1. James Douglas "Jim" Morrison (born December 8, 1943 in Melbourne, Florida, United States – died July 3, 1971 in Paris, France) was an American singer, songwriter, poet, writer and filmmaker. He is best known as the lead singer and lyricist of The Doors and is widely considered to be one of the most charismatic frontmen in rock music history. He was also the author of several books of poetry and the director of a documentary and short film. Although Morrison was known for his baritone vocals, many fans, scholars and journalists alike have referenced his theatrical stage persona, self-destructive lifestyle and his work as a poet. He was ranked number 47 on Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Singers of All Time".
Morrison was born in Melbourne, Florida, to future Admiral George Stephen Morrison and Clara Clarke Morrison. Morrison had a sister, Anne Robin, who was born in 1947 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and a brother, Andrew Lee Morrison, who was born in 1948 in Los Altos, California. He was of Scottish, Irish, and English ethnic heritage. He reportedly had an I.Q. of 149.
In 1947, Morrison, then four years old, allegedly witnessed a car accident in the desert, where a family of Native Americans were injured and possibly killed. He referred to this incident in a spoken word performance on the song "Dawn's Highway" from the album An American Prayer, and again in the songs "Peace Frog" and "Ghost Song".
Indians scattered on dawn's highway bleeding
Ghosts crowd the young child's fragile eggshell mind
Morrison believed the incident to be the most formative event in his life and made repeated references to it in the imagery in his songs, poems, and interviews. Interestingly, his family does not recall this incident happening in the way he told it. According to the Morrison biography No One Here Gets Out Alive, Morrison's family did drive past a car accident on an Indian reservation when he was a child, and he was very upset by it. However, the book The Doors written by the remaining members of The Doors, explains how different Morrison's account of the incident was from the account of his father. This book quotes his father as saying, "We went by several Indians. It did make an impression on him [the young James]. 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 the same book, his sister is quoted as saying, "He enjoyed telling that story and exaggerating it. He said he saw a dead Indian by the side of the road, and I don't even know if that's true."
With his father in the United States Navy, Morrison's family moved often. He spent part of his childhood in San Diego, California. In 1958, Morrison attended Alameda High School in Alameda, California. However, he graduated from George Washington High School (now George Washington Middle School) in Alexandria, Virginia in June 1961. His father was also stationed at Mayport Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Florida.
Morrison went to live with his paternal grandparents in Clearwater, Florida where he attended classes at St. Petersburg Junior College. In 1962, he transferred to Florida State University (FSU) in Tallahassee where he appeared in a school recruitment film. While attending FSU Morrison was arrested for a prank, following a home football game.
In January 1964, Morrison moved to Los Angeles, California. He completed his undergraduate degree in UCLA's film school, the Theater Arts department of the College of Fine Arts in 1965. He made two films while attending UCLA. First Love, the first of these films, was released to the public when it appeared in a documentary about the film Obscura. During these years, while living in Venice Beach, he became friends with writers at the Los Angeles Free Press. Morrison was an advocate of the underground newspaper until his death in 1971.
Poetry and film
Morrison began writing in adolescence. In college, he studied the related fields of theater, film, and cinematography.
He self-published two volumes of his poetry in 1969, The Lords / Notes on Vision and The New Creatures. The Lords consists primarily of brief descriptions of places, people, events and Morrison's thoughts on cinema. The New Creatures verses are more poetic in structure, feel and appearance. These two books were later combined into a single volume titled The Lords and The New Creatures. These were the only writings published during Morrison's lifetime.
Morrison befriended Beat Poet Michael McClure, who wrote the afterword for Danny Sugerman's biography of Morrison, No One Here Gets Out Alive. McClure and Morrison reportedly collaborated on a number of unmade film projects to include a film version of McClure's infamous play The Beard in which Morrison would have played Billy the Kid.
After his death two volumes of Morrison's poetry were published. The contents of the books were selected and arranged by Morrison's friend, photographer Frank Lisciandro, and girlfriend Pamela Courson's parents, who owned the rights to his poetry. The Lost Writings of Jim Morrison Volume 1 is titled Wilderness, and, upon its release in 1988, became an instant New York Times best seller. Volume 2, The American Night, released in 1990, was also a success.
Morrison recorded his own poetry in a professional sound studio on two separate occasions. The first was in March 1969 in Los Angeles and the second was on December 8, 1970. The latter recording session was attended by Morrison's personal friends and included a variety of sketch pieces. Some of the segments from the 1969 session were issued on the bootleg album The Lost Paris Tapes and were later used as part of the Doors' An American Prayer album, released in 1978. The album reached number 54 on the music charts. The poetry recorded from the December 1970 session remains unreleased to this day and is in the possession of the Courson family.
Morrison's best-known but seldom seen cinematic endeavor is HWY: An American Pastoral, a project he started in 1969. Morrison financed the venture and formed his own production company in order to maintain complete control of the project. Paul Ferrara, Frank Lisciandro and Babe Hill assisted with the project. Morrison played the main character, a hitchhiker turned killer/car thief. Morrison asked his friend, composer/pianist Fred Myrow, to select the soundtrack for the film.
Personal life
Morrison's early life was a nomadic existence typical of military families. Jerry Hopkins recorded Morrison's brother Andy explaining that his parents had determined never to use corporal punishment on their children. They instead instilled discipline and levied punishment by the military tradition known as "dressing down". This 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 of his family contact. By the time Morrison's 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 his parents and siblings were dead (or claiming, as it has been widely misreported, that he was an only child). This misinformation was published as part of the materials distributed with The Doors' self-titled debut album.
In a letter to the Florida Probation and Parole Commission District Office dated October 2, 1970, Morrison's father 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 nonetheless.
Death
Morrison moved to Paris in March 1971, took up residence in an apartment, and went for long walks through the city, admiring the city's architecture.
During that time, Morrison grew a beard, and by all accounts, became depressed and was planning to return to the US.
It was in Paris that Morrison made his last studio recording with two American street musicians — a session dismissed by Manzarek as "drunken gibberish". The session included a version of a song-in-progress, "Orange County Suite", which can be heard on the bootleg The Lost Paris Tapes.
Morrison died on July 3, 1971. In the official account of his death, he was found in a Paris apartment bathtub by Courson. Pursuant to French law, no autopsy was performed because the medical examiner claimed to have found no evidence of foul play. The absence of an official autopsy has left many questions regarding Morrison's cause of death.
In Wonderland Avenue, Danny Sugerman discussed his encounter with Courson after she returned to the U.S. According to Sugerman's account, Courson stated that Morrison had died of a heroin overdose, having inhaled what he believed to be cocaine. Sugerman added that Courson had given numerous contradictory versions of Morrison's death, at times saying that she had killed her common-law husband, or that his death was her fault. Courson's story of Morrison's unintentional ingestion of heroin, followed by accidental overdose, is supported by the confession of Alain Ronay, who has written that Morrison died of a hemorrhage after snorting Courson's heroin, and that Courson nodded off, leaving Morrison bleeding to death instead of phoning for medical help.
Ronay confessed in an article in Paris-Match that he then helped cover up the circumstances of Morrison's death. In the epilogue of No One Here Gets Out Alive, Hopkins and Sugerman write that Ronay and Varda say Courson lied to police who responded to the death scene and later in her deposition, telling them Morrison never took drugs.
In the epilogue to No One Here Gets Out Alive, Hopkins says that 20 years after Morrison's death Ronay and Varda broke silence and gave this account: They arrived at the house shortly after Morrison's death and Courson said that she and Morrison had taken heroin after a night of drinking in bars. Morrison had been coughing badly, had gone to take a bath, and had thrown up blood. Courson said that he appeared to recover and that she then went to sleep. When she awoke sometime later Morrison was unresponsive and so she called for medical assistance.
Courson herself died of a heroin overdose three years later. Like Morrison, she was 27 years old at the time of her death.
However, in the epilogue of No One Here Gets Out Alive, Hopkins and Sugerman also claim that Morrison had asthma and was suffering from a respiratory condition involving a chronic cough and throwing up blood on the night of his death. This theory is partially supported in The Doors (written by the remaining members of the band) in which they claim Morrison had been coughing up blood for nearly two months in Paris. However, none of the members of the Doors were in Paris with Morrison in the months before his death.
In the first version of No One Here Gets Out Alive published in 1980, Sugerman and Hopkins gave some credence to the theory that Morrison may not have died at all, calling the fake death theory “not as far-fetched as it might seem”. This theory led to considerable distress for Morrison's loved ones over the years, notably when fans would stalk them. In 1995 a new epilogue was added to Sugarman and Hopkins' book, giving new facts about Morrison's death and discounting the fake death theory, saying “As time passed, some of Jim and Pamela [Courson's] friends began to talk about what they knew, and although everything they said pointed irrefutably to Jim's demise, there remained and probably always will be those who refuse to believe that Jim is dead and those who will not allow him to rest in peace.”
Morrison is buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in eastern Paris, one of the city's most visited tourist attractions. The grave had no official marker until French officials placed a shield over it which was stolen in 1973. In 1981, Croatian sculptor Mladen Mikulin placed a bust of Morrison and the new gravestone with Morrison's name at the grave to commemorate the 10th anniversary of his death; the bust was defaced through the years by cemetery vandals and later stolen in 1988. In the 1990s Morrison's father, George Stephen Morrison, placed a flat stone on the grave. The stone bears the Greek inscription: ΚΑΤΑ ΤΟΝ ΔΑΙΜΟΝΑ ΕΑΥΤΟΥ, literally meaning "according to his own daimōn" and usually interpreted as "true to his own spirit". Mikulin later made two more Morrison portraits in bronze but is awaiting the license to place a new sculpture on the tomb.
Artistic roots
As a naval family the Morrisons relocated frequently. Consequently Morrison's early education was routinely disrupted as he moved from school to school. Nonetheless he proved to be an intelligent and capable student drawn to the study of literature, poetry, religion, philosophy and psychology, among other fields.
Biographers have consistently pointed to a number of writers and philosophers who influenced Morrison's thinking and, perhaps, behavior. While still in his teens Morrison discovered the works of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. He was also drawn to the poetry of William Blake, Charles Baudelaire and Arthur Rimbaud. Beat Generation writers such as Jack Kerouac also had a strong influence on Morrison's outlook and manner of expression; Morrison was eager to experience the life described in Kerouac's On the Road. He was similarly drawn to the works of the French writer Louis-Ferdinand Céline. Céline's book, Voyage au Bout de la Nuit (Journey to the End of the Night) and Blake's Auguries of Innocence both echo through one of Morrison's early songs, "End of the Night". Morrison later met and befriended Michael McClure, a well known beat poet. McClure had enjoyed Morrison's lyrics but was even more impressed by his poetry and encouraged him to further develop his craft.
Morrison's vision of performance was colored by the works of 20th century French playwright Antonin Artaud (author of Theater and its Double) and by Julian Beck's Living Theater.
Other works relating to religion, mysticism, ancient myth and symbolism were of lasting interest, particularly Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces. James Frazer's The Golden Bough also became a source of inspiration and is reflected in the title and lyrics of the song "Not to Touch the Earth".
Morrison was particularly attracted to the myths and religions of Native American cultures. While he was still in school, his family moved to New Mexico where he got to see some of the places and artifacts important to the Southwest Indigenous cultures. These interests appear to be the source of many references to creatures and places such as lizards, snakes, deserts and "ancient lakes" that appear in his songs and poetry. His interpretation of the practices of a Native American "shaman" were worked into parts of Morrison's stage routine, notably in his interpretation of the Ghost Dance, and a song on his later poetry album, The Ghost Song. The songs "My Wild Love" and "Wild Child" were also inspired by his ideas of Native American rhythm and ritual. He also consumed 8 buttons of peyote and tripped for a week and wrote about seeing the "God of Peyote".
Influence
Morrison remains one of the most popular and influential singers/writers in rock history as The Doors' catalog has become a staple of classic rock radio stations. To this day he is widely regarded as the prototypical rock star: surly, sexy, scandalous and mysterious. The leather pants he was fond of wearing both on stage and off have since become stereotyped as rock star apparel.
Iggy and the Stooges are said to have formed after lead singer Iggy Pop was inspired by Morrison while attending a Doors concert in Ann Arbor, Michigan. One of Pop's most popular songs, "The Passenger", is said to be based on one of Morrison's poems. After Morrison's death, Pop was considered as a replacement lead singer for The Doors; the surviving Doors gave him some of Morrison's belongings and hired him as a vocalist for a series of shows.
Wallace Fowlie, professor emeritus of French literature at Duke University, wrote Rimbaud and Jim Morrison, subtitled "The Rebel as Poet – A Memoir". In this book, Fowlie recounts his surprise at receiving a fan letter from Morrison who, in 1968, thanked him for his latest translation of Arthur Rimbaud's verse into English. "I don't read French easily", he wrote, "...your book travels around with me." Fowlie went on to give lectures on numerous campuses comparing the lives, philosophies and poetry of Morrison and Rimbaud.
Scott Weiland, the vocalist of Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver, as well as Scott Stapp of Creed, claim Morrison to be their biggest influence and inspiration. Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver have both covered "Roadhouse Blues" by the Doors. Weiland also filled in for Morrison to perform "Break On Through" with the rest of the Doors. Stapp filled in for Morrison for "Light my fire", "Riders on the Storm" and "Roadhouse Blues" on VH1 Storytellers. Creed performed their version of "Riders on the Storm" with Robbie Krieger for the 1999 Woodstock Festival.
The book The Doors by the remaining Doors quotes Morrison's close friend Frank Lisciandro as saying that too many people took a remark of Morrison's that he was interested in revolt, disorder, and chaos “to mean that he was an anarchist, a revolutionary, or, worse yet, a nihilist. Hardly anyone noticed that Jim was restating Rimbaud and the Surreal poets.”
Jim Morrison is also sometimes referred to by the nicknames The Lizard King and Mr Mojo Risin' (anagram of Jim Morrison)
2. Jim Morrison is a guitarist based in Pasadena, TX, United States, who makes jazz and instrumental music. Some of his recent tracks (available on Spotify) include 'Revelation Visited', 'Dreamy' and 'Laguna Madre'.
An American Prayer
Jim Morrison Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Do you know we exist?
Have you forgotten the keys to the kingdom?
Have you been born yet and are you alive?
Let's reinvent the Gods, all the myths of the ages
Celebrate symbols from deep elder forests
Have you forgotten the lessons of the ancient war?
Fathers are cackling in trees of the forest
Our mother is dead in the sea
Do you know we are being led to slaughters by placid admirals
And the fats slow generals are getting obscene on young blood
Do you know we are ruled by TV?
The moon is dry blood beast
Guerrilla bands are rolling numbers
In the next block of green vine
Amassing for warfare on
Innocent herdsman who are just dying
Oh, great creator of being grant us one more hour
To perform our art and perfect our lives
Moths and atheists are doubly divine and dying
We live, we die, and death not ends it
Journey we more into the nightmare
Cling to life, our passioned flower
Cling to cunts and cocks of despair
We got our final vision by clap
Columbus's groin got filled with green death
I touched her thigh and death smiled
We have assembled inside this ancient and insane theatre
To propagate our lust for life
And flee the swarming wisdom of the streets
The barns are stormed
The windows kept and only one of all the rest
To dance and save us with the divine mockery of words
Music inflames temperament
When the true King's murderers are allowed to roam free
A thousand magicians arise in the land
Where are the feasts were promised?
Where is the wine?
The new wine, dying on the vine
The lyrics of An American Prayer are a commentary on the condition of American society in the late 1960s, delivered with the poetry and intensity that defined Jim Morrison’s work. The opening lines of the song draw the listener in with existential questions about human existence and the universe. The lines “Let’s reinvent the gods, all the myths of the ages / Celebrate symbols from deep elder forests” suggest a desire to create new cultural and spiritual myths to guide human behavior. The line “We need great golden copulations” is a call for humans to engage in passionate relationships and appreciate the beauty of sexuality.
The lyrics take a darker turn with the lines “Do you know we are being led to slaughters by placid admirals and fat slow generals? / Getting obscene on young blood?” This is a critique of the Vietnam War and the leaders who were sending young Americans off to fight and die. The line “Do you know we are ruled by T.V.?” is a statement on the influence of television on American culture and politics. Morrison seems to be suggesting that people are being influenced by the media instead of thinking for themselves.
The closing lines of the song express a desire for more time to create and appreciate art and beauty. The lines “We live, we die and death not ends it / Journey we more into the Nightmare / Cling to life Our passion’d flower / Cling to Cunts and cocks of despair” suggest a longing for life and passion, even in the midst of darkness and despair. The final lines of the song are a mournful plea for something more, echoing the disillusionment of a generation: “Where are the feasts we are promised / Where is the wine The New Wine / Dying on the vine.”
Line by Line Meaning
Do you know the warm progress under the stars?
Are you aware of the tranquil nature of the universe under the shine of the stars?
Do you know we exist?
Are you mindful that we are present and alive right now?
Have you forgotten the keys to the kingdom
Have you lost sight of the fundamental principles of existence?
Have you been borne yet and are you alive?
Have you been born and are you in the state of living?
Let's reinvent the gods, all the myths of the ages
Let's create anew some mystical beings and preserve the myths of the past
Celebrate symbols from deep elder forests
Admire and enjoy the ancient symbols from far-off forests
Have you forgotten the lessons of the ancient war
Have you overlooked the teachings of history's wars?
We need great golden copulations
We desire immense and powerful sexual encounters
The fathers are cackling in trees of the forest
The influential dads are laughing in the forest's trees
Our mother is dead in the sea
Our mother, the nurturing part of us, is gone in the deep oceans
Do you know we are being led to slaughters by placid admirals and fats slow generals are
Getting obscene on young blood?
Are you aware that calm admirals and sluggish generals are leading us to violent killing, while indulging in young blood?
Do you know we are ruled by T.V.?
Do you grasp that television controls our thoughts?
The moon is dry blood beast
The moon resembles a animal made of dry blood
Guerrilla bands are rolling numbers in the next block of green vine
The rebel groups are planning their offensive nearby in secrecy
Amassing for warfare on innocent herdsman who are just dying
Preparing to fight against defenseless peasants who are already dying
O great creator of being grant us one more hour
Please grant us more time, o mighty creator
To perform our art and perfect our lives
So that we can create and lead flawless lives
The moths and atheists are doubly divine and dying
The non-believers and those in despair are special and passing on
We live, we die and death not ends it
We are born, we die and death is not the end
Journey we more into the Nightmare
Let's venture further into the scary world we already exist in
Cling to life Our passion'd flower
Hold onto life, our beloved and zealously protected flower
Cling to Cunts and cocks of despair
Hold onto the miserable and shameful parts of ourselves
We got our final vision by clap
Our ultimate epiphany occurred through a sudden act
Columbus groin got filled with green death
What Columbus sought was ultimately poison
I touched her thigh and death smiled
When I caressed her leg, death seemed to relish the moment
We have assembled inside this ancient and insane theatre
We are gathered within this old and crazy auditorium
To propagate our lust for life and flee the swarming wisdom of the streets
In order to promote our strong desire to live and avoid the abundant adversity in the outside world
The barns are stormed, the windows kept and only one of all the rest
To dance and save us with the divine mockery of words
The buildings are under attack, the windows secured, and only one of us is capable of chanting and freeing us through clever humor
Music inflames temperament
Musical melodies stir people's moods
When the true King's murderers are allowed to roam
Free a 1000 Magicians arise in the land
When the actual murderers of the monarchy are set free, a thousand Magicians arise in the country to correct the wrongs
Where are the feasts we are promised
What happened to the wonderful festivities we were told we would get
Where is the wine The New Wine
Dying on the vine
What happened to the exciting and fresh wine that was supposed to be plentiful, it is dying like the grapes on the vine
Lyrics © Wixen Music Publishing
Written by: Jim Morrison, John Paul Densmore, Raymond D Manzarek, Robert A Krieger
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
김니키
The amount of views on this, especially for how long it's been up, breaks my heart. His poetry is SO underrated. Everyone knows "light my fire" and "break on through" but I don't personally know one person who knows his actual poetry. "Death makes angels of us all and gives us wings where we had shoulders smooth as ravens claws" is my favorite line of all time, since I was ten years old. I've never heard a more beautiful line. I only wish I could have been alive in this Era and been able to appreciate bands like the Doors and Zeppelin in person, in their prime. They don't make music like that, anymore.
Meet Patel
No more money, no more fancy dress.
Luis Herrera
Don’t worry, he’ll never die.
Dave Scheer
Death makes angel quote one of my favorite since 7th grade as well
Candice Simionescu
"... but I don't personally know one person who knows his actual poetry." ... Now you know one ..... 'cause i know almost all his poems.
MrBanderas39
Very cool guys n I apologized for my ridiculous ways thatht anger thank you if it wasn't for the music the poems thank heaven
Wendy Cooke
This right here is what makes me sad Jim didn't live. He had much more to say and give. If he took his time off the right way, from the whole rock star thing he was no longer wanting, he had the ability to get his poetry out because of his fame...he could have done both...do the music when it was time to and his poetry, he had so many years to do so many things.. but we will never know what could have been...anyway thanks Jim and the doors for what you did give
Matthew Douglas Pinard - CATHOLIC MYSTIC
Jim is alive
Randall White
It is what it is.
Matthew Douglas Pinard - CATHOLIC MYSTIC
Jim is alive and well