40 years gone, the legend of Jim Morrison has long since superseded the man himself to the point where clueless music journalists feel free to refer to his death as his “breaking on through to the other side,” a lyrical nod to the Doors’ 1967 classic single.
Such dimwitted tributes are, sadly, common currency. The image of the rebellious rocker valiantly passing over to the “other side” is a far more romantic notion than what occurred in reality (or at least in probability, as no autopsy was ever performed): Morrison and his junkie girlfriend took a suicidal cocktail of drugs overnight, leading the singer to vomit up his internal organs before slowly, and painfully, meeting his end in a Parisian bathtub.
The romantic image of Morrison is made even cuter due to the fact that he, by all accounts, was a misogynistic dog who’d fuck anything that walked on two legs, or maybe even three. Yet that’s what made him such a compelling figure: as a man, he was stirringly, disarmingly handsome and as a songwriter he was deceptively accomplished. He was the rock n’ roll ideal: irresistible and prodigiously talented.
While the abiding sonic image of the Doors as a group might be their longer, more psyched-up pieces, ‘Light my Fire’ was Robby Krieger’s baby and was driven by Ray Manzarek’s iconic keyboard melody. What Morrison brought to the party was a manic, almost primal energy, best exemplified by that distinctive guttural roar – he was in many ways the first singer to popularise shouting as an art among purveyors of white people music.
Where Morrison really excelled, and where he really helped the art form of the rock n’ roll frontman, was the way he could inject short, sharp bursts of unrestrained energy into a song; it’s no small feat that tracks like ‘Break on Through’ and ‘Five to One’ have barely aged in 40+ years. By the same token, he was equally adept composing twee, off-kilter poems to be spun into songs by his bandmates, best exemplified by ‘Moonlight Drive.’ Then there’s ‘The End,’ the still chilling first-person account of a young man struggling (and ultimately failing) to overcome an Oedipus Complex.
‘Break on Through (To the Other Side)’:
‘Moonlight Drive’:
‘The End’:
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I've just recently become completely enamored with The Doors. I think I've listened to The End a dozen times tonight, and I come on and this is here.
Great write-up. It's hard to write about Jim Morrison objectively and not get caught up in romantic pretense. He seems to elicit that reaction from most everyone.
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Only that ones that are chemically produced. Nice write-up, gonna listen to Strange Days today.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qRJIBtbc2c
07.05.11
Couldn't write lyrics?
The guy composed entire VOLUMES of poetry. He wanted to quit the band [i]several different times[/i] to focus more on his poetry. The only reason he started the band in the first place was as an outlet for his poetry. As for the "perfect frontman" bit, he was actually extremely shy as a frontman to start out, and once the band got big he was stoned out of his mind most of the time and couldn't even carry his own tunes.
The only reason he wasn't discarded as a complete freak and attention-craving lunatic was that sensitive, romantic side...the side that presented itself in his poetry.
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HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
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Lament for my cock
Sore and crucified
I seek to know you
Aquiring soulful wisdom
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For every bad verse of Jim's poetry that you quote, i can quote you 10 excellent verses. You have obviously never taken the time to read the lyrics to very many of his songs.
As for the "voice and charisma" qwe3: once again i will state the fact that Jim obviously had these attributes, but they were not present very often because he was either stoned, wasted, or both most of the time. The very reason that the Doors were not the biggest band of their time, and instead garnered a more cult-like following and image, is because Jim was terrible to work with and often a disastrous performer.
This comes not from me, by the way. This comes from study of the band's history and from knowing people who were alive and part of the L.A. scene in the time of the Doors.
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i will agree with you on Manzarek however, that guy is SEVERELY underappreciated.
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pretty sure you’re not a very good judge of these things and i’ll just be able to use your post to quote a bunch of bad verses right back at you
“You have obviously never taken the time to read the lyrics to very many of his songs”
actually i have. next
your original response to the comment about him being a poor lyricist was basically “but guys he wrote lots of poetry!”, as if that means he was automatically good at it. i mean his whole poetic rocker persona/schtick definitely helped his mystique, sure, but lol at you actually thinking it was a fundamental strength or that it actually holds up under scrutiny
“This comes not from me, by the way.”
just going to assume its the same people that trolled you into thinking jim morrison wrote good poetry
07.06.11
yeah and after one round of that you'll run out of excellent verses and I'll still have a plethora of bad ones to quote!
"As for the "voice and charisma" qwe3: once again i will state the fact that Jim obviously had these attributes, but they were not present very often because he was either stoned, wasted, or both most of the time. The very reason that the Doors were not the biggest band of their time, and instead garnered a more cult-like following and image, is because Jim was terrible to work with and often a disastrous performer. "
cool but irrelevant
"This comes not from me, by the way. This comes from study of the band's history and from knowing people who were alive and part of the L.A. scene in the time of the Doors."
did they not have any idea about what good poetry was either?
truth is the guy put a lot of "mysical" sounding words together and mixed it in with this rockish badboy thing he had which sort of made for a nice contrast but fuck it was terrible poetry hahaha
07.06.11
[quote]
Moment of inner freedom
when the mind is opened and the
infinite universe revealed
& the soul is left to wander
dazed & confus'd searching
here & there for teachers & friends.
Moment of Freedom
as the prisoner
blinks in the sun
like a mole
from his hole
a child's 1st trip
away from home
That moment of Freedom
LAmerica
Cold treatment of our empress
LAmerica
The Transient Universe
LAmerica
Instant communion and
communication
lamerica
emeralds in glass
lamerica
searchlights at twi-light
lamerica
stoned streets in the pale dawn
lamerica
robed in exile
lamerica
swift beat of a proud heart
lamerica
eyes like twenty
lamerica
swift dream
lamerica
frozen heart
lamerica
soldiers doom
lamerica
clouds & struggles
lamerica
Nighthawk
doomed from the start
lamerica
"That's how I met her,
lamerica
lonely and frozen
lamerica
& sullen, yes
lamerica
right from the start"
Then stop.
Go.
The wilderness between.
Go round the march.[/quote]
hahahahahahahahahahahahaha
07.07.11
lol
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