Jim Morrison was one of the most important representatives of USA counterculture of his time.
Photo: dpa
»We were born into this house, we were thrown into this world. Like a boneless dog. We are carried by the storm, and the killer is already on the way.” This is what perhaps The Doors’ most famous song, “Riders on the Storm,” says. Frontman Jim Morrison wrote the lyrics. Just days after the song was released, on July 3, 1971, his life ended in Paris when his girlfriend Pamela Courson found him dead in the bathtub. The official cause of death was given as a heart attack, but it was probably a mixture of alcohol and heroin. On July 7th he was buried in the legendary Père Lachaise cemetery. This means he belongs to the so-called “Club 27”, like the pop greats Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Brian Jones and Kurt Cobain, all of whom died at the age of 27.
Jim Morrison was one of the most important representatives of US counterculture of his time. He was born 80 years ago today in Melbourne, Florida, the son of a United States naval officer. His father, with whom he broke off all relations, commanded an aircraft carrier in the Western Pacific in the mid-1960s and is also said to have been involved in the Vietnam War. The extremely well-read Morrison went to Los Angeles at the age of 21 to study film and theater studies. But alcohol and drugs soon became more important to him. He began writing songs and formed the blues-rock group The Doors in 1965 with John Densmore (drums), Ray Manzarek (organ) and Robby Krieger (guitar). Only occasionally did he compose music, but often the demanding lyrics: texts full of dreams of death, visions of terror, magical symbols and drug references. The Doors warmed up in small clubs in LA: Morrison, an excellent singer, played the anti-star and the band roared behind him with heavy organ chords and sustained delicate solos.
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The vice president of the record company Elektra, Steve Harris, saw the band’s show and signed them immediately: “Jim came strolling over to me from the bar – somewhere else – and I thought, the guy there just needs to read from the phone book and the The record goes away like nothing.” He was right. At the beginning of 1967 the band released the album “The Doors”, one of the most important records of the 60s, the single “Light My Fire” stayed at number one in the USA for three weeks. “Hello, I Love You” did that too – for at least two weeks. After just one and a half years, Morrison was on the rock Olympus alongside Mick Jagger.
But he didn’t give a damn about fame. He even tore up a US Army flag on stage, spoke out against President Nixon and police attacks, and released the anti-war song “Unknown Soldier” with The Doors. According to his bandmate John Densmore, Morrison was spectacular as a rock star (also considered America’s new sex symbol), but disastrous when it came to the rest of his life. Like many alcoholics, he could be reckless, selfish and volatile, a “Dionysian madman” and “psychopath,” according to Densmore.
Morrison’s greatest dream remained to find recognition as a poet. That’s why he went to Paris in the spring of 1971 with his girlfriend Pamela Courson (she was also only 27). His thoughts revolved around Rimbaud, Baudelaire, Hemingway and Fitzgerald. He self-medicated for emerging asthma symptoms and snorted heroin, unfortunately too much.
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