Jim Morrison is a charismatic, unique and gifted rock musician. Over the course of his 27-year life, he managed to become a legend who has remained popular for more than 50 years.

His group “The Doors” will forever go down in world history. musical culture. Jim Morrison is a unique charm, a memorable voice and a destructive lifestyle that led to his sudden death.

The biography of the future idol of several generations began in the medium-sized city of Melbourne, located in the American state of Florida, on December 8, 1943. His father was George Morrison, who later received the rank of admiral, and his mother was Clara Morrison, nee Clark. The parents gave their illustrious son Irish, English and Scottish roots, although the boy spent his childhood in the States. Jim wasn't only child in the family: George and Clara also had a daughter, Anne, and a son, Andrew.

WITH youth Morrison Jr. never ceased to amaze school teachers with his intelligence (the musician’s IQ level was 149). At the same time, he knew how to charm those around him and win him over. But in the still waters there were devils: for example, Jim loved to lie, and reached a virtuoso level of skill in this matter. He also loved cruel pranks, the object of which was most often his little brother Andy.

Since the father of the future musician was a military man, the whole family had to move. So, when the boy was only four years old, he saw a sight that made a huge impression on him. We are talking about a terrible accident: on a highway in New Mexico, a truck carrying Indians got into an accident. The bloody corpses lying on the road made Jim experience fear for the first time in his life (he said so in an interview). Morrison was sure that the souls of the dead Indians had entered his body.

Little Jim's passion was reading. Moreover, he read mainly the works of world philosophers, symbolist poets and other authors, whose works are quite difficult to understand. As Morrison's teacher later said, he contacted the Library of Congress. He wanted to make sure that the books Jim told him about existed. Most of all, the boy liked the works of Nietzsche. In his free time from reading, he liked to write poetry and draw obscene caricatures.

Also in childhood, the Morrison family visited the Californian city of San Diego. Having matured, the future leader of The Doors was not at all tired of numerous moves and getting used to life in new cities. In 1962, at the age of nineteen, he went to Tallahassee. There the young man was accepted into Florida State University.

However, Jim did not like Tallahassee too much, and already at the beginning of 1964 he decided to change something in his life by going to Los Angeles. There the guy began studying at the cinematography department of the prestigious UCLA University. At that time, the teachers of this university were Joseph von Sternberg and Stanley Kramer, and at the same time the young man also studied at UCLA.

Music career

While studying at both universities, Jim Morrison did not work too hard. In case of State University Florida, he comprehended the work of Bosch, studied the history of the Renaissance and studied acting. At the University of California, he studied cinematography, but all this was more in the background for him than in the foreground. Jim did well in all subjects thanks to high level intelligence, but preferred alcohol and parties to study.

Apparently, then he decided to create his own rock band. He even wrote to his father about this decision, but he took another fixed idea of ​​his impulsive son for a bad joke. Sadly, after this, Jim’s relationship with his parents went very wrong: to all questions about them he answered that they had died, and the Morrisons themselves refused to give interviews about the work of their son even years after the musician’s premature death.

It wasn't just his parents who didn't see Jim as successful. creative person. As his senior thesis after graduating from UCLA, he was to direct his own film. Morrison did work on his own film, but other students and teachers did not see anything in this film that could be of artistic value. Jim even wanted to quit his studies just a couple of weeks before receiving his diploma, but his teachers dissuaded him from such a rash act.

However, studying at the University of California also had its advantages for a creative career as a performer. It was here that he met his friend Ray Manzarek, with whom he later formed the cult group The Doors.

The Doors

The band was founded by Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek, who were joined by drummer John Densmore and his friend guitarist Robbie Krieger. The band's name, in Morrison's style, was borrowed from the title of the book: "The Doors of Perception" - a work by the author famous for his dystopian novel "O Wonderful One". new world" The title of the book translates as “Doors of Perception.” This is exactly what Jim wanted to become for his fans—a “door of perception.” His friends agreed on this name for the group.

The first months of the life of The Doors were unsuccessful. Most of the musicians who made up the group turned out to be outright amateurs. And Morrison himself at first showed extreme timidity and embarrassment on stage. During the band's first concerts, he turned his back to the audience and stood that way throughout the entire performance. In addition, Jim still used alcohol and drugs, and he did not disdain to come to performances in drunk.

Back then they called him “that hairy guy.” Jim's height was 1.8 m. Surprisingly, Morrison's charisma worked even from behind: although the band performed unsuccessfully, because of his charm, The Doors quickly acquired their own army of female fans who liked the secretive guy and his enchanting voice. And then the band was noticed by Paul Rothschild, who decided to offer The Doors a contract on behalf of the Elektra Records record label.

The band's first album, “The Doors,” was released in 1967. The songs “Alabama Song”, “Light My Fire” and others instantly blew up the charts and made the group famous. At the same time, Jim Morrison continued to use illegal substances and alcohol - perhaps this is partly due to the mystical flair of the group’s songs and performances.

Jim inspired and charmed, but at this time the idol himself sank deeper and deeper to the bottom. In the last years of his life, Morrison gained excess weight, fought with police, and even survived being arrested on stage. He went on stage drunk and lost his temper in public. He wrote less and less material for the group, and singles and albums had to be worked on by Robbie Krieger, and not by the band's frontman.

Personal life

Photos of Jim Morrison even today evoke enthusiastic sighs from the fair sex, so it is not surprising that women loved him. There have been many speculations about Morrison's novels, and many of them may not be without foundation. He had a serious relationship with the editor of a music magazine, Patricia Kennealy. The girl met the frontman of The Doors in 1969, and in 1970, Patricia and Jim even got married according to Celtic customs (Kennely was interested in Celtic culture).

This event further fueled public interest in Morrison, who began to be accused of being addicted to the occult. It never came to an official wedding. However, in an interview at that time, Jim claimed that he was in love with his betrothed, and that their souls were now inseparable.

Official cause of death

In the spring of 1971, Jim and his girlfriend Pamela Courson went to Paris. Morrison intended to rest and work on a book of poetry. During the day, Pamela and Jim drank alcohol and took heroin in the evening.

At night, Morrison began to feel unwell, but he refused to call an ambulance. Pamela went to bed, and at approximately five o'clock in the morning on July 3, 1971, she discovered Jim's lifeless body in the bathtub, in hot water.

Alternative cause of death

Many alternative options for the death of the leader of The Doors have been proposed. Suicide, a staged suicide by FBI employees fighting representatives of the hippie movement, a drug dealer who treated Jim to too strong heroin. In fact, the only witness to Morrison's death was Pamela Courson, but three years later she also died of a drug overdose.

The grave of the iconic musician is located in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris. To this day, the cemetery is considered a place of worship for fans of The Doors, who even covered nearby tombstones with inscriptions about how much they loved the band and Morrison. After his death, Jim was included in the "27 Club".

Seven years after Morrison's death, the studio album American Prayer was released, featuring recordings of Jim reciting poetry set to a rhythmic musical background.

Discography:

• The Doors (January 1967)
• Strange Days (October 1967)
• Waiting for the Sun (July 1968)
• The Soft Parade (July 1969)
• Morrison Hotel (February 1970)
• L.A. Woman (April 1971)
• An American Prayer (November 1978)

(English Jim Morrison, full name James Douglas Morrison - English James Douglas Morrison) - American singer, poet and musician, leader of the group. Born December 8, 1943 in Melbourne, Florida. Died July 3, 1971 in Paris.

Military life involves frequent moves, and one day, when Jim was only four years old, something happened in New Mexico that he later described as one of major events of his life: a truck with Indians overturned on the road, and their bloody bodies lay on the road. “I discovered death for the first time (...) I think at that moment the souls of those dead Indians, maybe one or two of them, were rushing around, writhing, and moved into my soul, I was like a sponge, readily absorbing them.”

Having entered UCLA, the Faculty of Cinematography, he leads a bohemian lifestyle, reads a lot, takes psychotropic substances, and is interested in mysticism and beatniks. Graduate work Jim receives a mixed reaction from the teachers, and he leaves the university with a scandal.

Soon, with his friend, also a UCLA student, Ray Manzarek, and joined by guitarist Robbie Krieger and drummer John Densmore, they created the quartet the Doors, taking the name from a line by William Blake: “If the doors of perception were cleansed,/Every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite” (Russian. When the doors of perception are clear / Everything appears as it is - infinite). The group began performing in local pubs and their performances were frankly weak, partly due to the amateurism of the musicians, partly because of Jim Morrison’s timidity: at first he was even embarrassed to turn his face to the audience and sang with his back to the audience. In addition, Jim often came to performances drunk. Fortunately for the group, they had an army of female fans, and the next “last time” of the angry club owner resulted in calls from girls asking when they would see “that hairy guy” again.

Soon the group was noticed by producer Paul Rothschild from the recently opened Elektra label, which had previously only released jazz performers, who risked offering the Doors a contract (the group entered Elektra's circle with such giants as Love). The group's first single, "Break On Through", entered the top ten of the US Billboard charts, and the next, "Light My Fire", took first place on the chart - an extremely successful debut. The Doors' first album, released in early 1967, also took first place in the charts and marked the beginning of Dorsomania. The use of hallucinogens, in particular LSD, had a direct impact on the work of Jim and the Doors: mysticism and shamanism became part of the stage act. “I am a Lizard king. I can do anything." - Jim said to himself in one of the songs (“I’m the lizard king, I can do anything”).

Jim's subsequent fate was a downward spiral: drunkenness, arrests for indecent behavior and fights with police, transformation from an idol for girls into a fat bearded slob. More and more material was written by Robbie Krieger, less and less by Jim Morrison. Late concerts of The Doors consisted mostly of drunken Jim bickering with the audience. In 1971, the exhausted rock star goes with his friend Pamela Courson to Paris to relax and work on a book of poetry, where he soon dies. There are still rumors surrounding his death. It is believed that Morrison was killed. The only person to see his body was Pamela Carson, who died three years later.

Jim Morrison is buried in Paris at the Père Lachaise cemetery. His grave became a place of cult worship for fans, who covered the neighboring graves with inscriptions about their love for their idol and lines from The Doors songs.

In the early 90s, director Oliver Stone made the film “The Doors,” dedicated to Morrison. The role of the leader of The Doors was played by Val Kilmer.

In 1978, the album American Prayer was released: shortly before his death, Jim dictated his poems onto a tape recorder, and the musicians of The Doors put musical accompaniment on the poems.
But everything is not so simple: Jim’s lyrics, his songs, sincerity and charisma, sociality, shocking and suicidal nature of his work, his charm fascinated and fascinate listeners. Some compositions have become permanent basis for jazz and electronic arrangements by modern musicians. Overall, The Doors cannot be removed from the history of rock and from the lives of millions of fans.

MYTH OF AMERICAN ROCK CULTURE JIM MORRISON

In life Jim Morrison called a shaman, a prophet and even a messiah; after death, some consider him a god; for others, he remained a crazy drug addict and sexual maniac. Probably, all this corresponds to reality to the extent that all these roles played by him on stage and in life were real. Morrison known for his poetic creativity, with his distinctive voice, as well as his unique personality and self-destructive lifestyle.

Rebellious beginning

James Douglas Morrison born 1943 in Melbourne (Florida). His father was a naval officer who later rose to the rank of rear admiral. Even at school, contradictions in character appeared Jim's. On the one hand, he was smart, charming and pleased his teachers with good manners, on the other hand, he shocked those around him with his rampant lies. In addition, he was prone to rather cruel pranks, with which he simply tormented his younger brother Andy.

One feature Jim's His teachers were simply amazed: how much and what he read. His former teacher English recalls that he was even forced to check at the Library of Congress whether all the books he spoke about really existed Jim. He read philosophers (Nietzsche made the greatest impression on him), French symbolist poets and a host of other authors. He also drew, preferring obscene caricatures, and, of course, wrote poetry. Unfortunately, these texts have not survived.

A fundamental change in fate Jim's occurred in January 1964, when he left for Los Angeles to begin his studies at the University of California College of Directing. It was quite prestigious educational institution. Suffice it to say that at that time Stanley Kramer and Joseph von Sternberg taught there, and among the students was the young Francis Ford Coppola.

"Doors" by Jim Morrison

By the time of arrival Jim's life in Los Angeles was bustling and in full swing. We wandered the streets crowds of hippies attracted by the mild climate. Advertised by Professor Timothy Leary, LSD was sold literally on every corner, and here, in Los Angeles, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi began teaching, and Carlos Castaneda wrote his books about the mysterious Don Juan.

It is not surprising that in such an atmosphere all hidden talents quickly emerged Jim's. He leaves college without finishing his studies for two weeks. The formal reason for leaving was the failure of his graduation film, which seemed too extravagant to the teachers. In fact, by this time he was completely obsessed with a new idea - to create a rock band and start singing.

The name for it was already ready - and the “Doors of Perception” were meant. This was the title of Huxley's book, which was popular at the time. She talked about a psychedelic experience under the influence of the drug mescaline. The ideology of the future group Jim subsequently formulated this way: “There are things you know and things you don’t know, the known and the unknown, and between them there are doors - that’s us.”

About your decision Jim wrote to his parents in London, where his father was at that time serving as Commander-in-Chief of the US Naval Forces in Europe. “Nonsense,” the father answered briefly. Since then Jim I never saw my parents again, preferring to write in questionnaires that they had died.

Million is reality

The idea came to fruition when Jim met Ray Manzarek, who was attending the same college and was already playing in a band with his brothers. Hearing one of the songs written Jim, he said he had never heard anything better and immediately suggested he "start a rock band and make a million dollars."

The interesting thing was that Jim, not knowing how to play any instrument, he himself composed not only the words, but also the melodies of the songs, so Ray could only process and arrange them. Another striking fact was that by the time I met Ray Jim I couldn’t sing at all (Ray had to sing). This is two years later hardly anyone could believe it.

This delight, however, was not shared by the bar owner: he quickly got tired of the constant antics and insults Jim's. The contract was terminated. The group was saved by a new contract with the then-starting record company Elektra.

The first album, which was called that way - “The Doors” - appeared in January 1967 and went gold in the same year. The group's concert activities began at the same time.

Shaman on stage Jim Morrison

with Pamela

IN personal life Jim's An important event also happened: he met Pamela Carson. Most of his poems and many of his songs will be dedicated to her. The group's popularity grew. One of the leading critics of the time, Richard Goldstein, called Jim's"a street hoodlum who ascended to heaven and became a choir boy." He dubbed him a “sexual shaman” and announced that The Doors pick up where the Rolling Stones left off.

A special atmosphere at the group’s concerts was created thanks to the unusual synthesis of theater, deep poetry and good music. All this was aimed at causing internal transformation in each of the listeners. Wherein Jim it didn't matter what kind of transformation it was. The range of feelings experienced by listeners could range from religious delight and mystical trance to violent fury, which was accompanied by the pogrom of the hall where the concert took place. Jim called it "exploring the limits of reality." Of course, drugs and alcohol helped with this. He did not consider it necessary to spare himself either on stage or off it, where the “research” continued. Here he could equally be an angel or a villain.

Jim Morrison has hit a wall

Disappointment begins in 1968 Jim's in rock, due to the fact that most listeners I wanted to see him only as a sexual idol. Between him and his audience there had previously existed deep difference. He surpassed her both in level of education and in his spiritual development. The rebellion he called for was predominantly moral in nature. It was a rebellion against social conventions that enslave the individual.

Such a misunderstanding was bound to lead to a crisis sooner or later. In March 1969 Jim actually disrupted a concert in Miami with his mockery of the audience and was accused of indecent behavior on stage. A scandal erupted around the group. Concerts were banned.

After that Jim radically changed his image: he parted with his constant tight-fitting leather pants, grew a beard, and began to wear sunglasses and smoke cigars. At meetings with journalists he was sober, serious, honest and polite. Apparently, this new image was closer to reality and indicated a deep inner change.

At this time, thanks to the help of the English poet Michael McClure, the first books of his poems and notes, “The Lords” and “The New Creatures,” were published. Concerts resumed, but the authorities were waiting for the slightest reason to ban them again. In personal life Jim's, and previously not distinguished by order, now complete chaos reigned.

In July 1970, he married Patricia Kennealy, editor-in-chief of a rock magazine, but did not end his relationship with Pamela. Until the end of life Jim I was never able to sort out my relationship with these two women.

October 30 That same year, the trial in Miami finally ended. Jim was sentenced to six months in prison and a $500 fine, but was released on bail pending an appeal. The months after the trial were the most difficult. Jim's I was tormented by a premonition of death. He believed that he would be third after Jimi Hendrix and. To drown out his fear, he continued to drink.

Don't miss death

Last concert The Doors took place in 1970 in New Orleans. Health Jim's was so undermined that he was unable to complete the concert. Subsequently, Ray claimed that he saw how Jim's“his life force left him.”

In January 1971, the group’s last disc, “L.A.,” was recorded. "Woman". After that Jim went with Pamela to Paris. Apparently, he wanted to escape from his usual surroundings, and, perhaps, from himself. Most likely, he realized that his time as a rock star was over.

“I don’t want to die in my sleep, or in old age, or from an overdose, I want to feel what death is, taste it, smell it. Death is given only once; I don’t want to miss it.” It is unknown whether everything turned out the way he wanted.

Morrison directed his own short film “American Pastoral” in 1969, where he played the main role.

20 years after death Morrison directed by Oliver Stone Feature Film"The Doors", in which the role Jim's played by Val Kilmer.

In 1987, artist Aidar Akhatov painted Jim Morrison in the demonic image of a musician-prophet.

Updated: April 13, 2019 by: Elena

Jim Morrison (born December 8, 1943, Melbourne, Florida - died July 3, 1971, Paris) (full name James Douglas Morrison) is an American singer, poet, vocalist and leader of the band The Doors.

Jim Morrison's father is Admiral Steve Morrison. Jim's mother, Clara Morrison, also served in the Navy. Later, in an interview in 1967, Jim would say that they both died (the reason for this may have been his father’s reaction to Jim’s confession that he had decided to create a rock band. His father’s response to Jim’s letter with this confession was laconic - “nonsense ").

I drink to write poetry.

Morrison Jim

Moves are frequent in the life of military men, and one day, when Jim was only four years old, something happened in New Mexico that he later described as one of the most important events of his life: a truck with Indians overturned on the road, and their bloody bodies lay on the road . “I discovered death for the first time (...) I think at that moment the souls of those dead Indians, maybe one or two of them, were rushing around, writhing, and moved into my soul, I was like a sponge, readily absorbing them.”

Having entered UCLA, the Faculty of Cinematography, he leads a bohemian lifestyle, reads a lot, takes psychotropic substances, and is interested in mysticism and the ideas of the Beat Generation. Jim's thesis causes a mixed reaction from teachers, and he leaves the university with a scandal.

Soon, with his friend, also a UCLA student, Ray Manzarek, and joined by guitarist Robbie Krieger and drummer John Densmore, they created the quartet the Doors, taking the name from a poem by the English visionary poet William Blake: “If the doors of perception were cleansed,/Every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite” (Russian. If the doors of perception were clean / Everything would appear as it is - infinite). The group began performing in local pubs and their performances were frankly weak, partly due to the amateurism of the musicians, partly because of Jim Morrison’s timidity: at first he was even embarrassed to turn his face to the audience and sang with his back to the audience. In addition, Jim often came to performances drunk. Fortunately for the group, they had an army of female fans, and the next “last time” of the angry club owner resulted in calls from girls asking when they would see “that hairy guy” again.

Soon the group was noticed by producer Paul Rothschild from the recently opened Elektra label, which had previously only released jazz performers, who risked offering the Doors a contract (the group entered Elektra's circle with such giants as Love). The group's first single, "Break On Through", entered the top ten of the US Billboard charts, and the next, "Light My Fire", took first place on the chart - an extremely successful debut. The Doors' first album, released in early 1967, also took first place in the charts and marked the beginning of Dorsomania. One composition of the album - The End, conceived as an ordinary farewell song, gradually became more complex, acquiring universal images.

Jim Morrison on this song several years after the album's release:
"The End"... I really don't know what I was going to say. Every time I listen to this song it seems different to me. At first it was a farewell, perhaps to a girl, or perhaps to childhood.

The use of hallucinogens, in particular LSD, had a direct impact on the work of Jim and the Doors: mysticism and shamanism became part of the stage act. “I am a Lizard king. I can do anything." - Jim said to himself in one of the songs (“I am the king of the lizards. I can do anything”). The group The Doors managed to become not only a musical phenomenon, but also a cultural phenomenon. The band's sound lacked bass, emphasizing hypnotic organ parts and (to a lesser extent) original guitar parts. However, The Doors' popularity was largely due to the unique charismatic personality and deep lyrics of their leader Jim Morrison. Morrison was an extremely erudite person, interested in the philosophy of Nietzsche, culture American Indians, poetry of European symbolists and much more. Nowadays in America, Jim Morrison is considered not only a recognized musician, but also an outstanding poet: he is sometimes put on a par with William Blake and Arthur Rimbaud. Morrison attracted fans of the group with his unusual behavior. He inspired the young rebels of that era, and mysterious death the musician further mystified him in the eyes of his fans.

The lizard king who can do anything
The person I will write about is cool. “Cool” is probably not the right word. Jim is amazing, interesting, wonderful - and all this together, like multi-colored scoops of ice cream in a glass vase. Morrison himself was almost sure that we would not be able to forget him. He wrote: “...they will never see anything like this again and will never be able to forget me. Never"
Well Jim, yours took it. More than forty years have passed - and a person who did not even catch your time to sit down at a computer keyboard - you, Jim, have never seen such people - to write about you.

Do you know that peaceful admirals are leading us to slaughter?
Jim Morrison. "From American Prayer"

First there was light. Dim lights at a sailing club in Hawaii. It's an evening of dancing. In the center is a dancing couple. A fit sailor with a long face, a graduate of the Naval Academy in Annapolis, recently assigned to the minesweeper Pruitt, George Stephen Morrison and a young lady named Clara. This is their first meeting. The first, but not the last. Then there will be a war - a Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which fortunately did not affect the modest Pruitt at the repair shipyard, military training, and just before going to sea - a hasty wedding. Clara was waiting for Steve to go on a hike to the north. Pacific Ocean year. They were brought together again by Morrison's decision to volunteer for the Naval Air Corps. Steve was sent to Florida for retraining, and Clara also moved there. Eleven months after moving to Melbourne, their son was born. Having given him the name James Douglas, Steve went to war again, managing to both fight and take part in the “Manhattan Project” in Los Alamos.
After the war, the family often moved from place to place, first traveling around Florida, then living in Los Angeles and Washington. In 1947, little Jimmy had a sister, Annie Robin, in New Mexico and then a brother, Andrew, in California. During Korean War Jim's father leaves again to fight in the skies over Korea. There he will receive a Bronze Star. Jim would later remember this absence almost with nostalgia.

...the souls of those dead Indians, maybe one or two of them, floated around, writhing, and moved into my soul, and I was like a sponge, readily absorbing them
Jim Morison

Around four, or maybe five, a significant event will happen in his life, to which he will return again and again in his work, interviews, and thoughts. Car accident. The Morrisons drove past, along the highway near New Mexico - to their father's new place of duty. Jim remembered the police lights, their buzzing, the crying, the overturned truck.

There were bodies lying next to the truck - one, two, three bodies. Blood is everywhere. The policeman said they were Indians. Jim began to cry. He was scared. He asked his mother to go out, do something, help them. He was completely overcome by some kind of excitement; it even seemed as if the souls of the Indians, still writhing in pain, had moved into him. Then he will remember this feeling more than once.
Later, the parents could not remember the details of the accident, considering it an ordinary accident. The father believed that his son was simply fixated on these unfortunate Indians. My sister believed that Jim simply made up the whole story.
The family left Jim alone with his dead.

Fathers cluck on branches in the forest.
Our mother did not return from the sea.

It was not customary to smoke or drink alcohol in Jim's house. Clara tried to bring cleanliness close to sterility and establish deep silence in each new home.
As a child, Jim tried to fit in with the atmosphere - he became the mayor of the class, received good grades, said “sir” to his father and asked permission to leave the table after lunch.
The seeds of rebellion ripened in him gradually, imperceptibly. The father, who by that time had become the director of flights on the Midway, took his son on training maneuvers several times, but kept himself rather distant - to him, who had gone through the war and seen death, the oddities, wild fantasies and whims of his son seemed incomprehensible and far-fetched, and the strict order in the family - the best medicine. But the action gave rise to instinctive opposition in Jim. His father tried to instill in him army values ​​- Jim hated the army. The family did not accept beatings, but the children had to cry more than once from reproaches - and Jim forgot how to cry.
He grew up, and the abyss that separated him from his family grew with him.

You learned that freedom lives in school books.
You found out that madmen are escaping from our prison
Jim Morrison. "From an American Prayer"

Teachers considered James gifted, but unbalanced and wild. Just as easily as he became the mayor of the classes, Jim led the teenage hooligan parties. With his friend Fad, Jim became interested in spying on girls in beach cabins, and then, inflamed by what he saw, he came up with love affairs, where he had sex with three girlfriends at once. He wrote vulgar jokes and incredible stories. His friends listened to him with delight.
When Jim was late, he talked about a gang of gypsies trying to kidnap him, when he wanted to escape from classes, about a difficult operation to remove a brain tumor. At home he wore dirty jeans, hiding a clean pair under the bed. When they called home, he answered that it was a private family morgue; on buses, he pestered passengers with questions.
“So what do you think about elephants?” - he asked. Many people had to go.
I tried smoking, experimented with alcohol, listened to rock and roll and country music at full volume, and read an awful lot. His first love was modern American novels bit generation. He became a fan of Kerouac, writing out entire chapters of On the Road in his diary. Then Jim became interested in Nietzsche, then Rimbaud and medieval poetry. I read books about Indian cults, Sartre, then became interested in beat literature or ancient dramas. Later his favorites were James Joyce, William Blake, Balzac and Cocteau, Ginsberg and, finally, Aldous Huxley.
The teachers couldn't believe how much he read. They generally had a lot of trouble - for example, they called home, asking how the operation to remove a brain tumor went, or found out from the Library of Congress whether the books Jim was reading even existed. I must say, this was not at all superfluous - later, in college, he amused himself by writing essays about princes and counts invented by himself.
One summer Jim cursed at the commander and was kicked out of the camp. The camps reminded him of the navy, where he and his father shot seagulls with a machine gun. Jim didn't like killing seagulls and didn't want to serve in the Navy. He wanted to make films - from the age of 15, everything that could be useful for this ended up in his diary. By the way, he started keeping these diaries when he met his neighbor. He even wrote a piece about a pony for Tendi, but then he quarreled, promising to disfigure his face so that only he would look.

And we are there drunk, impeccable
Jim Morrison. "Now listen to this"

James ran away from new respectable houses, from shiny cars and pressed trousers of the 50s as best he could - both into books and into a small metal flask of whiskey, which by the end of school he carried with him constantly. Morrison pointedly did not show up for the presentation of his school diploma, and soon returned to boring Florida, where he settled with his grandmother and entered the St. Petersburg Junior College. From the subjects James chose the history of the Renaissance, acting and painting by Bosch. Right there, during college, he tried to play in the theater, while at the same time building another one in his head - a theater of narcotic dreams and visions. In addition to the theater, Jim tried to draw - mostly pornographic caricatures. He also continued to write poetry in his notebooks (almost none of which survive, a move Morrison later deeply regretted). He tries marijuana, then a new one - LSD. After alcohol experiments, Professor Timothy Leary's drug comes in handy.
Jim constantly experiments - with alcohol, drugs, the boundaries of perception and human behavior, conducting experiments on himself and his neighbors. He demands silence, he puts Elvis on full blast, he fights with his neighbors and he walks around naked. Morrison is trying to “grow into” the image of a bohemian poet, a hungry artist - he eats up other people’s lunches in the buffet, works part-time as a model or a blood donor. He wears someone else's torn pants and drinks someone else's beer.
Inspired by the “philosophy of rebellion” course, he tries to incite students to take over the university radio station. He is bored, he does not leave only because of his new hobby - Mary.
Jim fell in love on the beach and at first sight - that's the only way to fall in love in Florida.

You are the one!
Or very similar
to the one who couldn't be
like no one else.

His passion was the schoolgirl Mary Werbelow. Love transformed Jim, he became her servant. Having looked after him nicely, Jim got hold of some decent clothes. What clothes are there - he washed her car! While courting her, he became addicted to alcohol, began taking Mary to dance floors and became desperately jealous. Once he grabbed a guy by the belt and threw him across the hall just for trying to talk to Werbelow. Mary acted coldly and accepted his feelings only after a conversation about... poetry, where he admitted that he writes poetry like her, and moreover, about her.

Come on baby, run with me.
Let's run!
Jim Morrison. "Lizard Worship"

Morrison had long wanted to go to California and enroll in UKLA - but his father, who was steadily moving towards the position of captain of an aircraft carrier, would never understand this. It was easier to persuade Marie - she wanted to become a dancer. The last straw for Jim was an army haircut done by the ship's barber on the orders of his father. And Morrison fled. Like Kerouac's favorite heroes, Jim and his friend set off on a journey by foot. On the second day they were detained in Alabama. On the third day, Jim spent the night talking with the hermaphordite bartender, and a little later he devoured a whole roast cow, which Lyndon Johnson’s cousin treated them to. The voyage ended in Kerouac fashion, across the Mexican border. In Mexico, Jim almost seduced a lesbian, but her girlfriend intervened with a knife. He ended up spending his last night talking to a Mexican whore. He didn't know Spanish.
In hippy California, Jim lived quietly at first. Renoir, Kramer and von Sternberg taught there. I could breathe freely. He chatted with Mary on the phone, and soon she came to him. The girl began to look for work as a dancer, Jim was preparing to make educational films.
When Marie found a part-time job at a sort of strip bar, a jealous Jim became indignant for the first time. Then Mary’s agent advised her not to star in the “young loser.” The relationship was falling apart, but its complete collapse was a serious blow for Jim.
He almost left UKLA without finishing his studies for a week. His debut films were not well received, and he began to become disillusioned with cinema. In 1965, he lived on a friend's roof, sleeping under an electric blanket. He ate instant soups heated on the stove, walked along Venus Beach, wrote poetry and kept a diary. While on LSD, he composed songs and melodies, but he couldn’t write them down and didn’t know the notes. He simply heard some kind of internal fantastic rock concert in his subconscious, felt that he had to sing at least something from the music he created.
The one who pulled the music out of Jim's head was university friend Ray Manzarek. Jim read him some poetry, and at the lines “let's sail to the Moon...” Ray thought “this is it!” “If we put a group together,” he thought, “we’ll make a million dollars!”
The group was assembled quite quickly. John Denzmore is on drums and Robbie Krieger is on guitar. Unchangeable composition, exit – death. Jim came out first.
The group immediately faced a problem - in 1965, Jim could not sing at all. Hard to believe, right? Ray had to sing, and if Jim opened his mouth, it was something like reading poetry to the melody. The music was also unique - guitar solos and keyboard improvisations, a hypnotic rhythm section and a “cosmic” sound, hoarse vocals. No lightness, no solid melody - and insanely far from the Beatles' mainstream. In addition, Jim was shy and sang with his back to the audience.
His relationship with his parents finally broke down when, by calling London, he announced to the Commander-in-Chief of the US Naval Forces in Europe about his intention to take up rock music. The father, who decided that this was just another stupid whim, called the idea nonsense, a bad joke. Jim hung up and never spoke to his parents again.
“They died,” Morrison said in an interview.

I am a Lizard king. I can do anything

Gradually, people began to flock to the “adventurous singer,” and he and his band were invited to Whisky-A-Go-Go, a trendy club on the Sunset Strip. But even there Jim often found himself drunk or stoned, and although he quickly learned to hit the notes and get the crowd going, the owner of Whiskey tried to get rid of the group. Several times she was “saved” by fans besieging the club. They were also attracted by Morrison himself - in soft light shirts, tight-fitting leather pants with a regular face, a tar mane of hair, sensual lips, a strange voice and a distant look, and his style of singing. Jim squatted during songs, danced, jumped up and down. Then he froze for a long time, motionless and detached, or began to walk smoothly and measuredly around the stage.
Ultimately, the bar's contract with the team was terminated. The group, once again on the street, was saved by Paul Rothschild, a representative of Elektra Records, who signed a contract with them. The rest of the story is well known - The Doors album appeared in January and went gold in the same year. The single Break On Through hit the Billboard top ten, and the follow-up, Light My Fire, became number one on the chart.
Then there were concerts, stadiums, large venues– and Jim jumped, swore at the crowd, took off his clothes and threw microphones, getting excited, and sometimes simply provoking the audience.
New, almost flawless albums appeared one after another. Critics called Jim a “sexy shaman,” “a street tough who ascended to heaven and returned as a choir boy.” This is how Jim meets Pamela Corson, the constant heroine of his poems and songs.
He meets Andy Warhol, who gives him a gold phone, which he assures him can use to talk to the Almighty. Jim laughs and throws it into the trash can.

Manzerk, Denzmore and Krieger grew rich and advanced in the Doors' success, planning long professional careers. Jim drank six beers in the morning, squandered money, snorted coke, smoked weed, swallowed any tires and ended his day with whiskey. He was arrested more than once - for protests or indecent behavior - for example, public masturbation (strangely, no one saw this except a couple of cops). Once Jenny Joplin broke a bottle of liquor on his head (IQ - over 140 by the way) for gross public harassment. Jim's obscenities were a protest against the protest of the crowd who wanted to see him only as a singing piece of sex.
Having “thrown a bone” to the fans with his public nudity in Miami, he radically changed his image - he grew a beard, began smoking cigars, and giving “sober” honest interviews. He hid his swollen and beginning to grumble face behind dark glass. During this period, with the help of the Englishman McClure, he released the collections “The New Creatures”, “The Lords”. “An American Prayer” comes out later. Jim is tired of rock, of prosecutions, and in general - tired.
The latest album “L.A. Woman" "shabby" Jim Doors are recording in the basement of "Electra". They are almost kicked out - the rent is over, there is no money. Morrison sings his parts locked in the toilet - due to better acoustics, but this “beggarly” album also turns out to be brilliant.

Death makes us angels and gives us wings
where the shoulders were, soft as raven claws.
Jim Morrison. "From an American Prayer"

In 1970, Jim marries music magazine editor and practicing witch Pat Kennealy. They are “married” according to a Celtic magical ritual. Wherein Morrison doesn't leave Pam.
In December 1970, Jim gives a concert in New Orleans. Mumbling blues at the counter, staggering. It is not possible to complete it - my health is too damaged. This concert is the last.
In January 1971, Morrison and Pam fly to Paris. Perhaps, like Kerouac, Jim is trying to find his satori in him? Or maybe – and he’s just running from fear – he thinks he’ll die third after Hendrix and Joplin. Paris is the city of his death.

For a long time it was generally accepted that Jim died in the bathtub from cardiac arrest, loaded with alcohol. Some, however, believed that his death occurred from the first heroin injection on July 3, 1971. IN Lately another version has appeared. The owner of the Parisian bar, Benett, said that in fact, Morrison’s shapeless corpse was found on the floor of the toilet in his bar, and a little foam and blood flowed out of his nostrils (afraid of needles, Jim snorted heroin). It was as if the musician’s body was simply transferred to the hotel - either by the bartender and Pamela himself, or by some drug dealers. This is all. This is “...whoops, and I’m gone” - and what difference does it make where exactly he “ran out of hope and everything he could.” As he himself said - “The end is the end of laughter and affectionate lies, the end is the end of the nights in which we could not die. This is the end".