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American rock singer and rock lyric who achieved after his
death a cult position among fans. Morrison wished to be
accepted as a serious artist, and he published such
collections of poetry as An American Prayer (1970) and The
Lords and The New Creatures (1971). The song lyrics Morrison
wrote for The Doors much reflected the tensions of the time –
drug culture, the antiwar movement, avant-garde art. With his
early death Morrison has been seen as a voluntary victim of
the destructive forces in pop culture. However, he was not
ignorat about the consequences of fame and his position as an
idol. Morrison once confessed that "We're more interested in
the dark side of life, the evil thing, the night time."
"This is the end, beautiful friend.
It hurts to set you free,
But you'll never follow me.
The end of laughter and soft lies.
The end of nights we tried to die.
This is the... end."
James Douglas Morrison was born in Melbourne, Florida, on
December 8, 1943. His father, George “Steve” Morrison, was a
U.S. Navy admiral, born in Georgia in 1920. In 1942, after
graduating from the Naval Academy, he had married Clara
(Clarke) Morrison, the daughter of a lawyer. In 1946 he
returned from the Pacific and during the following years the
family moved according to his numerous postings. Jim was their
eldest son. When he began performing in public, he broke with
his father and mother and never saw them again. George
Morrison died in 2008.
Morrison was early interested in literature, he excelled at
school, and he had an IQ of 149. Morrison studied theatre arts
at the University of California. With his fellow student Ray
Manzarek, keyboardist, John Densmore, drummer, and Robbie
Kriger, guitarist, he formed a group which was in 1965
christened The Doors. They never added a bass player to their
group. Its name was taken from Aldous Huxley's book on
mescaline, The Doors of Perception, which quoted William
Blake's poem ("If the doors of perception were cleansed / All
things would appear infinite"). All the members of the band
read much, not only Morrison. Their first album, The Doors
(1967), mixed performances from Bertolt Brecht/Kurt Weil's
'Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)' to Willie Dixon's 'Back Door Man'.
It also included such Doors classics as 'Break on Through' (to
the Other Side)' and 'The End'. The lyrics Morrison wrote in
1965 dominated the first two Doors albums. In July 1967 the
band had its first single chart success with 'Light My Fire'.
Between childhood, boyhood,
-------------adolescence
& manhood (maturity) there
should be sharp lines drawn w/
Tests, deaths, feasts, rites
stories, songs & judgements
(from Wilderness, 1988)
Like in the late 1950s when the beatniks tried to unite jazz
and poetry, Morrison found from music a channel to project his
poetry, and add to it a theatrical aspect. Thus improvising
and unpredictableness was a part of the band's show on stage.
The mythical Lizard King, Morrison's alter ego, appeared first
in the best-selling record Waiting for the Sun (1968) in a
poem that was printed inside the record jacked. I was entitled
'The Celebration of the Lizard King'. Part of the lyrics were
used in 'Not to Touch the Earth' and the complete
'Celebration' appeared on record Absolutely Live (1970).
Morrison's drinking, exhibitionistic performances, and
drug-taking badly affected his singing and input at
recordings. "Let's just say I was testing the bounds of
reality," he confessed in 1969 in Los Angeles. "I was curious
to see what would happen. That's all it was: just curiosity."
In Miami in 1969 the audience thought it saw Jim's "snake" –
he was charged with exposing himself on stage, in full view of
10.000 people. The police did not arrest him on the spot, for
fear that it would cause a riot. Next year Morrison was
sentenced 8 months' hard labor and a $500 fine for "profanity"
and "indecent exposure", but he remained free while the
sentence was appealed against. The Soft Parade (1969), which
experimented with brass sections, was received with mixed
emotions but it had a hit single, 'Touch me'.
After Miami everything changed and Morrison put his leather
pants in closet. He grew a beard, started to take distance to
his fans, and devote more time with projects outside the band.
John Densmore has later told in an interview, that although he
knew Jim well, there was so much about him that he could not
find out. Possessed by his inner visions and urge to write and
create music, Morrison also had troubles to explain his aims.
He also felt that his time was running short: "O great creator
of being, grant us one more hour / to perform our art and
perfect our lives."
In April 1970 Morrison Hotel hit the lists in the U.S. and
England. It was hailed as a major comeback. One song on it,
'Queen of the Highway', was dedicated Pamela Courson, his
common-law wife, who called herself Pamela Morrison. Jim
called Pamela his "cosmic mate". Morrison had also an affair
with Linda Ashcroft from 1967 to 1971. With Patricia Kennealy,
a rock critic, he had romance which started in 1969;
supposedly they were joined in a Wiccan ceromony, known as a
Handfasting. Morrison did not take the ritual seriously.
On his 27th birthday, Morrison made the recordings at
Elektra's LA studio of his poetry, which later formed the
basis of An American Prayer. The Doors played their last
concert with Morrison in New Orleans. It was a disaster –
Morrison smashed the microphone into the stage, threw the
stand into the crowd and slumped down.
After finishing sessions for a new album, L.A. Woman, Morrison
escaped to Paris, where he hoped to follow literary career.
"See me change," he sang. He never came back from Paris. His
first book, The Lords and the New Creatures, was published by
Simon and Schuster in 1971. It went into paperback after
selling 15.000 in hardback. An earlier book, An American
Prayer, was privately printed in 1970, but not made widely
available until 1978. On 3 July 1971 Morrison was found death
in his bathtub. He had regurgitated a small amount of blood on
the night of July 2, but claimed he felt fine. Recently had
consulted a local doctor concerning a respitory problem.
Morrison was buried at Pére Lachaise cemetary in Paris, which
houses remains of many famous artists, statesmen and
legendaries from Edith Piaf to Oscar Wilde. In 1990 his
graffitti-covered headstone was stolen. Pamela Courson
Morrison, died in Hollywood of heroin overdose on April 25,
1974. In 1979 Francis Ford Coppola used The Doors' performance
of 'The End' in his Vietnam War film, Apocalypse Now, and in
1991 director Oliver Stone made the film biography The Doors,
starring Val Kilmer. Wilderness: The Lost Writings of Jim
Morrison was published in 1989. It was compiled from the
Morrison literary estate by his friends.
For further reading: No One Here Gets Out Alive by Danny
Sugerman (1980); Mr. Mojo Risin': Jim Morrison, the Last Holy
Fool by David Dalton and J.C. Suares (1991); Riders On The
Storm by John Densmore (1990); The Lizard King by Jerry
Hopkins (1992); Strange Days by Patricia Kennealy-Morrison
(1992); The Doors Complete Illustrated Lyrics by Danny
Sugerman (ed.); Break On Through by James Riordan and Jerry
Prochnicky (1992); Rimbaud and Jim Morrison: The Rebel As Poet
by Wallace Fowlie (1994); Angels Dance and Angels Die: The
Tragic Romance of Pamela and Jim Morrison by Patricia Butler
(1998); Light My Fire by Ray Manzarek (1998): Wild Child: Life
With Jim Morrison by Linda Ashcroft (1998); The Poet in Exile
by Ray Manzarek (2001); Jim Morrison: Life, Death, Legend by
Stephen Davis (2005) - SEE ALSO: John Lennon
Poems and other fiction and non-fiction by Jim Morrison:
* An American Prayer, 1970 (poems, privately printed)
* The Lords and the New Creatures, 1971 (poems) - Jumalat &
Uudet olennot: runoja (suom. Jantso Jokelin, 2006)
* Wilderness: The Lost Writings of Jim Morrison, 1989
* The American Night: The Writings of Jim Morrison, vol.1,
1990
* The American Night: The Writings of Jim Morrison, vol. 2,
1991
Selected discography:
* THE DOORS, 1967
* STRANGE DAYS, 1967
* WAITING FOR THE SUN, 1968
* THE SOFT PARADE, 1970
* ABSOLUTELY LIVE, 1970
* MORRISON HOTEL, 1971
* 13, 1971
* L.A. WOMAN, 1971
* OTHER VOICES, 1971 (without Morrison)
* FULL CIRCLE, 1972 (without Morrison)
* WEIRD SCENES INSIDE THE GOLD MINE, 1972
* THE BEST OF DOORS, 1973
* THE BEST OF THE DOORS, 1974
* AN AMERICAN PRAYER, 1978
* THE DOORS GREATEST HITS, 1980
* ALIVE, SHE CRIED, 1983
* IN CONCERT, 1991
* THE DOORS SOUNDTRACK, 1991
* AN AMERICAN PRAYER, 1995 (reissue with new material)
* GREATEST HITS, 1996
* LIVE IN HOLLYWOOD: HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE AQUARIUS THEATRE
PERFORMANCES, 2002
* PERCEPTION, 2007
Videos and films:
Jim Morrison collaborated on a screenplay with poet Michael
McClure and produced the film A Feast of Friends, 1970,
directed by Paul Ferrara. He had made films to accompany
'Break on Through' and the 1968 single 'The Unknown Soldier'.
HWY: An American Pastoral (1969), a 50-minute-long film in
which Morrison acted in the leading role, was made in
collaboration with Frank Lisciandro, Babe Hill, and Paul
Ferrara
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