Backstage with Jim Morrison of the ‘Doors’
No Lies Radio Music – By Teri Perticone – Sat Aug 06, 2022
The Doors – Break On Through (To The Other Side)
James Douglas Morrison (December 8, 1943 – July 3, 1971) was an American singer, songwriter and poet, best remembered as the lead vocalist of the rock band the Doors. Due to his poetic lyrics, distinctive voice, wild personality, performances, and the dramatic circumstances surrounding his life and early death, Morrison is regarded by music critics and fans as one of the most iconic and influential frontmen in rock music history: surly, sexy, scandalous, and mysterious. The leather pants he was fond of wearing both onstage and off have since become stereotyped as rock-star apparel. Since his death, his fame has endured as one of popular culture’s most rebellious and oft-displayed icons, representing the generation gap and youth counterculture.[1]
Morrison co-founded the Doors during the summer of 1965 in Venice, California. The Doors were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1965, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger, and drummer John Densmore. They were among the most controversial and influential rock acts of the 1960s, mostly because of Morrison’s lyrics and voice along with his erratic stage persona, and the group was widely regarded as an important part of the era’s counterculture. The band spent two years in obscurity until shooting to prominence with their #1 single in the United States, “Light My Fire,” taken from their self-titled debut album. Morrison wrote or co-wrote many of the Doors’ songs, including the hits “Light My Fire”, “Break On Through (To the Other Side),” “The End,” “Moonlight Drive,” “People are Strange”, “Hello, I Love You,” “Roadhouse Blues,” “L.A. Woman,” and “Riders on the Storm.” Morrison recorded a total of six studio albums with the Doors, all of which sold well and received critical acclaim. Though the Doors recorded two more albums after Morrison died, his death severely affected the band’s fortunes, and they split up in 1973. In 1993, Jim Morrison, as a member of the Doors, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The Doors – “People Are Strange” 1967 HD (Official Video) 1080P Jim Morrison
Morrison was also well known for improvising spoken word poetry passages while the band played live. Morrison was ranked #47 on Rolling Stone’s list of the “100 Greatest Singers of All Time,”[2] and number 22 on Classic Rock magazine’s “50 Greatest Singers in Rock.”[3] Ray Manzarek, who co-founded the Doors with him, said Morrison “embodied hippie counterculture rebellion.”[4]
The Doors – Hello, I Love You
The Doors – Roadhouse Blues
Morrison developed an alcohol dependency during the 1960s, which at times affected his performances on stage.[5][6][7] He died unexpectedly at the age of 27 in Paris. As no autopsy was performed, the cause of Morrison’s death remains unknown.[8]
The Doors
In the summer of 1965, after graduating with a bachelor’s degree from the UCLA film school, Morrison led a bohemian lifestyle in Venice Beach. Living on the rooftop of a building inhabited by his old UCLA cinematography friend, Dennis Jacobs, he wrote the lyrics of many of the early songs the Doors would later perform live and record on albums, the most notable being “Moonlight Drive” and “Hello, I Love You.” According to Manzarek, he lived on canned beans and LSD for several months. Morrison and fellow UCLA student Ray Manzarek were the first two members of the Doors, forming the group during that summer.
The Doors took their name from the title of Aldous Huxley’s book The Doors of Perception (a reference to the unlocking of doors of perception through psychedelic drug use).
In June 1966, Morrison and the Doors were the opening act at the Whisky a Go Go in the last week of the residency of Van Morrison’s band Them.[29] Van’s influence on Jim’s developing stage performance was later noted by Brian Hinton in his book Celtic Crossroads: The Art of Van Morrison: “Jim Morrison learned quickly from his near namesake’s stagecraft, his apparent recklessness, his air of subdued menace, the way he would improvise poetry to a rock beat, even his habit of crouching down by the bass drum during instrumental breaks.”[30] On the final night, the two Morrisons and their two bands jammed together on “Gloria.”[31][32][33] In November 1966, Morrison and the Doors produced a promotional film for “Break on Through (To the Other Side)”, which was their first single release. The film 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-synched the lyrics. Morrison and the Doors continued to make short music films, including “The Unknown Soldier”, “Moonlight Drive” and “People Are Strange”.
The Doors achieved national recognition after signing with Elektra Records in 1967.[34] The single “Light My Fire” spent three weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in July/August 1967. This was a far cry from the Doors playing warm up for Simon and Garfunkel and playing at a high school as they did in Connecticut that same year.[35] Later, the Doors appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, a popular Sunday night variety series that had introduced the Beatles and Elvis Presley to the United States. Ed Sullivan requested two songs from the Doors for the show, “People Are Strange” and “Light My Fire”. Sullivan’s censors insisted that the Doors change the lyrics of the song “Light My Fire” from “Girl we couldn’t get much higher” to “Girl we couldn’t get much better” for the television viewers; this was reportedly due to what was perceived as a reference to drugs in the original lyrics. After giving assurances of compliance to the producer in the dressing room, the band agreed and proceeded to sing the song with the original lyrics. Sullivan was not happy and he refused to shake hands with Morrison or any other band member after their performance. Sullivan had a show producer tell the band that they would never appear on The Ed Sullivan Show again. Morrison reportedly said to the producer, in a defiant tone, “Hey man. We just did the Sullivan Show!”[36]
Morrison spent the majority of his adult life in an open,[59] and at times very charged and intense, relationship with Pamela Courson. They met while young, when both were attending college,[60] and she encouraged him to develop his poetry. Through to the end, Courson saw Morrison as more than a rock star, as “a great poet”; she constantly encouraged him and pushed him to write.[61] Courson attended his concerts, and focused on supporting his career.[62] Like Morrison, she was described by many as fiery, determined and attractive, as someone who was tough despite appearing fragile. Manzarek called Pamela “Jim’s other half” and said, “I never knew another person who could so complement his bizarreness.”[63] Courson was buried by her family as Pamela Susan Morrison, after Jim Morrison’s death, despite the two having never been married.
The Doors – Love Street
By early 1969, the formerly svelte singer had gained weight, grown a beard and mustache, and begun dressing more casually — abandoning the leather pants and concho belts for slacks, jeans, and T-shirts. During a concert of March 1, 1969, at the Dinner Key Auditorium in Miami, Morrison attempted to spark a riot in the audience, in part by screaming “You wanna see my cock?” and other obscenities. He failed, but six warrants for his arrest were issued by the Dade County Police department three days later for indecent exposure, among other things.[40] Consequently, many of the Doors’ scheduled concerts were canceled.[41][42] On September 20, 1970, Morrison was convicted of indecent exposure and profanity by a six-person jury in Miami after a trial that had 16 days of testimony.[43] Morrison, who attended the October 30 sentencing “in a wool jacket adorned with Indian designs”, silently listened as he was sentenced to six months in prison and had to pay a $500 fine. Morrison remained free on a $50,000 bond.[44] At the sentencing, Judge Murray Goodman told Morrison that he was a “person graced with a talent” admired by many of his peers; Morrison remained free on $50,000 bond while the conviction was appealed.[44] His death eight months later made the appeal a moot point.
The Doors “Love Her Madly (Alternate Version)”
The Doors – When The Music’s Over (Live At The Isle Of Wight Festival 1970)
Death – Morrison’s apartment in Le Marais, Paris
Morrison joined Pamela Courson in Paris in March 1971, at an apartment she had rented for him at 17-19, rue Beautreillis [fr] in Le Marais, 4th arrondissement, Paris. In letters, he described going for long walks through the city, alone.[91] During this time, he shaved his beard and lost some of the weight he had gained in the previous months.[92] He died on July 3, 1971, at age 27.[93][94][95] He was found by Courson in a bathtub at his apartment.[96] The official cause of death was listed as heart failure,[97][better source needed] although no autopsy was performed, as it was not required by French law. His death was two years to the day after the death of the Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones, and approximately nine months after the deaths of Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin.[98]
Video sources: www.youtube.com & www.vevo.com
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