Had
Jim Morrison survived, he would be turning
65 years old today.
Morrison, (
previously mentioned on the blue) lead singer of
The Doors, was born December 8, 1943 in Melbourne, Florida and died under somewhat
contested circumstances on July 3, 1971 in Paris, France, where he is
interred at Pere Lachaise Cemetery.
He perished at 27, one of the more celebrated members of a
posthumous club of influential musicians who failed to live to see twenty-eight. (Curiously, Morrison had in fact written a
poem about Brian Jones, one of the earliest members, who predeceased him by two years to the day)
After his death, the band soldiered on, releasing
two more albums as a trio, before breaking up and periodically fitfully reuniting. After a decade or so of relative inactivity, a well-known
1991 film revived interest in the band. Reunions have been marked by duelling lawsuits, and such misadventures as star drummers bowing out after
bicycle accidents and singers leaving to
reform their old bands.
For those who enjoy comparing and contrasting, a typical Doors song,
with Morrison,
without Morrison, and
with the most prominent replacement.
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How can you survive being yourself!? Every choose-your-own adventure avenue in the Jim Morrison book has him dead before 60.
I think it was Grace Slick I saw on television the other day, talking about how they'd walk down the street, both bands dispersed over the sidewalks, wandering Amsterdam, and people would offer them drugs, and they'd say "no thanks," or maybe take one hit off a joint. Jim, the ol' champ, took everything he was offered.
I still wonder if his story is one of a sort of nihilism or, rather, the ironic secret within jubilance: burning hot and fast. His frenetic voyages seem to have been mostly to dark places, which puzzles me.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 12:15 PM on December 8, 2008 [6 favorites has favorites]