Robby Krieger
Electric Guitar Solo on
Moonlight Drive

About

Robby Krieger's electric guitar solo is the sole improvisation on "Moonlight Drive" from The Doors' 1967 album Strange Days. Krieger takes one chorus of blues in A at a medium 114 BPM with a rock feel, soloing over this song of special significance in Doors mythology—it was one of the first songs Jim Morrison shared with Ray Manzarek, the performance that inspired them to form a band. The 12-bar blues form provides a structured foundation for Krieger's slide guitar work, which matches the song's shimmering, aquatic atmosphere created by the combination of Morrison's lyrics about moonlit water and the band's psychedelic arrangement.

Robby Krieger was 20 to 21 years old at the time.