Morrison is often associated with the youth counterculture. I want to know what type of person he was, to people who were able to witness his era. It could be anything about him - his influence, his music, his personal life, his relationship, activism, childhood, or the type of person he was. As someone who was born in the 21st century, I want to know what kind of person he was, if his musics were popular and was his life tragic, or filled with happiness? I don’t want to hear the Wikipedia summary, I’m interested in what you think as someone who enjoys music.
I’m not old enough to remember him personally, but I do remember the 80s when FM Rock stations still played The Doors and Led Zeppelin incessantly. Back then, there was a syndicated radio show that – for one episode – broadcast interviews with the surviving band members. I distinctly remember the tone of voice (though not the exact words or quantity) of one of them saying, “I saw him take threee huuundred micrograms of acid” (at some location). Sounded angry and astounded just on the retelling. I think that’s also where I heard bandmates talking about Jim pleading out to a possession charge and being required to do public service announcements instead of going to jail. He was a jerk about it. The PSAs were grouped as “Speed Kills” and he was supposed to hammer that home, but was ruining each take, saying things like (but not exactly cuz I don’t remember), “Speed kills. Smoke pot, instead!”
From my personal view of his music, we had all The Doors albums in my house when I was growing up, so I’d heard them all. For reference, we also had Simon and Garfunkel, Joni Mitchell, some Beatles, Rolling Stones, and other stuff like that.
I think Jim Morrison had a tight band behind him and wrote some decent lyrics. I think ‘Light my Fire’ was over-played and other songs should have gotten more attention. I do, however, appreciate that each band member got to solo on that, and the song’s greatest weakness is that those solos get cut for airplay. It isn’t even that the solos deserve special attention, but the song is too short and repetitive without it.