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Morrison Jim 1943 - 1971 (28)

A friend is someone who gives you total freedom to be yourself.


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According to him, one of the most important events in his life occurred in 1949 during a family trip to New Mexico. As he described it: "It's the first time I discovered death as I, my mother, my father, my grandfather and my grandmother crossed the desert at dawn. A truck full of Indians had probably hit another car or something, there were Indians scattered all over the highway, bleeding to death. I was young then, so I had to stay in the car while my father and my grandfather went to see what was happening. I could not see anything. All I saw was strange red paint and people fallen around, but I knew something was happening, because I could feel the vibrations of the people around me, and suddenly I realized that they could not understand what was happening. This was the first time I felt real fear ... and I think at that time the souls of those dead Indians - maybe one or two of them - furious running here and there, went into my soul, and I was like a sponge, ready to sit there and absorb them".



Jim (Douglas) Morrison, (1943-1971) was an American songwriter, singer and poet, a founding member of the Doors. He was born on December 8, 1943; his father was a senior officer of the Navy and later admiral; throughout the second world war he was in the Pacific, Jim and his mother Clara lived with her parents in-laws. After the war, the family had two more children, a girl and a boy. They brought them up in an authoritarian manner and military discipline exercising psychological violence, with strong voices, reprimands and punishments in aim to put them on the right track.

When Jim grew up he didn’t want any contact with his parents and when he became famous singer he stated in interviews that both his parents were dead.

Both his parents had repeatedly assured that never happened such a thing. But Jim was affected from the incident and recall it many times in lyrics such as "Indians scattered on dawn highway bleeding Ghosts abound-like shell fragile mind of a small child." His family had frequent removals because of his father's profession and Jim changed many schools. He was capable and intelligent student with an interest in literature, poetry, philosophy and psychology. She entered the University of Florida in 1962, which had cheap tuition, but not satisfied, he moved to college FSU, and in 1964 went to Los Angeles, California where he studied film making at UCLA. He was writing verses from his childhood and after the end of his studies he published his first book of poems. In 1965 he founded with a classmate from UCLA, the band Doors. They became famous in 1967 with their first album and the songs "Light my fire" and "People are strange", while in the same time with the second album, "Strange Days", became overnight the most popular rock band in America.

In 1968 and 1969 they produced 2 more albums and they started touring in Europe; they soon became known worldwide. On his first appearances Morrison was shy and timid, but soon he showed a peculiar rebelliousness, many interpreted as a reaction to the authoritarian of his family environment in which he had grown up. He started to behave weirdly on stage and provoking the conservative mores of the time. He threw microphones, cursed, made imitations of the sexual act, broke things; while drunk on stage he ruined their music equipment and nearly caused the demise of the band. Fans were raving with his antics, he was targeted though by authorities and the police. Many times he was arrested after a concert while in some other cases, concerts were banned on public policy grounds. On September 20, 1970 he was sentenced to six months hard labor because he had shown his genitals in public during a concert in Miami. In the same year he published the poetry collection “The Lord and Creatures”, and next year, as the climate was very negative in the US for him, he decided to settle with his girlfriend Pamela Race in Paris, to devote himself to poetry. Pamela was his life companion, they had met before becoming famous and maintained an open relationship with many quarrels, separations and reunions. Morriosn aditionally, had often sex with admirers and several brief relationships with celebrities.

On July 3, 1971 he was found dead in the bathroom of his apartment in Paris. The official version of his death was a heart attack. Many spoke of death from drugs. He was buried in the "Poets Corner" in Paris’ cemetery.