But in light of what follows it was perhaps just what the album and Doors fans needed. If any song on the album revealed a formula of the Doors’ sound, it was the 10th track. “Take It As It Comes” was a breezy toss off. Following Jim’s death 0n July 3, 1971, Beat poet Michael McClure would collaborate with Manzarek, reading Morrison’s lyrics (and thereby giving them more credence) as Ray improvised on the well-known melodies he once helped forge. Smith wasn’t alone in recognizing Morrison’s enigmatic verse as literature. “Jim Morrison was one of our great poets and unique performers,” Patti Smith told CBS’ On Sunday Morning. But whenever Jim wasn’t fully igniting his senses, he managed to read-a lot-passing on the inspiration he found in poetry, plays and avant-garde film to his audience. You could learn a lot from Jim Morrison, intoxicated as he might have been much of the time. “Some are born to sweet delight some are born to endless night,” wrote the great 18th-century romantic poet/painter William Blake in his classic “Auguries of Innocence,” lyrics Morrison brilliantly lifted for the Doors’ classic “End of the Night.” “I Looked At You” is Jim’s breezy valentine to the eternal yin/yang, girl/boy dance of attraction, a menacing variation on Doris Troy’s R&B hit “Just One Look (That’s All It Took).”īut Morrison’s celebration comes with a warning: “It’s too late,” he moans, knowing all too well that once you trip love’s trigger there’s no turning back, as his bandmates sweep us away on a brief joyride, buoyed by Ray’s keyboards and punctuated Densmore’s riveting drum fills. Other than stealing my lick he was pretty original.” I thought he was very good and appropriate for what the band was doing. Once we were on a plane when he came down the aisle and I said, ‘Hey, you stole my lick!’ He said, ‘I was paying tribute to you!’ I said, ‘I wish you were paying money!’ Ray was a nice guy. But he had played my lick from ‘House in the Country’ in one of their songs. “He was unique in that he didn’t play a Hammond organ, which nearly everybody used at the time. “The first thing that impressed me about Ray was that he played organ and bass at the same time, which is no mean feat!” exclaimed legendary organist Al Kooper. Over seven minutes long, the original track not only contained one of the Door’s most memorable lyric hooks but was the perfect vehicle for Ray Manzarek’s swirling climactic organ work, which gave way to Robby Kreiger’s slinky midnight Arabic tent dance. “Light My Fire,” The Doors’ first and most successful single, was an intoxicating sonic cocktail blending Ray’s Bach organ fugues with Robby’s Flamenco-style guitar while Jim, the psychedelic Sinatra, crooned, and bellowed such provocative lyrics as “You know that I would be a liar.”