Moonlight Drive: Difference between revisions
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| Label = [[Elektra Records|Elektra]] |
| Label = [[Elektra Records|Elektra]] |
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| Producer = [[Paul A. Rothchild]] |
| Producer = [[Paul A. Rothchild]] |
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| prev = "[[Horse Latitudes]]" |
| prev = "[[Horse Latitudes|Horse Latitudes (The Doors song)]]" |
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| prev_no = 5 |
| prev_no = 5 |
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| next = "[[People Are Strange]]" |
| next = "[[People Are Strange]]" |
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Revision as of 22:37, 4 August 2008
| "Moonlight Drive" | |
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| Song |
"Moonlight Drive" was one of the seminal tracks on The Doors' second album, Strange Days. Although it was not included as a single, like "Love Me Two Times" and "People Are Strange", it is a favorite in The Doors canon. Though a conventional blues arrangement, "Moonlight Drive"'s defining feature was its slightly off-beat rhythm and, most significantly, Robbie Krieger's 'Bottle-neck' guitar which creates a slightly eerie sound.
The song is most known to fans as being one of the first written by lead singer and primary songwriter Jim Morrison. According to the Morrison biography No One Here Gets Out Alive by Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman, Jim wrote it (as "Moonlight Ride") during his halcyon days on a rooftop in Venice Beach, a suburb of Los Angeles, California in 1965. Later on, when he met with fellow band member Ray Manzarek, he uttered the memorable lines, "Let's swim to the moon, let's climb through the tide, penetrate the evening that the city sleeps to hide." Reportedly, due to hallucinogens or otherwise, Ray was impressed. Hence, in many ways, the song "Moonlight Drive" helped crystallise the nexus of The Doors.
The song's meaning is open to interpretation. Jim himself (who said he 'heard' the song as part of a rock concert in his head) stated it was about reaching out into the unknown. Superficially, it concerns a 'Moonlight Drive', but is rich with symbolism and imagery. It appears to be a love song, but the last few lines during the fade out seem to imply that the drive ends with murder:
"Come on baby, gonna take a little ride
Down, down by the ocean side
Gonna get real close
Get real tight
Baby gon' drown tonight, drown drown drown"
Recordings of live performances of this song reveal the certain link with death by drowning - whether murder, suicide or simply going too far. Jim sings in live performances, probably improvising, referring to "fishes for your friends" and "pearls for your eyes" painting an image of a rotten corpse lying at the bottom of the ocean.
The song was featured in the film "Two-Lane Blacktop". In addition, its title is also used as the name of professional wrestler John Hennigan's corkscrew neckbreaker finishing move under his Jim Morrison-esque John Morrison character.
