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). 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."

Jim Morrison was born in Melbourne, Florida. His father was a US Navy admiral and the family moved accrording to his father's numerous postings. 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 and John Densmore and Robbie Kriger he formed a group which was in 1965 christened The Doors.

The 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). Their first album, THE DOORS (1967), mixed performances from Bertold Brecht/Kurt Weil's 'Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)' to Willie Dixon's 'Back Door Man'. The lyrics Morrison wrote in 1965 dominated the first two Doors albums. The first single chart success came in July 1967 with 'Light My Fire'.

The mythical Lizard King, Morrison's alter ego, appeared first in the best-selling record WAITING FOR THE SUN (1968) in a poem that 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 and drug-taking badly afffected his singing and input at recordings. In Miami in 1969 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.

"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 Morrison's new wife, Pamela. 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.

"Lost in a Roman wilderness of pain.
And all the children are insane,
Waiting for the summer rain."

After finishing sessions for a new album, L.A. WOMAN, Morrison escaped to Paris, where he hoped to follow literary career. His first book, THE LORDS AND THE NEW CREATURES, went into paperback after selling 15.000 in hardback. On 3 July 1971 he was found death in his bathtub. Morrison 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.

STAR FISH GLUTTONY


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. His wife, 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.

Interviews Patricia Kennealy Morrison

(Patricia Kennealy met Jim Morrison in January 1969 at the Plaza Hotel in New York City, the day after the Doors had appeared at Madison Square Garden. A tall, attractive redhead, Patricia was then the editor of Jazz & Pop, an influential rock trade magazine. In June 1970, Jim and Patricia were married in a Celtic handfasting ceremony--an event that Oliver Stone later depicted in his 1991 film, The Doors. After Jim's death, Patricia wrote a memoir, Strange Days; she is also a noted science fiction writer whose latest novel, Blackmantle, was published to wide critical acclaim.

What did you think of the Oliver Stone movie which many people, ourselves included, admired.

PM: You mean the world's biggest music video? Jim Morrison, the man I love, the man I married, is nowhere in that film. What you see is a grotesque, sodden, buffoonish caricature, who could never have written the immortal songs he is supposedly being immortalized for. But the worst sin Oliver Stone committed is that you don't care that Jim Morrison is dead at the end of the film.

What was Jim's attitude toward the Doors? Did it change over time?

PM: At first they were a group of struggling artists all equally together. At the end they were four wealthy superstars struggling with a personal group dynamic that was anything but equal. I think by the time Jim left for Paris, it had become more an office relationship than a four way friendship. Jim told me that he never felt he had much in common with Robby or John, and that they felt the same about him. When Jim left LA in March 1971, he left the Doors as well--whether they knew it or not, whether they believed it or not.

How would you characterize Jim's personality?

PM: He didn't handle pain well. But pain for Jim, as for so many artists, was a source of creativity. I think that he thought if he stopped hurting, he'd stop creating...And he was hurtful to others because he was afraid of being hurt himself. He found it hard to accept love because he had never been given very much of it, and did not think himself worthy of love.

Was Jim self-destructive?

PM: Jim Morrison was most definitely not into destroying himself. That said, I must also say that since Jim was an alcoholic and not always in self-command, his instinct for creative adventuring, that edge-walking side of him, often pushed him into the borderlands of self-destructiveness--and sometimes right over.

What was Jim's attitude his last days in Paris?

PM: I had eight or ten cards and letters from him in the three months he spent there. Some were exalted and joyous and others were veiled in despair. The last letter he wrote me was mailed only a few days before he died. He wrote of how tired he was and how much he missed me. "My side is cold without you..." he told me. The letter was to weep for, and I did, and still do.

Did Jim talk much about Pam?

PM: We hardly ever talked about Pamela Courson. She had nothing to do with us. Jim kept his life very compartmentalized. And yes, I absolutely do believe she killed him, and nothing will ever persuade me otherwise. Not premeditated, perhaps--junkies don't think that far ahead--but in an attempt to hook him along with her, or to control him, or punish him for leaving her, as she knew he was about to do.

After twenty-six years, there is still the Morrison legend.

PM: Jim Morrison was a beautiful soul who had a deep sense of the absurd. To him, the thought of being an icon was repellent. He was one of the great iconoclasts of all time. I think he'd probably just laugh about his icon status--and then set everybody straight in that Southern gentleman way I love him for.