Tour de danse (3/5): Jim Morrison, rock legend
Discover the third episode of Tour de danse. After tango and ballet, let yourself be carried away by rock! The music that has made generations of people dance!
Who is one of rock’s greatest icons? Certainly Jim Douglas Morrison, aka Jim Morrison, who died 50 years ago.
Essential member and singer of The Doors, artist committed to the Vietnam War, lover of poetry, member of the sadly-named “Club of 27”, Jim Morrison is a true rock legend.
Yet he always sought to go beyond this musical genre. According to Morrison himself, the Doors were a blues-oriented band, with a heavy dose of rock and some elements of jazz, pop and classical sounds. In short, “a white blues band”.
The Doors were a world apart. With darkly seductive and exotic sounds that combined spirituality, poetry, psychedelia and a host of different musical styles. The very particular and whimsical characteristics of its members were the reason for this!
Success came when they signed their first contract with the Elektra label. Their first album, The Doors, was released in January 1967, and featured such worldwide hits as Break On Through and Light My Fire. Jim Morrison began to gain notoriety. His good looks made him a sex symbol in record time! However, he never ceased to seek spirituality in his lyrics and in his life.
6 albums in 6 years, as many Gold Discs, over 300 concerts and more than 100 million albums sold worldwide. Entire generations of young people dance to the music of the Doors!
A doomed poet with an impetuous charisma, Jim Morrison took refuge in Paris in 1971, following in the footsteps of Rimbaud and Baudelaire. He died of an overdose, officially on July 3, 1971. He is buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery in the French capital. His tomb is considered the fourth most visited site in the city, after the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame and the Louvre.
Among the personal effects found in the house where he lived was one of Oliver Stone’s first screenplays, entitled Break. It was about the director’s experiences during the Vietnam War. Stone wanted Jim Morrison to be the protagonist – that’s why he sent it to him. The singer had studied at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television in Los Angeles, California, at the same time as Francis Ford Coppola, and was a fine actor.
“I am the Lizard King. I can do anything”, wrote Jim Morrison in his poem “The Celebration of the Lizard”. He was famous for his fascination with reptiles and shamanism. And in 2013, British paleontologists announced that they had named a giant lizard that lived 40 million years ago “Barbaturex morrisoni” (“barbarous” means “bearded king”), in tribute to the Doors singer.
Next event on July 6: Louis Armstrong, ambassador of jazz. Come and join us!
