Old Stone Road

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

Old Stone Road is a mighty fine road
You're not burdened with a heavy load.. alright

met my wife on an old stone road
got your silver baby got your gold.. alright

shot my friend on an old stone road
stone road yeah it's mighty cold ..alright

lost my girl on an old stone road
the little woman....she couldn't....keep....she couldn't....cold

Old Stone Road is a mighty fine road
You're not burdened with a heavy load.. alright

you got your silver and you got your gold
if you lose your woman you can lose your soul....right

on an Old Stone Road well it's a mighty fine road
If you're not burdened with a heavy load..

This is a very interesting one.
Jim improvised this during Back Door Man at the Bakersfield concert in August 1970.

Perhaps Jim making a statement about the way his life has gone over the last couple of years and his disillusionment with The Doors.
The reason I say that is the next night in San Diego he did something similar by introducing the show with one of his most powerful stage pronouncement.
"the whole thing started with rock and roll. Now it's out of control."
Which to me says exactly that. Jim Morrison was making a statement about himself and The Doors.
It was no surprise that the band only played 3 very mediocre gigs after that and then never played with Morrison again.

The Old Stone road a metaphor for The Doors.
A mighty fine road indeed....as long as you were not like Morrison burdened with a heavy load.
The last line say's just that.

The Doors had their silver and their gold but had lost their soul to greed and expectation.
Jim Morrison did not want to be part of either.

It's just conjecture but 'lose your woman' may not refer to Pam or any girlfriend but may be harking back unconsciously to his rooftop days and the poem.
"At night the moon became
a woman's face.
I met the Spirit of Music."
So maybe the woman he lost was a metaphor for the art of The Doors.
Probably clinging on with my fingertips with that one but it is an interpretation and Morrison was a lot deeper than some of the superficial interpretations people give to his words.
But by that time the drink was winning so it's probably a girlfriend thing.


Listen to: The Doors-Old Stone Road

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

Very similar in theme to 'Who Scared You' and 'Universal Mind'.
It seems that Jim was making several statements at live shows to allude to his lot as The Lizard King, lead singer of The Doors and human juke box.
He had laughed about this on New years Eve 1965 when he swallowed a quarter to joke about his role as just that at a party The Doors played.
Now it had become a reality with audiences expecting LMF and not interested so much in new material.
The more success came, the more expectation, the heavier the load.
There are many Doors fans that deny that Jim Morrison left The Doors in 1971 before he left for Europe.
The Doors themselves refuse to accept that he was not coming back to play with them.
But his performances in concert tell a different tale and songs like this give the listener an understanding of the mood of Jim Morrison in 1970/71 as far as his relationship with the band is concerned.

[jym]

Whenever Jim used that carrying a heavy load line it was always linked to gold and silver.

I think your interpretation of the last line is spot on, nothing as simple as losing a girlfriend, at least not in this context.

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

I think so Jim. Morrison seemed to be deliberately making these statements and it has to be placed alongside the rift that occurred between 1968 and 1970.
For me he is setting himself up to remove himself from The Doors equation.
I don't think he expected it to be quite the way it worked out but the events of March 1971 show that this is probably the case.
By then the distrust was palpable as the other Doors wanted to handcuff Jim to prevent him walking off with the name.
hence the March 1971 contract amendment that did just that.