DEAD FAMOUS: Jim Morrison

COMING SOON!

In this unique programme fusing travelogue, biography and the paranormal, cynical but curious Gail Porter and ’sensitive’ Chris Fleming take a spirited road trip through America in search of the spirits of the ’dead famous’.

Biography

Curious

Music

Quotes

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Jim Morrison
born: 08-12-1943
birth place: Melbourne, Florida
died: 03-07-1971

The Doors’ third album, Waiting For The Sun, came out in 1968. Morrison originally planned that this album would include several extended concept songs, including “Celebration of The Lizard” taking up the whole length of Side Two. But Elektra Records vetoed this proposal, much to Morrison’s annoyance. From this point on, Jim became increasingly resistant to the demands of both his record label and the concert-going public, frequently ignoring their requests to sing the most famous numbers from The Doors’ repertoire, including “Light My Fire” and “Love Me Two Times”.

The Doors’ fourth album was called, “The Soft Parade”, and featured a far more heavily orchestrated, pop-oriented sound than earlier records. The change in musical style was not well received, and this fourth album was widely slated by both the press and the listening popular. After a long break in recording, the band got back together in late 1970 to record what was to be their last LP with Jim Morrison, called “L.A. Woman.”

Like the fourth album, this record had a highly commercial sound, with smooth instrumentation and Bubblegum-style songs, such as “Mr Mojo Risin’” and “Been Down So Long”. But the album was redeemed by the inclusion of the classic number, “Riders On The Storm”. Despite the album’s success, the producer Paul A. Rothschild, who’d worked on all their previous records, walked out, loudly voicing his disapproval of the band’s new material, which he called “lounge music”. The album broke with the earlier Doors sound, with its intensely personal and poetic lyrics, exchanging it for a highly commercialised sound, like many other rock bands of the time.

Throughout his musical career, Morrison was as notorious for his rampant sexuality and promiscuity as he was for his drug-taking and rock’n’roll lifestyle. Although he met his life partner and long-term companion, Pamela Courson, long before he became famous, and stayed with her until his death, the couple frequently quarrelled, allegedly on account of Morrison’s infidelity. According to rock legend, the Doors’ singer frequently slept with his female fans and also had many short-lived liaisons with celebrity women, including Nico from The Velvet Underground, Grace Slick from Jefferson Airplane and the singer Janis Joplin.

From the late 1960s onwards, Morrison became more and more dependent on drugs, and experimented with a wide range of hallucinogenic substances, including LSD (acid). From being the slender Adonis of early album covers, he became pasty-faced and bloated. He grew a beard and gained over 20 lbs., abandoning his former stage persona of the Lizard King, swapping his tight leather trousers for a more conventional uniform of blue jeans and T-shirts.

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