THE DOORS' "RIDERS ON THE STORM”: HOW THE RAIN EFFECT IS USED

The use of sound effects in the recording studio to make the images evoked by a song more vivid is a technique frequently used by many groups of the 1960s and 1970s in England and the United States.

One example among many is the beautiful pop-rock of "This Time Tomorrow" by the Kinks, released in 1970 as part of the album "Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One".

Here, a departing plane communicates to the listener what is later developed in the lyrics: a journey with an unknown destination.

This fairly common practice is also used by The Doors in one of the last songs they recorded with the original lineup: "Riders On The Storm," included on "L.A. Woman," the band's last LP with Jim Morrison, released in April 1971.

In this famous song, the chosen sound is that of rain during a thunderstorm. It is included at the beginning of the song and then remains present as a background throughout the entire composition.

Sometimes the sound is clearly audible, sometimes it is overpowered by the instruments, but it never disappears completely.

It adds to the almost cinematic character of the song, juxtaposing its sound atmosphere with that of a film noir.

In the finale, the described studio effect returns as the only element (from min. 6.46 onward), just like it happened at the beginning of the song.

The group uses rain and thunder in this composition with a specific role in the context of the song: to serve as a sound commentary and evocative accompaniment to the story emerging from Morrison's dark lyrics.

In addition to being directly related to the title of the song (the word "Storm"), the thunderstorm we hear in "Riders On The Storm" allows us to enter with even greater intensity into the story told by the singer's dark and deep voice.

Far from being a mere gimmick to intrigue the listener, this sound effect is an integral part of the performance, suggesting a precise key to interpretation and complementing the lyrics and instrumentation.

In this role, the rain and thunder are elevated to the same level as the other elements that bring the arrangement to life, becoming almost as important a part of it as the drums and electric bass.

The result is an ambitious and daring artistic leap that expands and enriches The Doors' musical and conceptual output.

To better understand how innovative the studio work done by the Doors on "Riders On The Storm" is (in this case with Bruce Botnik as sound engineer and producer), we can cite two examples of the use of rain in songs of that period.

The first example is "Flowers in The Rain" by The Move, a pop-rock song released in August 1967 that reached number two as a single in England.

The sound of rain is used here only at the beginning and then disappears completely, constituting only a brief introduction with a purely illustrative purpose.

In this case, the role of the studio effect is merely to evoke an image contained in the lyrics, with no connection to the progression, arrangement, or structure of the song.

The second example is "Black Sabbath", the opening track of Black Sabbath's eponymous debut album (released in February 1970).

The sound of rain and thunder is also employed here as the start of the song, but with a definite function: to create the heavy and gloomy atmosphere that characterizes the composition and to make it perceptible to the listener with greater evocative force.

Rain and thunder play a role in the song "Black Sabbath" that we can thus frame as symbolic and that is significantly more evolved and complex than that achieved by The Move in "Flowers In The Rain."

To sum up, the role of this studio effect moves from merely illustrative (in "Flowers In The Rain") to symbolic (in "Black Sabbath"), to a complementary role to the arrangement that we can define as narrative (in "Riders On The Storm").

With the poetic sound of the thunderstorm we hear in "Riders On The Storm," The Doors prove themselves, as they had done at other times throughout their career, to be both innovative and precursor musicians.

Using in the recording studio this particular natural sound, the Californian band vividly document an artistic vision far more articulate than most groups and artists contemporary and subsequent to them.

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