Five Good Covers: The Doors’ ‘Light My Fire’

Five Good Covers presents five cross-genre reinterpretations of an oft-covered song.

Just what is is about the songs of the ’60s that gives them such legs? Are they that amazingly good? Did they appear on enough soundtracks that they embedded themselves in my brainpan? Or is that just my fantasy, born out of a familiarity as long as the life of the songs?

“Light My Fire.” Perfect example. The song started life in L.A.s proto-underground, written and performed by the Doors, one of many groups plying their trade on the strip at the bars, seedy and otherwise, dotted along its trajectory. Jak Holzman, president of Elektra Records (they’d signed the Doors’ friendly rivals Love), liked what he heard enough to give them a contract. Shortly after, they moved to the studio, recording “Light My Fire” and the rest of their debut and eponymous album fifty-eight years ago this week.

Released in April of 1967, in an edit of the full-length version, the “Light My Fire” single spent three weeks at the top of the Billboard chart, getting a further boost when Jose Feliciano delivered the first cover, itself a top-five hit. Over the years, that original version has seen it regularly populate various best-of lists, helping it attain platinum sales by 2018.

Via many of the saccharine cover versions that followed swift behind the Doors’ own rendition, arguably the plight of any perfect song construction, it has been latterly seen as some MOR staple, slipping further and further away from the original menace inherent. Pity. Second Hand Songs shows upwards of 310 versions, and not all of these are weird, cheesy cabaret staples. (You want cheesy? Try Nancy Sinatra, or Shirley Bassey, or the New Jordal Swingers. You want weird? Well, you couldn’t get much weirder than Mae West……) Thankfully, we found five that are not.

Julie Driscoll, Brian Augur & the Trinity – Light My Fire (The Doors cover)

Despite including organ as the main contributing musical foil to the vocals, this version is as far away from the Doors as can be. It replaces the nascent psychedelic of “Light My Fire” with a heritage drawn from blues and jazz. Extending every note and syllable, Julie Driscoll gives a sultry turn, amping up the come-hither. Her then-husband, Brian Augur, giving it the full Hammond, choogling away, while the bass burbles, the drums a constant and precise clatter. It all feels so intrinsically beat club in groovy London, in the atmosphere so effectively mined in the Austin Powers films.

Dread Zeppelin – Light My Fire (The Doors cover)

Ultimately nonsense, but such good nonsense as to pass muster, and much more. With a walking bassline and choppy organ, drawn from jazz supper clubs, a brief bluster of what sounds likes vibes ushers in the characteristic melody. Whereupon it bursts into some of the whitest metal reggae in known to Jah. Elvish vocals then incant the lyrics in a full shaky mode. Disregard the occasional spoken asides, as it blasts into a prolonged guitar wig-out, more vibes and the next verse. This isn’t for serious chin scratching; it’s more an oddity to play at the end of an evening, as antidote to guests wearing out their welcome.

Arrival – Light My Fire (The Doors cover)

Arrival were a real coulda-shoulda of the nascent UK soul scene of the ’60s into ’70s. This version of “Light My Fire” is typical of their sound: a light jazzy touch, warbling flutes and all that, with electric piano to the fore. It all goes a bit deranged towards the end, but the beginning almost forgives that misstep. The three-person front line of Dyan Birch, Frank Collins and Paddy McHugh could pack a powerful swell of sound, if never quite reaching the right audience.

Etta James – Light My Fire (The Doors cover)

Without the lyrics, this could be a totally different song. Most of the great soul and r’n’b queens have taken a stab at the song, but none bleed quite so much as Etta James. With a backbeat narrow and hard to master, the rhythm section kick up a veritable furnace, as Ms. James howls her impassioned plea. The eagle-eared will also note a subtle change of lyric, the original “funeral pyre” becoming, unusually, a “funeral parlor.” I sort of think I know what she’s getting at, if she looses the imagery Jimbo was so clearly seeking. Once heard, never shifted, it is hard to sing ever again the intended line, even in the original version. But, in the end, who cares? Her intentions are perfectly clear, and certainly something’s going to get stoked, whichever way she puts it.

Patricia Barber – Light My Fire (The Doors cover)

Is this a cover of Feliciano’s cover? Many of the dodgy ones are, which must surely frustrate the blind guitarist, his version being actually so innovative. And so good. Be that as it may, Patricia Barber, a jazz chantoozie of no little worth, imbues the song with a smoky sense of dread, threat even. I love the sense of incipient disaster that lurks within the various component parts. The congas and the string bass snake about the basement, as brooding horns simmer, and a steel guitar sends curls of smoke into the sky. The trumpet, as it comes, is almost crowing over the hapless invitee.

Barber started off playing saxophone and piano, winning a Guggenheim Fellowship, for composition, in 2023. As result, she has tended to stick more to her own material or to the standards, with this a relatively rare excursion into anything more contemporary, coming from her 1993 album Modern Cool. (She also does an interesting “Black Magic Woman.”)

Massive Attack – Light My Fire (The Doors cover)

That’s my five, but I am going to sneak in a sixth, uncertain it even counts. This is a live version sounding like an off-the-cuff decision, made by Horace Andy, Massive Attack’s enduring singer, to sing a favorite song as a set closer/encore. The drums slot in out of loyalty, and the rest is made up by extraneous noise, including that of the crowd. It offers little beyond Andy’s endearing warble, but, who knows, maybe, one day, the still-extant Bristol collective will progress this and give it wings to fly. Which would be nice.

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