By Mike Ennis
James Douglas Morrison was born on December 8, 1943. His parents were Steve and Clara Morrison. His father was a career Navy man. With his father in the Navy he did a lot of moving when he was young. While living in Albuquerque, NM in 1947 a very strange thing happened that Jim would later describe as “the most important moment of my life.” While driving with his family somewhere between Albuquerque and Santa Fe they came upon a large accident. In Jim’s own words, “A truckload of Indian workers had hit another car or something-there were Indians scattered all over the highway bleeding to death…. and I do think, at that moment, the souls or the ghosts of those dead Indians-maybe one or two of ’em- were just running around, freaking out and just leaped into my soul, and I was like a sponge ready to just sit there and absorb it… and they’re still in there.” I think it’s safe to say that at the age of four an encounter like that could have seriously messed with his mind. It’s also definitely the reason he believed that he was possessed by the spirit of a shaman, and it was the shaman that would drive him to the edge on stage and throughout his life.
The idea of the Doors started because of a chance meeting of “fellow ex-UCLA film students turned acid experimenters.” Jim saw his friend Ray Manzareck, and Jim read him a poem which would later be called Moonlight Drive and they decided to start a band. So they recruited John Densmore to play the drums, and Robby Krieger to play guitar and they went to work. Jim wanted to call the band the Doors in honor of Aldous Huxley’s book- The Doors of Perception. Jim got their first gig at a small bar called The London Fog. It was never very busy but Jim would always perform like it was his last show because he said you never know when it’s going to be your last chance. But it gave them plenty of practice and it paid off when they landed the job of the house band for the very popular bar the Whiskey-A-GO-GO. Unfortunately Jim did a lot of drugs. In fact he did way too much drugs and on top of it all he was a drunk and that couldn’t have helped his state of mind any.
One night while performing at the Whiskey, Jim was extremely wasted on acid. He gave an unforgettable performance of “the End” which is one of the Doors most famous songs. It cost him his job at the Whiskey but it also got him a record contract with Elektra Records. Robby later said “How can you possibly top “The End”.
What’s left after you’ve *********** your mother and killed your father?”
The Doors went on to make six studio albums: The Doors, Strange Days, Waiting for the Sun, The Soft Parade, Morrison Hotel, and L.A. Woman. They ended up with a powerhouse collection of songs like: “Riders on the Storm”, “Light my Fire”, “Roadhouse Blues”, “Peace Frog”, and “The End” just to name a few. In my opinion Jim and the Doors wrote only a handful of bad songs and other than those ones the rest of their songs are good. Jim was drinking like there was no tomorrow. And after the making of his last album, L.A. Woman, he moved to Paris and shortly after, on July 3, 1971, Jim was found dead in his bathtub. Supposedly he died of heart failure.
There is one thing that separates good music from bad music: Good music lives on forever and that’s why, 25 years after Jim’s death, his music is still around and is as popular now as it was when it came out. Jim Morrison was one of Rock’s all time great visionaries, lyricists, singers, and extreme personalities. Jim is gone so let the shaman live.
“I wouldn’t mind dying in a plane crash. It would be a good way to go. I just want to taste it, hear it , and smell it. Death is only going to happen once. I don’t want to miss it”
-Jim Morrison.