Exploring Jim Morrison's poetry notebooks
December 19, 2022 8:15 AM Subscribe
Jim Morrison wanted to be a poet. Instead, he became a rock star. Here are his poetry notebooks Jim left behind over two dozen notebooks, even though he died at 27 and destroyed his high-school notes. He gave them titles like “Tape Noon,” “GOLD,” “Paris Journal,” and “Lizard Celebration.”
It's alright, all your friends are here.
When can I meet them?
After you've eaten.
I'm not hungry.
Uh, we meant beaten.
posted by mmmbacon at 9:52 AM on December 19, 2022 [2 favorites]
When can I meet them?
After you've eaten.
I'm not hungry.
Uh, we meant beaten.
posted by mmmbacon at 9:52 AM on December 19, 2022 [2 favorites]
I heard an interviewer (for the life of me I can't remember her name) tell a story about interviewing Robby Krieger. She said she was young and asked him romanticized questions about Jim and "the shaman" mythology. Robby sighed and told her, "You want the truth? Jim was an alcoholic who hurt everyone around him. We loved him but he broke everything he touched." It woke her up to be more caring about her interviewees and the pain of their experience.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 10:59 AM on December 19, 2022 [17 favorites]
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 10:59 AM on December 19, 2022 [17 favorites]
He couldn't be either.
posted by box at 11:26 AM on December 19, 2022 [8 favorites]
posted by box at 11:26 AM on December 19, 2022 [8 favorites]
That seems like a pretty fair assessment, AL. There was so much mythologizing around Morrison; a lot of my early view of him was colored by reading No One Here Gets Out Alive, which was largely responsible for spreading the urban legend that Morrison faked his death. There is/was also a lot of attraction for young people, particularly young men, who are maybe not in formal training for the arts but at the very least arts-curious, with the whole poet/shaman/rockstar thing. It's a bit easier now that I'm older and not so interested in squeezing into the proverbial leather pants to see how self-indulgent a lot of Morrison's shtick was; in particular, "The End", with its literal evocation of the Oedipus complex, is super cringy. (Before you mention Apocalypse Now, that film's use of the song was not just the best but maybe the only justification for its existence.)
But, you know, I can still listen to the Doors (or at least their greatest hits) with a lot of enjoyment, and if Jim wouldn't have been much of a much without the rest of the band, they didn't seem to have much mojo (sorry) without him either.
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:37 AM on December 19, 2022 [5 favorites]
But, you know, I can still listen to the Doors (or at least their greatest hits) with a lot of enjoyment, and if Jim wouldn't have been much of a much without the rest of the band, they didn't seem to have much mojo (sorry) without him either.
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:37 AM on December 19, 2022 [5 favorites]
Installation Is Done
You can't put the dried paint
Back onto the brush
Then back in the tube,
Erase the words
Burn the books
And cry they hurt me
Therefore they didn't really
Make art, or storm their times
Like no one since.
He hurt some people, drank too much,
Who, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, who Wm. F Buckley?
Not quite like selling napalm,
Killing thousands for a
Certain golden triangle's worth
Of central nervous system depressants,
In his end he slipped out of our
Collective conscience, and into myth.
Indelible and steps through an ineffible curtain,
Into embellished memory, an
Embroidery of axons, dendrites, infinite
In it's turning a beckoning to who
We were, when, the world was then,
Some of us are still alive,
And sometimes dance with hearts afire.
Light it up, hang onto the thread
Of your passion through time,
Remember how you used to smile
How you ran with the full creek in runoff,
How everything could hang on a riff?
You can't unset the sun,
Nor unbeget a son,
Nor erase the doings of a time,
Magic happens only once,
But it writes eternity in one
Long take, we never see,
The beginning or the end.
You cannot put the note
Back in the mouth of the singer,
Nor can we unstrum the string,
Or wash away a time that made
One man a king, and another,
A poet, and most of us just gone.
posted by Oyéah at 12:49 PM on December 19, 2022 [8 favorites]
You can't put the dried paint
Back onto the brush
Then back in the tube,
Erase the words
Burn the books
And cry they hurt me
Therefore they didn't really
Make art, or storm their times
Like no one since.
He hurt some people, drank too much,
Who, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, who Wm. F Buckley?
Not quite like selling napalm,
Killing thousands for a
Certain golden triangle's worth
Of central nervous system depressants,
In his end he slipped out of our
Collective conscience, and into myth.
Indelible and steps through an ineffible curtain,
Into embellished memory, an
Embroidery of axons, dendrites, infinite
In it's turning a beckoning to who
We were, when, the world was then,
Some of us are still alive,
And sometimes dance with hearts afire.
Light it up, hang onto the thread
Of your passion through time,
Remember how you used to smile
How you ran with the full creek in runoff,
How everything could hang on a riff?
You can't unset the sun,
Nor unbeget a son,
Nor erase the doings of a time,
Magic happens only once,
But it writes eternity in one
Long take, we never see,
The beginning or the end.
You cannot put the note
Back in the mouth of the singer,
Nor can we unstrum the string,
Or wash away a time that made
One man a king, and another,
A poet, and most of us just gone.
posted by Oyéah at 12:49 PM on December 19, 2022 [8 favorites]
I should stay out of this, I really don't like the Doors and the whole mythology around Morrison. I remember browsing the poetry sections of several bookstores around Harvard Square when I was in high school, and I found a slim edition of his alleged poetry. I skimmed it and moved on. He's no William Carlos Williams. He's not even Charles Bukowski.
But I hate the band so I'm biased. Perhaps there is poetry here and I just can't see or hear it.
posted by vrakatar at 8:40 PM on December 19, 2022
But I hate the band so I'm biased. Perhaps there is poetry here and I just can't see or hear it.
posted by vrakatar at 8:40 PM on December 19, 2022
I always find it wild that Jim Morrison's father was a famous Navy admiral who commanded the US Navy forces during the Tonkin Bay incident. Wild stuff, you can't make this up!
posted by chaz at 8:46 PM on December 19, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by chaz at 8:46 PM on December 19, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by beesbees at 11:44 PM on December 19, 2022
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posted by BWA at 9:45 AM on December 19, 2022