WAS JIMMY MORRISON A MISUNDERSTOOD GENIUS OR A TOWN DRUNK WITH A DRUG PROBLEM?
The Doors were a big part of the 60s counter-culture in that tumultuous decade. Jim Morrison helped make it a reckless decade. There was always something tangibly dangerous about the Doors because Jimmy really didn’t like to play by the rules.
So the question arises, was Jimmy a tortured genius or simply a talented drunk with optional drug problems?
I lean toward door number two, but I liked the Doors’ music (well- most of it) a lot.
I could separate the man and the music fairly well, but Jimmy Morrison was pretty hard to ignore because he loved the limelight. A limelight in that “I am the center of the universe” kind of style made famous by every alcoholic that craved attention for bad behavior far more than another double shot.
The problem was that Jimmy bought heavily into the hype, and an insane amount of attention never seemed to be enough for the guy.
He was a poseur of legendary proportions and he liked to lurch around in that-barely-able-to-defy-gravity drunken style. The fans loved it, but it added a circus to a rock concert every time the Doors hit the stage.
Nearly every segment of Jim Morrison film footage from his short career as a rock superstar showed him in varying degrees of serious booze and/or drug stupors. It’s a hell of a legacy and it shows why Jimmy could sing “This is the end” with such deep conviction. He didn’t win the self-destructive rock star death race with Hendrix and Joplin in the early 70s, but he finished a close third.
PBS recently aired a documentary about the Doors, and it reinforced my opinions about Jim Morrison. Here was a guy that veered the incredibly dynamic 60s music sound down his own path. Radio wanted three minute songs and Jimmy gave radio seven minutes or more for his songs.
Popular music was never a good fit for the self proclaimed poet, but the songs were too good not to play. So every kid with an AM radio heard the Doors on the Top 40 stations. Those with an FM signal heard the entire Doors albums and the long song versions, usually at night.
Jim Morrison lit a musical fire at an early age and he extinguished it at an early age. He burned out quickly but he has never quite faded away-the perfect ending- according to Neil Young. Dead young rock legends have a certain cachet, and Jimmy still leads the way in this department.
Maybe it all worked out for the best for the Doors. They had a brief run of greatness cut short by the untimely death of their dynamic lead singer (and tour de force) Jim Morrison. He became a poster boy for all that was right and wrong with rock music during the craziness of the late 60s. It all depended upon your point of view.
They called the Rolling Stones the bad boys of rock and roll and it made sense until Jimmy Morrison made them look like rank amateurs in the bad behavior department. It was never a badge of honor in my opinion, but the man’s music deserves a place of honor.
And that is not a bad legacy for an obnoxious drunk bent on self-destruction.
COMMENTS
DENNIS:"Jim Morrison was simply the right guy for the right time. It was the hey day of the "If it feels good, do it" generation of self absorbed "Baby Boomers". He lasted a little longer in the art of self destruction than those without the money and celebrity did. There was no "Genius" involved and all good (and bad) things come to an end, well almost. There's still a few around who enjoy going back to the days of Whine and Hosers while watching a gray haired Joe Walsh in a 3 piece suit and thick glasses sing "My Maserati does 185, I lost my license, now I don't drive". The rest of us just wonder how we survived in the first place. Especially those of us who spent our time IN Viet Nam instead of on the streets of America, drunk and stoned, protesting it"
GENE:"I think he was young, reckless & a music genius -"
SHELLEY:"must read...always loved his soulful, crazy way..."
JOEL:"problem drunk. Greatness over-exaggerated. Much more talented drunks from that era get overlooked, due to this Val Kilmer wannabe. :)
