HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Loading...

Set the Night on Fire: Living, Dying, and Playing Guitar With the Doors

by Robby Krieger

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
493523,819 (4)1
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 parents' 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.… (more)
None
Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 1 mention

Showing 3 of 3
Not chronological, and author assumes you have followed and read all the other books, films, and news articles about the Doors. However this was a mostly enjoyable read, B&W photographs, with bite-size chapters on events in Robbie's life, his influences, his childhood, his family (including his twin brother, Ronny), his own addictions to drugs, the in-fighting between John and Ray over publication of Ray's autobiography: "...put up his dukes like he was the Notre Dame mascot "; Sometimes laugh-out-loud funny: "...idyllic Eden of the Laurel Canyon scene...memorialized in photos...hazy, sun-dappled images of young people hanging out, smiling, and playing music in what seems like a perpetual golden hour, you can see what it means to really live life, and to be free.
Just remember: they all had crabs."!
My favourite parts of this book were the references to the songs that inspired Robby himself, which I enjoyed playing on my sound system during the reading of this book, and the mystery of the Mexican song about a mosquito which Robbie could never identify (I wondered if it was actually "La Cucaracha" song about a cockroach). ( )
  AChild | Mar 31, 2024 |
autógrafado pelo autor.
  Puga | Feb 23, 2024 |
I love the Doors music (I used to sing "People are strange" as a lullaby to my children), and have been looking forward to reading Robby Krieger's book for a while. This is not a chronological autobiography of Krieger, it is more of a series of vignettes of the Doors and his life. It jumps about back and forth in time, which bothered me at first, but maybe because I was expecting a basic memoir. I have read both Ray Manzarek's and John Densmore's books. Of the three, Krieger's book comes across as perhaps being more honest and truthful. He tells of the faults of his band-mates (and himself), and the issues he has had with them, but also tells of their extreme talent, the magic and harmony that they had when playing together, and he seems to have always considered them as close friends. His chapters on the deaths of Ray Manzarek and Jim Morrison are very moving (John Densmore, of course is still alive). He also talks about his own family, the death of his twin brother, and his own drug addiction, along with chapters on the Florida concert incident with Jim that never happened and the Oliver Stone movie that was a complete fabrication of the Doors history (but he thought it entertaining film). If you like the Doors, you will enjoy this book. And pop some Doors records or CDs on while reading it... ( )
  CRChapin | Jul 8, 2023 |
Showing 3 of 3
no reviews | add a review
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Dedication
First words
Quotations
Last words
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English

None

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 parents' 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.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (4)
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3 1
3.5
4 6
4.5
5 1

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 205,412,748 books! | Top bar: Always visible