Chords for Robby Krieger on the Origin of "Peace Frog" & "Light My Fire" | Reverb Song Stories

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_ [G] _ [C] _ _ _ _ _ _
[Am] _ [G] _ _ _ [A] _ _ [C] _ _
[Am] _ [Em] _ Before I played the electric, I [Abm]
was playing [G] flamenco guitar, so I didn't really have a desire [A] to even have an electric guitar.
[Ab] But then I saw [B] Chuck Berry play one night, [Abm] and this is when he was really good, [Em] you know, back in _ 64, something like that.
And that _ [Ab] just really turned me on to rock and roll.
[G] A year or two later, I went down to the [E] pawn shop, [G] Ace Loans in Santa [F] Monica,
[E] and they had a_
and Chuck Berry was playing this red [Am] guitar, and I said, wow, that's just like Chuck Berry's, [G] even though it wasn't.
And [B] he was playing a 335, _ but I thought it looked like it, so [E] I got it for 180 bucks, _ _ and that was my first [Bm] _
electric guitar.
[G] And it was the cheapest one they [A] had, so that [G] helped, you know.
I got it stolen, so it was [A] right after [Bm] the first record, somebody [B] mispriced it or [Am] something, you know.
[Abm] But I just got another [C] one.
In [B] those days, there were no [Am] collectible guitars, you [E] know.
If you had an SG, it was the same as somebody else's [G] SG, because they [E] were all good [Bm] years at that [G] time.
This is, I think, a 67.
_ The original was a [Ab]
[Db] 66.
_ _ [Em] For recording-wise, it was _ an SG and a twin reverb. _
That was pretty much it.
At one point, I got a Gibson Maestro _ _ _ _ distortion pedal.
[E] _ I think [Abm] that wasn't until the [A] second album, though. _
_ [E] So in the first album, it was just straight in to a twin reverb.
And [Em] they had a great echo chamber at Sunset Sound, so, [B] you know, a real live echo chamber. _
[G] So that helped.
_ But you can't take that [A] around on stage.
_ [Em] _ _ Peace [E] _
_ _ _ _ _ [Gm] _ _ [C] _
_ [Gm] _ _ _ [C] _ _ [Gm] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [C] _ [Gm] _ _ _ _
_ Frog, [F] actually, I had [B] some ideas for the [Gm] music of it.
You know, this part, this_
[G] _
_ It _ _ _ _ _ was just a G chord, basically.
And [E] then the other _ _ _ [Em] chord_ _
_ _ [Bm] _ _ _ [A] _ _
[Abm] And that part.
But I didn't have any words, so I [C] took it to Jim, and [G] he couldn't [E] figure out any words either for it.
_ [Abm] So we looked through his [G] poetry book, _ and we found a [E] poem called Abortion [B]
Stories.
It had some cool stuff in it, you know.
And [Bb] he said, oh, I think I can make this [E] work, you know.
_ [Em] And so we [E] actually recorded [G] the music in the studio _ first.
And then _ he went to work on the poetry book and _ made this poem [E] work. _
[G] If you listen to the words, it's [Ab] about [C] abortions.
[G] You know, blood in the streets.
It's a little overkill, maybe.
_ But I [Gm] think he felt bad about a [E] girlfriend he had, [G] and that they had to do an abortion.
It [Bm] must have been in Chicago, too, so that's [N] another reason why I want to play this song tonight, because we're in [G] Chicago.
_ [Ab] And then there's that little chorus [Bb] that goes, she came too _ [B] _
_ _ [Ab] hard, I guess.
[Am] Come on!
[A] _
[G] Move [C] it!
Come on!
_ _ _ [A] _
_ [G] _ _ [A] _ _ _ _ _
_ [G] _ _ [F] _ _ [C] _ [D] _
[B] You know, I've written a number [E] of the songs that _ probably Jim gets [C] credit for.
And you know what?
We always said, written by [G] the doors.
You know, Jim really didn't want to be [Em] known as the writer, but people just supposed he would be.
That was the first one I wrote, _ because up until then, Jim was writing the songs.
_ But [N] we realized we didn't have enough _ [G] originals, so Jim says, why don't you guys write some?
Why do I have [B] to do all the work, you know?
[E] And so I said, okay, well, what should I write about?
[Em] And he goes, write about something universal, something like that will last, [A] you know, something not just about [C] today.
So [G] I decided I'd write about earth, air, [B] fire, or water.
[G] And I picked fire because I always liked the song by the Stones, Play With Fire.
I don't know where I came up with light my fire, [Bm] but up until [E] that point, nobody had ever said those three words, you know, light my fire. _
So I kind of coined that phrase, [B] I guess.
I [G] sort of wanted, I wanted it to be like a [E] folk rock kind of song, you know?
To me, those chords were kind of folk rock.
But what I really decided was, _ okay, I'm going to make this song.
[B] I'm going to put every chord I [E] know into this song and see what happens, you know,
because most rock and roll songs are [G] like three chords at that [Abm] time, you know?
_ So I [E] came up with that [G] intro part, which uses all the [B] sharps and flats, _ because nobody ever used those in rock and roll.
[G] So those poor chords, man, nobody ever uses them, you know?
So I said, [E] okay, I'll do A [G] flat, E flat, [N] B flat.
_ [B] And [Em] that's how I came up [E] with the intro.
You know, it [G] goes _ _ [D] _ _ [Bb] F, _ B [Eb] flat, E [Abm] flat, A [E] flat, A.
[A] _ [Em] And so that's like how many chords right there?
That's five or six.
And then for the solo, we used [Bm] A minor and B minor.
_ [G] And those are the chords that Coltrane used [B] in My Favorite Things.
So [E] we thought that would be a good solo [G] to solo over.
Yeah, I [B] mean, you know, let's face it, blues is where rock and roll [E] came from.
_ _ But, you know, we all [G] like jazz, you know, and the Doors.
John really was a jazz drummer.
And Ray grew up here in Chicago with the blues.
[E] _ But he also had classical [G] training, [B] which is, you know, how he [G] put that [Bm] on my crazy chords.
He [N] put the Bach thing _ on [Bm] Light My Fire.
[E] And the funny thing about that was it wasn't an [Em] intro at first.
We used to play Light My Fire, just we'd start with the A minor and the [Gb] F sharp.
[Em] And then it was actually Paul [G] Rothschild's idea, who was [B] our producer,
to put [G] the Bach [Abm] crazy chord part [Bm]
at the beginning and at the end. _
[E] When we first started playing the song, it was only in the middle to get out of the solo back to the verse.
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