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The white marble bust of the “Riders on the Storm” singer — made by Croatian artist Mladen Mikulin — was placed at the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris on the 10th anniversary of Morrison’s death in 1981. The infamous sculpture, weighing nearly 300 pounds, did not appear damaged beyond the graffiti and its broken nose, which were already there when the bust went missing 37 years ago, according to newly released pictures. Morrison’s gravesite — situated in an area called the “Poets Corner”– has attracted hordes of fans since the 27-year-old was laid to rest in 1971, according to the...

Val Kilmer, a homegrown Hollywood actor who tasted leading-man stardom as Jim Morrison and Batman, but whose protean gifts and elusive personality also made him a high-profile supporting player, died on Tuesday in Los Angeles. He was 65. The cause was pneumonia, said his daughter, Mercedes Kilmer. Mr. Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014 and later recovered, she said. Tall and handsome in a rock-star sort of way, Mr. Kilmer was in fact cast as a rocker a handful of times early in his career, when he seemed destined for blockbuster success. He made his feature debut in...

The Los Angeles home where The Doors guitarist Robby Krieger penned the band’s hit psychedelic rock single “Light My Fire” was destroyed in the Palisades Fire. Krieger — a founding member of the legendary genre-bending LA band — wrote the lyrics to the classic in the living room of his parents’ Pacific Palisades home in 1966.

The Morrison Hotel, the famous backdrop for The Doors’ 1970 album named after it, was destroyed by a huge fire Thursday while being occupied by dozens of homeless squatters. Almost 100 firefighters worked for at least two hours from 11 a.m. to control the fire at the downtown Los Angeles hotel best known for being on the cover of the legendary rock album. The blaze destroyed the roof of the building now red-tagged as being unlivable. Henry Diltz, the photographer who shot the album cover, said he was “very sad” to see the landmark so badly damaged, telling CBS News...

"Sonnet 18" by William ShakespeareShall I compare thee to a summer’s day?Thou art more lovely and more temperate:Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;And every fair from fair sometime declines,By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm'd;But thy eternal summer shall not fade,Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,So long lives this, and...

I'm a Little Dinosaur (Live) | 2:07Jonathan Richman - Topic | 3.63K subscribers | 951 views | May 5, 2022

Soul Kitchen · The Doors

Jim Morrison's homage to Los Angels. It used to be a great place. I figured appropriate in light of the devastating fires. Barely 3 months after release Jim Morrison was dead. And that was "The End" of one of the truly great bands of the 60's.

Exactly half a century ago - July 29th 1967 - this song hit Number One on the Billboard Hot One Hundred. This essay is adapted from Mark's book A Song For The Season: It was 50 years ago today-ish that Sgt Pepper was going on about how it was 20 years ago today. That's to say, the "Summer of Love" is half a century old: It's longer ago today than the summer of flappers and charlestons and bootleg gin was back in 1967. But, boomers being the most self-absorbed generation in history, we're going to be living with boomer pop...

One glance at the cover of The Doors’ debut album and you knew the summer of love was over and the flower children were headed straight for the sanitarium. These Doors, as drummer John Densmore later quipped, were clearly “unhinged.” Ray Manzarek carried the stern countenance of a Protestant preacher, hunched over the keyboard driving Jim Morrison into new, uncharted realms as he delivered psychedelic sermons. Manzarek’s studied glare behind his rimless glasses and stiff, formal appearance (preferring suits to the colorful ad-hoc hippie esthetic) gave him the air of a tidy yet maniacal schoolmaster while guitarist Robby Kreiger resembled...

“I DON’T LIKE LONDON,” admits Marianne Faithfull in the new issue of MOJO magazine. “I come here for promotion and I’m asked the most incredible questions.” The last time she was here one journalist even had the brass neck to ask her “Why exactly did you kill Jim Morrison?”

Do teenagers still go through a Doors phase? I mean, is that still possible? Jesus, I think it is. It’s not as if the Doors’ music is any more dated now than it was in the early ’90s, back when I went through my Doors phase and a lot of other kids at my middle school when through their Doors phases. Deciding at a certain age that the Doors are the coolest band that ever existed seems like a rite of passage on par with getting drunk in a park on a bottle of blackberry brandy — it might be...

The Doors' founding keyboardist, Ray Manzarek, died in Germany Monday after a long fight with cancer, his publicist said in a statement. He was 74. The artist had been diagnosed with bile duct cancer. The Doors formed in 1965 after Manzarek happened to meet Jim Morrison on California's Venice Beach. The legendary rock group went on to sell 100 million albums worldwide, establishing five multiplatinum discs in the U.S Morrison died in 1971, but Manzarek carried on The Doors' legacy, continuing to work as a musician and an author.

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist is said to be considering a posthumous pardon for Jim Morrison -- The Doors singer charged with indecent exposure in 1969 following a concert in Miami -- in the months remaining in his term, The Hill newspaper reported Monday.

Rocker Jim Morrison Could Join List of Infamous Musical Pardons Florida Gov. Charlie Crist may consider clearing name of Doors front man. By Ben Terris Monday, November 8, 2010 | 1:56 p.m. TheSmokingGun.com/Dade County Public Safety Department The Doors frontman posed for this 1970 mugshot after being charged with indecent exposure at a Miami concert the year before. Outgoing Florida Gov. Charlie Crist may soon be part of a great tradition in the exercise of executive power: pardoning rock stars. Crist told The Hill that he was considering a posthumous pardon for Doors front man Jim Morrison, who was charged...

The Doors star Jim Morrison's father has died, aged 89. Rear Admiral George Morrison died of natural causes on 17 November. A veteran of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, Morrison was largely disowned by his rock star son, who insisted his parents were dead in early interviews. The feeling was mutual - the seaman rarely discussed his son as he rose up the ranks. In 1990, Morrison visited his son's grave in Paris, France and had a plaque installed. Shortly after the Morrisons moved to Coronado, California in 2002, the admiral's wife died, and reports suggest he...

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- The end is near for a bitter legal dispute between the three surviving members of The Doors now that the California Supreme Court has refused to take up their case. Keyboardist Ray Manzarek and guitarist Robby Krieger are on the hook for more than $5 million after they were found by lower courts to have improperly invoked The Doors' name and images during a 2003 concert tour. After the high court declined to hear their appeal on August 13, they'll have to pay up to drummer John Densmore, the parents of the deceased lead singer...

His poem "Woman In The Window" is set to music and will be released as a single in April. Rock legend Jim Morrison is helping the fight against global warming from beyond the grave, with the release of a song he wrote. Environmental campaigners have taken a poem, "Woman In The Window," written by Morrison shortly before he died in 1971, and set it to music, with the help of New Order and former Jane's Addiction star Perry Farrell. The track was given to Farrell by the Jim Morrison estate. It will be released as a single in April. Dan...

Late Doors frontman Jim Morrison is to make an unlikely comeback - an unreleased song featuring the rocker has been found. "Woman in the Window" will be featured on a forthcoming album by rockers Satellite Party. The new song will feature both Morrison and vocals from Satellite Party. An industry insider says, "To hear Morrison performing on a new track is obviously going to be a dream come true for fans. It's being tipped as a massive hit." The icon died of heart failure in 1971, at age 27.