2006 – U2′s Bono and the Edge team with Pearl Jam and join Aussie acts Jet, Paul Kelly, Eskimo Joe, Evermore and the John Butler Trio at a Make Poverty History concert in Melbourne. The event draws 14,000 to the Myer Music Bowl, and is broadcast to thousands more on giant screens through Melbourne, Brisbane and two major Victorian regional towns Geelong and Bendigo.
2006 – Robbie “Rocket” Watts, guitarist for Australian rock act the Cosmic Psychos, dies in Melbourne. He is 47.
A GUITARIST in a Melbourne band that influenced grunge rockers, including Nirvana and Pearl Jam, has died.
Robbie “Rocket” Watts from the Cosmic Psychos died suddenly on Saturday night after a gig in Bendigo.
The band was not commercially successful but its churning high-octane rock has been cited as an influence by better-known bands, including Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Mudhoney, L7 and Spiderbait.
UK band the Prodigy based Fuel My Fire on the Cosmic Psychos’ Lost Cause.
Neil Rogers, who hosts The Australian Mood on radio station Triple R, managed the band in its early days.
“People here have just taken them for granted. They’ve never been fully recognised for the influence they’ve had,” he said. “Without them a lot of the whole grunge (movement) wouldn’t have happened.”
Watts, 47, joined the band in 1990. His first album with the group, Blokes You Can Trust, was produced by Butch Vig, fresh from completing Nirvana’s Nevermind.
The band began about 1982 as a foursome. In recent years, it was a trio made up of Watts, long-time vocalist Ross Knight and drummer Dean Muller.
Band spokesman Chris Oldfield said Watts’ impact could be measured in the many messages received from around the world since his death.
“It’s sad you don’t realise how influential someone is until they’re dead,” he said.
The father of four was a strong banjo player and busked outside football games, Oldfield said.
2004 – KISS’ Gene Simmons comes under fire from the Australian Muslim community after branding the Islamic culture “vile” in a Melbourne radio interview.
2004 – Radiohead is forced to cancel its show in Melbourne after lead singer Thom Yorke develops severe problems with his voice. A local specialist diagnoses Yorke with hoarseness of voice, a significant upper airway infection and associated heavy inflammation of his vocal chords.
1949 – Kiss bassist Gene Simmons is born Chaim Witz in Haifa, Israel.
Gene Simmons (born Chaim Witz (pronounced Haium) on August 25, 1949) is an Israeli-born American hard rock bass guitarist, vocalist, and actor. He is best known as “The Demon,” his blood-spitting, fire-breathing, and tongue-wagging persona in the hard rock band Kiss, an act he co-founded in the early 1970s. Simmons also contends that he has “never been high, drunk, or smoked in his life.”
Biography
Simmons was born in Haifa, Israel, and emigrated to New York City at the age of eight,[2] with his mother Florence Klein—a Jewish Hungarian immigrant and the only member of her family to survive the Holocaust. His father Feri Witz, also Jewish, had abandoned his family years earlier. When Simmons was young, his mother’s long absences while working two jobs in order to make ends meet left emotional scars that gave him a strong desire for wealth. After arriving in the U.S., he took the name Eugene Klein (later Gene Klein), Klein being his mother’s maiden name. In the late-1960s, he changed his name again, to Gene Simmons.
Simmons became involved with his first band, Lynx, then renamed The Missing Links, when he was a teenager. Eventually, he disbanded The Missing Links to form the Long Island Sounds. While he played in these bands, he kept up odd jobs on the side to make more money, including making fanzines and buying used comic books. Simmons then attended Sullivan County Community College in Loch Sheldrake, New York. He then joined a new band, Bullfrog Bheer, and the band made a demo, “Leeta”; this song was eventually released on the Kiss box set in demo form.
Simmons formed the rock band Wicked Lester in the early 1970s with Stanley Harvey Eisen (now known as Paul Stanley) and recorded one album, which was never released. Dissatisfied with Wicked Lester’s sound and look, Simmons and Stanley attempted to fire their band members; they were met with resistance, and they quit Wicked Lester, walking away from their record deal with Epic Records. They decided to form the ultimate rock band, and started looking for a drummer. Simmons and Stanley found an ad placed by Peter Criss, who was playing clubs in Brooklyn at the time; they joined and started out as a trio. Paul Frehley responded to an ad they put in the Village Voice for a lead guitar player, and soon joined them. Kiss released its self-titled debut album in February 1974. Stanley quickly took on the role of lead performer on stage, while Simmons became the driving force behind what became an extensive Kiss merchandising franchise.
In 1983, while Kiss’s fame was waning, the members took off their trademark make-up and enjoyed a resurgence in popularity that continued into the 1990s. The band hosted their own fan conventions throughout 1995, and fan feedback about the original Kiss members reunion influenced the highly successful 1996-1997 Alive Worldwide reunion tour. In 1998, the band released Psycho Circus, its first album in almost 20 years by the original line-up. Since then, the original line-up has once again dissolved, with Tommy Thayer replacing Ace Frehley on lead guitar and Eric Singer (who performed with Kiss from 1992 up through 1996) replacing Peter Criss on drums.
Personal life
Simmons, who has never been married, currently lives in Beverly Hills, California with longtime partner and former Playboy Playmate Shannon Tweed. They have two children: a son, Nicholas (born 22 January 1989), and a daughter, Sophie (born 7 July 1992). He has formerly lived in relationships with Cher and Diana Ross.[2] He has also dated actress Liv Ullman.
Simmons speaks four languages – English, Hungarian, Hebrew and German – and is currently learning Japanese and Mandarin.[2]
Politics
A self-described liberal on social policy issues, Simmons has described himself as a supporter of the foreign policy of the George W. Bush administration.[3] He supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq, writing on his website: “I’m ashamed to be surrounded by people calling themselves Liberal who are, in my opinion, spitting on the graves of brave American soldiers who gave their life to fight a war that wasn’t theirs…in a country they’ve never been to…simply to liberate the people therein”.[4] In a follow-up, Simmons explained his position and wrote about his love and support for the United States: “I wasn’t born here. But, I have a love for this country and its people that knows no bounds. I will forever be grateful to America for going into World War II, when it had nothing to gain, in a country that was far away…and rescued my Mother from the Nazi German Concentration Camps. She is alive and I am alive because of America. And, if you have a problem with America, YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH ME”.[4]
During the 2006 Lebanon War between Israel and Hezbollah, Simmons sent a televised message of support (in both English and Hebrew) to an Israeli soldier seriously wounded in fighting in Lebanon, calling him his “hero”.[5]
Controversy
* In a February 4, 2002 interview on the NPR radio show Fresh Air with Terry Gross, Simmons said to Gross regarding his claim to have bedded more than a thousand women: “If you want to welcome me with open arms, I’m afraid you’re also going to have to welcome me with open legs” (paraphrasing The Who’s hit song “You Better You Bet”). To this Gross replied, “That’s a really obnoxious thing to say.” Simmons refused to grant permission to NPR to make the interview available online on the station’s website. However, the interview appears in print in Gross’s book All I Did Was Ask (ISBN 1401300103), and some unauthorized transcripts are also available.[6] A part of the interview was re-broadcast on Fresh Air on Aug 31, 2007.[7]
* In a later Fresh Air interview, satirist Al Franken related to Terry Gross his own encounter with Gene Simmons. According to Franken, he was awaiting a racquetball partner at a club when Simmons, whom Franken had not recognized, challenged him to a match, stating “I’ll kick your ass,” only to suffer an embarrassing loss to Franken. Simmons responded by calling for another match, and when Franken indicated that since his racquetball partner had arrived, he couldn’t play Simmons again, Simmons responded by making loud “bock, bock, bock” chicken sounds. Franken then offered to play Simmons with $500 at stake, at which Simmons walked away.[8]Franken told Gross not to blame herself for her experience with Simmons, and that Simmons’ behavior at the racquetball club made him “the most awful person I’ve ever met.”
* Simmons’ tongue has always been an issue of both admiration and questioning. His unusually large tongue, however, is a natural trait (as he states in his autobiography), and not the effect of plastic surgery or any kind of transplant, as alluded to in several web sites.
* In 2004, during an interview in Melbourne, Australia, Simmons described Islam as a “vile culture” wherein women had fewer rights than dogs. He described Islam as a threat, claiming that they wanted to leave the Middle East and supplant non-Muslims in other parts of the world by force. The Muslim community took offense, with Australian Muslim of the Year Susan Carland asserting that Simmons’ stereotyping of Muslims was inaccurate and that she never walked behind her husband as Simmons stated all Muslim women were required to do. He later said on his website that he was talking specifically about extremist Muslims.[9]
* In 2005, Simmons was sued by a former lover, Georgeann Walsh Ward, who alleged that she had been “defamed” in the VH1 documentary When Kiss Ruled the World, which she claimed portrayed her as an “unchaste woman” and implied that she had been merely a band groupie rather than a committed girlfriend of Simmons. Ward insisted that she had been involved in an “exclusive monogamous relationship” with Simmons since before Kiss was formed.[10] The suit was settled as of June 29, 2006.[11]
* In June 2008, in an interview with AOL News, Simmons blamed fans for the hard times that the music industry is experiencing. “The record industry is dead. It’s six feet underground and unfortunately the fans have done this” Simmons was quoted as saying. This is not the first time that Simmons has blamed fans for the falling fortunes of the music industry. In a November 2007 interview, he as quoted as saying that “Every little college kid, every freshly-scrubbed little kid’s face should have been sued off the face of the earth.”[12]
* In 2008, a video on the Internet surfaced which purported to be Simmons engaging in sexual activity with with an unnamed woman. Simmons’ later stated that the tape was recorded without his consent or knowledge and that his legal team is pursuing all legal options. [13]
* When asked by his son on an episode of Gene Simmons: Family Jewels if he was going to work fix his car, Gene Simmons, who is Jewish, replied:”that’s what Gentiles are for.”
Film and television work
Simmons has been the creative force behind such television projects such as:
* My Dad the Rock Star, a cartoon by the Canadian animation company Nelvana, about the mild mannered son of a Gene Simmons-like rock star.
* Mr. Romance, a show created and hosted by Simmons on the Oxygen cable television channel.
* Rock School, a reality show in which Gene tries to make a rock band out of a group of children trained in classical music in the first season, and in the second, a group of kids from a ‘tough’ comprehensive school. Rock School was aired on Channel 4 in the UK, Channel Ten in Australia, TVNZ’s TV2 in New Zealand, VH-1 in the United States and Latin America, Nelonen in Finland, TV4 in Sweden and Much Music in Canada.
* Gene Simmons Family Jewels, another reality show for A&E which debuted on August 7, 2006. The premise is basically the same as The Osbournes, with cameras following Simmons and his family around to document their home life. It has been released on DVD in two editions.
* Simmons was a contestant on The Celebrity Apprentice in 2008. His charity was the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation and he was fired in the third episode, which aired on January 17, 2008.
* Simmons was hired by CBS to judge a new Mark Burnett reality show called Jingles. [14]
Film appearances
* Simmons co-starred with other bandmates in the 1978 TV movie Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park.
* Simmons co-starred as evil electronics genius Dr. Charles Luther in the 1984 movie Runaway opposite Tom Selleck, Cynthia Rhodes and Kirstie Alley.
* Simmons had a small part in the 1986 horror film Trick or Treat, where he played a radio DJ named Nuke. (Ozzy Osbourne also appeared in the film as a televangelist decrying the evils of heavy metal music. )
* Simmons played the part of a villainous drag queen named Velvet Von Ragner in the 1986 film Never too Young to Die.
* Simmons also co-starred as the Islamic terrorist Malak Al Rahim in the 1987 Rutger Hauer movie Wanted: Dead or Alive.
* Simmons appeared in the Penelope Spheeris’ 1988 rockumentary The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years.[1]
* Simmons will appear on the upcoming Japanese movie Detroit Metal City starring Kenichi Matsuyama (of the Death Note movies). He will make an appearance as Jack ill Dark, the Demon God of Rock and Roll.
Television guest appearances
* Simmons and KISS made their first national talk-show appearance on the Mike Douglas Show on June 11, 1974, and Simmons was interviewed solo by Douglas. Simmons came out in full makeup and sat down next to comedienne Totie Fields, who rolled her eyes at Gene’s appearance. “Your audience looks appetizing,” Simmons cracked, referring to himself as “evil incarnate”. “Wouldn’t it be funny,” Fields said, “if underneath all this (makeup) he was just a nice Jewish boy?” Simmons, who is indeed Jewish, replied, “You should only know.” “I do,” said Fields, “you can’t hide the hook!”, referring to Simmons’ nose. In a taped segment, Kiss played the song “Firehouse”.
* Simmons and the rest of Kiss appeared in an episode of Action League Now as toy versions of themselves performing the song “Rock and Roll All Nite”.
* Simmons has appeared on three episodes of Family Guy as himself. In one episode, Peter Griffin takes his wife Lois to a Kiss concert gala, and it is revealed that Simmons had a previous sexual relationship with Lois (known then as “Loose Lois”) when he was still known as Chaim Witz (to which Peter proudly proclaims “My wife did Kiss!”). In another episode, Simmons is shown starring with the other members of Kiss in a Christmas special called Kiss Saves Santa. In yet another episode, Simmons performs oral sex (off-camera) on Lois while standing just inside the Griffin’s garage, an exaggeration of his trademark tongue length (several feet long in the episode) and his highly sexual persona.
* Simmons voiced the Sea Monster in the episode “20,000 Patties Under the Sea” of the Nickelodeon animated series SpongeBob SquarePants.
* Simmons voiced the character of Jessie in a 2003 episode of King of the Hill, entitled “Reborn to Be Wild.”
* Simmons appeared on Ugly Betty in 2008 as himself (and Amanda’s potential father).
* Simmons has made guest appearances on TV shows such as Miami Vice, Mind of Mencia, Third Watch, American Idol, and others.
Video appearances
In 2007, he appeared alongside other celebrities, as well as regular people, in the music video for “Rockstar” by Nickelback.
Solo albums
* Gene Simmons (1978)
* Sex Money Kiss (audiobook CD), 2003)
* Asshole (2004)
* Speaking in Tongues (spoken word CD, 2004)
* Gene Simmons “Monster” Box Set (TBD)
Albums produced
* KEEL – The 1980s albums The Right to Rock and The Final Frontier by the hard rock band fronted by Ron Keel
* Wendy O. Williams – Simmons produced her W.O.W. album in 1984, and enlisted fellow Kiss members Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley, Eric Carr and Vinnie Vincent to perform on it as well.
* Black ‘n Blue – He produced their albums Nasty Nasty (1986) and In Heat (1988) featuring future Kiss guitarist Tommy Thayer.
* EZO – A Japanese band which achieved fame in Japan as Flatbacker. Simmons brought them to North American show business, changing their name to “EZO”. He produced their first and self titled album as EZO, in 1988.
* Silent Rage – Produced Don’t Touch Me There (1989) with Paul Sabu; released on Simmons’ own Simmons Records.
* House of Lords – Executive producer of their 1990 CD Sahara; their self-titled debut and Sahara were released on Simmons Records.
* Doro Pesch – Her album Doro in 1991.
Publishing
In 2002, Simmons launched Gene Simmons’ Tongue, a men’s lifestyle magazine.[15] The magazine lasted five issues before being discontinued.
1943 – Jim Morrison of the Doors is born in Melbourne, Fla., the son of a U.S. Navy admiral.
James Douglas Morrison (December 8, 1943—July 3, 1971) was an American singer, songwriter, poet, writer and film director. He is best known as the lead singer and lyricist of The Doors and is widely considered to be one of the most charismatic frontmen in rock music history. and the director of a documentary and short film. Morrison was known for his baritone vocals.
Biography
Early years
Morrison was born in Melbourne, Florida, to future Admiral George Stephen Morrison and Clara Clarke 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 Scottish and Irish ethnic heritage.
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”.
Indians scattered on dawn’s highway bleeding
Ghosts crowd the young child’s fragile eggshell mind
Morrison believed the incident to be the most formative event in his life and made repeated references to it in the imagery in his songs, poems and interviews. Interestingly, 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 a child, and he was very upset by it. However, 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 . He always thought about that crying Indian.” This is contrasted sharply with Morrison’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 Navy, Morrison’s family moved often. He spent part of his childhood in San Diego, California. In 1958, Morrison attended Alameda High School in Alameda, California. However, 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 went to live with his paternal grandparents in Clearwater, Florida where he attended classes at St. Petersburg Junior College. In 1962, he transferred to Florida State University in Tallahassee where he appeared in a school recruitment film.
In January 1964 Morrison moved to Los Angeles, California. He completed his undergraduate degree in UCLA’s film school, the Theater Arts department of the College of Fine Arts in 1965. He made two films while attending UCLA. First Love, the first of these films, was released to the public when it appeared in a documentary about the film Obscura. During these years, while living in Venice Beach, he became friends with writers at the Los Angeles Free Press. Morrison was an advocate of the underground newspaper until his death in 1971.
The Doors
In 1965, after graduating from UCLA, Morrison led a Bohemian lifestyle in Venice Beach. Photographer Joel Brodsky took a series of black-and-white photos of Morrison. Known as “The Young Lion” photo session, the pictures included the shot that was later featured on the Best of the Doors LP cover.
Morrison and fellow UCLA student Ray Manzarek were the first two members of The Doors. Shortly thereafter, drummer John Densmore and guitarist Robby Krieger joined. Krieger auditioned at Densmore’s recommendation and was then added to the lineup.
It is widely believed that the Doors took their name from the title of Aldous Huxley’s The Doors of Perception (a reference to the ‘unlocking’ of ‘doors’ of perception through psychedelic drug use), Huxley’s own title was a quote from William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, in which Blake wrote that “If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.”
Although Morrison is known as the lyricist for the group Krieger also made significant lyrical contributions, writing or co-writing some of the group’s biggest hits, including “Light My Fire”, “Love Me Two Times”, “Love Her Madly” and “Touch Me”.
In 1967, Morrison and The Doors produced a promotional film for “Break On Through”, which was to be their first single release. The video featured the four members of the group playing the song on a darkened set with alternating views and close-ups of the performers while Morrison lip-synched the lyrics. Morrison and The Doors continued to make music videos, including “The Unknown Soldier”, “Moonlight Drive”, and “People Are Strange”.
In June 1966, Morrison and The Doors were the opening act at the Whisky a Go Go on the last week of the residency of Van Morrison’s band Them.
The Doors achieved national recognition after signing with Elektra Records in 1967.
By the release of their second album, Strange Days, The Doors had become one of the most popular rock bands in the United States. Their blend of blues and rock tinged with psychedelia included a number of original songs and distinctive cover versions, such as the memorable rendition of “Alabama Song”, from Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s operetta, Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. The band also performed a number of extended concept works, including the songs “The End”, “When The Music’s Over”, and “Celebration of the Lizard”.
In 1968, The Doors released their third studio LP, Waiting for the Sun. Their fourth LP, The Soft Parade, was released in 1969. It was the first album where the individual band members were given credit on the inner sleeve for the songs they had written.
After this, Morrison started to show up for recording sessions inebriated (he can be heard hiccuping on the song “Five To One”). He was also frequently late for live performances. As a result, the band would play instrumental music or force Manzarek to take on the singing duties.
By 1969, the formerly svelte singer gained weight, grew a beard, and began dressing more casually – abandoning the leather pants and concho belts for slacks, jeans and T-shirts.
During a 1969 concert at The Dinner Key Auditorium in Miami, Morrison attempted to spark a riot in the audience. He failed, but a warrant for his arrest was issued by the Dade County Police department three days later for indecent exposure. Consequently, many of The Doors’ scheduled concerts were canceled.
Following The Soft Parade, The Doors released the Morrison Hotel LP. After a lengthy break the group reconvened in October 1970 to record their last LP with Morrison, L.A. Woman. Shortly after the recording sessions for the album began, producer Paul A. Rothchild — who had overseen all their previous recordings — left the project. Engineer Bruce Botnick took over as producer.
Solo: poetry and film
Morrison began writing in adolescence. In college, he studied the related fields of theater, film and cinematography.
He self-published two volumes of his poetry in 1969, The Lords / Notes on Vision and The New Creatures. The Lords consists primarily of brief descriptions of places, people, events and Morrison’s thoughts on cinema. The New Creatures verses are more poetic in structure, feel and appearance. These two books were later combined into a single volume titled The Lords and The New Creatures. These were the only writings published during Morrison’s lifetime.
Morrison befriended Beat Poet Michael McClure who wrote the afterword for Danny Sugerman’s biography of Morrison, No One Here Gets Out Alive. McClure and Morrison reportedly collaborated on a number of unmade film projects to include a film version of McClure’s infamous play The Beard in which Morrison would have played Billy The Kid.
After his death two volumes of Morrison’s poetry were published. The contents of the books were selected and arranged by Morrison’s friend, photographer Frank Lisciandro, and girlfriend Pamela Courson’s parents, who owned the rights to his poetry. The Lost Writings of Jim Morrison Volume 1 is titled Wilderness, and, upon its release in 1988, became an instant New York Times best seller. Volume 2, The American Night, released in 1990, was also a success.
Morrison recorded his own poetry in a mausoleum in a professional sound studio on two separate occasions. The first was in March 1969 in Los Angeles and the second was on December 8, 1970. The latter recording session was attended by Morrison’s personal friends and included a variety of sketch pieces. Some of the segments from the 1969 session were issued on the bootleg album The Lost Paris Tapes and were later used as part of the Doors’ An American Prayer album, released in 1978. The album reached number 54 on the music charts. The poetry recorded from the December 1970 session remains unreleased to this day and is in the possession of the Courson family.
Morrison’s best-known but seldom seen cinematic endeavor is HWY: An American Pastoral, a project he started in 1969. Morrison financed the venture and formed his own production company in order to maintain complete control of the project. Paul Ferrara, Frank Lisciandro and Babe Hill assisted with the project. Morrison played the main character, a hitchhiker turned killer/car thief. Morrison asked his friend, composer/pianist Fred Myrow, to select the soundtrack for the film.
Personal life
Morrison’s family
Morrison’s early life was a nomadic existence typical of military families. Jerry Hopkins recorded Morrison’s brother Andy explaining that his parents had determined never to use corporal punishment on their children. They instead instilled discipline and levied punishment by the military tradition known as “dressing down”. This consisted of yelling at and berating the children until they were reduced to tears and acknowledged their failings.
Once Morrison graduated from UCLA, he broke off most of his family contact. By the time Morrison’s music ascended to the top of the charts in 1967 he had not been in communication with his family for more than a year and falsely claimed that his parents and siblings were dead (or claiming, as it has been widely misreported, that he was an only child). This misinformation was published as part of the materials distributed with The Doors’ self-titled debut album.
In a letter to the Florida Probation and Parole Commission District Office dated October 2, 1970, Morrison’s father acknowledged the breakdown in family communications as the result of an argument over his assessment of his son’s musical talents. He said he could not blame his son for being reluctant to initiate contact and that he was proud of him nonetheless.
Women in his life
Morrison met his long-term companion, and she encouraged him to develop his poetry. At times, Courson used the surname “Morrison” with his apparent consent or at least lack of concern. After Courson’s death in 1974 the probate court in California decided that she and Morrison had what qualified as a common law marriage (see below, under “Estate Controversy”).
Courson and Morrison’s relationship was a stormy one, however, with frequent loud arguments and periods of separation. Biographer Danny Sugerman surmised that part of their difficulties may have stemmed from a conflict between their respective commitments to an open relationship and the consequences of living in such a relationship.
In 1970 Morrison participated in a Celtic Pagan handfasting ceremony with rock critic and science fiction/fantasy author Patricia Kennealy. Before witnesses, one of them a Presbyterian minister, however, none of the necessary paperwork for a legal marriage was filed with the state. Kenneally discussed her experiences with Morrison in her autobiography Strange Days: My Life With and Without Jim Morrison and in an interview reported in the book Rock Wives.
Morrison also regularly had sex with fans and had numerous short flings with women who were celebrities in their own right, including Nico, the singer associated with The Velvet Underground, a one night stand with singer Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane, an on-again-off-again relationship with 16 Magazine’s editor in chief Gloria Stavers and an alleged alcohol-fueled encounter with Janis Joplin. Judy Huddleston also recalls her relationship with Morrison in Living and Dying with Jim Morrison. At the time of his death there were reportedly as many as 20 paternity actions pending against him, although no claims were made against his estate by any of the putative paternity claimants, and the only person making a public claim to being Morrison’s son was shown to be a fraud.
Death
Morrison moved to Paris in March 1971, taking up residence in an apartment. Once there, Morrison grew a beard.
It was in Paris that Morrison made his last studio recording with two American street musicians — a session dismissed by Manzarek as “drunken gibberish”. The session included a version of a song-in-progress, “Orange County Suite”, which can be heard on the bootleg Lost Paris Tapes.
Morrison died on July 3, 1971, aged 27. In the official account of his death, he was found in a Paris apartment bathtub by Courson. Pursuant to French law, no autopsy was performed because the medical examiner claimed to have found no evidence of foul play. The absence of an official autopsy has left many questions regarding Morrison’s cause of death.
In Wonderland Avenue, Danny Sugerman discussed his encounter with Courson after she returned to the U.S. According to Sugerman’s account, Courson stated that Morrison had died of a heroin overdose, inhaling the substance because he thought it was cocaine. Sugerman added that Courson had given numerous contradictory versions of Morrison’s death, at times saying that she had killed her common-law husband, or that his death was her fault. Courson’s story of Morrison’s unintentional ingestion of heroin, followed by accidental overdose, is supported by the confession of Alain Ronay, who has written that Morrison died of a hemorrhage after snorting Courson’s heroin, and that Courson nodded off, leaving Morrison bleeding to death instead of phoning for medical help.
Ronay confessed in an article in Paris-Match that he then helped cover up the circumstances of Morrison’s death. In the epilogue of No One Here Gets Out Alive, Hopkins and Sugerman write that Ronay and Varda say Courson lied to police who responded to the death scene and later in her deposition, telling them Morrison never took drugs.
In the epilogue to No One Here Gets Out Alive, Hopkins says that 20 years after Morrison’s death Ronay and Varda broke silence and gave this account: They arrived at the house shortly after Morrison’s death and Courson said that she and Morrison had taken heroin after a night of drinking in bars. Morrison had been coughing badly, had gone to take a bath, and had thrown up blood. Courson said that he appeared to recover and that she then went to sleep. When she awoke sometime later Morrison was unresponsive and so she called for medical assistance.
Courson herself died of a heroin overdose three years later. Like Morrison, she was 27 years old at the time of her death.
However, in the epilogue of No One Here Gets Out Alive, Hopkins and Sugerman also claim that Morrison had asthma and was suffering from a respiratory condition involving a chronic cough and throwing up blood on the night of his death. This theory is partially supported in The Doors (written by the remaining members of the band) in which they claim Morrison had been coughing up blood for nearly two months in Paris. However, none of the members of the Doors were in Paris with Morrison in the months before his death.
In the first version of No One Here Gets Out Alive published in 1980, Sugarman and Hopkins gave some credence to the theory that Morrison may not have died at all, calling the fake death theory “not as far-fetched as it might seem”.
In a July 2007 newspaper interview, a self-described close friend of Morrison’s, Sam Bernett, resurrected an old rumor and announced that Morrison actually died of a heroin overdose in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus nightclub, on the Left Bank in Paris. Bernett claims that Morrison came to the club to buy heroin for Courson then did some himself and died in the bathroom. Bernett alleges that Morrison was then moved back to the rue Beautreillis apartment and dumped in the bathtub by the same two drug dealers from whom Morrison had purchased the heroin. Bernett says those who saw Morrison that night were sworn to secrecy, in order to prevent a scandal for the famous club,
Grave site
Morrison is buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in eastern Paris, one of the city’s most visited tourist attractions. The grave had no official marker until French officials placed a shield over it which was stolen in 1973. In 1981, Croatian sculptor Mladen Mikulin placed a bust of Morrison and the new gravestone with Morrison’s name at the grave to commemorate the 10th anniversary of his death; In the 1990s a flat stone was placed on the grave, possibly by his birth family, with the Greek inscription: ???? ??? ??????? ??????. Mikulin later made two more Morrison portraits in bronze but is awaiting the license to place a new sculpture on the tomb.
Estate controversy
In his will, made in Los Angeles County on February 12, 1969, Morrison (who described himself as “an unmarried person”) left his entire estate to Courson, also naming her co-executor with his attorney, Max Fink. She thus inherited everything upon Morrison’s death in 1971.
When Courson died in 1974, a battle ensued between Morrison’s and Courson’s parents over who had legal claim to Morrison’s estate. Since Morrison left a will the question was effectively moot. Upon his death his property became Courson’s; and on her death her property passed to her next heirs at law, her parents. Morrison’s parents contested the will under which Courson and now her parents had inherited their son’s property.
To bolster their positions Courson’s parents presented a document they claimed she had acquired in Colorado, apparently an application for a declaration that she and Morrison had contracted a common-law marriage under the laws of that state. The ability to contract a common-law marriage was abolished in California in 1896, but the state’s conflict of laws rules provided for recognition of common-law marriages lawfully contracted in foreign jurisdictions — and Colorado was one of the 11 U.S. jurisdictions that still recognized common-law marriage. As long as a common-law marriage was lawfully contracted under Colorado law it was recognized as a marriage under California law.
Artistic roots
As a naval family the Morrisons relocated frequently. Consequently Morrison’s early education was routinely disrupted as he moved from school to school. Nonetheless he proved to be an intelligent and capable student drawn to the study of literature, poetry, religion, philosophy and psychology, among other fields.
Biographers have consistently pointed to a number of writers and philosophers who influenced Morrison’s thinking and, perhaps, behavior. While still in his teens Morrison discovered the works of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. He was also drawn to the poetry of William Blake, Charles Baudelaire and Arthur Rimbaud. Beat Generation writers such as Jack Kerouac also had a strong influence on Morrison’s outlook and manner of expression; Morrison was eager to experience the life described in Kerouac’s On the Road. He was similarly drawn to the works of the French writer Céline. Céline’s book, Voyage au Bout de la Nuit (Journey to the End of the Night) and Blake’s Auguries of Innocence both echo through one of Morrison’s early songs, “End of the Night”. Morrison later met and befriended Michael McClure, a well known beat poet. McClure had enjoyed Morrison’s lyrics but was even more impressed by his poetry and encouraged him to further develop his craft.
Morrison’s vision of performance was colored by the works of 20th century French playwright Antonin Artaud (author of Theater and its Double) and by Julian Beck’s Living Theater.
Other works relating to religion, mysticism, ancient myth and symbolism were of lasting interest, particularly Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces. James Frazer’s The Golden Bough also became a source of inspiration and is reflected in the title and lyrics of the song “Not to Touch the Earth”.
Morrison was particularly attracted to the myths and religions of Native American cultures. While he was still in school, his family moved to New Mexico where he got to see some of the places and artifacts important to the Southwest Indigenous cultures. These interests appear to be the source of many references to creatures and places such as lizards, snakes, deserts and “ancient lakes” that appear in his songs and poetry. His interpretation of the practices of a Native American “shaman” were worked into parts of Morrison’s stage routine, notably in his interpretation of the Ghost Dance, and a song on his later poetry album, The Ghost Song. The songs “My Wild Love” and “Wild Child” were also inspired by his ideas of Native American rhythm and ritual. He also consumed 8 buttons of peyote and tripped for a week and wrote about seeing the “God of Peyote”.
Influence
Morrison remains one of the most popular and influential singers/writers in rock history as The Doors’ catalog has become a staple of classic rock radio stations. To this day he is widely regarded as the prototypical rock star: surly, sexy, scandalous and mysterious. The leather trousers he was fond of wearing both on stage and off have since become stereotyped as rock star apparel.
Iggy and the Stooges are said to have formed after lead singer Iggy Pop was inspired by Morrison while attending a Doors concert in Ann Arbor, Michigan. After Morrison’s death, Pop was considered as a replacement lead singer for The Doors; the surviving Doors gave him some of Morrison’s belongings and hired him as a vocalist for a series of shows.
Wallace Fowlie, professor emeritus of French literature at Duke University, wrote Rimbaud and Jim Morrison, subtitled “The Rebel as Poet – A Memoir”. In this book, Fowlie recounts his surprise at receiving a fan letter from Morrison who, in 1968, thanked him for his latest translation of Arthur Rimbaud’s verse into English. “I don’t read French easily”, he wrote, “…your book travels around with me.” Fowlie went on to give lectures on numerous campuses comparing the lives, philosophies and poetry of Morrison and Rimbaud.
Scott Weiland, the vocalist of Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver, as well as Scott Stapp of Creed, claim Morrison to be their biggest influence and inspiration. Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver have both covered “Roadhouse Blues” by the Doors. Weiland also filled in for Morrison to perform “Break On Through” with the rest of the Doors. Stapp filled in for Morrison for “Light my fire”, “Riders on the Storm” and “Roadhouse Blues” on VH1 Storytellers. Creed performed their version of “Riders on the Storm” with Robbie Krieger for the 1999 Woodstock Festival.
The book The Doors by the remaining Doors quotes Morrison’s close friend Frank Lisciandro as saying that too many people took a remark of Morrison’s that he was interested in revolt, disorder, and chaos “to mean that he was an anarchist, a revolutionary, or, worse yet, a nihilist. Hardly anyone noticed that Jim was restating Rimbaud and the Surreal poets.”
Books
By Jim Morrison
* The Lords and The New Creatures (1969). 1985 edition: ISBN 0-7119-0552-5
* An American Prayer (1970) privately printed by Western Lithographers. (Unauthorized edition also published in 1983, Zeppelin Publishing Company, ISBN 0-915628-46-5. The authenticity of the unauthorized edition has been disputed.)
* Wilderness The Lost Writings Of Jim Morrison (1988). 1990 edition: ISBN 0-14-011910-8
* The American Night: The Writings of Jim Morrison (1990). 1991 edition: ISBN 0-670-83772-5
About Jim Morrison
* Linda Ashcroft, Wild Child: Life with Jim Morrison, (1997) ISBN 1-56025-249-9
* Lester Bangs, “Jim Morrison: Bozo Dionysus a Decade Later” in Main Lines, Blood Feasts, and Bad Taste: A Lester Bangs Reader, John Morthland, ed. Anchor Press (2003) ISBN 0-375-71367-0
* Patricia Butler, Angels Dance and Angels Die: The Tragic Romance of Pamela and Jim Morrison, (1998) ISBN 0-8256-7341-0
* Stephen Davis, Jim Morrison: Life, Death, Legend, (2004) ISBN 1-592-40064-7
* John Densmore, Riders On The Storm: My Life With Jim Morrison and the Doors (1991) ISBN 0-385-30447-1
* Dave DiMartino, Moonlight Drive (1995) ISBN 1-886894-21-3
* Wallace Fowlie, Rimbaud and Jim Morrison (1994) ISBN 0-8223-1442-8
* Jerry Hopkins, The Lizard King: The Essential Jim Morrison (1995) ISBN 0-684-81866-3
* Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman, No One Here Gets Out Alive (1980) ISBN 0-85965-138-X
* Patricia Kennealy, Strange Days: My Life With And Without Jim Morrison (1992) ISBN 0-525-93419-7
* Frank Lisciandro, Morrison — A Feast Of Friends (1991) ISBN 0-446-39276-6
* Frank Lisciandro, Jim Morrison — An Hour For Magic (A Photojournal) ISBN 0-85965-246-7
* Ray Manzarek, Light My Fire (1998) ISBN 0-446-60228-0L. First by Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman (1981)
* Peter Jan Margry, The Pilgrimage to Jim Morrison’s Grave at Père Lachaise Cemetery: The Social Construction of Sacred Space. In idem (ed.), Shrines and Pilgrimage in the Modern World. New Itineraries into the Sacred. Amsterdam University Press, 2008, p. 145-173.
* Thanasis Michos, The Poetry of James Douglas Morrison (2001) ISBN 960-7748-23-9 (Greek)
* Mark Opsasnick, The Lizard King Was Here: The Life and Times of Jim Morrison in Alexandria, Virginia (2006) ISBN 1-4257-1330-0
* James Riordan & Jerry Prochnicky, Break on through : The Life and Death of Jim Morrison (1991) ISBN 0-688-11915-8
* Adriana Rubio, Jim Morrison: Ceremony…Exploring the Shaman Possession (2005) ISBN 0-9766590-0-X
* The Doors (remaining members Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger, John Densmore) with Ben Fong-Torres, The Doors (2006) ISBN 1-4013-0303-X
Films
By Jim Morrison
* HWY: An American Pastoral (1969)
* A Feast of Friends (1970)
Documentaries featuring Jim Morrison
* The Doors Are Open (1968)
* Live in Europe (1968)
* Live at the Hollywood Bowl (1968)
* Feast of Friends (1969)
* The Doors: A Tribute to Jim Morrison (1981)
* The Doors: Dance on Fire (1985)
* The Soft Parade, a Retrospective (1991)
* Final 24: Jim Morrison (2008), The Biography Channel
Films about Jim Morrison
* The Doors (1991), A film by director Oliver Stone, starring Val Kilmer as Morrison and with cameos by Krieger and Densmore. Kilmer’s performance was praised by critics. Members of the group criticized Stone’s portrayal of Morrison, however.
Footnotes
1. ^ Bio of Jim Morrison.
2. ^ a b “See e.g., Morrison poem backs climate plea”, BBC News, January 31, 2007.
3. ^ Bio of Jim Morrison.
4. ^ “Dead Famous: Jim Morrison”, The Biography Channel. (Retrieved Dec. 2, 2007).
5. ^ Riordan, James (1992). Break on Through: The Life and Death of Jim Morrison, HarperCollins. pp. 32. ISBN 0688119158.
6. ^ Walters, Glenn D. (2006). Lifestyle theory: Past, Present And Future, Nova Publishers. pp. 78. ISBN 1600210333.
7. ^ “Recruitment Film”. Retrieved on 2008-08-24.
8. ^ “FSU Arrest”. Retrieved on 2008-06-24.
9. ^ Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith, “Criticism Lighting His Fire: Perspectives on Jim Morrison from the Los Angeles Free Press, Down Beat, and The Miami Herald (master’s thesis, Interdepartmental Program in Liberal Arts, Louisiana State University, 2007). Available at “http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-11162007-105056/”.
10. ^ Getlen, Larry, Opportunity knocked so The Doors kicked it down, http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/investing/20030616a1.asp, retrieved on 24 August 2008
11. ^ Paul Lawrence (2002). “The Doors and Them: twin Morrisons of different mothers”. waiting-forthe-sun.net. Retrieved on 2008-07-07.
12. ^ Hinton (1997), page 67.
13. ^ Corry Arnold (2006-01-23). “The History of the Whisky-A-Go-Go”. chickenonaunicyle.com. Retrieved on 2008-06-30.
14. ^ “Glossary entry for The Doors”. Archived from the original on 2007-03-10. from Van Morrison website. Photo of both Morrisons on stage. Access date 2007-05-26.
15. ^ “Doors 1966 – June 1966″. doorshistory.com. Retrieved on 2008-10-13.
16. ^ Leopold, Todd, Confessions of a record label owner, http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Music/04/19/holzman.elektra/index.html, retrieved on 9 September 2007
17. ^ Light My Fire, http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/6595880/light_my_fire, retrieved on 24 August 2008
18. ^ When the Doors went on Sullivan, http://archives.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/TV/10/03/ed.sullivan.sidebar/index.html, retrieved on 9 September 2007
19. ^ The Doors: Biography: Rolling Stone, http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/thedoors/biography, retrieved on 24 August 2008
20. ^ Dead Rock Star to Get Pardon?, http://www.wltx.com/fyi/story.aspx?storyid=48833, retrieved on 9 September 2007
21. ^ Notable Actors – UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, http://www.tft.ucla.edu/alumni/notable-actors/, retrieved on 3 December 2008
22. ^ McClure, Michael, Michael McClure Recalls an Old Friend, http://archives.waiting-forthe-sun.net/Pages/Players/Personal/mcclure_recalls.html, retrieved on 9 September 2008
23. ^ Unterberger, Richie, Liner Notes for Diane Hildebrand’s “Early Morning Blues and Greens, http://www.richieunterberger.com/diane.html, retrieved on 24 August 2008
24. ^ HWY: An American Pastoral, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0388097/combined, retrieved on 24 August 2008
25. ^ Jim Morrison Biography, http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biography_story/1930:2450/1/Jim_Morrison.htm, retrieved on 24 August 2008
26. ^ Letter from Jim’s Father to probation department 1970
27. ^ Hoover, Elizabeth, The Death of Jim Morrison, http://www.americanheritage.com/entertainment/articles/web/20060703-jim-morrison-doors-drugs-rock-n-roll-aldous-huxley-paris-heroin-pamela-courson.shtml, retrieved on 24 August 2008
28. ^ Jim Morrison Biography, http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biography_story/1930:2450/4/Jim_Morrison.htm, retrieved on 24 August 2008
29. ^ Kennealy, Patricia (1992). Strange Days: My Life With And Without Jim Morrison. New York: Dutton/Penguin. pp. p.63. ISBN 0-525-93419-7.
30. ^ Kennealy (1992) plate 7, p.175
31. ^ Davis, Steven (2004) “The Last Days of Jim Morrison” in Rolling Stone. Retrieved 25 December 2007
32. ^ Kennealy (1992) pp.314-16
33. ^ “Ask Ray Manzarek” Transcript, Talk, BBC, 10 April 2002,
34. ^ Ronay, Alain (2002) “Jim and I – Friends Until Death”. Originally published in KING. Retrieved 25 December 2007
35. ^ Kennealy (1992) pp: 385-92 quotes from Ronay’s interview in Paris-Match
36. ^ Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugarman, No One Here Gets Out Alive page 373
37. ^ Hopkins, Jerry; and Danny Sugerman (1980) No One Here Gets Out Alive ISBN 0-85965-138-X
38. ^ Kennealy (1992) pp.344-6
39. ^ Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugarman, No One Here Gets Out Alive page 375, also see copyright in front of book on new material added in 1995
40. ^ Walt, Vivienne, How Jim Morrison Died, http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1643884,00.html, retrieved on 24 August 2008
41. ^ “The shocking truth about Jim Morrison’s death surfaces”. AndhraNews.net story, July 8, 2007.
42. ^ “The shocking truth about how my pal Jim Morrison REALLY died”, mailonsunday.co.uk Accessed July 13, 2007.
43. ^ Doland, Angela, Morrison Bathtub Death Story Questioned, http://news.aol.com/entertainment/music/story/_a/morrison-bathtub-death-story-questioned/20070711145609990001, retrieved on 24 August 2008
44. ^ Mladen Mikulin – Sculptor
45. ^ photo of defaced bust on Morrison’s grave before it was stolen.
46. ^ Jim Morrison, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_gx5221/is_2005/ai_n19141572/pg_2, retrieved on 24 August 2008
47. ^ The Stooges: Biography: Rolling Stone, http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/thestooges/biography, retrieved on 24 August 2008
48. ^ Webb, Robert, ROCK & POP: STORY OF THE SONG – ‘THE PASSENGER’ Iggy Pop (1977), http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20051014/ai_n15713651, retrieved on 24 August 2008
49. ^ The Doors (remaining members Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger, John Densmore) with Ben Fong-Torres), The Doors, page 104
50. ^ Biography Channel documentary
51. ^ The Doors (1991)
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