"There are no longer 'dancers.' the possessed. The cleavage of men into actor and spectators is the central fact of our time. We are obsessed with heroes who live for us and whom we punish. If all the radios and televisions were deprived of their sources of power, all books and paintings burned tomorrow, all shows and cinemas closed, all the arts of vicarious existence...
We are content in the 'given' in sensation's quest. We have been metamorphosised from a mad body dancing on hillsides to a pair of eyes staring in the dark."-- James Douglas Morrison from The Lords and the New Creatures.
I must admit, as a spectator, I've found these last years of media coverage immensely informative and seductively entertaining. I look to MSNBC for a clear perspective on the day's events and Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert to define the absurdity of it, without laughter reality is far too foreboding. On the other side, seeing a project you've been associated with on the news tickers of the world is nothing less than frightening. How do you make a valid statement in a world waiting to tear your logic to bits ? To complicate it more, how does a statement you made nearly a decade ago remain valid in a world that has radically shifted ? I can only call on the Gods to help me with this one … yet in these early morning hours I feel compelled to try.
When Kerry Humpherys asked me if I'd write a story about The Doors infamous 1969 concert at the Dinner Key Auditorium, he forwarded a letter on to me written by a man whose book I still consider to be the definitive biography of Jim Morrison. Jerry Prochnicky's meticulous research empowered James Riordan to write "Break on Through: The Life and Death of Jim Morrison." In Jerry's letter was a request to lay the groundwork to free Morrison's legacy of the misdemeanor charges left unresolved after his death. In the weeks ahead, Jerry filled my desk with copies of old media articles covering the concert, the aftermath and Morrison's trial. It was not an easy story to write as I have always been drawn to the music and poetry of Jim's life and the journey there was through an unsettling abyss.
In those years when I was surrounded daily by the influence of The Doors, I was often approached by young people with questions. Anyone who has walked in the world of The Doors knows that Jim walked his talk, his life was poetry and he encouraged people by saying "Listen, real poetry doesn't say anything, it just ticks off the possibilities. Opens all doors. You can walk through any one that suits you." There were too many children who identified with his pain back then. Too many who couldn't see the light of hope in his words and were being consumed by the darkness of that pain. I'd seen it at his graveside in Paris, the hopelessness in the eyes of so many lost young souls who travel from the far ends of the earth to gather at his grave year in, year out. A decade later we've come a long way toward shifting the focus of Jim's legacy toward his music and poetry, but for those of you who fear that this movement to have the charges against Jim expunged will shift the focus back toward the negative, I commend you for your journey into enlightenment. However, you need not look far to see those who are still lost in the darkness. You don't need to be freed, yet it was and is my hope that be by setting Jim free perhaps others would break free of their self imposed exile. It's at least worth a try, don't you think?
From another perspective: In the United States today, we live in a world where the freedoms our Founding Fathers penned so wisely and fought for so fearlessly are vanishing before our eyes. The media daily in meticulous detail reports the disregard for the foundation of those freedoms. In 1970, we lived in a world perhaps just as corrupt but far more suppressed and clandestine. In 1967 the producers of the Ed Sullivan Show requested that Jim Morrison change the lyrics to "Light My Fire." That same year The Doors' single "Unknown Soldier" was banned from airplay on many radio stations because of its anti-war theme. Sensors of the "Smothers Brothers' were relentless in their editing of artist material. In 1969 radio stations refused to play "The Ballad of John and Yoko" because they deemed the lyrics blasphemous. In 1970 both Country Joe McDonald and Janis Joplin were fined for violating local profanity and obscenity laws … and Jim Morrison was convicted in Dade County of two misdemeanors; open profanity and indecent exposure. We now know that the FBI compiled extensive files on both Morrison and Lennon and the political powers of that era feared the influence these artists had on a massive Boomer Generation. There is no question that the fate of The Doors career was sealed on that hot night in Dade County, but was there a bigger picture than we realize behind the pursuit of the authorities in this incident? Did the political powers of that time use this opening to silence Jim Morrison?
Was Jim wrong to speak up about the Vietnam War, Ecology, Freedom? We've pardoned those who fled to Canada to avoid the draft and yet Jim is still in exile in France. Is it time to welcome Jim back as a citizen of the United States?
James Douglas Morrison was a man who loved America. He was an American whose music and poetry can still reach beyond the grave to gather people of all ages, all cultures, all races together to talk about music & poetry and in those moments find they are not so different from one another. Few among us can cross those barriers in life.
The Meeting
Gray dawn,
Cold winter mist falls
upon blackened stone monuments.
Solitary footsteps echo
from a cobblestone path.
A bizarre blur of images rush
consciousness toward a backward look.
A short year in astrological measure
An eternity by human standard,
Still Alive!
A chord of apprehension
A long awaited meeting of the minds,
Fantasy's long last reality.
A terrifying scenario.Granite, crayon, fresh roses ...
A head long leap
into an ancient hall of mirrors.
My words bounce against infinity's door:
So this is The End
I've envisioned it in my dreams.
You and I
Your generation and mine
When had this dream stopped?
At what exact moment was pain's
torch passed?
I misjudged the sweltering heat
How did you manage?
Oh, I see
Silence ...She passes between us,
Delicate beauty, youth, innocence, confusion ...
The last petals of hope
falling upon your face
As she reaches toward twisted comfort.
And as I look upon this cold empty moment
A warm wind walks beside the worn path
to brush by her side,
Bright rays of solar energies
fall gently across her shoulders.
Tears of bittersweet connection ...
So many miles to travel
In search of the healing power
Of a simple, compassionate embrace.
I see why you still hang around.He turns to look to me in silence,
I look away unwilling
And my eyes rest upon
carved words on an unknown tomb ..."A monster arrived
in the mirror
To mock the room
& its fool
aloneGive me songs
to sing
& emerald dreams
to dream
& I'll give you love
unfoldingSun"
JDM
Jan Eloise Morris
Impressions of gravesite December 1993
Wanted in the County of Dade - Full Pardon
