“I see myself as an intelligent, sensitive human, with the soul of a clown which forces me to blow it at the most important moments.” -Jim Morrison
Jim Morrison was the fascinating, mysterious and intellectual front man of The Doors, formed in 1965. Their music was a blend of rock, blues and psychedelia. The name The Doors comes from Aldous Huxley’s book The Doors of Perception, which refers to opening one’s mind through the use of LSD.
As a child, Morrison’s family travelled constantly, as his father was in the Navy. His family was very strict and employed military discipline, often shouting at the children in drill sergeant fashion until they cried. Jim Morrison limited contact with his father as an adult.
One of Morrison’s most vivid childhood experiences was witnessing a terrible car wreck in which the American Indian passengers were badly hurt. He calls this one of the most important formative experience of his life. He wrote:
Indians scattered on dawn’s highway bleeding
Ghosts crowd the young child’s fragile eggshell mind
As a youth, Morrison studied film and also wrote. He was greatly influenced by the works of Rimbaud, Nietzsche, Jack Kerouac, William Blake, Charles Baudelaire, and Louis-Ferdinand Céline. He often integrated the ideas of mysticality, spirituality, Native American culture and social change into the lyrics of the Doors’ music, which was groundbreaking in its sound and subject matter.
Jim Morrison died in Paris. No autopsy was performed, but he allegedly died of a heroin overdose. He was 27 years old. His grave has a plaque inscribed: “true to his own spirit,” written in Greek and placed there by his father.