27: Jim Morrison (6 page)

Midway through the sessions, Jim Morrison cut off much of his hair, badly and unattractively, as if to represent his psyche.
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Paul Rothchild summoned a band meeting. ‘Jim … you don't seem interested in participating much in the recording of this album. What are you doing? You don't look like a rock star anymore.' ‘Stop him?' Rothchild responded later to a question from the writer Vic Garbarini.
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‘Everybody tried to stop him. You couldn't. Strangers would stop him on the street and try to help him. We all tried to stop him. If you'd know Jim for even ten seconds, you'd know one thing: he was unstoppable. He was his own motive force, an astounding human being. There was no stopping him.'

In an interview to promote the new record, Robby Krieger remarked: ‘There was a lot of Jim getting drunk and bringing drunken friends into the studio and Paul throwing them out. Scenes, heavy pill-taking and stuff. That was rock 'n' roll to its fullest.'
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By early March 1968, however, the studio sessions had been put to one side as The Doors headed for the East Coast and an epochal set of shows, including their performances at the Fillmore East. This was the period when, to the annoyance of Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison stumbled onto the stage at the Scene club in Manhattan as Jimi Hendrix played with The Young Rascals.

By the time they returned to the recording studio in Los Angeles, the idea of recording ‘The Celebration of the Lizard' had been scrapped – although the ‘Not to Touch the Earth' section was retained. The group had agreed to fund the
Feast of Friends
documentary.

This documentary was an opening salvo in a bid for independence by The Doors. In April, with an advance from Elektra, they bought out their management team, who were replaced by Bill Siddons, their nineteen-year-old tour manager. They opened an office in West Hollywood at 8512 Santa Monica Boulevard, near the junction with La Cienega. Not long after this, Jim walked into the new offices and announced to Ray Manzarek, ‘I wanna quit.'
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He told Ray he thought he was having a nervous breakdown. The keyboard player suggested this frame of mind might have something to do with being drunk all the time. And Ray persuaded him to hang on for another six months.

The recording process for what became known as
Waiting for the Sun
was arduous and painful – at times like tooth extraction, Paul Rothchild obsessing over every possible sound glitch. (John Densmore felt this may have had something to do with a jar labelled ‘KD' that Rothchild kept behind his console: ‘KD' stood for ‘Killer Dope'.)

By the end of April, the new album was finally ready for release. Although it was named after the tune ‘Waiting for the Sun', that song would not appear until 1970's
Morrison Hotel
.

In March the first 45 was issued, the controversial ‘The Unknown Soldier' with its critical references to the Vietnam war. Considering the political climate in the United States, it was amazing the song received any airplay whatsoever. However, it managed to scrape into the Top 40, peaking at 39.

Early in June, the second single was released from the new album: ‘Hello, I Love You', coupled with ‘Love Street'.

The release of ‘Hello, I Love You', one of the songs on The Doors' original demo, also met with considerable controversy, but of another kind altogether. The Doors were criticized for the release of what was condemned as an outright commercial song, possibly stolen from The Kinks' ‘Tired of Waiting', and clearly aimed at the hit parade. Which, of course, it was: why on earth else would a song be chosen as a single? But it was simultaneously a perfect piece of garage band punk, driven by Manzarek's thrusting keyboards and the singer's powerful liquid baritone, and climaxing in Morrison's war whoops. And it achieved the desired effect: ‘Hello, I Love You' stealthily crept up the charts until, on 3 August, it was the number one single in the United States, staying in this chart position for two weeks. (Also in the US Top 5 at that time was José Feliciano's version of ‘Light My Fire'. Paradoxically, it was the success of their own version of ‘Light My Fire' that had polarized their audience. Were The Doors a Top 40 hit act or proselytizers for the revolution – whatever that revolution was?)

After the release of
Waiting for the Sun
on 12 July 1968, album sales were bolstered by the success of ‘Hello, I Love You' and it went to number one in the US album charts the same week that the single hit the top slot. (The Doors had now become internationally successful – both ‘Hello, I Love You' and
Waiting for the Sun
made the UK Top 20s.)

A string of major North American dates in arena-sized venues promoted the new album. On 5 July 1968, The Doors topped the bill at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, selling out all 18,000 seats. The show was recorded for the
Feast of Friends
film. The group were joined by Mick Jagger and music producer Jimmy Miller for a pre-show dinner at Mu Ling's Chinese restaurant. Whether or not he was weighted down by his extensive helping of food, Jim Morrison gave a distinctly underwhelming performance. His vocals were impeccable, but he stood static by the microphone, with none of the stage movements by now expected by The Doors' audience. ‘They (The Doors) were nice chaps, but they played a bit too long,' said Mick Jagger following the show.

These dates were followed up by The Doors' first trip to Europe, for shows in England, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Holland. The London concerts, at underground temple the Roundhouse, on Friday 6 and 7 September, were great triumphs, some of their best ever performances. There were two shows each day: on night one, they supported Jefferson Airplane; on night two, it was the other way around. ‘The audience was one of the best we've ever had,' said the singer. ‘Everyone seemed to take it so easy. It's probably the most informed, receptive audience I've ever seen in my life.'

In Amsterdam Jim Morrison was indisposed. That morning while they had been in Germany he had eaten a lump of Lebanese hash given to him by Bob ‘the Bear' Hite of Canned Heat. Arriving in Amsterdam, Jim had danced on stage during the Airplane set. But then the hash kicked in and he was unable to perform his role as The Doors' singer during their own set.

After the European tour, Jim Morrison and Pamela Courson rented a flat in London's Belgravia and remained there for a month. There they were visited by Michael McClure, the Beat poet and writer. He wanted Jim to play the part of Billy the Kid in a movie to be made of his play
The Beard
. While at their London lodgings, McClure came across a copy of Jim's poetry. He was impressed and suggested Jim Morrison publish a private edition, entitled
The Lords and the New Creatures
.

Jim paid a visit to Abbey Road studios, where the Beatles were recording ‘Happiness is a Warm Gun' for their
The Beatles
album.

On returning to Los Angeles on 20 October 1968, it was yet again time to enter the recording studio to make another album. This set of sessions saw The Doors working at Elektra's new recording studio on La Cienega, ‘the house that The Doors built', as it became known. The four musicians were not at all pleased, however, to learn they would pay almost standard rates – they were given a ten per cent discount. Jim turned his back on Jac Holzman so he wouldn't see the fury etched into his face.
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In early November 1968, The Doors played seven dates, mainly in the American Midwest. In Phoenix, Arizona, on 7 November, they played to a 10,000-strong audience at Veterans Coliseum. After an onstage equipment malfunction, Jim Morrison began to berate the audience. ‘We are not going to stand for four more years of this shit,' he commented on the election two days previously of a new president, the Republican Richard Nixon. He encouraged the audience to stand and come up to the stage. When some 500 kids did so, they were pushed back by police – their response was to shower police officers with garbage. Several people were arrested. The local Arizona Highway Patrol captain had come close, he said later, to arresting Jim Morrison for his use of vulgar and obscene language. Having got away with this in Phoenix, in St Louis the singer tested the local police even more during the song ‘Back Door Man' – ‘Fuck me, baby, fuck me, girl, suck my cock, honey, around the world,' he extemporized.

The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour
television show was known for its satirical take on current events, notably the Vietnam War. As such it was a suitable vehicle for The Doors. When the group's opportunity came, on 15 December 1968, Jim Morrison gave a tour de force performance on ‘Touch Me' and ‘Wild Child', both songs from the new album,
The Soft Parade
. The first single off the new album, the overtly sexual ‘Touch Me' raced up the US charts to number 3. Robby Krieger performed
The Smothers Brothers
TV show with a conspicuous black eye – he and Jim had traded punches with some representatives of the Old Order in a bar on Santa Monica.

The Doors' live performances in 1968 concluded with a show on home territory, at the Los Angeles Felt Forum. After the group had played ‘Light My Fire', the audience began to chant ‘Again, again!' Perhaps suffering from an excess of self-importance, Jim Morrison found himself irritated at such an inoffensive audience response – although gratitude perhaps would have been more appropriate. To make his point he stepped to the front of the stage and berated the crowd with all 133 lines of ‘Celebration of the Lizard' before walking off for good.

Jim Morrison was doing a lot of wandering off – the increasingly eccentric singer would frequently disappear. Often he had simply checked into a cheap motel, such as the Alta Cienega, a favourite that was convenient for The Doors' office on nearby Santa Monica Boulevard – where he also had been known to regularly crash out on the couch. He was, however, adept at vanishing for longer periods.

His absences contributed to occasional controversies, as when the other three band members would be obliged to make decisions without him. For example, with Jim missing on one of his frequent walkabouts, the other three members agreed – for a considerable fee – to let ‘Light My Fire' be used in a television commercial for the new Buick Opel, an economy car that Ray Manzarek felt was apt for the new time in which they were living. The advertisement would require, however, a crucial line in the song to be altered, to ‘Come on, Buick, light my fire'.

Jim refused to go along with this idea, and there was a huge row, which ultimately was won by Morrison:
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‘Light My Fire' was not used in a television commercial for the new Buick Opel.

Meanwhile, they were still recording
The Soft Parade
, playing gigs and editing
Feast of Friends
– Jim Morrison seemingly far more interested in this increasingly expensive project than in making the new album. This in itself was controversial, The Doors risking the wrath of hardcore fans by adding horns, strings and further instrumentation in elaborate arrangements.

On Friday 24 January 1969, it was time for The Doors to play a prestigious gig at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The venue held over 20,000 and was sold out for The Doors' show, for which they received $50,000. Although the Garden was beginning to host regular rock concerts, it had not adapted to the complexities of sound balance required for musical events at such a cavernous venue. Adding to the potential problems with the Garden's sound, The Doors were performing in the round. But the concert was a striking success. Lax security permitted the audience of mainly teenage girls to wander the auditorium, some even making it on stage. Although Jim Morrison's performance was minimalist and devoid of histrionics, he seemed for the most part in perfect command of the audience. But at one point he wandered to either side of the stage, delivering a message to each in turn: ‘You are life!' and ‘You are death!'

While in Manhattan for the date, Jim Morrison first encountered Patricia Kennealy, the editor of
Jazz & Pop
magazine. When she went up to his suite at the Plaza Hotel to interview him, static sparks flew as they shook hands, created by the friction of her boots on the floor-covering fabric. Despite the simple scientific explanation, they both registered the symbolism. ‘A portent,' said Jim. (Kennealy was a practising witch, a member of a coven, and would later ‘marry' Jim Morrison in a ceremony devoid of any legal status.)

Always interested in exploring radical art forms, Jim Morrison had a high regard for the Living Theatre, the New York-based innovative drama company renowned for its productions of experimental plays. The Living Theatre was always strapped for cash and the singer donated money to help keep them going. In their 1968 production,
Paradise Now
, they showed an eagerness to abolish the gap between art and life, with the actors forcing arguments with members of the audience aiming to so alienate them that they would leave. Although the piece was often performed in the nude, when they came to Los Angeles to perform the actors had been warned by police that they would be arrested if they did so; accordingly they played it while wearing underwear.

Jim Morrison saw their every performance, including those of
Frankenstein
and
Antigone
, but it was the production of
Paradise Now
, with its confrontational tone, that most captured his imagination. Its influence would linger with him until the next Doors show the following day. ‘He had a madder than usual look in his eyes, though I knew he was sober,' said Tom Baker, who had gone to the Bovard Auditorium with him. ‘At one point Jim turned to me and said, “Let's start a fire in the balcony or something. Get a riot going.”'
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On 1 March The Doors were scheduled to play in Jim Morrison's home state of Florida, at the Miami Dinner Key Auditorium in Coconut Grove. Following this date, which was to be a warm-up for the longest set of concert dates The Doors had performed, Jim, Robby Krieger and John Densmore were scheduled to briefly vacation separately in nearby Jamaica. On the morning of 1 March, Jim Morrison and Pamela Courson had such a bitter row on the way to the airport that the singer refused to let her accompany him; there was a suggestion that she had told him she was pregnant by someone else. Then he managed to miss the flight that the rest of the group had taken. Obliged to fly to New Orleans, where he would catch a connection to Miami, he drank all the way, managing to miss his Miami-bound plane in New Orleans. There he continued to drink in the bar as he waited for the next flight.