Robbie Krieger Set the Night on Fire:

Lynn (Robbie's wife) and I stopped into a sketchy exotic pet shop near the airport. It was full of huge snakes, colorful birds, and even a couple of monkeys, and we came home with a pet bobcat. Lynn named her Poppy, after the flower, and she was adorable at first.

We couldn’t trust Poppy around guests, so we fenced in our patio and kept her outside when people came over. She would pace back and forth and scowl through the window, conspiring to rip the intruders’ faces off.

Poppy’s memory lives on in the song "Hyacinth House." I have heard so many elaborate interpretations of that song, invoking everything from the Greek myth of Hyacinthus to Oscar Wilde’s pet term for his lovers to the Miami Incident to heroin addiction to Jim’s ex-girlfriend Mary.

But it was really just a lyrical portrait of one particular night at my house in Benedict Canyon. Jim, John, and some other friends had come over to the house for dinner. I was fiddling around on my guitar and recording it on my Revox two-track tape recorder to see if we could capture anything interesting.

In about ten minutes Jim had written the words, and in another ten minutes I had written most of the music. The title and first line came from the red hyacinths growing on the hillside in our backyard, visible through the bay window in our living room.

Jim wrote the line "to please the lions" while watching Poppy pace on the patio.

The line "I see the bathroom is clear" was inspired by Babe (Jim's bodyguard/drinking buddy) walking out of the bathroom after occupying it for an embarrassingly long period of time.

"Why did you throw the jack of hearts away?" was a reference to a card game we were playing.

The only line I can’t definitively trace to a source is "I need a brand-new friend." It might be worth noting, though, that the song was written on the same night that Jim took his final (and unsuccessful) shot at starting things back up with Lynn. (Jim originally dated Lynn, Robbie's wife before Robbie). He was having trouble with Pam at the time. Maybe Lynn was supposed to be his "new friend," or maybe he needed a new friend after Lynn’s rejection. But I’m just speculating.

Set the Night on Fire

Densmore, John. Riders on the Storm: My Life with Jim Morrison and the Doors:

"Do you know what ‘Hyacinth House’ means, Ray?" I asked while Jim was gone.

"Nope, but I see the bathroom is clear."

"Yeah, that’s a funny line. It’s almost pathetic in its paranoia. I love the feel, though. Folk rock is fun for me to play on drums … as a change of pace. It’s loping and technically easy."

What are they doing in the Hyacinth House?

To please the lions this day?

I need a brand new friend who doesn’t bother me.

I need someone who, who doesn’t need me.

I see the bathroom is clear,

I think somebody’s near.

I’m sure that someone is following me, oh yeah.

Why did you throw the Jack of Hearts away?

It was the only card in the deck that I had left to play.

And I’ll say it again,

I need a brand new friend.

Edith Hamilton’s book on Greek mythology illuminated the Hyacinth myth for me. She helped me realize that Jim’s song, “Hyacinth House,” was possibly the saddest one he ever wrote.

Hamilton wrote: Another flower that came into being through the death of a beautiful youth was the hyacinth. The festival of Hyacinths That lasts throughout the tranquil night. In a contest with Apollo He was slain. Discus throwing they competed, And the god’s swift cast Sped beyond the goal he aimed at and struck Hyacinthus full in the forehead a terrible wound. He had been Apollo’s dearest companion. There was no rivalry between them when they tried which could throw the discus the farthest; they were only playing a game.

The god was horror struck to see the blood gush forth and the lad, deathly pale fall to the ground. He turned as pale himself as he caught him in his arms and tried to stanch the wound. But it was too late. While he held him the boy’s head fell back as a flower does when its stem is broken. He was dead and Apollo kneeling beside him wept for him, dying so young, so beautiful. He had killed him, although through no fault of his, and he cried, "Oh, if I could give my life for yours or die for you …"

Even as he spoke, the bloodstained grass turned green again and there bloomed forth the wondrous flower that would make the lad’s name known forever. This passage is a very synchronistic metaphor for our band. Ray, who had "discovered" Jim, always refers to himself as an Apollonian. There was no rivalry between us when we wrote and arranged our songs; hence, we split the publishing. Jim forgot that life is a game, and self-destructed at a young age, although not so beautiful anymore. The Doors had killed him, through no fault of the band members, and Ray, sacrificing our individuality, never misses an opportunity to promote Jim. Our songs (flowers) have bloomed with wondrous longevity.

Riders on the Storm