Jim
Morrison was the lead singer and lyricist for the rock band The Doors, who
emerged from the Los Angeles clubs to be one of the top national acts at
the close of the 1960s. Morrison's dark and suggestive lyrics were
controversial, but his antics on stage were legendary: in 1969 he was
arrested for exposing himself to concertgoers in Miami, Florida. His
alcohol/drug abuse and open disdain for authority made him a rock hero;
his mysterious death in Paris, France at the age of 27 made him a pop
culture icon.
Morrison was buried at the historic Pere LaChaise
cemetery in Paris, where his grave has become a popular destination for
rock-n-roll pilgrims... Morrison nicknamed himself "Mr. Mojo
Risin'" (an anagram of Jim Morrison) and was also called the Lizard
King, a name taken from his poem "The Celebration of the Lizard
King," which was included in the 1968 album Waiting For the Sun.
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 theatre 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 Ray
Manzarek (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. Robbie Krieger and John Densmore 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 front man 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 break
up.
The Doors retreated to the studio, where they sounded musically rejuvenated on the hard-rocking Morrison Hotel (1970) and L.A. Woman (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 band mates, 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
