♫ Touch Me ♫ (Redux)

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, music

I have played this one other time, but it’s been a couple of years ago.  The Doors were never my favourite band, but they had 3-4 that I liked a lot, and this is one such!

Doors guitarist Robby Krieger wrote this song as “Hit Me,” based on fights he had with his girlfriend. They lyric was, “C’mon, hit me, I’m not afraid.” In a rare show of restraint, Jim Morrison insisted on changing it to Touch Me.  At the end of the song, Morrison chants “Stronger than dirt!” The line is from an Ajax commercial popular at the time where a white knight rides around destroying dirt. The last four chords of the song were also lifted from the commercial.the doorsMany critics claimed this was a sellout, as the horn and string sections were not typical of The Doors. The band admitted they were trying to broaden their audience and achieve commercial success with this album, which they did.

The sax part was played by Curtis Amy, who was a popular session horn and flute player who got his biggest exposure playing on Carole King’s famous Tapestry album. Jim Morrison remarked that the song was the first rock hit with a jazz solo.jim morrisonSomething that was news to me when I was researching this song tonight … this song was popular around the time Jim Morrison was arrested in Miami for indecent exposure. The song had nothing to do with Morrison’s arrest, apart from an unfortunate title, but some radio stations refused to play it as a result. Morrison was convicted and sentenced to six months in jail for the incident, but he died while the case was being appealed. In 2010, the governor of Florida pardoned Morrison, believing that the conviction was politically motivated and that no conclusive evidence showed that the Doors frontman exposed himself.

Touch Me
The Doors

Yeah!
Come on, come on, come on, come on
Now touch me, baby
Can’t you see that I am not afraid?
What was that promise that you made?
Why won’t you tell me what she said?
What was that promise that you made?

Now, I’m gonna love you
‘Till the heavens stop the rain
I’m gonna love you
‘Till the stars fall from the sky
For you and I

Come on, come on, come on, come on
Now touch me, baby
Can’t you see that I am not afraid?
What was that promise that you made?
Why won’t you tell me what she said?
What was that promise that you made?

I’m gonna love you
‘Till the heaven stop the rain
I’m gonna love you
‘Till the stars fall from the sky
For you and I
I’m gonna love you
‘Till the heavens stop the rain
I’m gonna love you
‘Till the stars fall from the sky
For you and I

Written By Robby Krieger

64 thoughts on “♫ Touch Me ♫ (Redux)”

  1. Odd that. I had ‘Light My Fire’ & ‘Unknown Soldier ‘ as singles and ‘Riders on The Storm’ on tape. But never cared for the band. I think it was Morrison as a person that put me off.
    Oh well…..People Are Strange

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  4. Pingback: TOUCH ME. ( REDUX ). |jilldennison.com | Ramblings of an Occupy Liberal

  7. Coincidence. Did I not use the word coincidence just yesterday, or was it the day before, regarding Paul Revere and the Raiders, Just Like Me. Today i was having a discussion with a music writer about similarities between The Doors and a Canadian band playing down in Los Angeles in the 60s, a group called The Collectors (whose music you did not like either, by the way.) Anyways, we were discussing that both groups recorded their first albums in 1967, and both albums had a whole side devoted to just one song: The End, for athe Doors; What Love (Suite) by the Collectors. To the best of my knowledge no other band had done that yet, not just one song on one whole side. Was that coincidence. Or did they learn from each other? But then you mentioned above about the sax solo in this song. The Collectors used a lot of sax in their music, as well as recorders, and other wind instruments. Is it possible these bands influenced each other in other ways. Morrison’s statement about the “first jazz solo” may or may not be correct, but it was certainly not the first sax solo on a rock record. I am not saying it was a first, but The Collectors used a number of solos in their work, in particular sax and recorder. Maybe Jim remembered them, and found a place for a sax solo on Touch Me.
    Anyways, both of us talking about the same bands on the same days. Twice. This is getting weird… Woòòooooooooooooooooooooooooo…

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    • Indeed, there seem to be a lot of those coincidences of late, especially between mine and yours minds! It’s almost scary! I suspect that bands do pick up the influences of other artists much the way that a New Yorker spending a summer in the deep south will have a bit of a southern drawl by the end of summer. Yep, twice now … if there’s a third, I’m hiding!

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      • So don’t tell me when you are doing your next few music posts. Oh, you never tell me, you just pist them. Until then there are no coincidences, just two people going on about their own business as usual.
        But, the coincidences don’t scare me, they intrigue me. I think a third one would say there is definitely more going on here than we can dream of in our worlds, Horatio.
        So, if I start a comment with Horatio, rather than Jill, you sjould be prepared. LuL.

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        • I shan’t tell you, but this could be fun … me playing “Stump rawgod”! No, they don’t really scare me, either … just yet another sign that ‘Great minds think alike’ … but only sometimes! I shall be looking for Horatio!

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          • Guess who! But, the song I listened to on my own today you will never play. Ever! You are too young to know it, even though it hit No. ! in 1956. (And so did a lot of other songs.) I’ll even give you 3 guesses, but the first two don’t count, lol!

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                  • I was 6 years old, with 8 older brothers and sisters, who kept all kinds of mudic blasting on radios inside and outside my house. I don’t have a timeline, but I can bet, if Elvis’s first songs had been released by this time, all three sisters were swooning for him. My brothers, ranging from 5 to 12 years older than me, each had their own favourite singer or style, so I had lots of things to choose between.
                    I just looked up the no.1 hits of ’56 and there were 4 lists. The song I was listening to appeared on only 2 of them.
                    Meanwhile, 1956 was obviously a good year for me. Just looking at thentop hirs of the year bring back so many tears it is like opening a door to the past. The year started with Sixteen Tons and progressed from there. Yes, Elvis did dominate, but no doubt, no matter how low you went on the charts, there were great songs to listen to the whole year through.
                    And now I need to look back to 1955 to see if I was as musically aware then as I was in 1956. What a fabulous year.
                    Game on!

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                    • I had no idea you came from such a large family!!! In 1956, I was 5 and not yet interested much in music … I was still probably singing “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” or something similar. I was already interested in politics and history, but music came a bit later.

                      Well, I couldn’t find a site with 4 charts, but I’m gonna take a wild guess. Either Doris Day’s “Que Sera Sera”, or “The Great Pretender” by The Platters. Or … Fats Domino’s “Blueberry Hill”. Am I even close?

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                    • Sorry. Not close. I hid three honest hints in my story, one obvious, two sneaky ones. And a few misdirections for fun. It is possible you found the wrong site though. Were the categories Best Sellers in Stores, Most Played by Jockeys, Most Played in Juke Boxes, and Top 100, as compiled by Billboard?
                      There were only four records that satisfied the obvious hint, so that cut the field down tremendously. And you know now it wasn’t an Elvis song, so that cuts it even further. But the hidden clues, if you can find them, leave only one possibility. Good luck.
                      Just by-the-bye, I also had a younger brother, a late arrival who was born with Down Syndrome. My mother was 47 whren she had him. He was the first ofbthe kids to die, though he lasted much longer than the doctors predicted.
                      10 in all. My poor mother.

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    • Just had to drop this in about one-side tracks…. Love’s album Da Capo (1966) had one side given over to ‘Revelation’. Love fans are divided along the lines of ‘Genius’ and ‘Rubbish’ after that the conversation goes downhill. I subscribe to the latter view.
      Ok, I’m done talkin’ .

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      • Love’s album was a poor seller in Winnipeg, and was removed from thenslelves of music stores after less than a week, the first time around. I never heard it. I will have to check it out. Thanks, Roger.

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      • Hey, Roger,
        I do not want to sound like an elitist or a purist, but Revelation is what it is, an extended jam session, everyond doing their own thing within certain boundaries. I don’t thing it is meant to be repeated night after night, note for note, word for word. As a jam it works. As a structured, repeatable, lyricized song it leaves a lot to be desired.
        What Love (Suite) and The End are musical compositions complete with regular lyrics. They were done on stage, likely nightly at that time, completely repeatable, every note and every word in its place. I will definitely grant Love recorded a long piece of music on one side of an album before the others, as may other bands have done and we just don’t know about them, particularly on live albums. But The End was the first intentional long song I ever heard in the rock era, and What Love (Suite) came right on its heels, too well structured to be able to be said it was a copy-cat recording. Both those songs had to be practised for months in advance of recording, I think. Especially The Collectors song, which is musically more intricate than The Doors effort. In my opinion.

        And now I will shut up. No one really cares anymore, except old timers like you and I, and some of our friends.

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        • I agree with your principals there rawgod, but I argue the point from a fan of the band.
          The first album was a band trying to find its way, working through rock, garage, maybe folk and permutations, all wrapped up in 3.30 (max) songs. Exciting and a taste of things to come.
          Side one of Da Capo was a bright exhilarating journey into the borders of jazz, fused with pop, and possibly in invention of metal (or so Arthur Lee claimed- he would).
          Side two was as you said it was, but shoving out who knows how many promising songs, so a band could do what should be done on stage.
          I’ve respect for bands who put together an extended piece with care and foresight. (I’m a big fan of In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, and the dutch band Golden Earring did a captivating 18mins version of 8 miles high).
          I’d pay to go and see Love do ‘Revalations’ on stage as a performance. I didn’t care for it taking up an album side. (John Echols in an interview years later said they ‘shouldn’t have do it)
          Now I’ll shut.

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          • Hmmmm. I did not listen to Side One, because I was cramped for time. (Listened to Side Two while cleaning cat boxes. Monday is cat box day.) I only know Love’s work from a couple of singles (which I cannot even remember right now. Little Red Book?) They were okay. I have nothing against jams, I have heard some great jams in my time. I just don’t appreciate them so much on vinyl. I like them live, and impromptu. In my mind a jam should never be played the same way twice. I was not trying to be mean to Love, I just never got into them. But I got into other bands that few people have ever heard of. Fever Tree for one example. I heard them in person first, and they jammed for two hours. Songs from their album lasted 10-15 minutes. I was surprised when I bought their debut album, (which I had to special order, the record store owner had never heard of them!) and their songs were barely two minutes long at times. But having heard their jams, those short tracks took me back to their concert. Those boys could play!
            Anyways, enjoy Love. If I have time I will try to play the whole album.Never too lare to discover something “new” to listen to.

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  8. I liked The Doors, but this wasn’t one of my favourites of theirs. I can think of at least half a dozen I preferred to this, and that is without even counting their masterpiece, Riders On The Storm!

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