The Doors
To Come of Age | When the Music’s Over | Riders on the Storm | Hyacinth House | Love Street
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FROM ‘MARA, MARIETTA’
Part Three Chapter 11
̶ What does it mean, ‘mooch’?
I take you in my arms and kiss you.
̶̶ That’s what ‘smooch’ means: to kiss.
̶ I know. But what does ‘mooch’ mean?
̶ To mooch is to cadge, to borrow and not pay back. That’s one meaning. Another is to loiter around, to walk aimlessly. And a third meaning is: to steal.
̶ I see.
̶ It’s also a dance from the twenties, when the piece was composed.
̶ Very sexy, I imagine, very slinky.
You rub your body against mine.
̶̶ Yeah. Spades dance best, from the hip.
̶ Now what does that mean?
̶ That’s from Jim Morrison, An American Prayer.
̶ The Doors!
̶ Of course.
̶ But what does it mean, ‘Spades dance best, from the hip’?
Very sexy, very slinky, you rub your body against mine.
̶̶ ‘Spades’ is the suit of cards.
̶ Black. I get it. And I’ve also got this!
You hold up my wallet in your hand.
̶̶ Hey, how’d you get that?
̶ Easy, I mooched it!
Photo: Joel Brodsky
TO COME OF AGE
A military station in the desert.
Can we resolve the past,
Lurking jaws, joints of time?
The Base.
To come of age in a dry place.
Holes and caves.
My friend drove and hour each day from the mountains.
The bus gives you a hard-on with books in your lap.
Someone shot the bird in the afternoon dance show.
They gave out free records to the best couple.
Spades dance best, from the hip.
FROM ‘MARA, MARIETTA’
Part Four Chapter 8
In the Roncesvalles streetcar, a young man with green eyes and raven locks flips through André Kertész’ On Reading. Suddenly a passenger cartwheels to a handstand; coins fall out of his pockets and roll down the aisle. The man who’d been flipping through the volume of photos shifts his gaze to the faces of the onlookers, framing them as photographs: beguiled, embarrassed, afraid. As the streetcar comes to a stop the handwalker drops his legs and springs to his feet. His eyes are bloodshot; on his face, a faraway grin. Giving the man with bloodshot eyes the coins he’s picked up, the young man comes face to face with a young woman who’d come to do the same. At the Dundas West terminus they get out of the streetcar together.
̶ They say he just got out of 999 Queen Street, she says.
̶ Ah! Cancel my subscription to the resurrection!
̶ Send my credentials to the house of detention!
̶ I got some friends inside! they say together.
Laughing, they rejoice in their shared love for Jim Morrison. Her stunning beauty— jet black hair, blue, blue eyes, milk-white skin—is spoiled by her teeth: Some of them are rotten.
̶ Except it’s a loony bin, not a jail, he says.
̶ I’ve got friends in both! she laughs.
She heads east, he west; they say goodbye.
Photo: Guy Webster
WHEN THE MUSIC’S OVER
When the music’s over
Turn out the lights
When the music is your special friend
Dance on fire as it intends
Music is your only friend
Until the end
Cancel my subscription to the resurrection
Send my credentials to the house of detention
I got some friends inside
The face in the mirror won’t stop
The girl in the window won’t drop
A feast of friends,
Alive! she cried
Waiting for me outside
Before I sink into the big sleep
I want to hear, I want to hear
The scream of the butterfly
Come back, baby
Back into my arms
We’re getting tired of hanging around
Waiting around
With our heads to the ground
I hear a very gentle sound
Very near yet very far
Very soft yet very clear
Come today, come today
What have they done to the earth?
What have they done to our fair sister?
Ravaged and plundered
And ripped her and bit her
Stuck her with knives
In the side of the dawn
And tied her with fences
And dragged her down
I hear a very gentle sound
With your ear down to the ground
We want the world and we want it
We want the world and we want it—now
Now? Now!
Persian night, babe
See the light, babe
Save us, save us, save us
So when the music’s over
When the music’s over, yeah
When the music’s over
Turn out the lights
Turn out the lights
Turn out the lights
When the music is your special friend
Dance on fire as it intends
Music is your only friend
Until the end
Until the end
Until the end
Photo: Joel Brodsky
FROM ‘MARA, MARIETTA’
Part Five Chapter 7
Her name was Valeria. Your father took to her, and encouraged your friendship. She liked Neuchâtel, but she was a big-city girl: Soon you began meeting in Geneva, and over the next nine months you were thick as thieves. In the quartier chic of Champel, on the fourteenth floor of the Cité Universitaire, you’d meet her in her student digs, overlooking the Arve river and the Salève. In her room you discovered her world. Look! Jim Morrison, beaded necklace on bare chest, staring through the doors of perception. You were struck by his Samson mane and Cupid mouth, the power of his masculine beauty … One rainy day she played you The Doors, casting Chinese shadows on the wall to ‘Riders on the Storm’; you quickly got the knack of it, and together to ‘Hyacinth House’ you improvised a shadow-play.
RIDERS ON THE STORM
Riders on the storm
Riders on the storm
Into this house we’re born
Into this world we’re thrown
Like a dog without a bone
An actor out on loan
Riders on the storm
There’s a killer on the road
His brain is squirming like a toad
Take a long holiday
Let your children play
If you give this man a ride
Sweet memory will die
Killer on the road
Girl, you gotta love your man
Girl, you gotta love your man
Take him by the hand
Make him understand
The world on you depends
Our life will never end
Gotta love your man
Riders on the storm
Riders on the storm
Into this house we’re born
Into this world we’re thrown
Like a dog without a bone
An actor out on loan
Riders on the storm…
Photo: Art Kane
HYACINTH HOUSE
What are they doing in the Hyacinth house?
What are they doing in the Hyacinth House?
To please the lions, yeah, this day
I need a brand new friend who doesn’t bother me
I need a brand new friend who doesn’t trouble me
I need someone, yeah, who doesn’t need me
I see the bathroom is clear, I think that somebody’s near
I’m sure that someone is following me, oh yeah
Why did you throw the jack of hearts away?
Why did you throw the jack of hearts away?
It was the only card in the deck that I had left to play
And I’ll say it again, I need a brand new friend
And I’ll say it again, I need a brand new friend
And I’ll say it again, I need a brand new friend, the end
FROM ‘MARA, MARIETTA’
Part Ten Chapter 7
She lives on Love Street, lingers long on Love Street: It’s not Laurel Canyon, but it is a canyon: As we walk along the edge of the cliff, overlooking the river that runs through the forest of larch, pine, and birch, The Doors’ sprightly ballad is on my mind. She has a house and garden: Why does it haunt me so, this crazy dream of domesticity with you?
Photo: Art Kane
LOVE STREET
She lives on Love Street
Lingers long on Love Street
She has a house and garden
I would like to see what happens
She has robes and she has monkeys
Lazy diamond-studded flunkies
She has wisdom and knows what to do
She has me and she has you
She has wisdom and knows what to do
She has me and she has you
I see you live on Love Street
There’s this store where the creatures meet
I wonder what they do in there
Summer Sunday and a year
I guess I like it fine, so far
She lives on Love Street
Lingers long on Love Street
She has a house and garden
I would like to see what happens