Lyrics to
The Hitchhiker

This version of The Hitchhiker was released by The Doors in 1978.

Our Decade Lyrics The Doors profile has all of the The Hitchhiker lyrics from 1978 and many more songs from the The Doors discography that we have on file.

Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to The Doors or about the 1970s in general.

Thoughts in time and out of season
The Hitchhiker
Stood by the side of the road
And leveled his thumb
In the calm calculus of reason

Hi. How you doin’? I just got back into town L.A.
I was out on the desert for awhile

“Riders on the storm”

Yeah. In the middle of it

“Riders on the storm”

Right…

“Into this world we’re born”

Hey, listen, man, I really got a problem

“Into this world we’re thrown”

When I was out on the desert, ya know

“Like a dog without a bone
An actor out on loan”

I don’t know how to tell you

“Riders on the storm”

But, ah, I killed somebody

“There’s a killer on the road”

No…

“His brain is squirming like a toad”

It’s no big deal, ya know
I don’t think anybody will find out about it, but…

” take a long holiday”

Just, ah…

“Let your children play”
This guy gave me a ride, and ah…

“If you give this man a ride”

Started giving me a lot of trouble

“Sweet family will die”

And I just couldn’t take it, ya know

“Killer on the road”

And I wasted him

Yeah

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The Doors has released many songs over the years besides The Hitchhiker. The Doors released songs from 1967 to 1978 spanning across albums like The Doors, Strange Days, Waiting For The Sun, The Soft Parade, Morrison Hotel, L.A. Woman, Other Voices, Full Circle, and An American Prayer. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by The Doors.

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About Lyrics and The Hitchhiker by The Doors

When you decide to study the lyrics to The Hitchhiker, you're looking at the words, verses and background chorus from the 1978 song by The Doors. Some of the lyrics to The Hitchhiker have clear meanings and some contain metaphorical references. Like most songs, only The Doors and their collaborators know the full story behind any of the their songs.

You can understand the lyrics to The Hitchhiker if you take apart the structure of the words. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to The Hitchhiker" means the words set to the music of The Hitchhiker, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by The Doors. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to The Hitchhiker and the lyrics to The Hitchhiker are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of The Doors who came here looking just for the lyrics to The Hitchhiker, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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