Last summer in Paris
Yes, the most incredible rumors have always circulated about the “crazy” lead singer of “The Doors” - this is how the name of the group “The Doors” is translated. Therefore, when on the morning of July 3, 1971, the band's manager Bill Siddons was once again informed of the death of Jim Morrison, he literally rose up: “Well, enough of that!” He was already used to the fact that Morrison regularly “died” every weekend. It became something of a running joke - every Monday Bill would greet Jim something like this: “It looks like you’re dead!” And Jim answered him: “Again? What about this time?” One day there was a rumor that he was blind; then died of a drug overdose; the next day he died in a car accident, and then ended up in a mental hospital and had both legs amputated.
But latest news was not another bluff and forced Bill Siddons to fly to Paris (it was where the musician spent his last summer). On July 6, at the apartment Jim was renting, the manager found his tear-stained girlfriend Pamela, a nailed-up coffin and a ready-made death certificate. It reported that James Douglas Morrison died on July 3, 1971 from a heart attack complicated by suffocation. The funeral, in which only 5 people took part - the closest friends, took place on July 7 in the afternoon at the Pere Lachaise cemetery. Neither relatives nor the three other Doors musicians were invited.
The general public was generally notified of what had happened only on July 10, when Siddons made a special statement to the press: On the 3rd, early in the morning, Jim returned home from a film show, he began to cough up blood, and was about to take a bath. After some time, his friend Pamela Courson found the musician already dead and called a doctor, who pronounced him dead. But no one took Siddons’ statement seriously - after all, this “official” version appeared only a week after his death, and this time was enough to create some kind of story. Moreover, it was difficult to imagine such an “ordinary” philistine death, knowing Morrison’s character and habitual way of life.
Life incompatible with life
James Douglas Morrison was born around 11 am on December 8, 1943 in Melbourne (USA). His father, George Stephen Morrison, a future Navy rear admiral, left for the war almost immediately after the birth of his son - World War II was in full swing. For the first 3 years of his life, Jim saw only his mother, but even after the end of the war, dad was too busy with work to devote time to raising the child. The family constantly “roamed” all over the country, following new and new assignments that the father received. Jim, who grew up practically without a man's hand, received not very pleasant character traits, did not know discipline, was capricious and willful.
The boy was not at all interested in his studies at school, but in the 5th grade he began writing poetry. After school, having studied at the university for only a year at the insistence of his parents, Jim ran away from there, entering the “cinematography” department, where he was never able to defend his diploma. But it was there that he began his musical career, “putting together” together with three other guys the rock group “The Doors”.
It goes without saying that the path of young talents to fame was not easy, but already in the spring of 1967 - a year and a half after the founding of the group - they released their first album, which turned the foundations of rock music upside down and became super popular. And the capricious Glory, having once overshadowed them with its wing, never left them.
True, for all the uniqueness of the Doors’ music, their lifestyle was no different from how most rock musicians of the sixties lived. A generation of nonconformists, despising the bigotry and social foundations of post-war America, sang liberalism and free love, symbols of which were alcohol and drugs. They liberated, releasing unconscious, almost animal forces. They helped musicians create masterpieces that had a truly inhuman power to influence the listener. But they were incompatible with the concepts of long life and quiet old age.
Jim also became strong friends with both alcohol and drugs, barely tearing himself away from his parents; because of this friendship, the group was often left without work. Morrison could easily have failed to show up for the performance or recording. And when he showed up, he was almost always drunk or “on acid.” He was rarely seen sober. But even if Jim Morrison had led a decent, righteous life, it would be difficult to imagine that only in old age would he meet the One whom he had sung all his life.
Taste of Death
From the beginning to the end of his short but brilliant career, Jim Morrison wrote about death, talked about death, and portrayed death on stage. His masterpiece, the ominous, shamanic composition “The End,” is all about death, which emanates from all his poetry and from the otherworldly music of the Doors.
Everyone who knew Morrison recognized that he was marked by early death and its constant anticipation.
Perhaps the most important event in Jim’s life happened in childhood, changed the world forever and was magically etched in his memory: the Morrison family was driving along the road from Albuquerque to Santa Fe when they witnessed a big car accident. Bloody people were lying all over the road, and although the 4-year-old boy saw the tragedy only from afar, he felt how nervous his parents were, and for the first time he felt fear, for the first time he saw what death was... and it became the mania of his whole life. “I don’t want to die in my sleep, or in old age, or from an overdose, I want to feel what death is, taste it, smell it. Death is given only once; I don’t want to miss it,” Morrison himself said.
And his performances had a completely otherworldly magical energy that gave him complete power over his listeners. He was not just a “vocalist,” he always acted out a real mystery on stage: he danced, presented, lived. Called a “shaman” and a “magician,” Jim could make a giant stadium listen to him, even if he whispered just a few words.
The stars confirm the “shamanic” calling of James Douglas Morrison, because the farthest from Earth and the most magical planet Pluto is amazingly strong in his horoscope. Pluto is located in Leo, the sign of its exaltation (i.e. maximum manifestation) and connects with the North Node of the Moon, which introduces an element of fatality into all events. In addition, Pluto interacts with the Luminaries - the Sun (Sagittarius, XI house) and the Moon (Taurus, III house), and is the energetic focus of the entire horoscope, “pulling upon itself” the influences of most planets. It was Pluto, who rules the kingdom of the dead, who painted Morrison’s life “in the shades of death,” and taught him to perfectly feel the energy of the crowd (it is also under the influence of Pluto) and control it.
Venus, being the highest planet in natal chart, predetermined his musical career. But it also “submits” to Pluto - located in the 1st degree of Scorpio. We can say that Morrison was a magician who influenced listeners through music (Pluto is in the 7th house, responsible for the audience). Jim explained the very name of the group “Doors” as follows: “Doors separating the known from the unknown,” that is, literally “doors to another world.” And these doors opened so wide that Morrison could no longer stay in this world for long. Pluto gave him too much and in return demanded to pay with his life.
A year before his death, he married a real witch who served the cult of the Big Mother (by the way, this is also a hypostasis of Pluto). In a day summer solstice 1970, Jim lost consciousness while writing his name in blood, according to the Celtic wedding rite. A couple of months later, the newlyweds separated, but Morrison lived only a year from the moment of that “bloody” wedding.
Deadly mystery
The mysterious circumstances of Jim Morrison's departure still haunt millions of his fans: Why was the funeral “arranged” so intimately? Why was the press statement late? Why was the medical report made without an autopsy, and why did the French police, known for their meticulousness, not record the fact of the musician’s death? And did he die at all - after all, at the funeral the coffin was nailed shut, and except for friend Pamela and friend Alan Ronay, no one saw Jim’s body? By the way, Jim's disappearance in July 1971 would indeed have been very beneficial to him. At that time, a trial was about to take place, in which he was to spend six months in prison for extremely indecent behavior at one of the concerts. Among some Doors fans there is still a belief that Jim is not dead at all, but is hiding somewhere.
His horoscope immediately rejects this assumption: taking into account the strongest position of Pluto, which we have already mentioned above, Morrison simply could not exist without concert “shamanism” and without collective energy, quietly living out his life in obscurity.
The causes of death in the natal chart of our hero are indicated by two planets - Mercury (in Capricorn in the XII house, it rules the VIII house of death) and Neptune (in Libra, in the VIII house), forming a square aspect between themselves. They indicate that death may be shrouded in mystery, associated with curiosity (Mercury), mistake, intoxication, poisoning, alcohol or drugs (Neptune). Morrison himself claimed that with the help of alcohol and drugs he was trying to “push the boundaries of consciousness and explore the unknown.” True, by the end of my life I already wanted to get rid of this craving “for the unknown,” but it was too late.
According to one rumor, before his death, Pamela Courson, a friend and witness of the last hours of his life, gave Jim “brown sugar” (Mexican heroin) to try, from which he died. Another rumor claims that Jim bought “smack” or “Chinese white heroin” for Pamela, who had been on the needle for a long time, in one of the Parisian clubs and died after taking too much of a dose out of curiosity. Biographers of the Doors do not recognize any of these versions, considering them unsubstantiated. In addition, the only witness has already followed Jim to the kingdom of Pluto: Pamela died in 1974 from an overdose of “Chinese white”, “celebrating” the inheritance she received from Jim by purchasing another dose.
But most importantly - stellar - the evidence speaks in favor of these versions. Jim Morrison's horoscope allows us to say that he, indeed, fell victim to a very large dose of alcohol or drugs. In addition, the stars say that July 1971 was supposed to be fatal in the musician’s life. In literally all astrological forecasting methods: directions, slow progressions and transits, the planets responsible for catastrophic situations (Mars, Saturn, Uranus, Pluto) make aspects to the top of the house of death at this time. The chances of avoiding death are too small.
So, to the disappointment of fans, James Douglas Morrison did indeed die on July 3, 1971.
But why was this death shrouded in such a veil of mystery? Let’s put the ephemeris aside and “turn on” logic, now the answer does not seem too complicated: everything was done to hide the true cause of death - drugs. Morrison's colleagues and peers - Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin - just like him, did not live to see the age of 28, passing away at the end of 1970. These two deaths were surrounded by enormous hype, which was extremely undesirable in the case of the Doors - the three remaining musicians of the group remained alive and, most likely, wanted to maintain their popularity and “piece of bread” at any cost. Therefore, they did not come to the funeral, distancing themselves from this situation. The “rock shaman’s” relations with his relatives were strained, and they were not interested in keeping the secret (Jim did not leave them a single cent in his will), and they did not invite relatives either. But why did the band's manager Bill Siddons fly to Paris only on the 4th day after receiving the sad news?
Most likely, during these three days he was looking for “levers of influence” that would help him not make the fact of death public (as already mentioned, it was not recorded in the police reports) and get a neutral doctor’s opinion about a “heart attack.” In this case, it is clear why Jim was buried in closed coffin– for the sake of maintaining secrecy, the body was not transferred to the police morgue, as it should have been. And in 4 days the July heat took its toll...
Why do poets die?
The biography of one of the most revered idols of the 20th century that passed before our eyes cannot be called surprising. “Real poets die young” has become too common. The weaknesses, imperfections and even vices of a true creator always seem as significant and important as his work. They are easy to justify, citing the sensitivity and vulnerability of nature, the callousness of a cruel world, and the originality of talent. However, something else is also true - no matter how serious these vices are, real talent is always recognized and revered by the very “cruel world”, despite them.
And, without a doubt, the best ending to the story of James Douglas Morrison will be his own words: “I see myself... as a huge fiery comet, a flying star. Everyone stops, points and whispers in amazement, “Look at this!” And then - blow, and I’m no longer there... and they’ll never see anything like that again... and they’ll never be able to forget me - never.”
(eng. Jim Morrison, full name James Douglas Morrison - English. James Douglas Morrison) - American singer, poet and musician, band leader. Born December 8, 1943 in Melbourne, Florida. Died July 3, 1971 in Paris.
Moves are common in military life, and one day, when Jim was only four years old, something happened in New Mexico that he later described as one of major events of his life: a truck with Indians overturned on the road, and their bloody bodies lay on the road. “I discovered death for the first time (...) I think at that moment the souls of those dead Indians, maybe one or two of them, were rushing around, writhing, and moved into my soul, I was like a sponge, readily absorbing them.”
Having entered UCLA, the Faculty of Cinematography, he leads a bohemian lifestyle, reads a lot, takes psychotropic substances, and is interested in mysticism and beatniks. Graduate work Jim receives a mixed reaction from the teachers, and he leaves the university with a scandal.
Soon, with his friend, also a UCLA student, Ray Manzarek, and joined by guitarist Robbie Krieger and drummer John Densmore, they created the quartet the Doors, taking the name from a line by William Blake: “If the doors of perception were cleansed,/Every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite” (Russian. When the doors of perception are clear / Everything appears as it is - infinite). The group began performing in local pubs and their performances were frankly weak, partly due to the amateurism of the musicians, partly because of Jim Morrison’s timidity: at first he was even embarrassed to turn his face to the audience and sang with his back to the audience. In addition, Jim often came to performances drunk. Fortunately for the group, they had an army of female fans, and another " last time The angry club owner turned into calls from girls asking when they would see “that hairy guy” again.
Soon the group was noticed by producer Paul Rothschild from the recently opened Elektra label, which had previously only released jazz performers, who risked offering the Doors a contract (the group entered Elektra's circle with such giants as Love). The group's first single, "Break On Through", entered the top ten of the US Billboard charts, and the next, "Light My Fire", took first place on the chart - an extremely successful debut. The Doors' first album, released in early 1967, also took first place in the charts and marked the beginning of Dorsomania. The use of hallucinogens, in particular LSD, had a direct impact on the work of Jim and the Doors: mysticism and shamanism became part of the stage act. “I am a Lizard king. I can do anything." - Jim said to himself in one of the songs (“I’m the lizard king, I can do anything”).
IN future fate Jim's life was a downward spiral: drunkenness, arrests for indecent exposure and fights with the police, the transformation from a girl's idol to a fat, bearded slob. More and more material was written by Robbie Krieger, less and less by Jim Morrison. Late concerts of The Doors consisted mostly of drunken Jim bickering with the audience. In 1971, the exhausted rock star goes with his friend Pamela Courson to Paris to relax and work on a book of poetry, where he soon dies. There are still rumors surrounding his death. It is believed that Morrison was killed. The only person to see his body was Pamela Carson, who died three years later.
Jim Morrison is buried in Paris at the Père Lachaise cemetery. His grave became a place of cult worship for fans, who covered the neighboring graves with inscriptions about their love for their idol and lines from The Doors songs.
In the early 90s, director Oliver Stone made the film “The Doors,” dedicated to Morrison. The role of the leader of The Doors was played by Val Kilmer.
In 1978, the album American Prayer was released: shortly before his death, Jim dictated his poems onto a tape recorder, and the musicians of The Doors put musical accompaniment on the poems.
But everything is not so simple: Jim’s lyrics, his songs, sincerity and charisma, sociality, shocking and suicidal nature of his work, his charm fascinated and fascinate listeners. Some compositions have become permanent bases for jazz and electronic arrangements. modern musicians. Overall, The Doors cannot be removed from the history of rock and from the lives of millions of fans.
Born December 8, 1943 James Douglas Morrison- American poet, singer, songwriter, frontman of The Doors.
- At school, one of Jim Morrison's favorite jokes was to pretend to pass out on the landing and lie there, causing a crowd. It was called Jimmy's Big Joke.
- Jim Morrison began writing poetry in the fifth or sixth grade, but he had never taken up singing and “never even thought about it.” But he read a lot, and for his age he was extremely well read. He was influenced by the philosophy of F. Nietzsche, especially discussions about the Apollonian and Dionysian principles in art, as well as the work of one of the most restless French poets - Arthur Rimbaud. The French existentialists and, of course, the American beatniks - Kerouac, Ginsberg and Ferlinghetti - had their influence.
- Morrison's English teacher high school recalled: “Jim probably read more than any student in the class. But everything he read was so unusual that I asked another teacher (who visited the Library of Congress) to check whether the books Jim named really existed. I suspected that he was simply making them up - they were books on English demonology from the 16th and 17th centuries. I had never heard of them - but they existed, and from his report I realized that he had actually read them.".
- Many sources report that Jim Morrison had a very high IQ - 149. For comparison: indicators of 110-119 are an average level of intelligence, and 120-129 are high. Jim grew up in a military family, and the Morrisons moved frequently. In each new school the boy took new tests, and, apparently, Eysenck's IQ test was among them.
- Jim Morrison is known to everyone as the "Lizard King" - as he called himself in the poem "The Celebration of the Lizard", later performed to music. The musician developed a love for reptiles as a child, when the Morrison family moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1955. The house was located on the border with the desert, so Jimmy spent a lot of time there, watching and hunting lizards, snakes and armadillos. They amazed him so much that he began to consider lizards as his totem.
- There is speculation that Jim Morrison could have met with Carlos Castaneda, a graduate of the University of California, like himself. Castaneda studied anthropology and defended his dissertation, which became a 1968 bestseller and the bible of the counterculture, “The Teachings of Don Juan: The Yaqui Way of Knowledge.” The book told about Castaneda's acquaintance with a Yaqui Indian, who led him through many shamanic practices. Whether Morrison really knew Castaneda is unknown, but the musician was really interested in shamanism.
- Jim Morrison is one of the most popular poets in America, based on sales of his books.
- After the success of the single “Light My Fire,” Jim Morrison bought himself a black and blue Ford Mustang Shelby GT 500, nicknamed “The Blue Lady.” He loved to drive it around the winding Mullholand Drive and the canyons in the mountains - while intoxicated. Friends also knew that Morrison liked to joke with his passengers as he drove down the streets at full speed. oncoming lane. Morrison's friend Babe Hill recalled how the musician once damaged his Mustang by driving into a curb: “We were right behind the Beverly Hills Police Department. I had to call a tow truck and a taxi. The belly just blew away. I held on as best I could and repeated: “Well, we’re going to die.”.
- One of the most famous songs of The Doors - "The End" - was written after breaking up with a girlfriend, but then its meaning constantly changed and expanded. “...I can well imagine it as a farewell to a kind of childhood. ...I think the song is quite complex and universal in its imagery. So much so that it can mean whatever you want.", Morrison said in an interview. Ray Manzarek added: “Jim gave voice to the rock and roll expression of the Oedipus complex, at the time a widely discussed phenomenon from Freudian psychoanalysis. He didn't mean that he actually wanted to do something with his father and mother. He was re-enacting a Greek drama. It was a theater!
- Jim Morrison was once asked in an interview what he thought of Led Zeppelin: “To be honest, I don’t listen to rock and roll, so I don’t know them. I usually listen classical music, Peggy Lee, Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley". However, Morrison liked Iggy Pop from The Stooges, Alice Cooper and other musicians who “shock other people.”
- Jim Morrison was arrested by police at least eleven times during his life. The charges include violation public order and lewd conduct, public drunkenness, resisting arrest, nudity and using profanity in public. Morrison became the first musician in history to be arrested on stage - this happened on December 9, 1967 in New Haven, Connecticut.
- In December 1967, a drunken Morrison fell off the stage at the Shrine Auditorium. Before this, he honestly warned the group: “I'm going to get as drunk as I can and stop being responsible for anything. The phenomenon will be realized through me while I’m drunk.”.
- According to the recollections of Morrison's close friend Babe Hill, the musician quite early embarked on the path of self-destruction, drinking as if he wanted to die. Babe Hill called his condition "apathy about the future." “He perceived himself as a kind of absolute hitchhiker - without a future or a past, without a present, without hope or any of those things. Existing in the absolute the current moment or something like that".
- According to the official version, Jim Morrison died on the night of July 2-3, 1971 from heart failure caused by a suspected heroin overdose. There is a lot of uncertainty about the musician’s death, so versions still arise about how it happened. On August 1, 2014, singer Marianne Faithfull stated that back in 1971, her boyfriend, drug dealer Jean de Breteuil, killed Morrison by selling him a dose of heroin that was too strong.
- After the death of Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek had the same dream that he had returned safely from France, rested and free of drugs and alcohol. Ray asked what Jim was doing, where he was and whether he was working on new material - but before receiving an answer, he woke up. As it turns out, Robbie Krieger had the same dream.
Good afternoon, dear gossips!
Recently, several channels showed programs about the group the Doors, or rather, about Jim Morrison, who was the main pearl of the team. I immediately wanted to make a post about it. Since he is considered one of the most charismatic frontmen in the history of rock music. He is known both for his distinctive voice and for his unique stage presence, his self-destructive lifestyle and his poetic creativity. Magazine Rolling Stone included it in the list of 100 greatest singers of all times. And I absolutely agree with this. Who, if not him)
Jim Morrison was born in Melbourne, Florida, the son of the future Admiral George Stephen Morrison and Clara Morrison (maiden name Clark). Jim also had a brother, Andrew, and a sister, Anne. Jim was of mixed Scottish, English and Irish blood.
Moves are frequent in the life of military men, and one day, when Jim was only four years old, something happened in New Mexico that he later described as one of the most important events of his life: a truck carrying Indians crashed on the road, and their bloody and sick bodies fell out from the truck and lay along the road.
“I knew death for the first time (...) I think at that moment the souls of those dead Indians, maybe one or two of them, rushed around, writhing, and moved into my soul, I was like a sponge, readily absorbing them.”
Morrison considered this incident the most significant in his life, and returned to it in poetry, interviews, and in the songs “Dawn’s Highway,” “Peace Frog,” “Ghost Song” from the album An American Prayer, as well as “Riders on the Storm.”
Jim spent part of his childhood in San Diego, California. In 1962, he entered Florida State University in Tallahassee. In January 1964, Morrison moved to Los Angeles and enrolled in the film department at UCLA, where he made two films during his studies. Jim liked performers such as Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, The Beach Boys, Love and the Kinks.
IN State University Florida in Tallahassee, Jim studied the history of the Renaissance, in particular the work of Hieronymus Bosch and acting, and played in student productions of plays. After that, Jim studied at the film department of the University of California, but did not take his studies very seriously, and was more interested in parties and alcohol. At the end of 1964, Jim came to his parents for Christmas. This was the last time he saw them. A few months later, Jim wrote a letter to his parents saying that he wanted to create a rock band. But he did not find understanding from his father, who replied that this was a bad joke. After that, when asked about his parents, Jim always said that they died. Apparently, the parents also treated Jim coolly, because even many years after his death they refused to comment on their son’s work. The film, which was his final work, was not accepted by either teachers or students. Jim was very worried about this, and even wanted to leave the university two weeks before graduation, but the teachers dissuaded him from this decision.
The Doors
While studying at UCLA, Jim met and became friends with Ray Manzarek.
Together they organized The group Doors. After some time, they were joined by drummer John Densmore and John's friend, Robbie Krieger. Krieger was introduced on Densmore's recommendation and was then included in the group.
The Doors took the band's name from the title of Aldous Huxley's book The Doors of Perception (a reference to the "opening" of the "doors" of perception through the use of psychedelics). Huxley, in turn, took the title of his book from a poem by the English visionary poet William Blake: “If the doors of perception were cleansed, every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite.” everything would appear as it is - infinite). Jim told friends that he wanted to be that "door of perception." The name of the group was adopted unanimously.
The group began performing in local pubs and their performances were frankly weak, partly due to the amateurism of the musicians, partly because of Jim Morrison’s timidity: at first he was even embarrassed to turn his face to the audience and sang with his back to the audience. In addition, Jim often came to performances drunk. Fortunately for the group, they had an army of female fans, and the next “last time” of the angry club owner resulted in calls from girls asking when they would see “that hairy guy” again. Six months later, the group had the opportunity to perform at the best club on Sunset Trip - Whiskey-A-Go-Go.
Soon the group was noticed by producer Paul Rothschild from the recently opened Elektra Records label, which had previously only released jazz performers, who risked offering the Doors a contract (the group entered Elektra's circle with such giants as Love).
Paul Rothschild
The group's first single, "Break On Through", entered the top ten of the US Billboard charts, and the next, "Light My Fire", took first place on the chart - an extremely successful debut. The Doors' first album, released in early 1967, also took first place in the charts and marked the beginning of Dorsomania. One composition of the album - The End, conceived as an ordinary farewell song, gradually became more complex, acquiring universal images.
Jim Morrison on this song several years after the album's release:
"The End"... I really don't know what I was going to say. Every time I listen to this song it seems different to me. At first it was a farewell, perhaps to a girl, or perhaps to childhood.
The use of hallucinogens, in particular LSD, had a direct impact on the work of Morrison and The Doors: mysticism and shamanism became part of the stage act. “I am a Lizard king. I can do anything." - Jim said to himself in one of the songs (“I am the king of the lizards. I can do anything.”).
The Doors managed to become not only a musical phenomenon, but also a cultural phenomenon. The band's sound lacked bass, emphasizing hypnotic organ lines and (to a lesser extent) original guitar parts. However, The Doors' popularity was largely due to the unique charismatic personality and deep lyrics of their leader Jim Morrison. Morrison was an extremely erudite person, interested in the philosophy of Nietzsche, the culture of the American Indians, the poetry of the European Symbolists and much more. In 1970, Jim married practicing witch Patricia Kennealy; the wedding was held according to a Celtic witchcraft ritual.
Jim's subsequent fate was a downward spiral: drunkenness, arrests for indecent behavior and fights with police, transformation from an idol for girls into a fat bearded slob. More and more material was written by Robbie Krieger, less and less by Jim Morrison. The Doors' later concerts consisted mostly of drunken Morrison arguing with the audience.
In 1971, the rock star went with his friend Pamela Courson to Paris to relax and work on a book of poetry.
With Pamela
According to the official version, Morrison died on July 3, 1971 in Paris from a heart attack, however, real reason no one knows his death. Among the options were: a heroin overdose in the Parisian club Rock-n-Roll Circus, suicide, a staged suicide by the FBI, which was then actively fighting participants in the hippie movement, and so on. There are still rumors surrounding his death. The only person who saw the singer's death was Morrison's girlfriend, Pamela. But she took the secret of his death with her to the grave, as she died of a drug overdose three years later. Jim Morrison is buried in Paris at the Père Lachaise cemetery. His grave became a place of cult worship for fans, who covered the neighboring graves with inscriptions about their love for their idol and lines from The Doors songs.
Jim Morrison's childhood
James (Jim) Douglas Morrison was born in the American town of Melbourne, Florida, in the family of a naval sailor, later Admiral George Morrison and Clara Clark. Jim's ancestors were Scottish, Irish and English. Jim had a sister, Ann, and a brother, Andrew.Jim Morrison The Doors - Light My Fire (Live In Europe 1968)
For military families, moves can happen at any time. This fate did not spare the Morrison family either. During one of the moves, four-year-old Jim witnessed an incident that, according to the musician, became one of the key moments of his life. The Morrisons were driving along a road in New Mexico when a crashed Indian truck blocked the road. Their bloodied and broken bodies lay along the road. Jim then learned about death for the first time, and this incident was subsequently raised more than once by Morrison in his work. Dedicated to the broken truck a large number of poems, about a dozen songs.
The Morrisons stayed the longest in San Diego, California, where Jim managed to finish school. In 1962, the future rock musician entered the University of Florida, and in January 1964, Jim moved to Los Angeles and entered the film department. During his studies, Morrison managed to make two films.
Studies
While studying at the University of Florida, Morrison was interested in the history of the Renaissance and the works of Hieronymus Bosch. Jim's favorite subject was acting. However, Morrison quickly became tired of the chosen direction of education, and he changed educational institution, moving to Los Angeles. At the Faculty of CinematographyAt the University of California, Jim was more interested in partying and drinking than in education. At the end of 1964, Morrison saw his parents for the last time in his life - he came to them for Christmas. Soon he wrote a letter home, in which he said that he was planning to form a rock band. The father did not appreciate Jim's impulse, writing in a reply letter that it was a bad joke. After this, Morrison broke all relations with his family and, when asked about his parents, invariably answered that they had died. The parents also could not forgive their son, and even many years later, after his death, they refused to give any comments regarding his work.
The film Morrison made as his final work was not received well by either the students or the faculty of the department. This incredibly upset Jim, he even wanted to leave the university two weeks before receiving his diploma, but his teachers dissuaded him from doing so.
Jim Morrison and The Doors
While studying at the University of California, Morrison met Ray Manzarek, with whom they later formed the rock band The Doors. Later, Johnny Densmore and his good friend Robbie Krieger joined the team. The young people named the group based on the title of O. Huxley’s book “The Doors of Perception,” hinting at the opening of the “doors” of perception through the use of psychedelic substances. The title of Huxley’s book, in turn, is also secondary - the writer named the book after being impressed by the poem by the English poet William Blake “If the doors of perception were clean...”. The name of the group was suggested by Morrison, it was accepted without any objections.The first venues where the newly minted rock musicians played were local pubs, and the performances of the future stars were frankly weak and did not enjoy much success. Morrison's timidity added to the ridicule - at first he was shy of the audience and sang mostly with his back to the audience. Morrison even then did not know the limits in drinking alcohol and often came to concerts drunk, and sometimes extremely drunk. Musicians were constantly kicked out of clubs with parting words not to appear even at the doorstep of the establishment, but the situation was saved by an army of girl fans of the charismatic Jim - calls began to the owners of establishments asking when “that hairy guy” would perform at the club again. Six months later, the group was invited for the first time to the best club on Sunset Trip - Whiskey-A-Go-Go.
On Sunset Trip, rock musicians are noticed by Paul Rothschild, producer of the Electra Records label. Despite the fact that Electra recorded records only by jazz performers, Paul, at his own risk, offered the Doors a contract. The band's debut single, “Break On Through,” failed miserably, taking 126th place on the Billboard chart. However, the second album of the Doors, Light My Fire, more than made up for the failure of the previous one, topping all American charts.
At the beginning of 1967, the group’s debut album was released, which also occupied the first lines of the charts for a long time and marked the beginning of the so-called “dorzomania”. One of the album's compositions turned out to be especially successful. “The End,” which was intended as a simple farewell song, became more complex towards the middle, acquiring various deep images. Morrison later said: “I don’t know what I wanted to say with this song. It seems different to me every time I listen to it."
The Doors as a cultural phenomenon
Morrison's fascination with narcotic hallucinogens, including LSD, had a huge influence on the work of The Doors. The group's performances gradually turned into stage acts filled with mysticism and shamanism. Jim Morrison called himself the “Lizard King” and often imitated a drug trance during his performances. The group gradually moved from a musical phenomenon to cultural phenomenon: the sound of the band has changed - there were no bass parts, which were replaced by organ and original guitar parts that had a certain hypnotic effect. Jim Morrison's charisma and unique, deep, mystical lyrics contributed to more and more new waves of the group's popularity. Jim's energy and efficiency truly knew no bounds: despite his passion for drugs and alcohol, constant performances and recordings in the studio, the musician managed to study the mysticism and rituals of the Celtic peoples, culture North American Indians, the philosophy of Nietzsche and the poetry of European symbolists. 
In 1970, Jim, who was then especially keen on paganism and black magic, married the witch Patricia Kennealy. The wedding was held in accordance with the ancient witchcraft ritual of the Celts. During the ceremony, Morrison and Kennealy exchanged ancient amulets - Claddagh rings. Subsequently, Patricia practically did not take them off; they are present in many photographs of the witch. An image of the rings is also featured on the cover of Patricia Kennealy's memoir.
The decline and death of Jim Morrison
After his wedding to Patricia Kennealy, Jim Morrison's life went downhill. The musician slid downhill like an avalanche: drunkenness became unstoppable, drugs became a daily norm, obscene behavior in public places led to a series of arrests, when Morrison was detained he fought with the police, etc. From an idol for girls, Jim began to turn into a bearded, dirty fat man. Morrison practically no longer wrote lyrics or music for The Doors' compositions; most of the material came from the pen of Robbie Krieger. The Doors' concerts no longer bore much resemblance to the mystical phenomenon with hypnotizing music with which the group had so mesmerized fans earlier. Now the group’s performances consisted of altercations between the extremely drunk Morrison and the audience, which often turned into brawls.Seeing that the crisis is dragging on, Robbie Krieger persuades Jim to take a vacation and relax. In 1971, the musician and his friend Pamela Courson went to Paris to relax and work on a book of poems.
Jim Morrison's death occurred on July 3, 1971 in Paris. According to official data, the cause of the musician’s death was a heart attack, but this version is refuted by many researchers of Jim’s life and work. IN different time There were also versions of a drug overdose, in particular heroin, in the men's room of the Rock-n-Roll Circus club or the neighboring Alcazar cabaret in Paris, a version of suicide or a staged suicide by FBI agents who were fighting participants in the hippie movement in those years.
The only person who was next to Jim at the time of his death was Pamela Courson, the musician’s girlfriend (this fact indirectly refutes the version of the suicide and death staged in the men’s room). However, Pamela did not survive Morrison for long - three years after his death, she died of a heroin overdose. For three years, Pamela never spoke about what happened to Jim, saying that she would take the secret of his death to the grave.
Jim Morrison is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. The musician’s grave has become a place of pilgrimage for fans of The Doors, who still paint his burial place and neighboring graves with lines from their idol’s songs and poems and declarations of love for Morrison.
Last album The Doors was released eight years after the death of the band's leader. Shortly before the tragedy, Morrison dictated a number of his poems onto tape. Later, the Dorzov musicians wrote music for these poems and compiled the recordings into the album “An American Prayer.” In the same year, Morrison's composition "The End" was included in the soundtrack of F. F. Coppola's cult film Apocalypse Now.
Morrison's work
Currently, in the United States of America, Jim Morrison is not only one of the hundred greatest musicians of all times, but also considered an outstanding poet. Literary scholars place Morrison's poetic work on a par with such poets as William Blake and Arthur Rimbaud.Last interview. Jim Morrison
Three years before his death, Jim almost starred in Andy Warhol’s pornographic film “I, Man,” but his bandmates dissuaded him from this idea.
During the "age of flowers", when most performers sang about bright cloudless skies, innocence and happiness, Morrison's work stood in stark contrast to the entire music scene of those years. The Doors became the darkest and most radically mystical rock band of the sixties. Music critics they called the group “black confessors of the Great Society,” and Morrison was treated as nothing less than a schismatic, Dionysus contemporary art. Their rock was called cruel, art-rock (a reference to Artaud’s “theater of cruelty”), shock therapy. Morrison on long years became a symbol of rebellion against the cloudlessness and blurred perception of the surrounding reality.
Many generations of rebels still draw inspiration from Jim's work. Jim has said more than once that he is heading straight through the hippie era to the gutter. Far from a naive celebration of life, Jim's group used poetic devices symbolism of the unconscious in his gloomy, dark texts, saturated with pulsating rhythm and images that sharply stand out from the general concept of the text. It was said that Morrison sang as if he were being electrocuted.