JAMES DOUGLAS MORRISON (December 8, 1943-JULY 3, 1971)

Do you know the warm progress under the stars!
Do you know we exits?
Have you forgotten the keys to the Kingdom
Have you been borne yet & are you alive?

An American Prayer, copyright
James Douglas Morrison, 1970

Jim Morrison looked his life like a movie. A subtle fantasy in which he was both hero and villian. He was the hitchhiker who becomes the mass murderer. The Christ who is crucified. The singer and the songs. Jim wrote that “the appeal of the cinema lies in the fear of death.” The appeal of Jim Morrison’s day to day life lay in the inevitability of death.
James Douglas Morrison was born on December 8, 1943 in Melbourne, Florida. He attended school in Florida until 1964, when he transferred to U.C.L.A. to study cinema. The only thing that Jim ever said about his family is that they were dead, although he is survived by his parents, a brother and his wife Pamela.

They are waiting to take us into the severed garden.
Do you know how pale & wanton thrillful comes death on a strange hour unannounced, unplanned for
Like a scaring over-friendly guest you’ve brought to bed.

Jim Morrison was not well liked by everyone who knew him. Morrison was a showman. And some people don’t like being shown. Morrison was a drinker. And some people don’t like drunks.
The cause of Jim Morrison’s death is officially considered to be a heart ailment. There’s little doubt to anyone who knew Jim that his death was self-inflicted. One of Jim’s desires was to always have real control over his own life. There’s little reason to know or even want to know the “real” cause of death. We all know that there’s a list of dead rock stars. And the list is one name longer today.

We’re perched headlong on the edge of boredom
We’re reaching for death on the end of a candle
We’re trying for something
That’s already found us

Published in the Los Angeles Free Press
Written by Bob Chorush