James Douglas "Jim" Morrison was an American
singer-songwriter and poet, best remembered
as the lead singer of Los Angeles rock band
The Doors. From a young age, Morrison became
infatuated with the works of Friedrich Nietzsche,
Arthur Rimbaud and Jack Kerouac, often incorporating
their work into his lyrics. In his later life,
Morrison developed an alcohol dependency which
led to his death at the age of 27 in Paris.
He is alleged to have died of a heroin overdose,
but as no autopsy was performed, the exact
cause of his death is still disputed.
Due to his songwriting, voice, wild personality
and performances, he is regarded by critics
and fans as one of the most iconic and influential
frontmen in rock music history. He was also
well known for improvising spoken word poetry
passages while the band played live. Morrison
was ranked number 47 on Rolling Stone's list
of the "100 Greatest Singers of All Time",
and number 22 on Classic Rock Magazine's "50
Greatest Singers In Rock". Ray Manzarek said
that Morrison "embodied hippie counterculture
rebellion..." Morrison was also known as the
self-proclaimed "King of Orgasmic Rock".
Early years
James Douglas Morrison was born in Melbourne,
Florida, the son of Clara Virginia and future
Rear Admiral George Stephen Morrison. Morrison
had a sister, Anne Robin, who was born in
1947 in Albuquerque, New Mexico; and a brother,
Andrew Lee Morrison, who was born in 1948
in Los Altos, California. His ancestors were
Scottish, Irish, and English. In 1947, Morrison,
then four years old, allegedly witnessed a
car accident in the desert, in which a family
of Native Americans were injured and possibly
killed. He referred to this incident in a
spoken word performance on the song "Dawn's
Highway" from the album An American Prayer,
and again in the songs "Peace Frog" and "Ghost
Song". Morrison believed this incident to
be the most formative event of his life, and
made repeated references to it in the imagery
in his songs, poems, and interviews. His family
does not recall this incident happening in
the way he told it. According to the Morrison
biography No One Here Gets Out Alive, Morrison's
family did drive past a car accident on an
Indian reservation when he was a child, and
he was very upset by it. The book The Doors,
written by the remaining members of The Doors,
explains how different Morrison's account
of the incident was from that of his father.
This book quotes his father as saying, "We
went by several Indians. It did make an impression
on him [the young James]. He always thought
about that crying Indian." This is contrasted
sharply with Morrison's tale of "Indians scattered
all over the highway, bleeding to death."
In the same book, his sister is quoted as
saying, "He enjoyed telling that story and
exaggerating it. He said he saw a dead Indian
by the side of the road, and I don't even
know if that's true."
With his father in the United States Navy,
Morrison's family moved often. He spent part
of his childhood in San Diego. While his father
was stationed at NAS Kingsville, he attended
Flato Elementary in Kingsville, Texas. In
1958, Morrison attended Alameda High School
in Alameda, California. He graduated from
George Washington High School, now George
Washington Middle School, in Alexandria, Virginia
in June 1961. His father was also stationed
at Mayport Naval Air Station in Jacksonville,
Florida. Morrison read widely and voraciously—being
particularly inspired by the writings of philosophers
and poets. He was influenced by Friedrich
Nietzsche, whose views on aesthetics, morality,
and the Apollonian and Dionysian duality would
appear in his conversation, poetry and songs.
He read Plutarch’s "Lives of the Noble Greeks
and Romans". He read the works of the French
Symbolist poet Arthur Rimbaud, whose style
would later influence the form of Morrison’s
short prose poems. He was influenced by Jack
Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti,
Charles Baudelaire, Molière, Franz Kafka,
Honoré de Balzac and Jean Cocteau, along
with most of the French existentialist philosophers.
His senior-year English teacher said, "Jim
read as much and probably more than any student
in class, but everything he read was so offbeat
I had another teacher check to see if the
books Jim was reporting on actually existed.
I suspected he was making them up, as they
were English books on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century
demonology. I’d never heard of them, but
they existed, and I’m convinced from the
paper he wrote that he read them, and the
Library of Congress would’ve been the only
source." Morrison went to live with his paternal
grandparents in Clearwater, Florida, where
he attended classes at St. Petersburg College.
In 1962, he transferred to Florida State University
in Tallahassee, where he appeared in a school
recruitment film. While attending FSU, Morrison
was arrested for a prank, following a home
football game.
In January 1964, Morrison moved to Los Angeles
to attend the University of California, Los
Angeles. Shortly thereafter on August 2, 1964,
Morrison's father, George Stephen Morrison,
commanded the United States fleet during the
Gulf of Tonkin Incident, which resulted in
the United States' rapid escalation of the
Vietnam War. At UCLA, Morrison enrolled in
Jack Hirschman's class on Antonin Artaud in
the Comparative Literature program within
the UCLA English Department. Artaud's brand
of surrealist theatre had a profound impact
on Morrison's dark poetic sensibility of cinematic
theatricality. Morrison completed his undergraduate
degree at UCLA's film school within the Theater
Arts department of the College of Fine Arts
in 1965. He never went to the graduation ceremony,
and had his diploma mailed to him. He made
several short films while attending UCLA.
First Love, the first of these films, made
with Morrison's classmate and roommate Max
Schwartz, was released to the public when
it appeared in a documentary about the film
Obscura. During these years, while living
in Venice Beach, he became friends with writers
at the Los Angeles Free Press. Morrison was
an advocate of the underground newspaper until
his death in 1971. He later conducted a lengthy
and in-depth interview with Bob Chorush and
Andy Kent, both working for the Free Press
at the time, and was planning on visiting
the headquarters of the busy newspaper shortly
before leaving for Paris.
The Doors
In the summer of 1965, after graduating with
a degree from the UCLA film school, Morrison
led a bohemian lifestyle in Venice Beach.
Living on the rooftop of a building inhabited
by his old UCLA cinematography friend, Dennis
Jakobs, he wrote the lyrics of many of the
early songs the Doors would later perform
live and record on albums, the most notable
being "Moonlight Drive" and "Hello, I Love
You". According to Jakobs, he lived on canned
beans and LSD for several months. Morrison
and fellow UCLA student, Ray Manzarek, were
the first two members of the Doors, forming
the group during that summer. They had met
months earlier as cinematography students.
The now-legendary story claims that Manzarek
was lying on the beach at Venice one day,
where he accidentally encountered Morrison.
He was impressed with Morrison's poetic lyrics,
claiming that they were "rock group" material.
Subsequently, drummer John Densmore and guitarist
Robby Krieger joined. Krieger auditioned at
Densmore's recommendation and was then added
to the lineup. All three musicians shared
a common interest in the Maharishi Mahesh
Yogi's meditation practices at the time, attending
scheduled classes, but Morrison was not involved
in this series of classes, claiming later
that he "did not meditate."
The Doors took their name from the title of
Aldous Huxley's book The Doors of Perception.
Huxley's own title was a quotation from William
Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, in
which Blake wrote: "If the doors of perception
were cleansed everything would appear to man
as it is, infinite." Although Morrison was
known as the lyricist of the group, Krieger
also made significant lyrical contributions,
writing or co-writing some of the group's
biggest hits, including "Light My Fire", "Love
Me Two Times", "Love Her Madly", and "Touch
Me". On the other hand, Morrison, who didn't
write most songs using an instrument, would
come up with vocal melodies for his own lyrics,
with the other band members contributing chords
and rhythm. Morrison did not play an instrument
live or in the studio. However, he did play
the grand piano on "Orange County Suite" and
a Moog synthesizer on "Strange Days".
In June 1966, Morrison and the Doors were
the opening act at the Whisky a Go Go in the
last week of the residency of Van Morrison's
band Them. Van's influence on Jim's developing
stage performance was later noted by John
Densmore in his book Riders On The Storm:
"Jim Morrison learned quickly from his near-namesake's
stagecraft, his apparent recklessness, his
air of subdued menace, the way he would improvise
poetry to a rock beat, even his habit of crouching
down by the bass drum during instrumental
breaks." On the final night, the two Morrisons
and their two bands jammed together on "Gloria".
In November 1966, Morrison and the Doors produced
a promotional film for "Break on Through",
which was their first single release. The
film featured the four members of the group
playing the song on a darkened set with alternating
views and close-ups of the performers while
Morrison lip-synched the lyrics. Morrison
and the Doors continued to make short music
films, including "The Unknown Soldier", "Moonlight
Drive", and "People Are Strange".
The Doors achieved national recognition after
signing with Elektra Records in 1967. The
single "Light My Fire" spent three weeks at
number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart
in July/August 1967. Later, the Doors appeared
on The Ed Sullivan Show, a popular Sunday
night variety series that had introduced the
Beatles and Elvis Presley to the United States.
Ed Sullivan requested two songs from the Doors
for the show, "People Are Strange" and "Light
My Fire". Sullivan's censors insisted that
the Doors change the lyrics of the song "Light
My Fire" from "Girl we couldn't get much higher"
to "Girl we couldn't get much better" for
the television viewers; this was reportedly
due to what was perceived as a reference to
drugs in the original lyrics. After giving
assurances of compliance to the producer in
the dressing room, Morrison told the band
"we're not changing a word" and proceeded
to sing the song with the original lyrics.
Sullivan was not happy and he refused to shake
hands with Morrison or any other band member
after their performance. He had a show producer
tell the band that they would never appear
on The Ed Sullivan Show again. Morrison reportedly
said to the producer, in a defiant tone, "Hey
man. We just 'did' the Sullivan Show!"
By the release of their second album, Strange
Days, the Doors had become one of the most
popular rock bands in the United States. Their
blend of blues and dark rock tinged with psychedelia
included a number of original songs and distinctive
cover versions, such as their rendition of
"Alabama Song", from Bertolt Brecht and Kurt
Weill's opera, Rise and Fall of the City of
Mahagonny. The band also performed a number
of extended concept works, including the songs
"The End", "When the Music's Over", and "Celebration
of the Lizard". In 1966, photographer Joel
Brodsky took a series of black-and-white photos
of Morrison, in a photo shoot known as "The
Young Lion" photo session. These photographs
are considered among the most iconic images
of Jim Morrison and are frequently used as
covers for compilation albums, books, and
other memorabilia of the Doors and Morrison.
In late 1967 at an infamous concert in New
Haven, Connecticut, he became the first rock
singer ever to get arrested on stage, an incident
that further added to his mystique and emphasized
his rebellious image.
In 1968, the Doors released their third studio
album, Waiting for the Sun. The band performed
on July 5 at the Hollywood Bowl, this performance
became famous with the DVD: Live at the Hollywood
Bowl. It's also this year that the band played,
for the first time, in Europe. Their fourth
album, The Soft Parade, was released in 1969.
It was the first album where the individual
band members were given credit on the inner
sleeve for the songs they had written. Previously,
each song on their albums had been credited
simply to "The Doors". On September 6 and
7, 1968, the Doors played four performances
at The Roundhouse, London, England with Jefferson
Airplane which were filmed by Granada for
a television documentary "The Doors are Open"
directed by John Sheppard. Around this time,
Morrison—who had long been a heavy drinker—started
showing up for recording sessions visibly
inebriated. He was also frequently late for
live performances. As a result, the band would
play instrumental music or force Manzarek
to take on the singing duties to subdue the
impatient audience.
By March 1969, the formerly svelte singer
had gained weight, grown a beard and mustache,
and had begun dressing more casually—abandoning
the leather pants and concho belts for slacks,
jeans and T-shirts. During a March 1, 1969
concert at the Dinner Key Auditorium in Miami,
Morrison attempted to spark a riot in the
audience. He failed, but a warrant for his
arrest was issued by the Dade County Police
department three days later for indecent exposure.
Consequently, many of The Doors' scheduled
concerts were canceled. In September 1970,
Morrison was convicted of indecent exposure
and profanity. Morrison, who attended the
sentencing "in a wool jacket adorned with
Indian designs", silently listened as he was
sentenced for six months in prison and had
to pay a $500 fine. Morrison remained free
on a $50,000 bond. At the sentencing, Judge
Murray Goodman told Morrison that he was a
"person graced with a talent" admired by many
of his peers.
In 2007 Florida Governor Charlie Crist suggested
the possibility of a posthumous pardon for
Morrison, which was announced as successful
on December 9, 2010. Drummer John Densmore
denied Morrison ever exposed himself on stage
that night.
Following The Soft Parade, The Doors released
Morrison Hotel. After a lengthy break the
group reconvened in October 1970 to record
what would become their final album with Morrison,
titled L.A. Woman. Shortly after the recording
sessions for the album began, producer Paul
A. Rothchild—who had overseen all of their
previous recordings—left the project. Engineer
Bruce Botnick took over as producer.
Poetry and film
Morrison began writing in earnest during his
adolescence. At UCLA he studied the related
fields of theater, film, and cinematography.
He self-published two separate volumes of
his poetry in 1969, titled The Lords / Notes
on Vision and The New Creatures. The Lords
consists primarily of brief descriptions of
places, people, events and Morrison's thoughts
on cinema. The New Creatures verses are more
poetic in structure, feel and appearance.
These two books were later combined into a
single volume titled The Lords and The New
Creatures. These were the only writings published
during Morrison's lifetime. Morrison befriended
Beat poet Michael McClure, who wrote the afterword
for Danny Sugerman's biography of Morrison,
No One Here Gets Out Alive. McClure and Morrison
reportedly collaborated on a number of unmade
film projects, including a film version of
McClure's infamous play The Beard, in which
Morrison would have played Billy the Kid.
After his death, a further two volumes of
Morrison's poetry were published. The contents
of the books were selected and arranged by
Morrison's friend, photographer Frank Lisciandro,
and girlfriend Pamela Courson's parents, who
owned the rights to his poetry.
The Lost Writings of Jim Morrison Volume I
is titled Wilderness, and, upon its release
in 1988, became an instant New York Times
Bestseller. Volume II, The American Night,
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 Angeles and
the second was on December 8, 1970. The latter
recording session was attended by Morrison's
personal friends and included a variety of
sketch pieces. Some of the segments from the
1969 session were issued on the bootleg album
The Lost Paris Tapes and were later used as
part of the Doors' An American Prayer album,
released in 1978. The album reached No. 54
on the music charts. Some 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: An
American Pastoral, a project he started in
1969. Morrison financed the venture and formed
his own production company in order to maintain
complete control of the project. Paul Ferrara,
Frank Lisciandro and Babe Hill assisted with
the project. Morrison played the main character,
a hitchhiker turned killer/car thief. Morrison
asked his friend, composer/pianist Fred Myrow,
to select the soundtrack for the film.
Personal life
Morrison's family
Morrison's early life was a nomadic existence
typical of military families. Jerry Hopkins
recorded Morrison's brother, Andy, explaining
that his parents had determined never to use
physical corporal punishment such as spanking
on their children. They 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. Once Morrison graduated from
UCLA, he broke off most contact with his family.
By the time Morrison's music ascended to the
top of the charts 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 Doors'
self-titled debut album. George Morrison was
not supportive of his son's career choice
in music. One day, an acquaintance brought
over a record thought to have Jim on the cover.
The record was the Doors self-titled debut.
The young man played the record for Morrison's
father and family. Upon hearing the record,
Morrison's father wrote him a letter telling
him "to give up any idea of singing or any
connection with a music group because of what
I consider to be a complete lack of talent
in this direction." In a letter to the Florida
Probation and Parole Commission District Office
dated October 2, 1970, Morrison's father acknowledged
the breakdown in family communications as
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 and that he was proud of him nonetheless.
Relationships
Morrison met his long-term companion, Pamela
Courson, well before he gained any fame or
fortune, and she encouraged him to develop
his poetry. At times, Courson used the surname
"Morrison" with his apparent consent or at
least lack of concern. After Courson's death
on April 25, 1974, the probate court in California
decided that she and Morrison had what qualified
as a common-law marriage. Morrison and Courson's
relationship was a stormy one, with frequent
loud arguments and periods of separation.
Biographer Danny Sugerman surmised that part
of their difficulties may have stemmed from
a conflict between their respective commitments
to an open relationship and the consequences
of living in such a relationship.
In 1970, Morrison participated in a Celtic
Pagan handfasting ceremony with rock critic
and science fiction/fantasy author Patricia
Kennealy. Before witnesses, one of them a
Presbyterian minister, the couple signed a
document declaring themselves wed, but none
of the necessary paperwork for a legal marriage
was filed with the state. Kennealy discussed
her experiences with Morrison in her autobiography
Strange Days: My Life With and Without Jim
Morrison and in an interview reported in the
book Rock Wives.
Morrison also reportedly regularly had sex
with fans such as Josépha Karcz who wrote
a novel about their night together, and had
numerous short flings with females connected
with the music business or the print media.
They included Nico, the singer associated
with The Velvet Underground, a one night stand
with singer Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane,
an on-again, off-again relationship with 16
Magazine's Gloria Stavers as well as an alleged
alcohol-fueled encounter with Janis Joplin.
David Crosby said many years later Morrison
treated Joplin poorly at a party at the home
of John Davidson while Davidson was out of
town. She allegedly attacked him with a bottle
of booze in front of witnesses, and that ended
their only encounter. At the time of his death
there were at least three paternity actions
pending against him, although no claims were
made against his estate by any of the putative
paternity claimants.
Death
Morrison joined Courson in Paris in March
1971. They took up residence in the city in
a rented apartment on the rue Beautreillis,
and went for long walks throughout the city,
admiring the city's architecture. During this
time, Morrison shaved his beard and lost some
of the weight he had gained in the previous
months. Morrison died on July 3, 1971 at age
27. In the official account of his death,
he was found in a Paris apartment bathtub
by Courson. Pursuant to French law, no autopsy
was performed because the medical examiner
stated that there was no evidence of foul
play. The absence of an official autopsy has
left many questions regarding Morrison's cause
of death. In Wonderland Avenue, Danny Sugerman
discussed his encounter with Courson after
she returned to the United States. According
to Sugerman's account, Courson stated that
Morrison had died of a heroin overdose, having
inhaled what he believed to be cocaine. Sugerman
added that Courson had given him numerous
contradictory versions of Morrison's death,
saying at times that she had killed Morrison,
or that his death was her fault. Courson's
story of Morrison's unintentional ingestion
of heroin, followed by his accidental overdose,
is supported by the confession of Alain Ronay,
who has written that Morrison died of a hemorrhage
after snorting Courson's heroin, and that
Courson nodded off instead of phoning for
medical help, leaving Morrison bleeding to
death.
Ronay confessed in an article in Paris that
he then helped cover up the circumstances
of Morrison's death. In the epilogue of No
One Here Gets Out Alive, Hopkins and Sugerman
write that Ronay and Agnès Varda say Courson
lied to the police who responded to the death
scene, and later in her deposition, telling
them Morrison never took drugs. In the epilogue
to No One Here Gets Out Alive, Hopkins says
that 20 years after Morrison's death, Ronay
and Varda broke their silence and gave this
account: They arrived at the house shortly
after Morrison's death and Courson said that
she and Morrison had taken heroin after a
night of drinking. Morrison had been coughing
badly, had gone to take a bath, and vomited
blood. Courson said that he appeared to recover
and that she then went to sleep. When she
awoke sometime later Morrison was unresponsive,
so she called for medical assistance. Hopkins
and Sugerman also claim that Morrison had
asthma and was suffering from a respiratory
condition involving a chronic cough and vomiting
blood on the night of his death. This theory
is partially supported in The Doors in which
they claim Morrison had been coughing up blood
for nearly two months in Paris, but none of
the members of The Doors were in Paris with
Morrison in the months prior to his death.
According to a Madame Colinette, who was at
the cemetery that day mourning the recent
loss of her husband, she witnessed Morrison's
funeral at Père Lachaise Cemetery. The ceremony
was "pitiful," with several of the attendants
muttering a few words, throwing flowers over
the casket, then leaving quickly and hastily
within minutes as if their lives depended
upon it. Those who attended included Alain
Ronay, Agnès Varda, Bill Siddons, Courson,
and Robin Wertle. In the first version of
No One Here Gets Out Alive, published in 1980,
Sugerman and Hopkins gave some credence to
the rumor that Morrison may not have died
at all, calling the fake death theory “not
as far-fetched as it might seem”. This theory
led to considerable distress for Morrison's
loved ones over the years, notably when fans
would stalk them, searching for evidence of
Morrison's whereabouts.
In 1995, a new epilogue was added to Sugerman's
and Hopkins's book, giving new facts about
Morrison's death and discounting the fake
death theory saying, “As time passed, some
of Jim and Pamela [Courson]'s friends began
to talk about what they knew, and although
everything they said pointed irrefutably to
Jim's demise, there remained and probably
always will be those who refuse to believe
that Jim is dead and those who will not allow
him to rest in peace.” In July 2007, Sam
Bernett, a former manager of the Rock 'n'
Roll Circus nightclub, released a book titled
"The End: Jim Morrison". In it Bernett alleges
that instead of dying of a heart attack in
a bathtub, Morrison overdosed on heroin on
a toilet seat in the nightclub. He claims
that Morrison came to the club to buy heroin
for Courson then used some himself and died
in the bathroom. Morrison's body was then
moved back to his rue Beautreillis apartment
and dumped into the bathtub by the two drug
dealers from whom Morrison had purchased the
heroin. Bernett says those who saw Morrison
that night were sworn to secrecy in order
to prevent a scandal for the famous club,
and that some of the witnesses immediately
left the country. There have been many other
conspiracy theories surrounding Morrison's
death but are less supported by witnesses
than are the accounts of Ronay and Courson.
Grave site
Morrison is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery
in Paris, one of the city's most visited tourist
attractions. The grave had no official marker
until French officials placed a shield over
it, which was stolen in 1973. Initially, the
grave was unmarked, and listed in the cemetery
directory with Morrison's name incorrectly
rearranged as "Douglas James Morrison." In
1981, Croatian sculptor Mladen Mikulin voluntarily
placed a bust of his own design and a new
gravestone with Morrison's name at the grave
to commemorate the 10th anniversary of his
death; the bust was defaced through the years
by cemetery vandals and later stolen in 1988.
Mikulin made another bust of Morrison in 1989,
and a bronze portrait of him in 2001; neither
piece is at the gravesite. In the early 1990s
Morrison's father George Stephen Morrison,
after consulting with E. Nicholas Genovese,
Professor of Classics and Humanities, San
Diego State University, placed a flat stone
on the grave. The bronze plaque thereon bears
the Greek inscription: ΚΑΤΑ ΤΟΝ ΔΑΙΜΟΝΑ
ΕΑΥΤΟΥ, literally meaning "according
to own self-daemon, i.e., guiding spirit,"
to convey the sentiment "True to Himself."
Estate controversy
In his last will, notarized in Los Angeles
on February 12, 1969, Morrison bequeathed
his entire estate to Pamela Courson, naming
her co-executor with his attorney, Max Fink.
Subsequently, she inherited everything upon
Morrison’s death. Courson died of a heroin
overdose in 1974, leaving her parents as her
sole heirs. Like Morrison, she was also 27
years old at the time of her death. Morrison's
parents then contested Morrison's will. Courson's
parents then produced an unsigned document
which they claimed Pam Courson had acquired
in Colorado, an application for a marriage
license. This was an effort to get Courson
declared Morrison's common-law spouse, thereby
solidifying their claim on Morrison's estate.
However, there is no evidence that Jim Morrison
or Pam Courson even knew of the existence
of this unsigned document, nor had either
party ever resided in Colorado. The ability
to contract a common-law marriage was abolished
in California in 1896. However, California's
conflict of laws rule provided for recognition
of common-law marriages when lawfully contracted
in foreign jurisdictions, and Colorado recognizes
common-law marriage.
Artistic influences
As a naval family the Morrisons relocated
frequently. Consequently Morrison's early
education was routinely disrupted as he moved
from school to school. Nonetheless he was
drawn to the study of literature, poetry,
religion, philosophy and psychology, among
other fields. Biographers have consistently
pointed to a number of writers and philosophers
who influenced Morrison's thinking and, perhaps,
his behavior. While still in his teens Morrison
discovered the work of philosopher Friedrich
Nietzsche. He was also drawn to the poetry
of William Blake, Charles Baudelaire and Arthur
Rimbaud. Beat Generation writers such as Jack
Kerouac also had a strong influence on Morrison's
outlook and manner of expression; Morrison
was eager to experience the life described
in Kerouac's On the Road. He was similarly
drawn to the work of French writer Louis-Ferdinand
Céline. Céline's book, Voyage au Bout de
la Nuit and Blake's Auguries of Innocence
both echo through one of Morrison's early
songs, "End of the Night". Morrison later
met and befriended Michael McClure, 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. Morrison's vision of performance
was colored by the works of 20th-century French
playwright Antonin Artaud and by Julian Beck's
Living Theater.
Other works relating to religion, mysticism,
ancient myth and symbolism were of lasting
interest, particularly Joseph Campbell's The
Hero with a Thousand Faces. James Frazer's
The Golden Bough also became a source of inspiration
and is reflected in the title and lyrics of
the song "Not to Touch the Earth". Morrison
was particularly attracted to the myths and
religions of Native American cultures. While
he was still in school, his family moved to
New Mexico where he got to see some of the
places and artifacts important to the American
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 interpretation of
the practices of a Native American "shaman"
were worked into parts of Morrison's stage
routine, notably in his interpretation of
the Ghost Dance, and a song on his later poetry
album, The Ghost Song. Jim Morrison's vocal
influences included Elvis Presley and Frank
Sinatra, which is evident in his own baritone
crooning style used in several of The Doors
songs and in the 1981 documentary The Doors:
A Tribute to Jim Morrison, Producer Paul Rothchild
refers his first impression of Morrison as
being a "Rock and Roll Bing Crosby". It is
mentioned within the pages of No One Here
Gets Out Alive by Danny Sugerman, that Morrison
as a teenager was such a fan of Presley's
music that he demanded people be quiet when
Elvis was on the radio. The Frank Sinatra
influence is mentioned in the pages of The
Doors, The Illustrated History also by Sugerman,
where Frank Sinatra is listed on Morrison's
Band Bio as being his favorite singer. Reference
to this can also be found in a Rolling Stone
article about Jim Morrison, regarding the
Top 100 rock singers of all time.
Legacy
Musical
Morrison was, and continues to be, one of
the most popular and influential singer-songwriters
in rock history. To this day Morrison is widely
regarded as the prototypical rock-star: surly,
sexy, scandalous, and mysterious. The leather
pants he was fond of wearing both onstage
and off have since become stereotyped as rock-star
apparel. In 2011, a Rolling Stone readers'
pick placed Jim Morrison in fifth place of
the magazine's "Best Lead Singers of All Time".
Iggy and the Stooges are said to have formed
after lead singer Iggy Pop was inspired by
Morrison while attending a Doors concert in
Ann Arbor, Michigan. One of Pop's most popular
songs, "The Passenger", is said to be based
on one of Morrison's poems. After Morrison's
death, Pop was considered as a replacement
lead singer for The Doors; the surviving Doors
gave him some of Morrison's belongings and
hired him as a vocalist for a series of shows.
Wallace Fowlie, professor emeritus of French
literature at Duke University, wrote Rimbaud
and Jim Morrison, subtitled "The Rebel as
Poet – A Memoir". In this he recounts his
surprise at receiving a fan letter from Morrison
who, in 1968, thanked him for his latest translation
of Arthur 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. The book The Doors by the remaining
Doors quotes Morrison's close friend Frank
Lisciandro as saying that too many people
took a remark of Morrison's that he was interested
in revolt, disorder, and chaos “to mean
that he was an anarchist, a revolutionary,
or, worse yet, a nihilist. Hardly anyone noticed
that Jim was paraphrasing Rimbaud and the
Surrealist poets.”
Layne Staley, the late vocalist of Alice in
Chains, Scott Weiland, the vocalist of Stone
Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver, Julian
Casablancas of The Strokes, James LaBrie of
Dream Theater, as well as Scott Stapp of Creed
and Ville Valo of H.I.M., have all claimed
Morrison to be their biggest influence and
inspiration. Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet
Revolver have both covered "Roadhouse Blues"
by The Doors. Weiland also filled in for Morrison
to perform "Break On Through" with the rest
of The Doors. Stapp filled in for Morrison
for "Light My Fire", "Riders on the Storm"
and "Roadhouse Blues" on VH1 Storytellers.
Creed performed their version of "Roadhouse
Blues" with Robby Krieger for the 1999 Woodstock
Festival.
Jim's recital of his poem "Bird Of Prey" can
be heard throughout the song "Sunset" by Fatboy
Slim.
The song Wasting the Dawn by The 69 Eyes is
a tribute to Jim Morrison. The music video
shows Jim Morrison or "his ghost", which is
portrayed by Ville Valo.
Popular culture
Rock band Bon Jovi featured Morrison's grave
in their "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" video
clip. The band Radiohead mentions Jim Morrison
in their song "Anyone Can Play Guitar", stating
"I wanna be wanna be wanna be Jim Morrison".
Singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey mentions Jim
Morrison in the song "Gods & Monsters" from
the album "Born To Die: Paradise Edition".
Alice Cooper in the liner notes of the album
Killer stated that the song "Desperado" is
about Jim Morrison. The leather pants of U2's
Bono's "The Fly" persona for the Achtung Baby
era and subsequent Zoo TV Tour is attributed
to Jim Morrison. On their 2008 album The Hawk
Is Howling Scottish post-rock band Mogwai
entitled the opening track "I'm Jim Morrison,
I'm Dead". The song "The Irony of Dying on
Your Birthday" by the band Senses Fail features
the lyrics: "I wanna die like Jim Morrison
/ A f*****g rock star / I wanna die like God
on the cover of Time. / Just a blink and it's
gone / So baby pour some fame in my glass."
Professional wrestler John Hennigan's persona
John Morrison was inspired by Jim Morrison,
and the name of his finishing move was taken
from The Doors' Moonlight Drive.
In June 2013, a new fossil analysis revealed
a lizard, one of the largest ever known that
lived on Myanmar, was given the moniker Barbaturex
morrisoni in honor of Morrison. "This is a
king lizard, and he was the lizard king, so
it just fit," said Jason Head, a paleontologist
at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
In Stephen King's post-apocalypse novel The
Stand, Stu Redman tells a story about one
night in 1982 when he was working the overnight
shift at a gas station and a man stopped for
a fill-up; he is sure that the man was Jim
Morrison. "He was a goodlookin' man, but in
a way that was a little scary –- I mean,
he looked like he might do scary things without
thinkin' very hard about em...he had the eyes
of a man who has been trying to look into
the dark for a long time and has maybe begun
to see what is there."
In the movie The Lost Boys, there is a poster
of Morrison on the wall of the cave where
the vampires live.
In Death Becomes Her Bruce Willis's character
encounters an unnamed character who dresses,
speaks and appears like Morrison and who is
one of the undying clique in the movie.
The animated television show The Simpsons
has made numerous references to Morrison,
including Krusty the Klown singing Break On
Through; Otto Mann telling Homer that "me
and the admiral do not get along"; and mention
of Morrison's grave. Another reference, "I
am the lizard queen!" Is bellowed by Lisa
Simpson at the end of her encounter with psychedelic
theme-ride river water at Duff Gardens.
In Wayne's World 2, Wayne has a dream in which
he meets Jim Morrison and a "weird naked Indian".
In the movie The Banger Sisters, a reference
to Goldie Hawn's character's lizard tattoo
is made referring to Jim Morrison as the Lizard
King. Also Hawn's character asks Susan Sarandon
about visiting the large Paris cemetery where
'Jim' is buried in reference to Morrison.
The Pere Lachaise Cemetery.
Steve Taylor recorded a song called "Jim Morrison's
Grave" on his "I Predict 1990" album.
Lana del Rey referenced Jim Morrison in her
song Gods and Monsters.
Discography
Books
By Morrison
The Lords and the New Creatures. 1985 edition:
ISBN 0-7119-0552-5
An American Prayer privately printed by Western
Lithographers.
Arden lointain, edition bilingue, trad. de
l'américain et présenté par Sabine Prudent
et Werner Reimann. [Paris]: C. Bourgois. 157
p. N.B.: Original texts in English, with French
translations, on facing pages. ISBN 2-267-00560-3
Wilderness: The Lost Writings Of Jim Morrison.
1990 edition: ISBN 0-14-011910-8
The American Night: The Writings of Jim Morrison.
1991 edition: ISBN 0-670-83772-5
About Morrison
Linda Ashcroft, Wild Child: Life with Jim
Morrison, ISBN 1-56025-249-9
Lester Bangs, "Jim Morrison: Bozo Dionysus
a Decade Later" in Main Lines, Blood Feasts,
and Bad Taste: A Lester Bangs Reader, John
Morthland, ed. Anchor Press ISBN 0-375-71367-0
Stephen Davis, Jim Morrison: Life, Death,
Legend, ISBN 1-59240-064-7
John Densmore, Riders on the Storm: My Life
With Jim Morrison and the Doors ISBN 0-385-30447-1
Dave DiMartino, Moonlight Drive ISBN 1-886894-21-3
Steven Erkel, "The Poet Behind the Doors:
Jim Morrison's Poetry and the 1960s Countercultural
Movement"
Wallace Fowlie, Rimbaud and Jim Morrison ISBN
0-8223-1442-8
Jerry Hopkins, The Lizard King: The Essential
Jim Morrison ISBN 0-684-81866-3
Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman, No One Here
Gets Out Alive ISBN 0-85965-138-X
Mike Jahn, "Jim Morrison and the Doors"Library
of Congress Catalog Card Number 71-84745
Dylan Jones, Jim Morrison: Dark Star, ISBN
0-7475-0951-4
Patricia Kennealy, Strange Days: My Life With
and Without Jim Morrison ISBN 0-525-93419-7
Gerry Kirstein, "Some Are Born to Endless
Night: Jim Morrison, Visions of Apocalypse
and Transcendence" ISBN 1451558066
Frank Lisciandro, Morrison: A Feast of Friends
ISBN 0-446-39276-6, Morrison — Un festin
entre amis
Frank Lisciandro, Jim Morrison: An Hour For
Magic ISBN 0-85965-246-7, James Douglas Morrison
Ray Manzarek, Light My Fire ISBN 0-446-60228-0L.
First by Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman
Peter Jan Margry, The Pilgrimage to Jim Morrison's
Grave at Père Lachaise Cemetery: The Social
Construction of Sacred Space. In idem, Shrines
and Pilgrimage in the Modern World. New Itineraries
into the Sacred. Amsterdam University Press,
2008, p. 145–173.
Thanasis Michos, The Poetry of James Douglas
Morrison ISBN 960-7748-23-9
Daveth Milton, We Want The World: Jim Morrison,
The Living Theatre, and the FBI, ISBN 978-0957051188
Mark Opsasnick, The Lizard King Was Here:
The Life and Times of Jim Morrison in Alexandria,
Virginia ISBN 1-4257-1330-0
James Riordan & Jerry Prochnicky, Break on
through: The Life and Death of Jim Morrison
ISBN 0-688-11915-8
Adriana Rubio, Jim Morrison: Ceremony...Exploring
the Shaman Possession ISBN
Howard Sounes. 27: A History of the 27 Club
Through the Lives of Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix,
Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, and
Amy Winehouse, Boston: Da Capo Press, 2013.
ISBN 0-306-82168-0.
The Doors with Ben Fong-Torres, The Doors
ISBN 1-4013-0303-X
Films
Documentaries featuring Morrison
The Doors Are Open
Live in Europe
Live at the Hollywood Bowl
Feast of Friends
The Doors: A Tribute to Jim Morrison
The Doors: Dance on Fire
The Soft Parade, a Retrospective
The Doors: No One Here Gets Out Alive
Final 24: Jim Morrison, The Biography Channel
When You're Strange
Rock Poet: Jim Morrison
Morrison's Mustang – A Vision Quest to Find
The Blue Lady
Mr. Mojo Risin': The Story of L.A. Woman
The Doors Live at the Bowl ‘68
The Doors: R-Evolution
Films about Morrison
The Doors, A film by director Oliver Stone,
starring Val Kilmer as Morrison and with cameos
by Krieger and Densmore. Kilmer's performance
was praised by some critics. Ray Manzarek,
The Doors' keyboardist, harshly criticized
Stone's portrayal of Morrison, and noted that
numerous events depicted in the movie were
pure fiction. David Crosby on an album by
CPR wrote and recorded a song about the movie
with the lyric: "And I have seen that movie
– and it wasn’t like that – he was mad
and lonely – and blind as a bat.".
References
External links
Works by or about Jim Morrison in libraries
Jim Morrison at the Internet Movie Database
Earliest film of Jim Morrison
The Doors - The Crystal Ship on YouTube
A lost painting collaboration with Jim Morrison
intended for his American Prayer Album
George Washington High School Alumni Association,
Alexandria, Va., Morrison page
