8. The life and poetry of Jim Morrison. People Are Strange.
J
ames
Douglas Morrison
(1943 –1971)
was an American
singer, songwriter,
writer, and poet.
He was best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the popular
American rock band The
Doors, and is considered to be one of the most charismatic
frontmen in the
history of rock
music. He was also an author of several poetry
books, a documentary, short film, and three early music
videos ("The Unknown Soldier", "Moonlight Drive",
and "People are Strange"). Morrison's death at the age of
27 in Paris stunned
his fans; the circumstances of his death and secret burial have been
the subject of endless rumours and play a significant part in the
mystique that continues to surround him.
Of Scottish and Irish ancestry, Morrison was the son of Admiral George Stephen Morrison and Clara Clarke Morrison, who met in Hawaii in 1941 where Steve Morrison, then an ensign, was stationed.
Morrison was born in Melbourne, Florida, some two years after his parents met. Six months later, Clara Morrison moved to Clearwater, Florida along with her infant son to live with her in-laws (Paul and Caroline Morrison) while her husband returned to the Pacific front for the duration of World War II.
According to Morrison, one of the most important events of his life occurred when he was a child in 1949, during a family road trip in New Mexico, when he and his parents and grandmother came across the scene of an accident in the desert. As he recites in the spoken-word bridge of his song "Peace Frog" and "The Ghost Song":
“ |
Indians scattered on dawn's highway bleeding Ghosts crowd the young child's fragile egg–shell mind. |
” |
Morrison said that he realized the Indians were bleeding to 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.
Morrison graduated from George Washington High School (now George Washington Middle School) in Alexandria, Virginia in June 1961. His father was transferred to Southern California that August. Morrison was sent to live with his paternal grandparents in Clearwater, Florida, where he attended classes at St. Petersburg Junior College.
He later transferred to Florida State University (1962-1963), which afforded a favorable tuition but was still too far away for a reasonable commute. Morrison thus moved close to the Florida State University (FSU) campus where, for a time, he was a roommate of George Greer, who later became a judge known for his involvement in the Terri Schiavo case, and appeared in a school recruitment film.
In January 1964, urged on by an FSU professor, Morrison headed for Los Angeles, California where he completed his undergraduate degree in UCLA's film school, the Theater Arts department of the College of Fine Arts in 1965. 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." .
The Doors (Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger and John Densmore).
The Doors' sound was a significant innovation, dominated by Morrison's wispy, sonorous baritone, against the interplay of Manzarek's keyboards, Krieger's classically influenced flamenco guitar style and Densmore's crisp, fluid drumming. The Doors were unique in that there was no bass guitar in the lineup. Manzarek provided bass lines on his newly-released Fender keyboard bass, a small bass-scale version of the famous Fender Rhodes electric piano. Although the group did augment their studio recordings with bass players (including Lonnie Mack), The Doors appeared as a four-piece in concert, apart from occasions when they were joined by special guests such as John Sebastian.
Lyrically, The Doors broke new ground in rock music, with Morrison's complex, surrealist, allusive 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 "Light My Fire", "Love Me Two Times" and "Touch Me."
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 rock tinged with psychedelia had never before been heard.
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, prose 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 titled The Lords and The New Creatures.
Much later, two posthumous 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 New York Times best seller. Volume 2, 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, his 27th 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' An American Prayer 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 was encouraged in his desire to believe in the value of his poetry by his close friend, and Beat poet, Michael McClure. McClure would later write the Afterword for Danny Sugerman's biography of Morrison in which he laments his friends death and his forgotten status as a poet. Danny Sugarman passed away in January 2005 of lung cancer. 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 the role of Billy The Kid.
Morrison moved to Paris in March 1971 with the intention of taking a break from performing and concentrating on his writing.
He died on July 3, 1971, at age 27. Morrison is buried in the famous Père Lachaise cemetery in eastern Paris.
Biographers have consistently pointed to a number of writers and philosophers who influenced Morrison's thinking and, perhaps, behavior. Richard Fariña's 1966 novel Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me is thought to have inspired the title of the blues song featured on the L.A Woman album. While still in his teens, Morrison discovered the works of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (after Morrison's death, John Densmore opined that the nihilism of "Nietzsche killed Jim"). He was also drawn to the dark poets of the 18th and 19th century, notably the British poet William Blake, and the French poets 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 works of the French writer Céline. Céline's book, Voyage au Bout de la Nuit (Journey to the End of the Night) and Blake's Auguries of Innocence both echo through one of Morrison's early songs, "End of the Night." Eventually Morrison got to meet and befriend 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.
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."
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 family moved to New Mexico where he got to see some of the places and artifacts important to 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 interpretation of the practices of a Native American "shaman" 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, Arthur Rimbaud.
Morrison remains one of the most popular and influential singers/writers in rock history, as The Doors' catalog has become a staple of classic rock radio stations. To this day, he 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.
Morrison's poetry
The Lords and The New Creatures (1969). 1985 edition:
An American Prayer (1970) privately printed by Western Lithographers, and an unauthorized version American Prayer in 1983 by now-defunct Zeppelin Publishing Company. (caution: the authenticity of the unauthorized edition has been disputed)
Wilderness The Lost Writings Of Jim Morrison (1988). 1990 edition.
The American Night: The Writings of Jim Morrison (1990). 1991 edition.