Jim Morrinson

Jim Morrison


Following The Doors' explosive rise to fame in 1967, Morrison developed a severe alcohol and drug dependence which culminated in his death in Paris in 1971 at age 27, due to a suspected heroin overdose. However, the events surrounding his death continue to be the subject of controversy, as no autopsy was performed on his body afterdeath, and the exact cause of his death is disputed by many to this day.
Morrison was well-known for often improvising spoken word poetry passages while the band played live. He is widely regarded, with his wild personality and performances, as one of the most iconic, charismatic and pioneering frontmen in rock music history. Morrison was ranked number 47 on Rolling Stone's list of the "100Greatest Singers of All Time", and number 22 on Classic Rock Magazine's "50 Greatest Singers In Rock

Early years
James Douglas Morrison was born in Melbourne, Florida, to future Rear Admiral George Stephen Morrison and Clara Morrison. Morrison had a sister, Anne Robin, who was born in 1947 in Albuquerque, New Mexico; and a brother, Andrew Lee Morrison, who was born in 1948 in Los Altos, California.He was of Irish and Scottish descent. Morrison reportedly had an of 149.
In 1947, Morrison, then four years old, allegedly witnessed a car accident in the desert, where a family of Native Americans were injured and possibly killed. He referred to this incident in a spoken word performance on the song "Dawn's Highway" from the album An American Prayer, and again in the songs "Peace Frog" and"Ghost Song."
Morrison believed the incident to be the most formative event of his life, and made repeated references to it in the imagery in his songs, poems, and interviews. His family does not recall this incident happening in the way he told it. According to the Morrison biography No One Here Gets Out Alive, Morrison's family did drive past a car accident on an Indian reservation when he was achild, and he was very upset by it. The book The Doors, written by the remaining members of The Doors, explains how different Morrison's account of the incident was from the account of his father. This book quotes his father as saying, "We went by several Indians. It did make an impression on him [the young James]. He always thought about that crying Indian." This is contrasted sharply withMorrison's tale of "Indians scattered all over the highway, bleeding to death." In the same book, his sister is quoted as saying, "He enjoyed telling that story and exaggerating it. He said he saw a dead Indian by the side of the road, and I don't even know if that's true."
With his father in the United States Navy, Morrison's family moved often. He spent part of his childhood in San Diego. In 1958,Morrison attended Alameda High School in Alameda, California. He graduated from George Washington High School (now George Washington Middle School) in Alexandria, Virginia, in June 1961. His father was also stationed at Mayport Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Florida.
Morrison was inspired by the writings of philosophers and poets. He was influenced by Friedrich Nietzsche, whose views onaesthetics, morality, and the Apollonian and Dionysian duality would appear in his conversation, poetry and songs. He read Plutarch’s "Lives of the Noble Greeks". He also read the works of the French Symbolist poet Arthur Rimbaud, whose style would later influence the form of Morrison’s short prose poems. He was also influenced by Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Kenneth Patchen,MichaelMcClure and Gregory Corso. His English teacher once commented, "I felt that Jim was the only one in the class who read Ulysses, and understood it." Honoré de Balzac, Jean Cocteau, and Molière also interested Morrison, along with most of the French existentialist philosophers. His senior-year English teacher said that, "Jim read as much and probably more than any student in class, but everything...