| Jim Morrison
James Douglas "Jim" Morrison, (December 8, 1943 – July 3, 1971) was a singer, songwriter, writer, and poet. Born in Melbourne, Florida, he was 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 an early music video ("The Unknown Soldier").
Biography
Of Scottish ancestry, Morrison was the son of Admiral George Stephen Morrison and Clara Clark Morrison, who met in Hawaii in 1941 where Steve Morrison, then an ensign, was stationed.
In 1943, a pregnant Clara Morrison moved to Clearwater, Florida to live with her in-laws (Paul and Caroline Morrison) while Steve Morrison trained as a pilot at a nearby base for the United States Navy. Once Ensign Morrison's flight training was complete in the spring of 1944, he left to serve in the Pacific front for the duration of World War II. (Later he would achieve the rank of Admiral and command the local fleet from his flagship, USS Bon Homme Richard (CVA-31) during the Tonkin Gulf incident.) Clara stayed in Florida with her new son; her husband would not return to see his family until the summer of 1946. The Morrisons then had a daughter, Anne Robin (born in 1947 in Albuquerque, New Mexico) and a son, Andrew "Andy" Lee (born 1948 in Los Altos, California).
Morrison graduated from George Washington High School in Alexandria, Virginia in June 1961. Morrison's 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 still afforded a favorable tuition but was too far away for a reasonable commute. Morrison thus moved close to the FSU campus where, for a time, he was a roommate of George Greer, and appeared in a school recruitment film [1].
In January 1964, urged on by an FSU professor, Morrison headed for Los Angeles, California where he completed his undergraduate education at UCLA, majoring in film.
With The Doors
In 1965, after graduating from film school at UCLA, Morrison led a Bohemian lifestyle in nearby Venice Beach. Due to a regimen of little food and lots of LSD, by 1966 the formerly pudgy Morrison had trimmed down to the chiseled rock-god immortalized in the famed series of black-and-white photos taken by photographer Joel Brodsky. Known as "The Young Lion" photo session, it included the iconic, bare-chested "Christ" pose, a shot that was featured on the Best of the Doors LP cover (shown at right).
Morrison wowed fellow UCLA student Ray Manzarek with a reading of his lyrics for "Moonlight Drive," and the two then formed The Doors. They were soon joined by drummer John Densmore. Guitarist Robby Krieger auditioned at Densmore's recommendation, and was immediately added to the lineup.
The name The Doors came from an Aldous Huxley book, The Doors of Perception, which, in its turn, borrowed from a line of poetry by William Blake: "If the doors of perception were cleansed, every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite."
The Doors' sound was a significant innovation, dominated by Morrison's deep, sonorous baritone voice, against the interplay of Manzarek's keyboards, Krieger's flamenco and classically influenced guitar style and Densmore's crisp, fluid drumming. The Doors were unique because they didn't have a 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, Kreiger also made significant lyrical contributions, writing or co-writing some of the group's biggest hits, including "Light My Fire" and "Touch Me."
Morrison and Manzarek's film school education was put to effective use early on in the band's career. Decades before music videos became common-place, Morrison and The Doors produced a promotional film for Break On Through, which was to be their first single release. The video 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-synced the lyrics. Morrison and The Doors continued to make innovative music videos, including ones for The Unknown Soldier and People Are Strange.
The Doors were first noticed on the national level in the spring of 1967 after signing to the Elektra Records label. The single "Light My Fire," written by Krieger, hit number one in June 1967. Three months later, The Doors appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show, a popular Sunday night variety series that had earlier introduced a young, wriggling Elvis Presley and the Beatles to the United States. The incident became very notorious after the censors insisted that they change the lyrics of "Light My Fire" from "Girl we couldn't get much higher" to "Girl we couldn't get much better", because of the reference to drugs in the original lyric. But Morrison sang the song with the original lyrics anyway, on live TV. This infuriated host Ed Sullivan so much that he refused to shake their hands after their performance and they were never invited back.
By the release of their second album, Strange Days, The Doors had became one of the most popular rock bands in the United States. Their blend of blues, jazz and rock tinged with psychedelia had never before been heard. The Doors' eclectic repertoire included a swag of stunning original songs and distinctive cover versions, such as the memorable rendition of "Alabama Song," from Bertholt Brecht and Kurt Weill's operetta, "Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny." The four also broke new ground in rock music with their extended concept works, including the famous epic songs, "The End" and "When The Music's Over," and the extended suite which they played in concert, "The Celebration of the Lizard."
Morrison famously lived by an oft repeated quote from William Blake: "The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom." Even before the formation of The Doors, he took copious amounts of LSD in the band's early years, but soon switched to alcohol, which he began to consume in herculean proportions, and he reportedly indulged in various bacchanalia. He would sometimes show up for recording sessions extremely inebriated (he can be heard hiccupping on the song "Five To One"). Such excesses eventually took their toll; By 1969, the formerly svelte, 5 ft 11 in singer began to balloon due to his rapidly escalating drinking. Although the cover of the 1970 Absolutely Live LP depicts a trim, clean-shaven, leather-trousered Morrison on the front, this photo had in fact been taken about two years earlier. By the time of the tour on which the live album was recorded, Morrison was 20 pounds heavier (175 pounds). It was during this time that he tried to get away from the "Lizard King" image -- he grew a beard and started wearing regular slacks and jeans and T-shirts.
During a 1969 concert at The Dinner Key Auditorium in Miami, an intoxicated Morrison attempted to spark a riot among those in attendance. He failed but a warrant for his arrest was issued by the Dade County Police department for indecent exposure some three days later while the band was vacationing in Jamaica. Morrison was ultimately convicted of indecent exposure and public profanity. Fallout from that event resulted in much negative publicity and the cancellation of many of The Doors' scheduled concerts.
Following Morrison's conviction, The Doors began to change direction with the production and successful release of the Morrison Hotel / Hard Rock Cafe LP. It featured much grittier, blues-based sound and saw the group returning to its blues and R&B roots. By this time they had all but exhausted the cache of songs that Morrison had written in the early days of the group, and which had provided most of the material on their first three LPs.
After a lengthy break, the group reconvened in late 1970 to record what proved to be their last LP with Morrison, L.A. Woman. It solidified the group's return to its musical roots and featured songs that would quickly become among its most popular, including the title track, the pounding "Texas Radio and the Big Beat" and the album's epic closer "Riders on the Storm," which instantly became an FM radio staple.
The L.A. Woman album also witnessed another major change in the group's recording career. Shortly after sessions began, producer Paul A. Rothchild -- who had overseen all their previous recordings -- walked off the project, disenchanted with the band's new material, which he dismissed as "lounge music" and was "bored" after the band ran through the material in a bad manner. Long-serving engineer Bruce Botnick took over and produced an album that many fans consider The Doors' best after their 1967 debut. Several of Morrison's vocals were performed in the bathroom at The Doors' offices, due to the excellent acoustics, particularly in relation to the reverberation quality.
Among Morrison's more famous nicknames are "Mr. Mojo Risin', " an anagram of his name, which he eventually used as a refrain in his final single, "L.A. Woman", and "The Lizard King" from a line in his famed epic poem Celebration of the Lizard, part of which appeared on The Doors' 1968 album Waiting for the Sun and which was finally captured in full on the Absolutely Live double LP released in 1970. Absolutely Live was a compilation of selected live material recorded at different venues ranging from Detroit, New York, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. The live version of "Celebration of the Lizard" was recorded in front of a sold out crowd at the Aquarius theater in Los Angeles in the summer of 1969.
Death
Morrison moved to Paris in March 1971 with the intention of taking a break from performing and concentrating on his writing. Hoping to get his life back on track, Morrison lost a great deal of weight and shaved off his beard.
He died on July 3, 1971, and was found in his bathtub at the age of 27 by Pamela Courson. Many fans and biographers have speculated that the cause of death was a drug overdose, but according to the official report, the cause of death was heart failure. No autopsy was performed because the medical examiner, pursuant to French law, found no evidence of foul play or criminality. The lack of an official autopsy left many questions unanswered and provided a fertile breeding ground for speculation and rumor. "The Best part of Having a Cancer is you can smoke as much as you want" - A Cancer Paitent
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