Jim Morrison

Jim Morrison, original name James Douglas Morrison   (born December 8, 1943, Melbourne, Florida, U.S.—died July 3, 1971, Paris, France), American singer and songwriter who was the charismatic front man of the psychedelic rock group the Doors.

Morrison’s father was a naval officer (ultimately an admiral), and the family moved frequently, though it settled down in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Alexandria, Virginia, where Morrison attended high school and was a good but rebellious student. He began his college education in 1961 at St. Petersburg Junior College (now St. Petersburg College) in Florida and developed his talents as a performer by reciting poetry at a local coffeehouse. He subsequently transferred to Florida State University and then to the University of California, Los Angeles, where he studied film. There he met Ray Manzarek, who played the organ in the rock group that the two formed in 1965 with guitarist Robby Krieger and drummer John Densmore. They called themselves the Doors, taking their name from Aldous Huxley’s book on mescaline, The Doors of Perception(1954), which was itself titled after a line by William Blake.

For a brief period in the mid-1960s, the Doors were the house band of the Whisky-a-Go-Go, a much-storied club on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. At about the same time, the group signed with Elektra Records, for which they released a string of hit singles, including “Light My Fire” (1967) and “Hello, I Love You” (1968), and critically acclaimed albums such as The Doors (1967) and L.A. Woman (1971). The dark-edged eroticism of Morrison’s baritone voice and poetic lyrics helped make the band one of rock music’s most potent, controversial, and theatrical acts. Morrison was known for his drinking and drug use and outrageous stage behaviour. During a 1969 concert in Miami, he allegedly exposed himself onstage, and he was later convicted on indecent exposure and profanity charges. He was sentenced to six months in prison but was granted bail pending his appeal (in 2010 he was posthumously pardoned).

In 1971 Morrison left the Doors to write poetry and moved to Paris, where he died of heart failure. His grave in the Père-Lachaise Cemeterybecame a mecca for music fans and one of Paris’s most unlikely tourist attractions. In 1978 the remaining former Doors gathered again to record backing tracks for poetry Morrison had recorded before his death, releasing the result as An American Prayer by “Jim Morrison, music by the Doors.” The band and Morrison’s story came to the motion picturescreen as The Doors (1991), directed by Oliver Stone.

Jim Morrison Foundation Awards $50,000 Grant To Little Shit Who Thinks He's A Poet

LOS ANGELES—Citing the 17-year-old's awkward overuse of Native American imagery and general ability to make long lists of random adjectival phrases, the Jim Morrison Foundation announced Monday the awarding of a $50,000 grant to self-obsessed little shit Jerome Caudry of Shullsburg, WI. "In Jerome's verse, all of which seems to be about Jerome himself as he struggles with the burden of approaching the edge of prophecy and daring to peek over, we hear echoes of the Lizard King himself," read a press release from the foundation, which has given annual grants to brooding, solipsistic pukes since 1983. "This gift should help Mr. Caudry achieve his personal goals, which we hope include winding up dead in a bathtub within the year." Caudry's myopically self- aggrandizing autobiographical novel The Bleeding Sky's Wife Shatters The Soul-Mask Of The Hopi Postman was also short-listed for this year's Richard Brautigan Prize for Thpppppt! Oh, Give Me a Fucking Break.

Jim Morrison For Sale — Author Denise Sullivan on his “Paris” Notebook & Life Before the Doors

December 19, 2013

By Blooming Twig

Jim Morrison’s “Paris” notebook was offered for sale at auction (Lot 68: http://bit.ly/paris-notebook) in Southern California yesterday, selling for a reported, but unverified price of $200,000.

The notebook that the auction house describes as an “important handwritten notebook containing over 100 pages of poems, philosophy and general musings,” was in fact not compiled during Jim Morrison’s final days in Paris, as the initial catalog descriptions of the item suggested. Rather, the notebook dates back to an earlier period in the singer and poet’s writing life, in what music journalist Denise Sullivan calls the “pre-Doors dawn” of Morrison’s life, when he was still a film student at UCLA.

Denise Sullivan, the author of the upcoming Jim Morrison biography, Shaman’s Blues (2014, Sumach-Red), wrote about the significance of the recently auctioned notebook in a recent article on her website. The following is a brief excerpt of a fascinating post:

It is time to retire the persistent media portrait of the artist as a semi-dimensional party dude with a quasi-mystic side. My forthcoming book, Shaman’s Blues, The Art and Influences Behind Jim Morrison and the Doors, to be published early next year, attempts to cancel some of the old notions, and replace them with the source of Jim’s ideas and what he was creating with his body of work. I went in search of the building blocks that make his songs and poems meaningful to each new generation, his messages, and even his meanderings, still relevant to listeners in the 21st Century.

Read the rest of Denise Sullivan’s article on her website: Jim Morrison For Sale — denisesullivan.com

Shaman’s Blues: The Art and Influences Behind Jim Morrison and the Doors by Denise Sullivan will publish in 2014.

Jim Morrison - The Electric Poet

Jim Morrison an alternate history -Article by Jim Cherry
The Doors Examiner

Jim Cherry is the author of the books Becoming Angel, Stranger Souls, and The Doors inspired novel 'The Last Stage'. Jim has been a Doors fan for 30 years and is writing under the influence of Rock 'n' Roll! For more information, and to contact Jim please visit jymsbooks.com

8th Dec 2014 would have been Jim Morrison’s 71th birthday. Morrison’s biography is well known having been told in biographies and as part of The Doors hagiography. In the past we have offered alternative looks at Morrison in the rock world as a poet (see Jim Morrison Rock ‘n‘ Roll Rimbaud). One of the most frequently asked questions among Doors fans and even the general public at large, is what would Jim Morrison be doing if he were alive today? Doors fans argue that he would have come back to The Doors, others that he would have become an actor or a writer. Robby Krieger once offered a vision of Jim Morrison as an Elvis like entertainer in Las Vegas. I think we can create an alternative history of Jim Morrison had he lived based on plans Morrison himself suggested and extrapolations from his interests.

July 3, 1971, 4am, Paris, France. Jim Morrison wakes up after falling asleep in the bathtub after a night of drinking. The water is freezing cold, Morrison wraps himself in a warm robe and goes back to bed. He feels the beginnings of a hangover, but he knows he can sleep most of it off. As he gets into bed he’s careful not to wake Pam.

August 1971. Jim starts feeling revitalized. The time away from L.A. and the time to do nothing except be has started making him feel relaxed and is able to finally decompress and find himself again. He also comes to the conclusion that although he’s feeling better he can’t recreate the creative burst he felt on Venice Beach six years earlier. Morrison calls John Haeny, the Elektra engineer who helped produce the poetry recordings on his 27th birthday in L.A. and for which Morrison has a contract with Elektra. Haeny arrives in Paris to find Morrison committed to the project and bursting with ideas for music. They rent studio time in Paris and cut an album in a couple of weeks during very relaxed recording sessions. Morrison adopts the same discipline he had when he and Michael McClure were working on the screenplay of The Adept, no drinking until recording for the day was finished. Morrison realizes his extended poem An American Prayer is the centerpiece of the album and names the album after the poem.

November 1971. Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger and John Densmore release Other Voices. The album is credited to The Doors but it becomes apparent to the general public that Jim Morrison isn’t returning to the group. Elektra releases a dual press release announcing Jim Morrison’s parting ways with the rest of The Doors and his forthcoming album of spoken word poetry.

January 1972. Jac Holzman, wanting to recreate the specialness of the release of The Doors first album in Morrison’s new poetry album, only releases An American Prayer in that month, again to give the album Elektra’s full attention and support of their now formidable marketing department. The art work on the album uses the artwork Morrison commissioned from T.E. Breitenbach in 1970 and uses original music from Lalo Schifrin, who counts among his credits the music from the movie Cool Hand Luke and the theme music from the TV series Mission: Impossible. The album receives critical acclaim and becomes the best selling album of spoken word poetry, eventually receiving a Grammy.

Morrison, gaining creative confidence and control decides to accede a bit to Pam Courson’s wishes that she and Jim have a normal life. He buys an old church in the French countryside that will be renovated into their home. In the meantime Morrison wanting to finish ‘old business’ works on his manuscript of Observations of an American While on Trial in Miami. Taking the notes he took during his Miami obscenity trial he edits and expands the notes into a book. The book is observational as well as philosophical with a surrealist edge to it, but provides a look into the American judicial system of the time. It becomes an underground hit and is considered by many to be one of the last great writings of the 1960’s counterculture movement.

Morrison now wanting to turn his attentions to film rediscovers the screenplay Break in his files written by a young Oliver Stone. The surrealist imagery of Stone’s based on Stone’s Vietnam experience intrigues Morrison. He tracks Stone down and they meet in Paris. Morrison options the film for a $1000 with the conditions that Morrison will star in and direct the film. With Jim Morrison’s involvement, the film is easily financed and filmed in Toronto in early 1973. Morrison calls on film school friends Frank Lisicandro and Paul Ferrara to edit the film. The film is released in late 1973 and while it doesn’t have widespread distribution does become a cult favorite on the midnight movie circuit. Break is credited with being an early example in the indie-film and the director as auteur movements.

By 1976 Jim Morrison, who has reduced his drinking down to Eugene O’Neill binges once or twice a year realizes drinking is not serving him well, he’s starting to look older beyond his 33 years and is hampering his creative endeavors he goes into A.A. (Alcoholics Anonymous) and although since 1971 his life has been lower key is one of the first celebrities to acknowledge having an alcohol problem and publicly seeks help. In doing so, starts to peel away the public’s perception of a stigma attached alcoholism. A side effect of this is Morrison acknowledges his relationship with Pam Courson isn’t a healthy one for either of them and ends their ten year old relationship. Wishing to avoid a drawn out Lee Marvin/Michelle Triola like litigation (Morrison thought he’d seen enough courtrooms) agrees to give Courson a monthly stipend.

Morrison starts hearing from film school friends that former UCLA alumnus Francis Ford Coppola is filming a movie to be called Apocalypse Now and wants to use The Doors song The End in the film, Morrison wants the part of Willard. At first Coppola is resistant remembering Morrison’s drunken and disruptive actions in The Doors, but Morrison is able to withhold the permission to use The Doors song, and takes a copy of Break to Coppola’s house to screen for him, after watching the film Coppola is convinced and casts Morrison in Apocalypse Now.

The producers of Altered States see Morrison in Apocalypse Now and are so impressed they want him to star in their movie. Morrison, familiar with the Paddy Chayefsky novel and seeing this as a chance to advance his film career agrees to play the lead as long as he can direct. Morrison argues that based on past experiences he has some insight into the subject matter and he throws in the use of a Doors song as well. The producers agree and Jim Morrison stars in and directs Altered States which is released in 1980.

With the release of Apocalypse Now and Altered States and their attendant success a Jim Morrison/Doors resurgence happens. Rumors fly around of a Doors reunion, record sales start to mount up and in December of 1981 Rolling Stone Magazine makes Morrison the cover story with the headline ’He’s Hot, He’s Sexy, He’s Back.”

With Rumors of a Doors reunion flying around for a few years, Morrison and the other members of The Doors get together for the first time in years and bury the hatchet on the old wounds and agree to play Live Aid in Philadelphia in July of 1985 and celebrating the 20th anniversary of Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek forming The Doors in July of 1965. Fans, critics and organizers agree The Doors reunion is a stunning success with the band playing a selection of songs throughout their active years as a band. It is hailed as the highwater mark of the concerts.

Doors fans may wonder if any of this is possible? This article was written with extrapolations of Jim Morrison’s actions and wishes in mind, as well as extrapolating on events in society at large and how they might affect Morrison. As I was writing this a sense of sadness overcame me for what could have been. Jim Morrison’s talents were many and his potential was within his grasp all he had to do was find a way.

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HAWES, JAMES MORRISON

HAWES, JAMES MORRISON (1824–1889). James M. Hawes, Confederate army officer, was born in Lexington, Kentucky, on January 7, 1824, and appointed to the United States Military Academy at West Point on July 1, 1841. He graduated twenty-ninth in his class in 1845 and was posted to the Second Dragoons as a brevet second lieutenant. He received promotions to second lieutenant on April 25, 1846, first lieutenant on January 13, 1850, and captain on December 13, 1855. In the Mexican War he received a brevet to first lieutenant for "gallant and meritorious conduct" at the battle of San Juan de los Llanos; he later served a two-year tour of duty at the cavalry school at Namur, France.

With the secession of the Southern states, Hawes resigned his commission on May 9, 1861, and briefly commanded the Second Kentucky Cavalry regiment before accepting a major's commission in the regular Confederate army. He rose quickly in rank, largely under the sponsorship of Albert Sidney Johnston. On March 5, 1862, Hawes was promoted to brigadier general and assumed command of the cavalry of the Western Department of the Confederacy. After the battle of Shiloh, he was relieved at his own request and received assignment to the command of a brigade under Gen. John C. Breckinridge. He later commanded a brigade of cavalry under Gen. Theophilus H. Holmes and took part in cavalry raids throughout Arkansas. At Pine Bluff, Arkansas, he succeeded Col. Overton C. Young as commander of the First Brigade of Walker's Texas Division, which he led at the battle of Milliken's Bend, Louisiana. On February 11, 1864, Hawes was relieved of command of the brigade at his own request and ordered to report to Gen. John Bankhead Magruder in Texas. On February 16 Gen. Richard Taylor requested that Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith retain Hawes in command of the First Brigade. "I have just made a minute inspection of Hawes' and Randal's brigades of this division," he wrote, "and have never seen any troops in finer condition. . . . General Hawes' brigade is in splendid order. A change would be very unfortunate." The order was not rescinded, however, and Hawes was placed in command of the fortifications and garrison of Galveston Island. Gen. Thomas N. Waul replaced Hawes as commander of the First Brigade.

At the end of the war Hawes engaged in the hardware business in Covington, Kentucky. He died on November 22, 1889, and is buried in Highland Cemetery, Covington.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: 

Joseph P. Blessington, Campaigns of Walker's Texas Division (New York: Lange, Little, 1875; rpt., Austin: Pemberton Press, 1968). The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Ezra J. Warner, Generals in Gray (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959).