Jim Morrison: Information from Answers.com
As the lead singer and lyricist for the Doors, Jim Morrison is one of the most legendary and influential figures in rock roll history. The disturbing, image-rich poeticism of Morrison's lyrics, perfectly supported by the Doors' swirling, eclectic psychedelic rock, have assured him continuing icon status, while his fondness for theatrical shock tactics and nihilistic angst have influenced countless imitators. Unlike other psychedelic artists, who tended to favor whimsy or mysticism, Morrison saw expansion of consciousness as a way of gaining access to the subconscious mind's dark, unacknowledged desires; his rampaging id dominated his songs with a lust for violence, sex, alcohol, drugs, self-destruction, anything forbidden for any reason by the authority of conservative middle America, and he tried to live out that lifestyle as best he could.
Some of Morrison's work has been criticized -- both during his lifetime and afterward -- as too melodramatic and calculatedly outrageous, but even at his most frustrating, Morrison's ideas have achieved a lasting resonance with newer generations as well as his initial fans, and his best material remains some of the most original and visionary rock music ever recorded.
James Douglas Morrison was born on December 8, 1943, in Melbourne, FL. His father was a rear admiral in the U.
S. Navy, and the family thus moved around a great deal. A strict authoritarian, Morrison's father was probably a major source of the outlandish rebellion that his son later acted out on-stage; when Morrison began his climb to stardom, he would falsely claim that both of his parents were dead.
After attending St. Petersburg Junior College and Florida State University for a year apiece, Morrison moved to the West Coast to study film and theater at UCLA in 1964. He became infatuated with the poetry of William Blake and the writings of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, and he gradually drifted away from school to work on his poetry and experiment with drugs, particularly LSD.
In 1965, Morrison so greatly impressed film-school classmate (a classically trained keyboardist and member of a local blues band) with his early attempts at lyric writing that the two decided to form a band. and were soon recruited from the Psychedelic Rangers, and the Doors were born; the name was Morrison's idea, taken from The Doors of Perception, Aldous Huxley's book on mescaline, and its introductory William Blake quote.
Morrison was a tentative frontman at first, avoiding eye contact with the audience and sometimes even singing with his back to them, but he soon came out of his shell, flinging his mike stand around and using it as a phallic symbol.
As the Doors rose to stardom with their 1967 debut and struggled to maintain that status, Morrison's ever-increasing withdrawal and simultaneous indulgence in hedonistic excess threatened the band's stability. He destroyed some of the band's studio equipment in a drunken outburst of temper, and he designed his ever more erratic concert behavior -- miming sex, barrages of profanity, and similar antics -- to provoke intense, frenzied audience reactions. This did not go unnoticed by law enforcement officials in the locales where Morrison performed; he was maced by police in New Haven, CT, who caught him backstage with a female fan, and after taking the stage and baiting the officers, he was arrested on obscenity charges, of which he was later acquitted.
Venues in Phoenix and Long Island subsequently banned the Doors after Morrison allegedly incited audience riots; the whole mess finally boiled over in March 1969, when Morrison exposed himself to an audience in Miami and was arrested for displaying "lewd and lascivious behavior." After a two-month trial, he was found guilty, depleting the band financially and mentally and nearly causing their breakup. retreated to the studio, where they sounded musically rejuvenated on the hard-rocking (1970) and (1971).
Supporting tours were marked by continued police harassment, and afterward, a depressed Morrison left the country with his wife Pamela, eventually settling in Paris to unwind and write poetry (he had had his first collection of poems, The Lord and the Creatures, published in 1970). But without the support of his bandmates, Morrison spiraled irrevocably out of control, and he was found dead in his bathtub on July 3, 1971, the victim of an apparent heart attack. He was only 27 years old.
Morrison was buried in the Poets' Corner of Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, an area shared by Balzac, Moliere, and Oscar Wilde. Live recordings, greatest-hits collections, and recordings and books of Morrison's poetry have appeared frequently in the years since, and his legend has only grown with the passing of time. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide
Lead singer for the rock group the Doors, Jim Morrison (1943-1971), personified the mind-bending, uninhibited lifestyle of the 1960s, in his brief but brilliant career.
Like few bands other than the Beatles, the influence of the Doors has eclipsed the generation that first carried it to fame. Like the band, its leader, poet and visionary, Jim Morrison, continued to inspire fascination. Morrison has become a legendary figure, both in rock music and in popular culture, fueled to prominence by a score of books and articles, as well as by a major motion picture,
The Doors, that recounted the musician's brief but life.
Morrison was born in Melbourne, Florida, on December 8, 1943. His father, a career Navy officer, was transferred from base to base during his son's childhood, but, by his son's early teens, the family had settled in Alexandria, Virginia. After finishing high school in Alexandria, Morrison took several classes at St.
Petersburg Junior College and before pulling up roots in 1964, and heading for the . By 1966, the 22-year-old Morrison was enrolled in film classes at the Universtiy of California at (UCLA) but a friendship with fellow student Ray Manzarek would any plans he had of becoming a film maker.
While the two young men had known each other only casually as fellow students, they ran into each other one day by accident, on a Venice beach.
As Manzarek later recalled in an interview for a television show transcribed on the American Legends web site, Morrison "knew I was a musician. I knew he was a poet…. So he sat down on the beach, and he dug his hands into the sand….
And he began to sing … in this really haunting kind of voice. It was soft-a soft but powerful voice…. I thought-Wow.
Those are great lyrics. And he continued the song, and I thought this is one of the best Rock Roll songs I've ever heard….As Morrison was singing, I could hear the things that I could play behind it.
"
Manzarek, an organist, along with Morrison, guitarist Robbie Krieger, and drummer John Densmore decided to form their own rock band to put those songs to music. The young men decided to call their group the Doors, a name inspired by a quote from nineteenth-century English poet William Blake: "If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear as it is, infinite." As Morrison was fond of saying, "there are things known and things unknown and in between are the Doors.
"
Although his new lifestyle as a rock musician was a radical break from growing up in the fifties or life as a college student, images of his past, particularly his childhood, haunted many of Morrison's works, including his poetry and song lyrics. In Peace Frog, recorded on the album Morrison Hotel, he recalls an event from childhood, singing of "Indians scattered on dawn's highway bleeding/Ghosts crowd the young child's fragile mind." Imagery involving would surround Morrison even in adulthood; in fact he was nicknamed "the electric shaman" by fans by Morrison's on-stage energy and powerful charisma.
His growing relationship with girlfriend Pamela Courson would also inspire song lyrics; the couple lived together in a somewhat loose relationship, from 1966 on, although they never married.
Meanwhile, a long-term gig at the Whiskey-a-Go-Go on Hollywood's Sunset Strip allowed the Doors to develop their stage presence, and it eventually drew the attention of talent scouts searching for new recording acts. Not the least of the group's attractions was Morrison, who sang in a baritone, wore skin-tight pants, and went even further than Elvis Presley had in incorporating sexually suggestive movements into his on-stage performances.
With lyrics like "Come on baby, light my fire, " Morrison held young women .
Although they had signed a record contract with Columbia, the label showed little interest in the new band. In 1966, their luck changed when the Doors were offered a recording contract with Elektra Records.
They accepted, and, under the management of Bill Siddons, released their self-titled debut the following year. In Morrison's Elektra biography, released in conjunction with the group's debut album, he stated, "I like ideas about the breaking away or overthrowing of established order…. It seems to me to be the road toward freedom-external revolt is a way to bring about internal freedom.
Rather than starting inside, I start outside-reach the mental through the physical." Such ideas reflected the attitude of a generation raised under the repressive conventions of the 1950s and rebelling against what they viewed as hostilities of an older generation in Vietnam. Morrison and his message tapped a very large nerve.
After the release of The Doors, the group went back into the studio and cut Strange Days, which also came out in 1967. Other albums would include Waiting for the Sun (1968), The Soft Parade (1969), Morrison Hotel (1970), Absolutely Live (1970), and L.A.
Woman (1971). Morrison, caught up in Native American lore and the images of the American deserts, dubbed himself the "Lizard King" and wrote several songs, including "Celebration of the Lizard, " in reference to his alter ego.
Caught up in a wave of popularity, the young band found itself carried into a new world, where drugs, alcohol, and sex played a major role.
Morrison, whose status as a celebrity had begun almost overnight, found it difficult to handle the change: his growing dependence on alcohol would dim his talent in the years that followed, and the superstar status made him believe he was immune from normal authority. In one instance, an with a police officer who accidentally attempted to arrest the star for backstage during a concert in , Connecticut, resulted in Morrison's arrest while on stage after the rock singer began the police posted in the concert arena.
On March 1, 1969, Morrison and the Doors were booked for a concert at Dinner Key Auditorium, in Coconut Grove, in Morrison's home state of Florida.
Late for his scheduled flight to Miami, Morrison waited in the airport lounge, drinking heavily, until the next flight was called. When he missed the stop over flight in New Orleans, he again spent the time in the airport bar. By the time Morrison arrived in Miami, he was barely able to stand.
During his performance before thirteen thousand screaming fans, Morrison, totally inebriated, exposed himself briefly, to the audience. Nothing was done until pressure from disgusted Miami-area residents forced local police to issue a warrant for Morrison's arrest. The singer, who had been vacationing out of the country, turned himself in to the (FBI) and returned to Miami, where he went on trial on August 12, 1970.
Found guilty of a for and drunkenness, he was sentenced to six months hard labor, although the sentence was stayed, while his attorney appealed the conviction. Morrison would not live to see the outcome of that appeal.
After the trial in Miami, Morrison's life grew more chaotic, his relationships with band members more strained.
His fifth-a-day drinking habit continued , and he began to consider leaving the group to return to film studies. Searching to recover a sense of himself, he went back to the poetry that he had loved while a college student. In 1970, he published his first book of verse, The Lords [and] The New Creatures, which had been privately printed the year before.
During an interview with Tony Thomas of the Canadian Broadcast Company (CBC), despite the toll drugs and alcohol had taken on him, Morrison presented himself as an insightful student of life, philosophy, and modern culture: "When I was in high school and college, " he noted, "the kind of protest that's going on now was totally unheard of. At that time, to be a teenager, to be young, was really nothing, it was kind of a limbo state, and I think it's amazing, just in the last five years. What's happened is young people have become increasingly aware of the power and the influence that they have as a group.
It's really amazing."
On July 3, 1971, Morrison was found dead in his bath , by his girlfriend. The cause of death was determined to be a heart attack, although an was never performed.
He was buried at the Pere-Lachaisse Cemetery, in Paris. His death was kept secret until after the funeral, to eliminate the crowds of fans that would likely have attended.
Hopkins, Jerry, The Lizard King: The Essential Jim Morrison, Collier, 1993.
Kennealy, Patricia, Strange Dreams: My Life with and without Jim Morrison, Dutton, 1992.
Riordan, James, and Jerry Prochickey, Break on Through: The Life and Death of Jim Morrison Quill, 1991.
Rocco, John, editor, The Doors Companion: Four Decades of Commentary, Schirmer, 1997.
Crawdaddy, January 1968; April 1969.
Down Beat, May 28, 1970.
Rock, September 27, 1970.
Rolling Stone, October 2, 1969.
American Legends Home Page, (March 15, 1998).
The Doors' Home Page, (March 15, 1998).
"Morrison, Jim, interview with Tony Thomas, May 27, 1970, " (March 15, 1998).
"There are things known, and there are things unknown. And in between are the doors.
" "The most loving parents and relatives commit murder with smiles on their faces. They force us to destroy the person we really are: a subtle kind of murder." For more famous quotes by Jim Morrison, visit ; died , in ) was an singer, in the history of .
He was also an author of several books, a documentary, short film and two early ("The the mystique that continues to surround him.
Of and ancestry, Jim Morrison and Clara Clark Morrison, who met in in 1941 where Steve Morrison, then an ensign, was stationed.
after his parents met.
Six months later, Clara Morrison moved to (Later he would achieve the rank of Admiral and command the local fleet from his flagship, during the .) She stayed in Florida with her new son; her husband would not return to see his family until the summer of 1946. The Morrisons then had a daughter, Anne Robin (born in 1947 in ) and a son, Andrew "Andy" Lee (born 1948 in ).
According to Morrison, one of the most important events of his life occurred when he was a child in 1949, during a family road accident in the desert. As he recites in the spoken-word bridge of his song " ":
death, and that he was afraid. He came to believe that the souls of the newly-dead Indians were running around, "freaked out," and that one had leaped into him.
Both of Morrison's parents have claimed that the accident in the desert never happened. In his many comments about this episode, Morrison said that he was so upset by the incident that his parents eventually told him he was "just having a bad dream," in order to calm him down. Regardless of whether the incident was real, imagined, or fabricated, Morrison made repeated references to it in the imagery in his songs, poems, and interviews.
Morrison graduated from George Washington High School (now ) in in June 1961. His father was transferred to that August. Morrison was sent to live with his afforded a favorable tuition but was too far away for a reasonable commute.
Morrison thus moved close to the FSU campus where, for a time, he was a roommate of , and appeared in a school recruitment film.
In January 1964, urged on by an FSU professor, Morrison headed for where he completed his degree in 's film school, the Theater Arts department of the College of Fine Arts. Jim made two films while attending UCLA.
The first one entitled "First Love " is finally released to the public, unedited at the end of the documentary about the film called "Obscura." .
Jim Morrison (far left) with his bandmates in .
From left to right: Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger and John Densmore.
In 1965, after earning a degree in cinematography at , Morrison led a lifestyle in nearby . Due to a regimen of little food, by 1966 the formerly pudgy Morrison had Brodsky.
Known as "The Young Lion" photo session, it included the iconic, bare-chested " " pose, a shot that was featured on the Best of the Doors LP cover.
"Moonlight Drive", and the two then formed The Doors. They were soon joined by drummer .
Guitarist auditioned at Densmore's recommendation, and was immediately added to the lineup.
it is, infinite." This, too, is the origin of Huxley's title.
The Doors' sound was a significant innovation, dominated by Morrison's whispey, sonorous , against the interplay of Manzarek's keyboards, Krieger's classically influenced guitar style and Densmore's crisp, fluid drumming. The Doors were unique because they didn't have a in the lineup. Manzarek provided bass lines on his newly-released keyboard bass, a small bass-scale version of the famous appeared as a four-piece in concert, apart from occasions when they were joined by special guests such as .
In , a momentous meeting took place, at the famed when The Doors were the opening act for the group, , whose leader was . According to Ray Manzarek, in his book, LIght My Fire. "Jim was transfixed by Van.
He studied his every move. He put the eye on him and he absorbed..
..The last night.
.. saw us all in a monster jam session.
..Jim Morrison and Van Morrison onstage at the same time!
And singing " ."
Lyrically, The Doors broke new ground in rock music, with Morrison's complex, , lyrics exploring themes of sex, mysticism, drugs, murder, madness and death. Although Morrison is known as the lyricist for the group, Krieger also made significant lyrical contributions, writing or co-writing some of the group's biggest hits, including " ", "Love Me Two Times" and "Touch Morrison and Manzarek's film school education was put to effective use early on in the band's career.
Decades before became common-place, Morrison and The Doors produced a promotional film for "Break On Through", which was to be their first release. The video featured the Morrison lip-synced the lyrics. Morrison and The Doors continued to make innovative music videos, including ones for "The Unknown The Doors were first noticed on the national level in the spring of 1967 after signing to the label.
The single " ", written by Krieger, hit number one in June 1967. Three months later, The Doors appeared on the , a popular Sunday night variety series that had, years earlier, introduced a young, wriggling According to the Oliver Stone film The Doors, the incident became notorious after the censors insisted that they change the to drugs in the original lyric. The original video footage reveals Jim Morrison highlighting not the word "higher" but instead July, 1967 where fires spread from northwest Detroit to the East Side.
Giving assurances to host Ed Sullivan, Morrison sang the song with the original lyrics anyway on live TV. This infuriated Sullivan so much that he refused to shake their hands after their performance. They were never invited back.
To this, Jim "So what? We already did the Ed Sullivan Show."
By the release of their second , , The Doors had become one of the most popular rock bands in the United States.
Their blend of and rock tinged with had never before been heard. The Doors' eclectic repertoire included a swag of stunning original songs and distinctive cover versions, such as the memorable music with their extended concept works, including the famous epic songs, "The End" and "When The Music's Over", and the extended suite which they played in concert, " ".
In 1968, The Doors released their third studio LP, .
Originally, in production, Morrison convinced his bandmates and his producer into recording a concept album. For Side One, they recorded the usual staple of 3 minute rock songs, while for Side Two they recorded a full rendition of the extended suite, "Celebration of the Lizard". However, it was ultimately decided against by their label, .
Subsequently, only a short piece within "Celebration of the Lizard" entitled "Not To Touch The Earth" would make it onto the final LP. As had been customary, with an extended tour de force song ending an album, would instead feature the 5 minute " " as the album closer.
By this time, The Doors had all but exhausted the cache of songs that Morrison had written.
Sourced from his early poetry writings and from favorite lines from his favorite books, this cache had provided all the material on their first three LPs. Meanwhile, Morrison's attitude towards rock music, the audience, and stardom per se began to take its toll. He became performance-theatre.
This had a major effect on Morrison, and the band, who courageously decided to break new ground with their fourth studio LP, . Heavy with orchestration and poetry, it was also the first album where the individual band members were given recognition on the inner-sleeve for who wrote which songs. Much of this decision had which he did write, as well as Robbie Krieger seeking credit for increased contribution to the LP during Morrison's increasing apathy and absences.
The Soft Parade was widely criticized in the media, both for alienating what fans had come to expect of The Doors, as well as for being considered tame compared to earlier Doors offerings. Morrison's lyrics received much of the criticism from the press, who labeled it "college standard one-line non-sequiturs". Despite these setbacks, featured some of The Doors best work.
The hypnotic "Wild Child", the Krieger-penned ballad "Touch Me", and the tour de force title track are among the stand-outs.
Morrison famously lived by an oft-repeated quote from Blake, "The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom." Even before the formation of The Doors, Morrison took copious amounts of LSD, but soon switched to alcohol; which he began to consume in herculean proportions.
He reportedly also indulged in various . He would as well as being late to arrive for live performances, which caused the band to linger on stage playing only music or occasionally forcing Ray Manzarek to take on the singing duties. Such excesses and apathy took their toll on Morrison and the band.
By 1969, the formerly svelte singer began to balloon in size due to his rapidly escalating alcoholism. Although the cover of the 1970 Absolutely Live LP depicts a trim, clean-shaven, leather-clad Morrison on the front, this photo had in fact been taken about two years earlier. By the time of the tour on which the live album was recorded, Morrison was 20 pounds heavier (175 slacks, jeans and T-shirts.
attempted to spark a riot among those in attendance. He failed, but a warrant for his arrest was issued by the Dade County Police department for indecent exposure some three days later while the band was vacationing in Jamaica. Morrison was ultimately Doors' scheduled concerts.
Doors embraced their musical roots with the successful release of the LP. Featuring a much grittier Blues-based sound and lyrical content, shot The Doors back into the charts and into the hearts of their wavering fans. Morrison Hotel can also be seen as the coming of age of Morrison as a lyricist.
The past tendencies towards the abstract and non-sensical mish-mash borrowings of his collected poetry had evolved into the earthy, sincere voice of an older, wiser, life-worn man who had something personal to say.[ . It solidified the group's return to its musical roots, featuring songs that would quickly become not only among its most popular but also its strongest.
These included the title track, the pounding "Texas Radio and the Big Beat", the guttural, angry "Been Down So Long", the evocative "The Changeling", and the album's epic masterpiece closer, " ", which instantly became an radio staple.
The L.A.
Woman album also saw another major change in the group's recording career. Shortly after sessions began, off the project, disenchanted with the band's new material, which he dismissed as " ." Long-serving engineer took over.
Several of Morrison's vocals were performed in the bathroom at The Doors' offices, due to the excellent , particularly in relation to the reverberation quality.
alternatively-influenced musicians, The Doors were a complete reversal. The 'pretentious' direction of their earliest work matured steadily into a down-to-earth Blues-orientated and lyrically sincere and grounded band.
This rare essence has become one of the most endearing qualities of the band over the years.
Among Morrison's more famous are "Mr. Mojo Risin'", an of his name, which he eventually used as a refrain in his final "L.
A. Woman", and " " from a line in his Absolutely Live double LP released in 1970. Absolutely Live was a compilation of selected live material recorded at Morrison began writing in adolescence.
In college, he became very interested in , Even though Morrison was a well-known singer and lyricist, he encountered difficulty when searching for a publisher for his poetry. He self-published two slim volumes in 1969, The Lords / Notes on Vision and The New Creatures. Both works were dedicated to "Pamela Susan" (Courson).
These were the only writings to be published during Morrison's lifetime.
The Lords consists primarily of brief descriptions of places, people, events and Morrison's thoughts on cinema. They often read as short, paragraphs strung together by what seems to be little more than the pages upon which they appear.
McClure describes the work as Morrison's deconstruction of his UCLA thesis on film. The New Creatures verses are more poetic in structure, feel and appearance. These two books were later combined into a single volume Much later, two volumes of poetry were published, both of them selected and arranged by Morrison's friend, photographer Frank Lisciandro, and Courson's parents, who owned the rights to his poetry.
The Lost Writings of Jim Morrison Volume 1 is titled Wilderness, and, upon its release in 1988, became an instant best seller. Volume 2, , released in 1990, was also a success.
Morrison recorded his own poetry in a professional sound studio on two separate occasions.
The first was in March 1969 in Los birthday. The latter recording session was attended by personal friends of Morrison and included a variety of sketch pieces. Some of the tapes from the 1969 session were later used as part of the Doors' album, released in 1978.
The album reached number 54 on the music charts. The poetry recorded from the December 1970 session remains unreleased to this day and is in the possession of the Courson family.
Morrison's best-known but seldom seen cinematic endeavor is HWY, a project begun in 1969.
Morrison financed the venture and formed his own production company in order to maintain complete independence in its making. He was assisted by Paul Ferrara, Frank Lisciandro and Babe Hill. More of an art film than a commercial endeavor, Morrison played what is essentially the sole continuing character, a hitchhiker turned killer car thief.
This same or very similar character is alluded to in Riders On The Storm. Morrison asked his friend, composer/pianist Fred Myrow, to select the eclectic for the film. The film shows the influence of other producer-directors of independent Morrison's early life was a nomadic existence typical of military families.
Jerry Hopkins recorded Morrison's brother Andy children, and instead instilled discipline and levied punishment by the military tradition known as "dressing down." This consisted of yelling at and berating the children until they were reduced to tears and acknowledged their failings. Andy said that although he could never keep from crying, his brother never shed a tear.
Biographers record that during his youth, Morrison was a dutiful and respectful son who excelled at school and greatly enjoyed swimming and other outdoor activities. His parents hoped he would follow in his father's military footsteps and, for quite some time, Morrison was happy to emulate his father, intending to study at in .
In adolescence, however, Morrison discovered drinking and embarked on a life-long pattern of and .
He was often disruptive in class and became a problem.
Once Morrison graduated from UCLA, he broke off most of his family contact. By the time Morrison's music ascended the top of the charts in 1967, he had not been in communication with his family for more than a year and falsely claimed that his parents and siblings were dead.
This misinformation was published as part of the materials distributed with the first Doors album.
In a letter to the Florida Probation and Parole Commission District Office, October 2, 1970, Morrison's father acknowledged the breakdown in family communications, the result of an argument over his assessment of his son's musical talents. He said he could not blame his son for being reluctant to initiate contact.
He also stressed that he thought Jim was 'fundamentally a respectable citizen' and that he was proud of his son's progress. See
Morrison met his long-term companion, , well before he gained any fame or fortune, and she encouraged him to develop his poetry. At times, Courson used Morrison's name, with his apparent consent.
After Courson's death in 1974, the probate court in California decided that she and Morrison had what qualified as a common law marriage (see below, under "Estate Controversy").
Courson and Morrison's relationship was a stormy one, however, with frequent loud arguments, and periods of separation followed by tearful reunions. Doors biographer surmised that part of their difficulties may have stemmed from a conflict between their respective commitments to an and the consequences of living in such a relationship.
In 1970, Morrison participated in a ceremony with rock critic and / author . Before witnesses, one of them a , the couple none of the necessary paperwork for a legal marriage was filed with the state. Kennealy discussed her experiences with Morrison Morrison also regularly slept with fans and had numerous short flings with women who were celebrities in their own right, alcohol-fueled encounter with that left Joplin in tears.
Judy Huddleston also recalls her relationship with Morrison in Living and Dying with Jim Morrison. At the time of his death, there were reportedly as many as 20 actions pending against him, although no claims were made against his estate by any of the putative paternity claimants, and the only person making a public claim to being Morrison's son was shown to be a fraud.
concentrating on his writing.
Hoping to get his life back on track, Morrison lost a great deal of weight and shaved off his beard He died on , , at age 27, and was found in his bathtub by Courson. According to Stephen Davis' biography of Morrison, it was reported that he had dried blood around his mouth and nose and large bruising on his chest. This suggests Morrison might have died from a massive caused by .
Many fans and have speculated that the cause of death was a drug overdose, but the official report listed the cause of death as heart failure. Pursuant to French law, no was performed because the official autopsy left many questions unanswered and provided a fertile breeding ground for speculation and rumor.
returned to America in the mid-1970s.
According to his account, Courson told him that Morrison had in fact died of a overdose when he inhaled copious amounts of the substance, believing it to be Morrison's death, but the majority of fans seem to have accepted the mistaken heroin overdose account. Courson herself died of a heroin overdose a few years later. Like Morrison, she was 27 years old at the time of her death.
Morrison was quoted to say that when he returned from Paris he was going to let "bygones be bygones" with his father. Also, a few weeks before his death he called bandmate John Densmore and asked how the newest album had been received, and when Densmore replied that it had been doing well in the charts, Morrison replied that "if they like this, wait'll they hear what I got in mind for the next one." In Densmore's own autobiography, Riders On The Storm, the drummer reasoned that Morrison had taken heroin with a strong liquor, climbed into the bathtub, and committed suicide.
in eastern Paris. In the past, some of his fans were nuisances, leaving litter, , bottles of alcohol and behind them after their visits. Well-publicized complaints by be forcibly relocated when the 30-year lease to his plot expired.
Parisian authorities, however, have denied any such intention, and Morrison's family has since negotiated an agreement with the cemetery to keep him interred there in perpetuity. Indeed, Morrison's grave is the most popular grave in the cemetery and has become one of the most popular tourist destinations in Paris, the . In 1993, his parents visited the site and made arrangements with a cleaning company to have the graffiti removed from the nearby tombstones.
( : daimōn", an word that implies a minor deity, attendant spirit, luck, fortune, "guiding star" and the like, with no negative or pejorative connotations.
Various erroneous interpretations of the inscription have been proposed, including "down with his own " (presumably in ), "burnt by his demons", and "with the himself."
Some contend that Morrison did not die in Paris. The fact that only two people (other than the police, emergency personnel, and the mortician) admitted to the press that they had seen his body has helped keep the rumor alive for over 30 years.
Throughout Morrison's turbulent career, there had been numerous rumors that he had been killed in an auto accident or had died of a drug overdose. Also, in the days preceding the announcement of his death, the press had been told that Morrison was simply "very tired" and resting in an unnamed French hospital, contributing to the suspicion.
In The Lizard King, Jerry Hopkins recounts that, well before the Doors achieved noticeable success, Morrison had joked that he should fake his own death to generate publicity.
According to some of Morrison's friends and bandmates, once the Doors had achieved their remarkable success, publicity was no longer seen as being so desirable. Morrison then spoke of wanting to fake his death and move to Africa in order to escape the scrutiny that surrounded his every move. He told them that if he could succeed with the ruse, he would write to them using the / "Mr.
Mojo Risin." Such a disappearing act would have paralleled the life of one of Morrison's favorite poets, . According to Krieger and other Doors members, they have yet to receive any letters.
A 2006 French television documentary, from a series called 'Death of an Idol', included interviews with many people associated with Morrison's death, including then Doors' manager Bill Siddons. Siddons, who was only 22 years old at the time, never actually saw the corpse and explained that he was simply too young and overwhelmed to ask to see the body.
The documentary then interviewed several Parisians who claimed that they had seen Morrison at a Paris nightclub, dealers.
The club's manager claimed to have seen Morrison that night. A Parisian woman, Nicole Gosselin, claimed that she had Apparently there was a shipment of heroin due that evening and Morrison was looking for some. Soon after it arrived, Gosselin claimed that she saw Morrison near the club toilets and that he was passing out against the wall completely white-faced.
Gosselin also claimed that the batch of heroin was particularly potent and that she knew the person who sold it to Morrison. Some people took him out of the club and into a taxi, presumably to return him to his apartment. This would perhaps explain why Morrison was found in the bathtub, as this is a classic way of reviving overdose victims.
The documentary also spoke to the fireman who arrived at Morrison's apartment early on 3rd July. This man claimed to have seen Morrison's body, with the remnants of a trickle of blood coming from his nose. The fact that Morrison was a known alcoholic meant Rumors still abound that Morrison committed suicide, was assassinated by the , was murdered by a witch, died in a toilet at the notorious , or any number of variations.
There are also persistent rumors that he is still alive and living either in , Africa, South America, as a in , above a Quik-Check in , or in anonymously. Clearly, the "Morrison legend" has taken on a life of its own.
In his will, made in on , Morrison (who describes himself as "an unmarried person") left his entire estate to Pamela Susan Courson, also naming her co-executor with his attorney, Max Fink.
She thus inherited everything upon Morrison’s death in 1971.
When Courson died herself in 1974, a battle ensued between Morrison’s parents and Courson’s parents over who had legal claim to what had been Morrison’s estate. Since Morrison left a will, the question was effectively moot.
On his death, his property became Courson’s property; and on her death, her property passed to her next heirs at law, who were her parents. property.
To bolster their position, Courson’s parents presented a document they claimed she had acquired in Colorado, apparently an application for a declaration that she and Morrison had contracted a common law marriage under the laws of that state.
The ability to contract a common-law marriage was abolished in California in 1896, but the state's rules provided for recognition of lawfully contracted in foreign jurisdictions - and Colorado was one of the eleven U.S. jurisdictions which still recognized common-law marriage.
So, as long as a common-law marriage was lawfully contracted under Colorado law, it was recognised as a marriage under California law.
It is not known whether Courson acquired the application before or after Morrison’s death, or indeed whether it was she or her parents who acquired it. In either case, Morrison did not fill it out or sign it, may have never known about the document, and neither Morrison nor Courson appear to have ever been residents of Colorado.
But those facts would not necessarily be relevant to the court’s deliberation on the validity of a common-law marriage, since the determination would be made according to Colorado law. Many of the jurisdictions which still permitted the common law contract of a marriage provide that either party may demand a declaration that a common law marriage was contracted between them, whether the other party (if living) agrees or not. The burden of proof is on the applicant, in any case, to prove that a marriage existed.
What is ironic in this case is that both of the alleged applicants were dead, and it was their parents who were trying to prove or disprove that there had been a common-law marriage.
Whatever the circumstances of the unsigned document and the court case, and the controversy surrounding it, the California probate court decided that Courson and Morrison had a common-law marriage under the laws of Colorado. The effect of the court's ruling was to close probate of Morrison's and Courson's estates, and reinforce the Courson family's hold on the inheritance.
As a naval family, the Morrisons relocated frequently. Consequently, Morrison's early was routinely disrupted as he moved from school to school. Nonetheless, he proved to be an , among other fields.
influenced Morrison's thinking and, perhaps, behavior. 's 1966 novel album. While still in his teens, Morrison discovered the works of philosopher (after Morrison's death, John Densmore opined that the of "Nietzsche killed Jim").
He was also drawn to the dark poets of the 18th and 19th century, notably the poet , and the French poets and . writers, such as , also had a strong . He was similarly drawn to the works of the writer .
Céline's book, Voyage au Bout de la Auguries of Innocence both echo through one of Morrison's early songs, "End of the Night." Eventually Morrison got to meet and befriend , a well known beat poet. McClure had enjoyed Morrison's lyrics but was even more impressed by his poetry and encouraged him to further develop his craft.
Living Theater, which perhaps influenced some of Jim's confrontational behaviour onstage, such as in the Miami incident. But perhaps the most influential work was a rather obscure, 19th century work by Charles MacKay, influencing and manipulating crowds while still in college.
Other works relating to religion, , ancient and were of lasting interest, particularly 's .
's also became a source of inspiration and is reflected in the title and lyrics of the song "Not to Touch the Earth."
He apparently borrowed some wording from the King James New Testament. Matthew 7:13-14: “Wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and.
.. strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life,” which speaks of death and the afterlife, one of his common themes.
Their first hit single “Break On Through” includes the lines: “Gate is straight, deep and wide—break on through to the other side.” Though most of “Light My Fire” was written by Krieger, the second verse was written by Morrison and includes the line “..
.no time to wallow in the mire,” a wording that could have been borrowed either from 2 Peter 2:22, which reads: “The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire,” or from Socrates’ deathbed statement, as recorded in Plato’s “Phaedo”: “..
.They said that whoever arrives in the underworld uninitiated and unsanctified will wallow in the mire..
..”
Morrison was particularly attracted to the myths and religions of Native American cultures.
While he was still in school, his the Southwest Indigenous cultures. These interests appear to be the source of many references to creatures and places, such as lizards, snakes, deserts and "ancient lakes" that appear in his songs and poetry. His interpretion of the practices of a Native American " " were worked into some of Morrison's stage routine, notably in his interpretation of the Ghost Dance, and a song on his later poetry album, The Ghost Song.
The song Wild Child was also inspired by Native American rhythm and ritual, but often interpreted to be about one of Morrison's literary influences, Morrison remains one of the most popular and influential singers/writers in rock history, as The Doors' catalog has become a staple of radio stations. To this day, he is widely regarded as the prototypical : surly, sexy, scandalous and mysterious. The pants he was fond of wearing both onstage and off have since become stereotyped as rock star apparel.
singer was inspired by Morrison while attending a Doors concert in . One of his most popular songs, "The Passenger", is said to be based on one of Morrison's poems. After Morrison's death, Iggy was considered as a replacement for Morrison; the surviving Doors gave Iggy some of Morrison's belongings, and hired him as a vocalist for a series of shows.
Beat poet Michael McClure has written a poem, For Jim Morrison, in honor of their friendship. He recites this work at his poetry readings with some regularity, often to the accompaniment of Manzarek's keyboards.
On a more cerebral level, Wallace Fowlie, professor emeritus of French literature at and internationally recognized expert on the poet Arthur Rimbaud, wrote Rimbaud and Jim Morrison, subtitled "The Rebel as Poet – A Memoir.
" In this book, Fowlie recounts his surprise at receiving a fan letter from Morrison who, in 1968, thanked him for his latest translation of Rimbaud's verse into English. "I don't read French easily", he wrote, "..
.your book travels around with me." Fowlie went on to give lectures on numerous campuses comparing the lives, philosophies and poetry of Morrison and Rimbaud.
In 1999 Mets third baseman took the phrase from Morrison's song "L.A. Woman" as a theme for the team.
(1854-1891), once having said, "I am a Rimbaud with a leather jacket". Some sources allege, although it's unverified, that while in France at the end of his life, Jim undertook a pilgrimage to Rimbaud's birthplace in northeastern France, Charleville.
fitting.
Both symbolized the bravado and the rebellion of youth against a conservative society that seeks to squelch the individual through social control. Both were brilliant individuals torn between their ambition to shake things up through their art and their temptation to drift away, before being caught up and finally struck down by their inner demons. Most of all, they their poetry and music allowed us to touch, if only for a brief moment.
"If my poetry aims to achieve anything, it's to deliver people from the limited ways in which they see and feel", Jim once said. And that is exactly what he and The Doors achieved. With their hauntingly beautiful music that stays with you long after "the music's over", they take us to uncharted territories.
They let us "break on through to the other side", however briefly. They did indeed open the "doors of perception", doors that can never be shut again. And that is probably the true legacy of Jim Morrison and The Doors.
In 2007 it was announced that a charity, Global Cool, focusing on eliminating , was commissioning a song to be made out of a poem Morrison had written, entitled "Woman In the early 1980s, low budget filmmaker made the film Beyond the Doors aka Down On Us, which advanced the theory that Morrison, along with and , were killed by the government in an attempt to stamp out The story of Morrison's life was filmed in 1991 by in his , starring as Morrison. The film was critically well-received, but a commercial failure. The surviving Doors were reportedly not pleased with the historical liberties that Stone took with their story.
Kilmer was Stone's second choice for the role, the first being leadsinger had originally wanted to play the Morrison role himself. Astbury went on to join the new incarnation of The Doors (Riders On The Storm) in 2000 as lead singer.
Jones.
The play was performed in New York, London and finally in 1991 in Los Angeles at The Friends Artists Theatre. Although it has not been confirmed, , creator of the underground has dropped several clues that the title is supposed to be Morrison.
, a , , singer, and wrote a song titled "Jim Morrison's Grave" in his album.
The song tells of the vandalism around Morrison's grave, and also tells about the man Morrison was, in Taylor's eyes, as "someone who embraced the Rock-n-Roll myth." "Jim Morrison's Grave' asks the age-old question", Taylor said, "Does artistry justify being a weasel? The last line of the song is, 'The music covers like an evening mist/Like a watch still ticking on a dead man's wrist.
' Morrison left the world some intriguing music. As far as I'm concerned, that's not enough."
has been trying to look into the dark for a long time and has maybe begun to see what is there.
" He then reveals to her that he believes the man was Jim Morrison, alive but maybe not so well. Morrison subsequently appeared as an evil version of himself in portrays Jim Morrison in one of Wayne Campbell's dreams in a desert. His famous line "If you book them, they will come" (an homage to ) sets up the major plotline.
The comedy also includes a Native American who makes mysterious appearances, another homage, this time to Stone's movie The Doors.
reference to Jim Morrison several times indicating they were groupies to him.
(now finished), Jimi Hendrix's , and The Doors' .
Fictionalized versions of Wilson, Hendrix, and Morrison appear in the novel.
leap off of a building into a pool ("Well, that was pretty neat.").
Brock's character plays member to a group of death-cheating immortals.
Queen!" after drinking the water on a ride in Duffland.
Homer sings a few lines from Jim Morrison's song, , when contemplating suicide, and this same song appears in a later episode when the family goes to . In "The ", during an opening montage of gravestones, Jim Morrison's is shown, with two hippies in front.
to die like Jim Morrison.
I wanna die like God on the cover of time."
line: "Grow my hair. I wanna be Jim Morrison".
This is assumed to be a cautionary comment aimed more at the fickle idolisation of cult figures by teenage fans than it is towards the legacy of Jim Morrison.
In the series of novels, there is an analogue of Jim Morrison named Thomas Douglas Morrison, lead singer of the band Destiny. He was an ace called , and died not of an overdose in France, but from a dose of the experimental , which cured him of his ace powers, but removed his immunity to many years of drug abuse.
A friend is someone who gives you total freedom to be yourself. Blake said that the body was the soul's prison unless the five senses are fully developed and open. He considered the senses the 'windows of the soul.' When sex involves all the senses intensely, it can be like a mystical experience.
Drugs are a bet with your mind. Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are
I am the lizard king. I can do anything. There are things known and there are things unknown and in between are the Doors. Did you know freedom exists in a schoolbook? The Lords and The New Creatures (1969). 1985 edition: ISBN 0-7119-0552-5. An American Prayer (1970) privately printed by Western Lithographers, and an unauthorized version American Prayer in 1983 by now-defunct Zeppelin Publishing Company. ISBN 0-915628-46-5 (caution: the authenticity of the unauthorized The American Night: The Writings of Jim Morrison (1990). 1991 edition: ISBN 0-670-83772-5. , "Jim Morrison: Bozo Dionysus a Decade Later" in Main Lines, Blood Feasts, and Bad Taste: A Lester Bangs Reader, John Morthland, ed. Anchor Press (2003) ISBN 0-375-71367-0 John Densmore, Riders On The Storm: My Life With Jim Morrison and the Doors ISBN 0-385-30447-1 Dave DiMartino, Moonlight Drive (1995) ISBN 1-886894-21-3 Wallace Fowlie, Rimbaud and Jim Morrison (1994) ISBN 0-8223-1442-8. Jerry Hopkins, The Lizard King: The Essential Jim Morrison (1995) ISBN 0-684-81866-3. Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman, Patricia Kennealy, Strange Days: My Life With And Without Jim Morrison (1992) ISBN 0-525-93419-7 Frank Lisciandro, Morrison -- A Feast Of Friends (1991) ISBN 0-446-39276-6 Frank Lisciandro, Jim Morrison -- An Hour For Magic (A Photojournal) ISBN 0-85965-246-7 Ray Manzarek, Light My Fire (1998) First by Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman (1981). ISBN 0-446-60228-0L Thanasis Michos, The Poetry of JAMES DOUGLAS MORRISON (2001) ISBN 960-7748-23-9 (Greek) Mark Opsasnick, The Lizard King Was Here: The Life and Times of Jim Morrison in Alexandria, Virginia (2006) ISBN 1-4257-1330-0, Library of Congress Control Number: 2006903269. ( ) James Riordan Jerry Prochnicky, Break On Through (1991) ISBN 0-688-11915-8.
Keywords: Lizard King, Jerry Hopkins, Native American, John Densmore, Ray Manzarek, Absolutely Live, Frank Lisciandro, Douglas Morrison, William Blake, My Fire
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