John Densmore appreciated the new bossa nova craze coming from Brazil at the time, and decided to use it in the song.

Robby Krieger has stated that the guitar riff he played was inspired by the one in Paul Butterfield's version of the song "Shake Your Moneymaker" (originally by blues guitarist Elmore James).

[6] In his autobiography, Ray Manzarek commented that his keyboard part was inspired by Stan Getz and João Gilberto's bossa nova album Getz/Gilberto.

"[11] The bands engineer Bruce Botnick restored the missing "high" for the release of the 1999 box set, The Complete Studio Recordings.

However, Morrison's phraseology cleverly juxtaposes romantic lyrics such as "I found an island in your arms/A country in your eyes" with the almost sinister lines "arms that chain[ed up]/Eyes that lie[d]".