In Riders On The Storm, is it "actor out on loan" or "actor out alone"?

An actor out on loan.

I agree.

I concur.

Like a dog without a bone, An actor out alone. Riders on the storm.

http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=273

@seazen I saw that exact website but didn’t see reference to the actor part of the question. Did you @seazen ? I liked the site and the info though.

I binged and it was the first one.

I googled it, and found sites that had both.
I think it is out alone, but I can’t get to my sheet music till my wife gets off the couch.

“Out on loan”. Go to youtube and watch & listen to different versions of it, some with lyrics provided—the ones I saw all said “out on loan”. That’s how I’ve always heard it, tho I don’t know what “actor out on loan” means.

I was told by one who should know that “actor out on loan” refers to actors who are placed on contract for backup roles in movies, but who could be “loaned out” for other projects provided it didn’t interfere with their primary contract.

I’ve always thought actor out on loan.

It’s really bizarre to be crusiin’ Fluther and read this question at the exact moment the line is sung from my iTunes. 0.o

Anyway, I never thought about it and now listening over and over it still sounds like actor out alone to me.

Actor out alone really makes no sense, in that it’s not a traditional phrase with metaphorical meaning.
Actor out on loan does, however have a meaning, so I’m going with that.
Hold on a minute while I ask Jim…

You don’t have to ask Jim breedmitch. Just read John Densmore’s autobiography “Riders on the Storm”. He writes the lyrics in the book as “actor out on loan”. As he’s an ex band member, this is the definitive answer.

“Actor out on loan” is correct.

“An Actor out on loan” is a metaphor for powerlessness. It’s an old theater and movie term, dating back to the days of the studio system, when many contract actors had no control over their own careers, and studio officials could hire them out at a whim to other studios for parts that could be destructive of their own careers. The first thing an actor did when he was in sufficent demand to dictate his own terms was to eliminate that clause in their contracts with the studios.

According to TV closed captioning, it’s an actor out on loan.

I remember reading the lyrics for this song in a syndicated column the local newspaper when the song came out in 1971 (about 45 years ago as I write this) I was starting 11th grade, and I was 15.

The story explained that it was “actor out on loan” and it explained the meaning of the term, which is somewhat literal, I believe. But I’ve never heard anyone use the term in real life.

I didn’t understand the metaphors then, but this is The Doors and they were stoned or drug-addled, I guess. No need to overthink it (it’s vague and it’s not Shakespeare) but…

“Dog without a bone”...maybe it means he has no purpose or job and could be happier than he is. Or maybe it’s a play on “like a dog with a bone” (relentless). Or maybe it’s like a puppy that has no chew-toy and starts being destructive and chewing on furniture.

I’m not sure now of the meaning of “actor out on loan”, but I think it means the actor isn’t wanted for a good role, and is being shunted aside to work in some crummy role, perhaps as an extra, somewhere else, for another production company. Maybe this is why he’s on the road: he’s hitchhiking to a movie set. (I tend to take things literally, except for the squirming toad part.)

Being an actor out on loan is apparently not a good thing, but I could make an argument that it’s better than not working at all.

It’s great music, though: the rain sound effects, the sense and rhythm of driving down the road, Jim Morrison’s vocals, the harp-like sound of the keyboards…

There was another group, Kraftwerk, that made a somewhat longish tune called “Autobahn” (the German word for their high-speed expressway) a few years later, but it’s an entirely different mood and genre, more electronic, that possibly foreshadowed the Europop of the early ‘80’s.

Sorry for the digression; I prefer Riders on the Storm. It’s kind of like comparing apples and oranges. But I’m old now, you know, so I ramble.

an actor out on loan…..as in being a mouth-piece for the commercial or the fad or pop culture or a tool of the government, perhaps. A dog without a bone before that then makes perfect sense in my mind. If nothing else this actor may have fight of ravenous dog in him but never getting to sink his teeth into anything meaty or with substance.

I used to think it was An actor out alone

i actually like this and believe it works just as well. An actor goes out there and if he is to be marvelous or even worth his salt he must be naked to the soul, exposed to the core. Vulnerable beyond belief. He must be his most private self in the most public of places. In front of the whole world

Jim may have thought about acting. he sure studied the subject. I believe he was in a directing class, yes?

I have the original transcript of “Riders on the Storm,” and the lyrics written are, “Actor out on loan.” And if you listen closely to the song itself, that is in fact what Morrison sings.