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Jim Morrison.

Jim Morrison (8 December, 1943 – 3 July, 1971) was a singer, songwriter, writer, and poet. Born James Douglas Morrison in Melbourne, Florida, he was the lead singer and lyricist of the popular American rock band The Doors. He was also an author of several poetry books. His common-law wife was Pamela Courson.

Biography

Early years

File:Jimmorrison.jpg
Jim Morrison in sunglasses.

Morrison was the son of Admiral George Stephen Morrison and his wife Clara Clark Morrison, both employed by the United States Navy. According to Morrison, one of the most important events of his life came about in 1947 during a family trip in New Mexico. He described the event as follows:

The first time I discovered death... me and my mother and father, and my grandmother and grandfather, were driving through the desert at dawn. A truckload of Indians had either hit another car or something- there were Indians scattered all over the highway, bleeding to death. I was just a kid, so I had to stay in the car while my father and grandfather went to check it out. I didn't see nothing — all I saw was funny red paint and people lying around, but I knew something was happening, because I could dig the vibrations of the people around me, and all of a sudden I realized that they didn't know what was happening any more than I did. That was the first time I tasted fear... and I do think, at that moment, the souls of those dead Indians — maybe one or two of them — were just running around, freaking out, and just landed in my soul, and I was like a sponge, ready to sit there and absorb it.

Morrison would later revisit this event in the bridge to the song "Peace Frog": "Indians scattered on dawn's highway bleeding / Ghosts crowd the young child's fragile egg–shell mind."

Morrison graduated from high school in Alexandria, Virginia in 1961. His parents thought he was incorrigible and sent him to live with his grandparents in Clearwater, Florida. As an adult, he was estranged from his strict, conservative parents, so much so that, in a 1967 interview, he claimed they were both dead.

He took classes at St. Petersburg Junior College (1961-62) and Florida State University (1962-1964, where he was for a time a roommate of George Greer), appearing in a recruitment film for the latter school. Morrison met Mary Werbelo at Pier 60 on Clearwater Beach during the summer of 1962. In January 1964, he left Florida and headed for California and Werbelo moved out to California to be with her. In the summer of 1965, Werbelo broke up with Morrison. Ray Manzarek later said that the song "The End" was a goodbye to Werbelo. In a 1990 letter to the Los Angeles Times, John Densmore stated that the song "Crystal Ship" was a goodbye love song to Werbelo.

With The Doors

Morrison on The Doors album cover

In 1965, after graduating from film school at the University of California, Los Angeles, he led a bohemian lifestyle in nearby Venice Beach. A chance encounter there with fellow UCLA film student Ray Manzarek led to the formation of The Doors, and they were soon joined by guitarist Robby Krieger and drummer John Densmore. The name The Doors came from an Aldous Huxley book, The Doors of Perception, in turn borrowed from a line of poetry by William Blake: "When the doors of perception are cleansed/Things will appear as they are, Infinite". A door can be seen as a transition between two worlds; you don't know what's going on in the other world until you cross that transition. As Morrison himself put it, "There are things known and things unknown, and in between are the doors."

File:JimMorrisonDoors.jpg
Jim Morrison in concert.

The Doors became one of the most popular rock bands ever. Their blend of blues, jazz and rock was something that had never been heard before. The sound was dominated by Morrison's deep, sonorous baritone voice and Ray Manzarek's unique keyboard.

Among Morrison's more famous nicknames are "Mr. Mojo Risin' ", an anagram of his name, which he eventually used as a refrain in his final single, "LA Woman", and "The Lizard King" from a line in his famed epic poem Celebration of the Lizard, part of which appeared on the Doors' 1968 album Waiting for the Sun and which was adapted into a musical in the 1990s.

Morrison famously lived by another quote—this one from poet William Blake—"The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom"; Even before he formed The Doors, he took hallucinogenic drugs, drank alcohol in legendary proportions, and indulged in various bacchanalia, sometimes showing up for recording sessions while inebriated (he can be heard hiccuping on the song "Five To One").

In 1970 Morrison underwent a Wiccan handfasting ceremony, which writer Patricia Kennealy insists was a wedding of some sort, but he did not take the ceremony seriously, a fact verified in an interview with Kennealy in the book Rock Wives. She also wrote a biography about her life with Jim, a relationship which did not endure since he had several other women in his life, most notable being Nico from Velvet Underground. Judy Huddleston also recalls her relationship with Morrison in her biography, as does one Linda Ashcroft in a book that claims a relationship with him, and one Janet Erwin, who tells her story in an article ("Your Ballroom Days Are Over, Baby"). Morrison's most consistent and lasting (romantic) relationship was to common-law wife Pamela Courson.

In the years after the Doors' meteoric rise to fame with their self-titled debut album and its hit single "Light My Fire", Morrison's "sex, drugs, and rock and roll" lifestyle caught up with him; he eventually became a full-fledged alcoholic, and the band suffered as a result of it.

During a 1969 concert in Miami, an intoxicated Morrison was charged and ultimately convicted of indecent exposure and open profanity.

Death

File:Doors3.jpg
Jim Morrison, later years.

Morrison moved to Paris in March 1971 with the intention of concentrating on his writing and quitting drinking.

He died soon thereafter, though, on 3 July, 1971, in his bathtub at the age of 27; many fans and biographers have speculated that the cause of death was a drug overdose, but the official report listed "heart attack" as the cause of death. Morrison is buried in the famous Père Lachaise cemetery in eastern Paris, his fans there being generally perceived as a nuisance, leaving litter and graffiti behind, to the point where a new burial site has been suggested. At present the tomb is surrounded by a fence and the original grave was changed due to the large amount of graffiti not only on Morrison's grave, but on the graves nearby.

Many people believe Morrison is still alive to this day living in seclusion with his wife, Pamela Courson, although no strong evidence exists to support that, especially since it is said that Pamela died three years after Morrison's death of a heroin overdose. It is also said, however, that the only person to see Morrison's dead body was Courson herself; when The Doors' manager arrived in Paris after being notified of Morrison's passing, Morrison's body was already in a sealed casket. Exacerbating rumors of Morrison faking his own death is the fact that he is quoted as saying to his fellow band members that he wanted to fake his own death, and that he would come back and contact them under the alias "Mr. Mojo Risin", which is an Anagram of "Jim Morrison", and which Morrison had already referred to himself as on the title track of L.A. Woman.

The grave of Jim Morrison on Père Lachaise, Paris

Legacy

Morrison remains one of the most popular and influential singers in rock history, as The Doors' catalogue has become a staple of classic rock radio stations. To this day, he is widely regarded as the prototypical rock star: surly, sexy and mysterious. The leather pants he was fond of wearing onstage have since become stereotyped as rock star apparel.

Some controversy has risen in recent years with respect to the originality of his work however, being that many of his songs contain allusions or quotes from different southern blues artists. One notable example has been the use of Howlin' Wolf's "Back Door Man."

Morrison's performances have influenced many, including Patti Smith, Iggy Pop, Henry Rollins, Ian Astbury, Nine Inch Nails and to an extent Marilyn Manson.

Jim Morrison in fiction

In the early 1980s, low budget filmmaker Larry Buchanan made the film Beyond the Doors aka Down On Us, which advanced the theory that Morrison, along with Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin were killed by the government in an attempt to stamp out "radicals."

Morrison's story was filmed in 1991 with Oliver Stone's biopic The Doors, starring Val Kilmer as Morrison. Kilmer was Stone's second choice for the role, the first being The Cult lead-singer Ian Astbury. Incidentally, Astbury would go on to join the new incarnation of The Doors in 2000, as its singer.

Although, it has not been confirmed, Bob Burden, creator of the underground comic book series Flaming Carrot Comics has dropped several clues that the title superhero is supposed to be Morrison.

In Wayne's World 2, Morrison appeared to Wayne Campbell in dreams to guide him.

Quotes

  • I see myself as a huge fiery comet, a shooting star. Everyone stops, points up and gasps "Oh look at that!" Then - whoosh, and I'm gone... and they'll never see anything like it ever again, and they won't be able to forget me - ever.
  • They call me the Lizard King—whatever that means.
  • (after the deaths of Hendrix and Joplin) You're drinking with number three.
  • A hero is someone who rebels, or seems to rebel, against the facts of existence and seems to conquer them, but obviously that can work at moments. It can't be a lasting thing...but that's not saying that people shouldn't keep trying to rebel against the facts of existence...Who knows, someday we might conquer death....and disease and war...
  • Drugs are like a bet with your mind.
  • It's like gambling somehow. You go out for a night of drinking and you don't know where you're going to end up the next day. It could work out good or it could be disastrous. It's like the throw of the dice.
  • And if all of the teachers an preachers of wealth were arraigned ... We must try to find a new answer instead of a way. (off "Whiskey, Mystics And Men)
  • When you make peace with authority you become authority

Books about Jim Morrison

Jim Morrison's Poetry Books

External links

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