Set the Night on Fire: Living, Dying, and Playing Guitar With the Doors
by Robby Krieger, with Jeff Alulis
(Little, Brown and Company)

When it comes to great rock guitarists and songwriters, I instantly think of Robby Krieger. And finally we get the ex-Doors six-string master and songwriter’s bio, Set the Night on Fire: Living, Dying, and Playing Guitar With the Doors.

There are many books one can grab to learn something (even inaccuracies) about the legendary L.A. band and its sexy and tragic lead singer, Jim Morrison. Here we get the story from Krieger, warts, failing memory, his opinion, as he admits to it all. The music is the driving force, as the plain-spoken Krieger makes plain, as was the friendship the four members of the band managed, in the middle of the wild times that they created, along with some of the most iconic rock music ever made.

I loved learning about the band as much as I did Krieger’s life (and what a life it has been, beyond his Doors’ years). As a guitarist myself, I loved learning this man’s thoughts on his playing and approach to music making and songwriting, considering as I always have, that Krieger might just be the best American rock guitarist ever. And in an especially delicious section of the book, he manages a point by point counter to what was seen in the Oliver Stone movie of the band and other rumors, setting them right.

I devoured Set the Night on Fire: Living, Dying, and Playing Guitar With the Doors. But I don’t think you need to be a Doors listener, a Krieger fan or even really all that much into rock and roll to enjoy this chronicle of a creative man’s history and his thoughts about life.