Jim Morrison

James Douglas Morrison (December 8, 1943 – July 3, 1971) was an American singer, songwriter, and poet who was the lead vocalist and primary lyricist of the rock band the Doors. Due to his charismatic persona, poetic lyrics, distinctive voice, and unpredictable performances, along with the dramatic circumstances surrounding his life and early death, Morrison is regarded by music critics and fans as one of the most influential frontmen in rock history. Since his death, his fame has endured as one of popular culture's top rebellious and oft-displayed icons, representing the generation gap and youth counterculture.

Together with keyboardist Ray Manzarek, Morrison founded the Doors in 1965 in Venice, California. The group spent two years in obscurity until shooting to prominence with its number-one hit single in the United States " Light My Fire", which was taken from the band’s self-titled debut album. Morrison recorded a total of six studio albums with the Doors, all of which sold well and many of which received critical acclaim. He frequently gave spoken word poetry passages while the band was playing live. Manzarek said Morrison "embodied hippie counterculture rebellion".

Morrison developed an alcohol dependency, which at times affected his performances on stage. In 1971, Morrison died unexpectedly in a Paris apartment at the age of 27, amid several conflicting witness reports. Since no autopsy was performed, the cause of Morrison's death remains disputed. Note: Associated Press writer Verena von Derschau in Paris contributed to this report. Although the Doors recorded two more albums after Morrison died, his death greatly affected the band's fortunes, and they split up two years later. In 1993, Morrison was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with the other Doors members. ''Rolling Stone'', ''NME'', and ''Classic Rock'' have ranked him among the greatest rock singers of all time.

Biography

Early years and education

Morrison was born on December 8, 1943, in Melbourne, Florida, to Clara Virginia (née Clarke; 1919–2005) and Lt.(j.g.) George Stephen Morrison (1919–2008), later a rear admiral in the United States Navy. His ancestors were Irish, Scottish and English. In August 1964, Admiral Morrison was commanding U.S. naval forces during the Gulf of Tonkin incident. The following year, in 1965, the incident was a leading pretext used to justify U.S. engagement in the Vietnam War. Morrison had a younger sister, Anne Robin, who was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1947, and a younger brother, Andrew Lee Morrison, who was born in Los Altos, California in 1948.

In 1947, when he was three to four years old, Morrison allegedly witnessed a car crash in the desert, during which a truck overturned and some Native Americans were lying injured on the side of the road. He referred to this incident in the Doors' song " Peace Frog" from their 1970 album '' Morrison Hotel'', and in his spoken word performances "Dawn's Highway" and "Ghost Song" on the posthumous 1978 album '' An American Prayer''. Morrison described this incident as the most formative event of his life, and made repeated references to it in the imagery in his songs, poems, and interviews. Morrison believed the spirits or the ghosts of those "dead Indians leaped into issoul," and that he was "like a sponge, ready to sit there and absorb it."

Morrison's family does not recall this traffic incident happening in the way he told it. According to the Morrison biography '' No One Here Gets Out Alive'', his family did drive past a car crash on an Indian reservation when he was a child, and he was very upset by it. The book ''The Doors'', written by the surviving members of the band, explains how Morrison's account of the incident differed from that of his father, who is quoted as saying, "We went by several Indians. It did make an impression on him. 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 another book, his sister says that his version of the event is likely exaggerated, writing that, "he says we saw a dead Indian on the side of the road, and I don't even know if that's true." Subsequent research has established that the accident occurred on October 17, 1947, in which a truck was struck. One passenger, actually not an Indian, was killed on his way home to retire after finishing his last day of work.

Raised a military brat, Morrison spent part of his childhood in San Diego, completed third grade at Fairfax Elementary School in Fairfax County, Virginia, and attended Charles H. Flato Elementary School in Kingsville, Texas, while his father was stationed at NAS Kingsville in 1952. He continued at St. John's Methodist School in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and then Longfellow School Sixth Grade Graduation Program in San Diego.

In 1957, Morrison attended Alameda High School in Alameda, California for his freshman year and the first semester of his sophomore year. In 1959, his family returned to Northern Virginia, where he graduated from George Washington High School, now a middle school in Alexandria, in June 1961. While attending George Washington High School, Morrison maintained a grade average of 88 and tested in the top 0.1% with an IQ of 149.

1961–1963: Literary influences

Morrison's senior year English teacher later said, "Jim read as much and probably more than any student in class, but everything he read was so offbeat I had another teacher (who was going to the Library of Congress) 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, and attended St. Petersburg Junior College. In 1962, he transferred to Florida State University in Tallahassee, and appeared in a school recruitment film. At Florida State, Morrison was arrested on September 28, 1963, for disturbing the peace and petty larceny while drunk at a home Florida State Seminoles football game at Doak Campbell Stadium.

A voracious reader from an early age, Morrison was particularly inspired by the writings of several 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. Some of his formative influences were Plutarch's ''Parallel Lives'' and the works of the French Symbolist poet Arthur Rimbaud, whose style would later influence the form of Morrison's short prose poems. He was also influenced by William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Charles Baudelaire, Vladimir Nabokov, Molière, Franz Kafka, Albert Camus, Honoré de Balzac, Jean Cocteau, and most French existentialist philosophers.

1964–1965: College experience in Los Angeles

Morrison soon transferred to the film program at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he enrolled in Jack Hirschman's class on Antonin Artaud in UCLA's Comparative Literature program. Artaud's surrealist theater brand profoundly impacted 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. Refusing to attend the graduation ceremony, he went to Venice Beach in Los Angeles, and the university later mailed his diploma to his mother in Coronado, California.

While living in Venice Beach, Morrison befriended writers at the ''Los Angeles Free Press'', and he advocated for the publication until his 1971 death, conducting a lengthy and in-depth interview with Bob Chorush and Andy Kent of the ''Free Press'' in December 1970, and was planning to visit the headquarters of the busy newspaper shortly before leaving for Paris.

1965–1971: The Doors

In the middle of 1965, after graduating with a bachelor's degree from the UCLA film school, Morrison led a bohemian lifestyle in Venice Beach. Living on the rooftop of a building inhabited by his UCLA classmate, Dennis Jakob, he wrote the lyrics of many of the early songs the Doors would later perform live and record on albums, such as " Moonlight Drive" and " Hello, I Love You". According to fellow UCLA student Ray Manzarek, he lived on canned beans and LSD for several months.

Morrison and Manzarek, who had met months earlier as cinematography students, were the first members of the Doors, forming the group during that summer. Manzarek narrated the story that he was lying on Venice Beach one day when he coincidentally encountered Morrison. He was impressed with Morrison's poetic lyrics, claiming that they were "rock group" material. Subsequently, guitarist Robby Krieger and drummer John Densmore joined. 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 these series of classes.

Morrison was inspired to name the band after the title of Aldous Huxley's book '' The Doors of Perception'' (a reference to the unlocking of doors of perception through psychedelic drug use). Huxley's own concept was based on 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 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 did not 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 (except for maracas and tambourine for most shows, and harmonica on a few occasions) or in the studio (excluding maracas, tambourine, handclaps, and whistling). However, he did play the grand piano on " Orange County Suite" and a Moog synthesizer on " Strange Days".

In May 1966, Morrison reportedly attended a concert by the Velvet Underground at The Trip in Los Angeles, and Andy Warhol claimed in his book '' Popism'' that his "black leather" look had been heavily influenced by the dancer Gerard Malanga who performed at the concert. Conversely, Krieger and Manzarek claim that Morrison was inspired to wear leather pants by Marlon Brando from his role in '' The Fugitive Kind''. ''No One Here Gets Out Alive'' repeatedly mentions that Morrison was especially drawn to the look and posture of the ancient Greek king Alexander the Great. 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 Brian Hinton in his book ''Celtic Crossroads: The Art of Van Morrison'': "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". Van later described Jim as being "really raw. He knew what he was doing and could do it very well."

In November 1966, Morrison and the Doors produced a promotional film for " Break On Through (To the Other Side)", which was their first single release. The film featured the four group members 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", " Strange Days" and " People Are Strange".

On September 18, 1967, photographer Joel Brodsky took a series of black-and-white photos of a shirtless 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 related to Morrison and the Doors.

The Doors achieved national recognition in 1967 after signing with Elektra Records. The single " Light My Fire" spent three weeks at number one on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart in July/August 1967, a far cry from the Doors opening for Simon and Garfunkel or playing at a high school as they did in Connecticut that same year. Later on, the Doors appeared on ''The Ed Sullivan Show'', a popular Sunday night variety series that had given the Beatles and Elvis Presley national exposure. 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 reluctant assurances of compliance to the producer in the dressing room, in one version of the story, an angry and defiant Morrison told the band he wasn't changing a word and sang the song with the original lyrics deliberately; in another, Morrison sang mistakenly the unaltered lyric out of anxiety from performing on live television. Either way, Sullivan was unhappy and refused to shake hands with Morrison or any other band member after their performance. He then had a producer tell the band they would never appear on his show again, and their planned six further bookings were cancelled. In a defiant tone, Morrison said to the producer, "Hey, man. So what? 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 U.S. Their blend of blues and dark psychedelic rock 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".

On the evening of December 9, 1967, during a concert in New Haven, Connecticut, Morrison was arrested on stage in an incident that further added to his mystique and emphasized his rebellious image. Before the show, a police officer found Morrison and a woman in the showers backstage. Not recognizing the singer, the policeman ordered him to leave, to which Morrison mockingly replied, "Eat me." He was subsequently maced by the officer, and the show was delayed. Once onstage, he told the concertgoers an obscenity-filled version of the incident. New Haven police arrested him for indecency and public obscenity, but the charges were later dropped. Morrison was the first rock performer arrested onstage.

In 1968, the Doors released their third studio album, '' Waiting for the Sun''. On July 5, the band performed at the Hollywood Bowl; footage from this performance was later released on the DVD ''Live at the Hollywood Bowl''. While in Los Angeles, Morrison spent time with Mick Jagger, discussing their mutual hesitation and awkwardness about dancing in front of an audience, with Jagger asking Morrison's advice on "how to work for a big crowd".

On September 6 and 7, 1968, the Doors played in Europe for the first time, with four performances at the Roundhouse in London with Jefferson Airplane, which was filmed by Granada Television for the television documentary '' The Doors Are Open'', directed by John Sheppard. Around this time, Morrisonwho had long been a heavy drinkerstarted showing up for recording sessions visibly inebriated. He was also frequently appearing in live performances and studio recordings late or stoned.

By early 1969, the formerly svelte Morrison had gained weight, grown a beard, and begun dressing more casually, abandoning the leather pants and concho belts for slacks, jeans, and T-shirts. '' The Soft Parade'', the Doors' fourth album, was released later that year. It was the first album where each band member was given individual songwriting credit, by name, for their work. Previously, each song on their albums had been credited simply to "The Doors".

During a concert on March 1, 1969, at the Dinner Key Auditorium in Miami, a visibly intoxicated Morrison attempted to spark a riot in the audience, in part by screaming, "You wanna see my cock?" and other obscenities. Three days later, six warrants for his arrest were issued by the Dade County Public Safety Department for indecent exposure, among other accusations. Consequently, many of the Doors' scheduled concerts were canceled. On September 20, 1970, Morrison was convicted of indecent exposure and profanity by a six-person jury in Miami after a sixteen-day trial. Morrison, who attended the October 30 sentencing "in a wool jacket adorned with Indian designs", silently listened as he was sentenced to six months in prison and had to pay a $500 fine. However, Morrison remained free on a $50,000 bond while the verdict was being appealed. At the sentencing, Judge Murray Goodman told Morrison that he was a "person graced with a talent" admired by many of his peers.

Interviewed by Bob Chorush of the ''L.A. Free Press'', Morrison expressed both bafflement and clarity about the Miami incident:

On December 8, 2010the 67th anniversary of Morrison's birth Florida governor Charlie Crist and the state clemency board unanimously signed a complete posthumous pardon for Morrison. All the other members of the band, along with Doors' road manager Vince Treanor, have insisted that Morrison did not expose 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 their final album with Morrison, titled '' L.A. Woman''. Shortly after the recording sessions for the album began, producer Paul A. Rothchildwho had overseen all of their previous recordingsleft the project, and engineer Bruce Botnick took over as producer.

Death

After recording "L.A. Woman" with the other members of the Doors in Los Angeles, Morrison announced to the band his intention to go to Paris. His bandmates generally felt that it was a good idea. In March 1971, Morrison took a leave of absence from The Doors and joined girlfriend Pamela Courson in Paris at an apartment she had rented at in Le Marais, 4th arrondissement. In letters to friends, he described going alone for long walks through the city. During this time, he shaved his beard and lost some of the weight he had gained in the previous months. He also telephoned John Densmore to ask him how "L.A. Woman" was doing commercially; he was the last band member to ever speak with him.

On July 3, 1971, Morrison was found dead in the bathtub of the apartment at approximately by Courson. He was 27 years old. The official cause of death was listed as heart failure, although no autopsy was performed as it was not required by French law. Courson said that Morrison's last words, as he was bathing, were, "Pam, are you still there?"

Several individuals who say they were eyewitnesses, including Marianne Faithfull, claim that his death was due to an accidental heroin overdose. Sam Bernett, founder and manager of the Rock 'n' Roll Circus night club, affirmed that he had found Morrison unconscious in the club's bathrooms after a purported heroin overdose around and that his body was taken away from the club by two men supposed to be the drug dealers. Because of the lack of an autopsy, however, these statements could never be confirmed. According to music journalist Ben Fong-Torres, it was suggested that his death was kept a secret, and the reporters who had telephoned Paris were told that Morrison was not deceased but tired and resting at a hospital. Morrison's friend, film director Agnès Varda, admitted that she was the one who was responsible for hiding the incident from becoming public. In her last media interview before her death in 2019, Varda confirmed that she was one of the only four mourners to attend Morrison's burial.

Since his death there have been a number of conspiracy theories concerning Morrison's death.

Age 27 artist deaths

Morrison's death came two years to the day after the death of Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones and approximately nine months after the deaths of Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. All of these popular musicians died at the age of 27 in the same era, leading to the emergence of the 27 Club urban legend.

Personal life

Morrison's family

Morrison's early life was the semi-nomadic existence typical of military families. Jerry Hopkins recorded Morrison's brother, Andy, explaining that his parents had determined never to use corporal punishment such as spanking on their children. They instead instilled discipline by the military tradition known as "dressing down", which 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 his music ascended to the top of the charts (in 1967) he had not been in communication with his family for more than a year and falsely claimed that everyone in his immediate family was dead (or claimed that he was an only child). However, Morrison told Hopkins in a 1969 interview for ''Rolling Stone'' magazine that he did this because he did not want to involve his family in his musical career. His sister similarly believed that "he did it to protect my dad, who was moving up in the Navy, and to keep his life separate, not to shake it up on both sides."

Morrison's father was not supportive of his career in music. One day, Andy brought over a record thought to have Morrison on the cover, which was the Doors' debut album. 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, Admiral Morrison 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.

Morrison spoke fondly of his Scottish and Northern Irish ancestry and was inspired by Celtic mythology in his poetry and songs. '' Celtic Family Magazine'' revealed in its 2016 Spring Issue that his Morrison clan was originally from the Isle of Lewis in Scotland, while his Irish side, the Clelland clan who married into the Morrison line, were from County Down in Northern Ireland.

Relationships

Morrison was sought after by many as a photographer's model, confidant, romantic partner and sexual conquest. He had several serious relationships and many casual encounters. By many accounts, he could also be inconsistent with his partners, displaying what some recall as "a dual personality". Rothchild recalls, "Jim really was two very distinct and different people. A Jekyll and Hyde. When he was sober, he was Jekyll, the most erudite, balanced, friendly kind of guy... He was Mr. America. When he would start to drink, he'd be okay at first, then, suddenly, he would turn into a maniac. Turn into Hyde."Riordan and Prochnicky 1991. p. 21

One of Morrison's early relationships was with Mary Werbelow, whom he met on the beach in Clearwater, Florida, when they were teenagers in mid-1962. In a 2005 interview with the '' St. Petersburg Times'', she said Morrison spoke to her before a photo shoot for the Doors' fourth album and told her the first three albums were about her. She also stated in the interview that she was not a fan of the band and never attended a concert by them. Werbelow broke off the relationship in Los Angeles in mid-1965, a few months before Morrison began rehearsals. Manzarek said of Werbelow, "She was Jim's first love. She held a deep place in his soul." Manzarek also noted that Morrison's song "The End" was intended originally to be "a short goodbye love song to Mary", with the longer oedipal middle section a later addition.

Morrison spent the majority of his adult life in an open and at times very charged and intense relationship with Pamela Courson. Through to the end, Courson saw Morrison as more than a rock star, as "a great poet"; she constantly encouraged him and pushed him to write.Riordan and Prochnicky 1991. p. 95 Courson attended his concerts and focused on supporting his career. Like Morrison, she was described by many as fiery, determined and attractive, as someone who was tough despite appearing fragile. Manzarek called Pamela "Jim's other half" and said, "I never knew another person who could so complement his bizarreness."Riordan and Prochnicky 1991. p. 472

After her death in 1974, Courson was buried by her family as Pamela Susan Morrison. Her parents petitioned the court for inheritance of Morrison's estate. The probate court in California judged that she and Morrison had what qualified as a common-law marriage. Morrison's will at the time of his death named Courson as the sole heir.

Morrison dedicated his published poetry books ''The Lords and New Creatures'' and the lost writings ''Wilderness'' to Courson. A number of writers have speculated that songs like " Love Street", "Orange County Suite" and "Queen of the Highway", among other songs, may have been written about her. Though the relationship was "tumultuous" much of the time, and both also had relationships with others, they always maintained a unique and ongoing connection with one another until the end of Morrison's life.

Throughout his career, Morrison had regular sexual and romantic encounters with fans (including groupies) such as Pamela Des Barres or Poppy Martins (according to Zouzou), as well as ongoing affairs with other musicians, writers, and photographers involved in the music business. They included Nico; Eve Babitz, singer Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane; and editor Gloria Stavers of '' 16 Magazine'', as well as an alleged alcohol-fueled encounter with Janis Joplin. David Crosby stated many years later that Morrison treated Joplin cruelly at a party at the Calabasas, California

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