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.
Can I come over sometime?
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.............
No one else played music like that
The killer awoke before dawn, he put his boots on
He took a face from the ancient gallery
And he walked on down the hall
He went into the room where his sister lived, and...then he
Paid a visit to his brother, and then he
He walked on down the hall, and
And he came to a door...and he looked inside
Father, yes son, I want to kill you!
Mother...I want to...f_ck you!
_____________________________________________________________________________
Nice.
Jim would have made a great Democrat politician had he lived.
Ray did a CD with Scott Richardson called Revelation Blues. Check it out here:
http://www.raymanzarek.us/rev_album.html
It's out of print, so if either of you are interested in getting a copy from me, drop me an off-line e-mail.
Don't ask me how it is though, I've had the disk for like 2 years and am JUST listening to it now. I knew I had it somewhere so I just dug it out!
Do you have any vinyl? I have a really large vinyl collection butam most interested in Detroit rock live bootlegs such as MC5, Stooges, Seger, etc. I have some pretty awesome Seger bootlegs, we should chat about that.
I got the new "the doors by the doors" book. My first thought was "wow, these hippies won't think twice about selling their quick buck." Of course, I was in line buying the book at the time.
I think billy martin said it best when he said 'i;m ok to drive.'
3,600? kid stuff . . . try over 10,000 albums.
I'm sure it's easier on his family to try to think the best of Jim especially since he treated them very badly while he was alive and then made them very wealthy after dying in a bad way.
There surely is a place in God's breast for you.
He was the antidote to the hippies; the first punk rocker.....
Iggy certainly learned something about working a crowd from Jim Morrison and Iggy lived with Nico after she broke up with Jim.
The Sex Pistols (Malcom MacLaren's Monkees) found common ground in their appreciation of the songs of the Doors.
I'm not so certain he made them wealthy. It was Jim's wife's family that inherited his estate (she died less than a year after he did).
Within 5 years all the places The Doors played were punk venues. Pure nihilism, not happy peace and love crap!
As Jim Morrison said: "Blues beats rock and whiskey beats pot."
They were waaay ahead of their time!
LA has never been a hippy town--not like San Fran; and The Doors were, and are, hopelessly linked with LA.
LA Woman? It opens with the sound of an American small block V-8 revving.
The New Doors stuff with Ian Astbury (Southern Death Cult) as lead singer is pretty damned good....
Admiral Morrison has good reason to remember his boy fondly.
Anytime.
I've used my collection to parse together some of the greatest music in what I've called a collection of theme-based compilations.
The idea was to make premade radio programs in the advent I ever do acquire a small FM radio station out here where I live, in the boonies.
The farmers would go nuts if they tuned-in as they planted and/or harvested operating some fairly luxurious $250,000+ John Deere machines. {g}
These compilations are made up of & include individual cuts from the greatest classic rock, jazz, blues, country ("old" country...real old) & far-out ( :o) ) contemporary [read: electric, ie, "Hawkind" et al type material] music our culture's ever produced, IMO.
Never know what'll come up next on the EMA collection, just that it'll have a common theme whatever it is. :^)
To date I've 52 albums (CDs) in this collection, two on the board blocked-out ready to assemble & burn soon as the weather turns nasty & I've time.
The really fun part was for an old timer like myself learning how to convert the CDa discs to MP3 files, then reburn, which I've done.
A LOT of trial & error, believe me.
But since my both my bride's & my (main) cars have 6 disc changers it means many, many hours of uninterrupted music far & away better than anything XM of Sirius {sp?} w/could ever offer.
Infinitely more unique, easily.
So if you're in or live the newly crowned Liberal-Socialist state of Wisconsin?
...c'mon down. ;^)
Excellent, see post #55 I wrote to another forum participant.
You'll see what I'm up to.
Maybe we can make a deal, say a trade?
A copy of Revelation Blues for me & for you a few volumes of my EMA ("Eclectic Myass" -- don't ask :o) ) works??
What-say-you?
"Don't ask me how it is though, I've had the disk for like 2 years and am JUST listening to it now. I knew I had it somewhere so I just dug it out!"
I know what you mean, I ordered & received a copy of an album several weeks ago I'm putting on for the first time right *now* as I write.
It's by Robin Trower -- ex-lead guitarist of the old group Procol Harum -- who honed his craft for a few years & in 1974 did what some say was his best work, Bridge of Sighs.
We shall see.
As a wannabe guitarist I might not have the lightening fast fingers for outrageous riffs & runs, but my ear still hears quite well, thank you very much. :o)
Y'know it's been my experience most every album has at least *one* cut (often more) suitable to make the cut & be on my EMAs.
Only artists one'll not hear are the putrid Liberal-Socialists who didn't have the brains to keep their mouths shut & sing.
Carley Simon & Bruce Springsteen would be two *fine* examples of R&Rers banned, Tony Bennett another in the jazz genre.
I'm serious about my politics while always trying to define the word "diverse", not bandy it about as a mere platitude as happens all too much these days.
Lemme know what you think about my suggestion.
I'm a real Republican & real Republicans love nothing more.
...than a good deal. ;^)
Yea.
But honestly if I've 250 albums total I'd be surprised, more likely less.
Haven't touched 'em in years in spite of owning a beautiful linear tracking Technics turntable my bride bought me for Xmas in the late 70s, early 80s.
Those albums moved with us over 4 states in the past 25 years, I've never opened the mover's boxes from the first move, either.
Most are badly worn though, could probably see through 'em if ya held them up to light.
The cover art is probably their real value these days, if any value a'tall.
"I have a really large vinyl collection butam most interested in Detroit rock live bootlegs such as MC5, Stooges, Seger, etc."
Interesting.
Are you a Michigander familiar with the Detroit R&R scene in the 60s, 70s & 80s?
Reason I ask is because I acquired a CD called, Hideout -- Friday At The Boss Detroit Garage 1964-67 which features nothing *but* the early Detroit rockers.
Plus I've a 4 disc boxed set featuring material in a similar vein called, Left of the Dial - Dispatches From The 80s Underground.
HA!!
Man are there some outrageous cuts on those babies.
The tight rears 'round here would have an anurysm -- I swear -- if they ever heard some of the cuts.
Naturally I *cherry-picked* the best for EMA, *naturally* :o)
"I have some pretty awesome Seger bootlegs, we should chat about that."
Great, let's do it.
Very few realize how long Seger's been around.
In fact he's actually still working, doing a *concert* in Milwaukee (within the next week or so).
I saw a picture of him & gone is the floppy dark brown hair, beard and svelte waistline of a hungry, rebellious kid.
A lot more than a mere "Touch of Gray".
Of course.
...I should talk. {g}
Impressive!.
(Lemme guess, you own a music store. {g})
Tell me, what format...vinyl, CDa, both?
And genre, various & mixed or same type?
...inquiring minds & all that. ;^)
Considering how Jim treated his family, I'd have expected his dad to say "good".
1 - I didn't know his dad was an admiral.
2 - "Ben Fong-Torres" ... lol, sounds like multiculturalism on steroids
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