Jim Morrison (The Doors) - where does he stand lyrically?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by RoughAndRowdyWays, May 8, 2021.

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  1. rkt88

    rkt88 The unknown soldier

    Location:
    malibu ca
    I like moonlight drive’s lyric.
     
  2. RoughAndRowdyWays

    RoughAndRowdyWays I'm an instant star. Just add water and stir. Thread Starter

    Location:
    Yorkshire, UK.
    Great idea ;)
     
  3. rkt88

    rkt88 The unknown soldier

    Location:
    malibu ca

    I was of the belief that Robbie wrote fire/pyre/higher?

    trite but a hit is a hit.

    however.. the “cancel my subscription to the etc” stanza is very good.
     
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  4. hophedd

    hophedd Forum Resident

    Location:
    Syracuse
    'Spades dance best from the hip"

    Prove. Jim. Wrong.
     
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  5. MortSahlFan

    MortSahlFan Forum Resident

    Location:
    US
    Usually, I don't care or even know lyrics - I'm listening to the music of the vocal, but Jim Morrison is one who I pay attention to.. My favorite is Roger Waters and John Lennon, and I guess Jim would be my #3 by default. Unique. Great vocals and I'll add his timing, which was impeccable. He could rap with the best of them, know when to pause. I think he came up with great phrases, or thinks that would flow so well. Sometimes its the hisses he makes, screams, little things that accentuate and make the song better, more palatable, more alive. "Alive, she cried"

    The first song I heard was "Break On Through", which for me in middle-school was important to hear. You can interpret it in a million ways, but I think its safe to say the song has non-conformity on its mind.. "You know the day destroys the night, night divides the day" - pretty cool after I thought about it. I know the story behind the edit, but I love the "She get.... She get"..... "Found an island in your arms, a country in your eyes, arms that chained us, eyes that lied" - again, I love it.

    The title "Soul Kitchen" is another cool one. "Warm my mind near your gentle stove"

    "Twentieth Century Fox" is another great double-meaning title. Very clever.
    "The End" is one of my favorite songs period. It's all interesting. I really love the plea, "Of everything that stands.... THE END.... No safety or surprise... THE END.... I'll never look into your eyes (lovely pause)... again. I really feel it every time I hear it, and I've been a die-hard Doors fan for about the length of Jim's entire life!

    "Strange days have found us. Strange days have tracked us down" - can't explain why I love it. Maybe because its not conventional, as opposed to 'Some lady have found us".

    "People are stranger, when you're a stranger" - so true!

    Whatever he says in "Roadhouse Blues" is cool as hell. I'm going to listen to it now, lol.

    "The Changeling" is another cool title, and just a cool story.

    "Cars Hiss By My Windows" and "L'America" are unique titles. "Hello, I love you"

    "Cops in cars, the topless bars, never saw a woman....... so alone"... "Motel money murder madness", nice alliteration, "let's change the mood from glad to sadness".. That entire song is a beautiful metaphor for Los Angeles, as if it were a woman. "Lucky little lady" (more alliteration).

    "Cancel my subscription to the resurrection, send my credentials to the house of detention" - I loved it before I ever thought of the meanings.

    "Waiting for you to....... end my song"

    "All our lives we sweat and save, building for a shallow grave" (another great title "The Soft Parade")

    "Breakfast where the news is read.. Television, children fed. Unborn living, living dead.. Bullet strikes the helmet's head"

    "Five to One" - I think its all great.

    I love "Peace Frog".. Cool title, and I love the story behind it from the poem "Abortion Stories" and how it related with his life (Patricia Kennealy). I love how on one vocal track, he sings, "She came" at the beginning of every line. Repeating "Blood in the streets ________" mentioning Chicago (shortly after the convention), or a self-reference to New Haven where he was arrested on stage (for having the guts to stand up to those who wronged him).

    "The WASP (Texas Radio & The Big Beat) - interesting how the evolution of this song came to be. Again, great rhythm, great song, fascinating imagery.

    I think its cool how he starts, "Wild Child" with a salutary "Hi!".. and even the ending line "Remember when we were in Africa" is memorable and has something to do with the song, even if Robby thought it was the dumbest thing he ever heard, and said so in the studio which you can witness on video.


    Never liked "Horse Latitudes", but hey, he wrote it in school.
     
  6. The Dark Elf

    The Dark Elf Curmudgeonly Wordwraith

    Location:
    Michigan
    Morrison wrote that stanza, and initially Krieger objected to the use of pyre, but eventually relented.
     
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  7. Is this really the case? I have no idea why Jamsterdammer wrote that last line, but I wonder what would have happened if he had written, instead, "But I've been drinking a few beers today, so take that for what it's worth?"

    I mean, I'm not saying that anybody wrote anything "wrong," or that any response is wrong, or whatever; it's beautiful to be free to write what you want. I just wonder if that's true, that people have to clarify creativity based upon intoxication. I've never really run across that, unless it's from somebody who is usually intoxicated, and chronically dull, yet in a moment of "sober clarity" they say something profound that shocks those close to them.

    Anyway, sure, Jim was a poet. But "poet" is just a word. The curious thing about poetic meaning is that it should always be interpretive, even if it cuts against the grain of the artist's intentions.
     
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  8. Aftermath

    Aftermath Senior Member

    I'd call him a poet. I quite like some of the imagery in his lyrics

    Take a journey to the bright midnight
    End of the night
     
  9. Chemguy

    Chemguy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Western Canada
    I always thought he was pretty darn good.
     
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  10. Jamsterdammer

    Jamsterdammer The Great CD in the Sky

    Location:
    Málaga, Spain
    LOL. I just wanted to preempt the usual "can I have some of what you're having?" posts that some people on this forum like to post as soon as you try to describe something that could vaguely be interpreted as potentially being the result of having smoked dope. Or rather, people who don't agree wanting to put your comment down as "pothead" talk.
     
  11. ed carter

    ed carter Forum Resident

    Location:
    Los Angeles
  12. Dog Ear

    Dog Ear The 2nd Protects The 1st

    Location:
    Chicago
    Morrison poetically sang about his generation’s war.
    Morrison poetically sang how a man sexually covets a woman.

    Today’s attitudes accept Morrison’s trashing of America’s South/East Asian war.
    His overt masculinity however is out of step with the woke-sters.
     
  13. MortSahlFan

    MortSahlFan Forum Resident

    Location:
    US
    I agree... An artist has to speak their mind, not whatever is popular or profitable. I admire Jim never playing the game to the extent that some did.
     
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  14. hophedd

    hophedd Forum Resident

    Location:
    Syracuse
    Jim evidently wrote this when he was 14.

    Reminds me - a few decades ago, an older brother of mine needed to write a poem for a creative writing class. He wasn't really inclined toward that, so he flipped through his albums, and basically handed in a Genesis song (Firth of Fifth). He got an A.
     
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  15. Ghost of Ziggy

    Ghost of Ziggy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Hell
    His lyrics were great, I find those criticising him nothing more that pathetic.
     
  16. egebamyasi

    egebamyasi Forum Resident

    Location:
    Worcester, MA
    As a poet he's a good songwriter.
     
  17. Kassonica

    Kassonica Forum Resident

    basically pretentious... although the people are strange lyrics are some of the best lyrics ever written
     
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  18. Rising Sun

    Rising Sun Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    I'd say he was a poet of the modern age, surely much more of a multi-media artist then the traditional literary versifier putting down words on the page simply to be read or recited. He could be viewed as a visionary whose interest was in a new multi-media art; spoken word that now could utilize music as well as film/video imagery. His writing certainly seems to work best in this context and his early interest and study in film making, along with music, would seem to support this.

    I guess you could say he was ahead of the curve or "avant garde" in his multimedia approach toward the performing arts of theater/film/music/poetry. A modern day Antonin Artaud.

     
  19. CowboyBill

    CowboyBill Forum Resident

    Location:
    Utah
    I consider him a poet. I'd say about 75% of his lyrics (or poems) I like. "American Prayer" is a no for me though. I can't blame him for it, He just sat one night and recorded some poetry when he was drunk. I'm sure he would have chose none of it for an album. The guy died at 27, I don't think people should judge him too hard on his poetry. I'm sure he would've gotten better and better.
     
  20. Glenn Christense

    Glenn Christense Foremost Beatles expert... on my block

    Yeah yeah but where’s the.. “Oh,the snot has caked against my pants, it has turned into crystal ” sort of thing ?

    Now that’s imagery that sticks with you! :laugh: ;)
     
    Last edited: May 8, 2021
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  21. Glenn Christense

    Glenn Christense Foremost Beatles expert... on my block

    Like Lennon, it’s unknowable of course but it’s interesting to ponder for a sec what Jim and John would have done artistically if they had lived longer .
     
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  22. rkt88

    rkt88 The unknown soldier

    Location:
    malibu ca
  23. Gray Beard

    Gray Beard Forum Resident

    Location:
    Southern NJ
    Great lyrics, very visual and they instill a bit of mystery and haunt, perfect for the music of the Doors. Add in Jim’s great sense of timing, phrasing and that deep baritone and you have an incredible musical experience.
     
  24. PhoenixWoman

    PhoenixWoman Forum Resident

    Location:
    Lancaster, NY
    I think he's a poet and not a particularly good one. He has some good lines but way too often those lines have zip to do with the next line. It comes off to me as a series of unrelated images with no flow and no build to a larger message. And there's a whole lot of filler lines: "The snake is long, seven miles" and such nonsense. He can't compete with Patti Smith or Leonard Cohen or even early Bruce Springsteen. I think he lands around the same place as Michael Stipe. BUT the quick-shot, trippy, morbid imagery seems to work to promote an image that Doors fans like, so in some sense he's effective.
     
    Last edited: May 9, 2021
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  25. YardByrd

    YardByrd rock n roll citizen in a hip hop world

    Location:
    Europe
    naw, he's not a poet... he's a rock lyricist... and when he's on, he's a GREAT rock lyricist... witness "People Are Strange"... and he can also be perfunctory and cliche ridden... witness "Love Street"...
     
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