Posted on 11/09/2006 10:38:15 AM PST by weegee
LOS ANGELES -- The father of late Doors singer Jim Morrison has broken his silence to share memories of his estranged son, who once sang about killing him and joked that his family was dead.
George Morrison, a retired U.S. Navy admiral, is one of the contributors to The Doors by the Doors, an authorized memoir released this week. The book's author, rock journalist Ben Fong-Torres, also interviewed the band's three surviving members and Jim's younger brother and sister, among others.
"We look back on him with great delight ... The fact that he's dead is unfortunate but looking back on his life it's a very pleasant thought," George Morrison says in the book.
Jim Morrison, a difficult teen who rebelled against his father's military lifestyle, went on to become one of the most magnetic performers in rock 'n' roll. But he disowned his family, and once made a throwaway comment that they were dead. He also referenced his parents in the Oedipal rant The End, singing that he wanted to kill his father and sleep with his mother.
Andy Morrison recalls that his mother, Clara, who died last year, took him to a Doors concert in Washington, D.C., and asked to see Jim, but he refused to meet with her, and she drove home in tears.
The Morrisons surmise that Jim's hostility was really designed to shield them from too much attention.
"I had the feeling that he felt we'd just as soon not be associated with his career," George Morrison says. "He knew I didn't think rock music was the best goal for him. Maybe he was trying to protect us."
Adds his sister, Anne, "He liked mystique, too. He didn't want to be from somewhere."
Jim Morrison died of a heart attack in Paris in 1971, and his grave at the Pere Lachaise cemetery is one of the city's top tourist attractions. His family pays the authorities to take care of the site.
George Morrison said it was "quite an honor ... for the family" to have his son buried near cultural giants like Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf and Frederic Chopin.
If that was the same show, it may be just as well that Mom and little bro didn't chat with Jim that night, as he appeared to be pretty drunk.
Weeg, I'm just so touched to hear this.
Is there a *book* I can buy?
Only regret I have is Morrison's not still alive so he could run for public office on the Liberal-Socialist ticket.
Wait a minute, now.
...on second thought. {g}
The father of Jim Morrison's wife (he's a former school principal) is the one who inherited Jim's estate and has thwarted efforts to release things like the art film Jim starred in (one he was in for someone else, after he'd become famous).
Parental rights are odd things when marriages come into play. Like the way Terry Schivo-Schindler's husband was able to plead her case for financial gain and then to present a purely oral contract to end her life even when her parents offered to take custody. He did not have her best interests at heart and had apparently abandoned the marriage.
Even odder is the concept of trademarking celebrity. "Marilyn Monroe" died without any heirs. She gave control of her estate to her psychiatrist. That psychiatrist's wife's family now profits from her persona (including impersonators).
If Mr. Morrison wants to put his thoughts down about his estranged son in a book together with the rest of the band, I don't see a problem with this.
"...blood in the streets in the town of New Haven..."
I wonder how widely reported that incident was at the time.
There was a movie called "Wild In The Streets" with a Morrison-like messianic singer. He runs away from home as a late-teen after trashing the house and blowing up the family car. His mom (played by Shelly Winters) sees him on tv one night and makes an effort to see him backstage after a concert.
Great movie to watch while high, so I recall.
On laserdisc it was issued on a double-feature with Psych-Out.
On DVD they paired it with Gas-s-s-s. Psych-Out on DVD is paired with The Trip.
Netflix should have them all.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=vTRNly1UiOw
If you're over 30, "you'd better see it".
Good.
Because this coming out *now* is part of a marketing plan for an upcoming book.
Surely veteran forum citizens know the modus operandi of these things, by now.
Hell's bells every moonbat Liberal-Socialist has used & continues to use the same shtick.
FWIW I enjoyed Morrison's stuff for years, maybe longer than you are old, I dunno 'bout that except it's been a long time -- say 1968?
Long time.
Interestingly enough Morrison's keyboardist, Ray Manzarek, following Morrison's suicide did a solo album.
Was Ray's only effort that I knew of.
Anyway one cannot buy a copy of that one album on CD, and I for one would love to own a copy since so much of the Doors' sound came from Ray, vocals aside.
Make sure you ping me to your review of the book, weeg.
I'm sure it'll be available at Amazon.
...real soon. ;^)
I buy "review copies" or close-out editions of most new books from Half Price Books. No sence in paying $24.95 for a book that I can find for $4.95 in under a year (or sometimes in the first month of release).
And I am behind on reading autobiographies. I do have Manzarek's and have read some but not all of it.
Ray Manzarek has done some recording and performance off and on with a poet, Michael McClure, in recent years. He also produced the LA band X in the 1980s.
http://www.mcclure-manzarek.com/mcclurebio.html
Good to learn Ray's keeping busy.
But the work Ray'll be remember for he did when he was a very young man, filled with spit & vinegar & it sounded like it.
On his one solo album he performed a protest song called, "America, love it or leave it".
It mocked the then "rednecks" who told the "hippies" the same thing.
The CD would be worth that song alone.
They sure don't make 'em like that, anymore & since I collect classic rock (to the tune of 3,600 CDs) I'd love adding it to my collection.
...just for posterity. ;^)
If one of you know where I can find a CD of the soundtrack from "Wild in the Streets" or the original "Cool Hand Luke" soundtrack, or where I can download those from, I would appreciate the information.
ooooh, one of these trick questions. I know! I know! no matter what the truth is, the answer will be 'no,' right? =P
"Let me tell you something. We need a two and a half hour movie about the Doors? Folks, no we don't. I can sum it up for you in five seconds, ok. I'm drunk. I'm nobody. I'm drunk. I'm famous. I'm drunk. I'm f'ing dead. There's the whole movie, ok!? Big fat dead guy in a bath tub, there's your title for you." - Dennis Leary
My favorite all-time Leary line, "What kind of country is this where John Lennon gets six bullets in the chest, and Yoko is standing right next to him and not one f'ing bullet? Explain that to me."
LOL! I also love his rant on the French.
Some of the Doors songs are my favorites.... will always listen when "Riders on the Storm" or "LA Woman" or "Light My Fire" is on the radio
Start here for that, but follow all links:
http://www.blaxploitation.com/s_320.html
From the little I read you're looking for a vinyl copy as it's not available on CD.
"or the original "Cool Hand Luke" soundtrack, or where I can download those from..."
Here ya go, ya got lucky, knock yourself out:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000006XS7/internetmoviedat/
It's an import y'know, hence the $84 asking price.
So the question is my friend, how bad ya want it?
Could be worse.
I paid $125 for Bob Seeger's first album called, "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man" when his group was known as, The Bob Seeger System.
Was done in '67 or '68 & I wanted just *one* song off that thing, and I got it.
To get it away from me now, $500.
...or forgetaboutit. ;^)
I'm fond of "Hello I love you" or whatever the name of that song is. It's just so cool, not the lyrics, but the instrumentation.
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