nice menacing vibe. F’rinstance, the way the vocal track is doubled with a track of Morrison whispering the lyrics. And of course the thunderstorm in the background throughout.
That’s where our mileage varies. To me it sounded like “family,” although I was listening over a set of speakers and not earbuds. I agree it sounds a bit muddled, and you do have to listen.
I didn’t really understand the word “sophomoric” until I helped edit a college literary semi-annual. Then I was able to both get the word and recognize that Jim Morrison wrote on the level of a college sophomore. And not one at Harvard, either. A sophomore at a midwestern landgrant teachers college. Both abominable and typical.
This does not detract from how much I like his work. Crappy college kid poetry is still better than everything else in R&R. I think I will listen to “Soft Parade” right now.
For years, I used to think he was saying “sweet Emily will die” and actually sang it that way when I covered the song. I don’t know who I thought Emily was. I just figured it was one of Morrison’s non-sequiturs.
He spent too long dwelling on A Good Man Is Hard To Find?
There was plums in the freezer but I eated them nom nom nom kthxbai.
I always thought he said “sweet family will die.”
Dreck. God did the Doors suck. I can’t believe they were my favorite band when I was 15. Most other bands have held up–Sabbath, Zep, AC/DC etc.–But not the Doors. Their lyrics are the worst kind of shitty teenage poetry.
Not much for poetry, eh? 
“Like a dog without a bone” bothers me more. It’s such a boring simile. Couldn’t he think of something a little more creative?
You are not alone, my friend. An American Prayer is fantastic, mesmerizing and a great tribute. The inclusion of Albinoni’s Adagio in G minor accompanying the titular poem just killed me.
Awake.
Shake dreams from your hair.
I would love to have a painting of that imagery.
I call bullshit.
"Can you tell me which flower’s going to grow?
Can you tell me? You say you can but you don’t know.
You say you can but you don’t know.
You don’t know
You don’t know
Mmm bop
Ba du bop
Ba du bop
Ba du
Mmm bop
Ba du bop
Ba du bop
Ba du
Mmm bop, ba duba dop
Ba du bop, ba duba dop
Ba du bop, ba duba dop
Ba du
Mmm bop, ba duba dop
Ba du bop, Ba du dop
Ba du bop, Ba du dop
Ba du
Mmm bop, ba duba dop
Ba du bop, ba duba dop
Ba du bop, ba duba dop
Ba du
Mmm bop, ba duba dop
Ba du bop, Ba du dop
Ba du bop, Ba du dop
Ba du "
Sorry if this violates the spirit of the board’s respect of copyright, but I felt it was worth pushing that particular envelope in order to celebrate the beauty of these lyrics. Jim Morrison isn’t fit to carry Hanson’s jockstraps. You see any bad imagery in that?? I didn’t think so!
Mmm bop!
I’ve never considered Jim Morrison to be a great poet, but as a master of the soundbite he has no equal. He couldn’t string those single lines or couplets together very successfully to make a coherent whole, but on their own, they’re simply wonderful.
Is this really only sophomoric, at best?
AC/DC?
snerk
ivan astikov
Sophomoric in the extreme. But only when written down and read as poetry. While I’m sure *he *thought he was a poet, he clearly wasn’t. He was a very successful rock lyric writer, some of whose words, when sung - or intoned - to music, came across very memorably. To try to elevate him above that is pointless.
Yes, but then you’d have to change the lyric to
…there’s a killer on the take,
his brain is squirming like a snake…