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Post by darkstar on Jan 3, 2005 0:58:00 GMT
Jim Morrison Interview with Bob Courish - Los Angeles Free Press 1970
Bob Courish of the Los Angeles Free Press interviewed Jim Morrison in late 1970 for an article titled, "The Lizard King Reforms," which was published January 15, 1971.
What follows is a partial transcript of this interview with Jim Morrison. This interview has been in circulation among tape traders for many years. The interview lasted several hours and was conducted
in the confines of a few eating and drinking establishments within walking distance of the Doors office. Many non-Doors topics were discussed on the taped version that are not included in this transcript.
Jim Morrison Interview with Bob Courish LA Free Press
`There's no story really. No real narrative. Except
there's a hitchhiker who…We don't see it, but we later assume that he stole a car and he drives into the city and it just ends there. He checks into a motel and he goes out to a nightclub or something. It just kind of ends like that.'
Jim Morrison is talking about the story of his latest movie HWY. This amorphous plot summary seems strangely interchangeable with Morrison's new image of cinema verite' director. The James Douglas
Morrison that I spoke to several days ago was an older man that I had expected to meet. He was a man with grey hairs mingling into his beard and hair, talking about his past as a `rock star' as a convict
might review his past of `criminal' with a parole officer. A
sparkle of the Morrison that I had expected did at times come through, although the flashes were carefully obscured by the past tense.
It always amazes me that people think you're two years younger than
you are. I guess that's why you have to keep doing interviews. People believe old press clippings. A couple of years ago, I filled a need that some people had for a figure who represented a whole lot of things, so they created the thing. It's like seeing baby pictures
or something. It's embarrassing and funny at the same time.'
My preparation for talking to Morrison included three of his books (The Lords, The New Creatures and An American Prayer), a Rolling Stone interview with him and press clippings dating back exactly four
years. I was prepared to meet an alcoholic, drug crazed,
megalomaniacal, slur-speech, exhibitionist, rock star, film-maker in snakeskin pants and leather shirt, carrying a celebrated lizard under his arm. The first press statement that Morrison made laid the ground
work for my misconceptions.
`You could say it's an accident that I was ideally suited for the work I'm doing. It's the feeling of a bow string being pulled back for 22 years and suddenly let go…I've always been attracted to ideas that were about revolt against authority. When you make your peace
with authority you become an authority. I like ideas about the breaking away or overthrowing of established order. I am interested in anything about revolt, disorder, chaos, especially activity that
seems to have no meaning. It seems to me to be the road towards freedom – external freedom is a way to bring about internal freedom.'
`We are from the West. The who thing should be like an invitation to the West. The sunset. The night. The sea. This is the end. Anything that would promote that image would be useful. The world we suggest
should be of a new Wild West. A sensuous evil world. Strange and haunting, the path of the sun….'
Morrison is not the image that he has been for so many years. He isn't wearing snakeskin or leather. He has a beer with lunch and a drink before and after. He is his own archer's arrow traveling through the time and space of oblivion with a great deal of insight
as to where he's been, and an Indian's aim of where he's going. He is more anxious to talk about films than rock music, a lot of which he no longer listens to. He is also anxious to get the details of his life straight; the most recent of which were his trials on charges
ranging from obscenity to plane hijacking. Along with getting straight is the realization that with age, trials and tribulations, had come a loss of naivety.
Jim Morrison: I wasted a lot of time and energy with the Miami trial. About a year and a half. But I guess it was a valuable experience because before the trial I had a very unrealistic schoolboy attitude about the American judicial system. My eyes have been opened up a
bit. There were guys down there, black guys, that would go on each day before I went on. It took about five minutes and they would get 20 to 25 years in jail. If I hadn't had unlimited funds to continue
fighting my case, I'd be in jail right now for three years.
It's just if you have money you generally don't go to jail. The trial in Miami broke up a lot of things. It's on appeal to the Supreme Court right now.'
Bob Courish: Whatever happened to the other busts that you were involved in?
Jim: I got acquitted on everything else. We're trying to get this erased because it's not good to have something like that on your record.
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Post by darkstar on Jan 3, 2005 1:05:30 GMT
Bob: Are you still concerned with that kind of record?
Jim: It's just if something really serious happens then you have a record and it looks a lot worse.
Bob: It looked for a while they were out to get you. There was a federal hijacking charge also, wasn't there?
Jim: Well it came under a law that was created because of hijacking, but it wasn't really a hijacking. It was just a little over-exuberant kind of playing. It wasn't a threat to safety or anything. Actually we were acquitted because the stewardesses mistook me for someone who I was with. They were going by seat number. They were saying that the person in such and such a seat was causing all this trouble. Then they all identified me as being in this seat. They were just trying
to hang me cause I was the only one that had a well known face. So they were trying to get me for it. I don't know, I guess it was an example of the kind of people you meet on airplanes.
The trouble with all these busts is that people I know, friends of mine, think it's funny and they like to believe it's true and they accept it; people that don't like me like to believe it because I'm
the reincarnation of everything they consider evil. I get hung both ways. I went through a trial in Phoenix. I had to go back several times to get that cleared up.
Bob: What do you think the chances are of getting off in Miami? It's just a misdemeanour now isn't it?
Jim: Well, it's two misdemeanours. I have to be optimistic, so I figure there's a good chance. We're going to appeal on several
grounds. First of all they never really proved anything except profanity, which we admitted all along. We were going to attempt to prove that profanity did not violate contemporary community standards
in the City of Miami. To do that we were going to take the jury to see all the movies like Woodstock and Hair. Hair was playing in town at that time and they had nudity on stage every night and they were
allowing young people to go in at any age. And even books that were available in Junior High School libraries had four-letter words. The judge refused to allow any investigation along those lines and limited it to criminal actions. They brought out thirteen witnesses.
Every witness was either a policeman who was working there that night or someone who worked for the city and happened to be there, or a relative of a policeman. In fact, their biggest witness was a sixteen-
year-old girl who was the niece of a police officer who got her and her date in free on that night. All their testimony was very contradictory. Every one of them had a different version of what happened.
Bob: I heard that girl call someone a `little bitch.'
Jim: I didn't hear her do it but that's what I heard. They
had thousands of photographs from many different people that were there, but there was no photograph of an exposure or anything near it.
Other charges I think were just put in there to make it look more serious. Simulated masturbation, oral copulation……..
Bob: With yourself?
Jim: Masturbation on myself and oral copulation on the guitar player. There's a picture of that on the inside sleeve of the 13 album.
Bob: Is that a lamb's head your holding there?
Jim: No, that's a real lamb. That guy, Lewis Marvin of the
Moonfire, happened to be there. He travels around spreading his philosophy of non-violence and vegetarianism. He carries this lamb around to
demonstrate his principles that if you eat meat you're killing this little lamb. He gave it to me during the middle of the show. I just held it for a while. It's interesting. There was a lot of noise, a lot of commotion. It was almost deafening but the lamb was breathing
normally, almost purring like a kitten. It was completely relaxed. I guess what they say about lambs to the slaughter is true. They don't feel a thing. Anyway, the judge limited the defence's witnesses to
the number of witnesses that the prosecution brought on, which is an entirely arbitrary manoeuvre.
Bob: Did you get all those witnesses through an ad?
Jim: Yeah, and just through the grapevine. But we had over three hundred people that were willing to testify that they didn't see any of those alleged incidents. What it turns out actually happened is that a journalist happened to be there or heard about this concert
and wrote a sensational front page story about the concert, inciting to riot. The citizens became irate and began calling the police station asking why this had been allowed to go on and why I wasn't arrested. I had gotten up and gone on to Jamaica for a holiday that
had been planned there. About three or four days after the whole thing, they swore out a warrant for me. So you can see how the whole thing began.
Bob: I spoke to Mike Gershman when he was down there with you and he said that you weren't able to perform during the whole course of the
trial. Is it true that you were doing performances?
Jim: The only thing I did was the Isle Of Wight for a day and then I had to come right back. We could have done performances but we never knew from one to the next when court was in session.
Bob: They were doing alternate days, weren't they?
Jim: Yeah. And he changed it every day. So we never knew. I really needed the weekends to rest up. It was an ordeal.
Bob: Do you think they were out to get you or out to get the culture?
Jim: I think it was really the lifestyle they were going after. I don't think it was me personally. I just kind of stepped into a hornet's nest. I had no idea that the sentiment down there was so tender. The audience that was there seemed to enjoy it. I think that
the people who read about it in the paper in this distorted version created a climate of hysteria. A few weeks later they had an anti- decency, I mean an anti-indecency, rally at the Orange Bowl with a
famous fat comedian.
Bob: Well know for his decency.
Jim: Right. The President congratulated the kid that started this rally. They had them all over the country.
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Post by darkstar on Jan 3, 2005 1:13:21 GMT
Jim: Yeah. I felt like a spectator but I wouldn't have wanted to defend myself because I would have blown it, I'm sure. It's not as easy as it looks.
Bob: Did you testify at all?
Jim: Yes. I didn't have to testify, but we decided that it might
be a
good thing for the jury to see what I was like because all they could
do is look at me for six weeks or as long as it went. So I testified
a couple of days. I don't think it meant anything one way or
another.
They drag it out so long that after a while no one could care. I
suppose that's one of the functions of a trial. They muddle it up
so
much that you don't know what to think anymore. That's
society's way
of assimilating a horrible event.
***** After clearing things up to the present, Morrison seems to feel
more at ease about talking about the past. Someone has told me that
Morrison used to be close with the Company Theater in Los Angeles
until the group did Children Of The Kingdom. This play is a study of
the thoughts and backstage actions of a `rock star'. The
resemblance
between the play's protagonist and Morrison seems to be more than
just mere coincidence. The protagonist, like Morrison, tried to
realize what was going on in the heads of those that came to see him.
Morrison's sense of theatrics had put him in front of a Los
Angeles
capacity audience reportedly asking `What do you want? You
didn't
come here to hear music. What do you want? What do you REALLY want?
Jim: I saw half of Children Of The Kingdom. I couldn't sit
through
the rest of it. It made me feel uneasy. Not that I don't
appreciate a
satire, but it just hit too close to home.
I think people go to rock concerts because they enjoy being in
crowds. It gives them a feeling of power and security in a strange
way. They like to rub up against hundreds of other people that are
like them. It reinforces their trip.
As a performer I'm just a focus for everyone's attention,
because you
have to have an excuse to mob together. Otherwise it becomes a riot.
The Doors never really had any riots. I did try and create something
a few times just because I'd always heard about riots at concerts
and
I mean I thought we ought to have a riot. Everyone else did. So I
tried to stimulate a few little riots, you know, and after a few
times I realized it's such a joke. It doesn't lead anywhere.
You know
what, soon it got to the point where people didn't think it was
successful concert unless everybody jumped up and ran around a bit.
It's a joke because it leads nowhere. I think it would be better
to
do a concert and just keep all that feeling submerged so that when
everyone left they'd take that energy out on the streets and back
home with them. Rather than just spend it uselessly in a little crowd
explosion.
No, we never had any real riots. I mean a riot's an out of
control
violent thing. We never had too much of what I call I real riot. I
think also it has something to do with swarming theory. The idea that
when the population starts outstripping the food supply, animals and
insects swarm together. It's a way of communicating. Working out
a
solution or signaling awareness to each other. Signaling that there
was a danger. In nature a balance is worked out and I think that
somehow that's what's happening. In Los Angeles or New York
and many
of the big cities, you feel crowded. People are getting very neurotic
and paranoid and I guess things like rock concerts are a form of
human swarming to communicate this uneasiness about overpopulation. I
haven't really got it all worked out yet but I think there's
something in it.
I think that more than writing music and as a singer, that my
greatest talent is that I had an instinctive knack of self-image
propagation. I was very good at manipulating publicity with a few
little phrases like `erotic politics'. Having grown up on
television
and mass magazines, I knew instinctively what people would catch on
to. So I dropped those little jewels here and there – seemingly
very
innocently – of course just calling signals.
I think the Doors were very timely. The music and ideas were very
timely. They seem naïve now, but a couple of years ago people were
into some very weird things. There was a high energy level and you
could say things like we did and almost half-ass believe them.
Whereas now it seems very naïve. I think it was a combination of
good
musicianship and timelessness. And we many have been one of the first
groups to come along who were openly self-conscious of being
performers and it was reflected in our career as it was happening.
It's not that we were trend conscious or anything like that. We
were
doing exactly what we would have been doing anyway. It came at the
right time and we could get away with expressing sentiments like
that. I'm sure we would have done the same thing anyhow. For
example,
the first album is not really socially conscious, it's just very
universal personal statements. Each album got a little more socially
aware of the whole landscape, perhaps to the detriment of the music.
As we traveled and played to large groups of people, then some of the
words couldn't help reflecting the things I ran into. That was
mainly
it. It wasn't any conscious programme. Probably the things we
record
now will get back to the blues. That's what we do best. We may do
a
couple of old blues songs. Just your basic blues. It'll be good
blues. It won't be like a guy with a guitar playing the blues. It
will be electric blues, I hope. You never know when you start an
album, it could be entirely different. But that's what I'm
going to
push for. That's the music I enjoy best. It's the most fun to
sing. I
like jazz too. But you don't need a singer really for jazz. Those
guys ought to some instrumentals. I've always pushed for that.
They've been reluctant to do it but I wish they would. Those guys
put
out a lot of music, a lot sound for just three guys.
I like any reaction I can get with my music. Just anything to get
people to think. I mean if you get a whole room or a whole club full
of drunk, stoned people to actually wake up and think, you're
doing
something. That's not what they came there for. They came to lose
themselves.
I don't know if you saw the set up we have at the office or not.
We
have board upstairs. We record right there. It's not that we
don't
like the Elektra studios, but we felt that we do a lot better when
we're rehearsing. We have a tape running. It's a lot cheaper
and
faster that way too. This will be the first record that we're
actually doing without a producer. We're using the same engineer
that
we've used, Bruce Botnick. I don't know if he'll be
called a producer
or not. Probably co-producer with the Doors. In the past, the
producer…it's not that he was a bad influence or anything,
but this
will be a lot different without that fifth person there. So anyway,
we'll be by ourselves for better or worse.
There were a few new songs on the Live album. A year ago we finished
Morrison Hotel. It's been about a years since we've been in a
studio.
A few years ago I want to do live performances. I was trying to get
everyone to do free surprise spots at the Whisky, but no one wanted
to. Now everyone wants to, and I totally lost interest. Although I
know it's a lot of fun, I just don't have the desire to get
up and
start singing right now. I still enjoy music, but I lost a lot
interest in it.
Bob: Are you going to go in more for doing your films?
Jim: Yeah, I think so, but there's no hurry on that.
Bob: You've done about five films, haven't you?
Jim: HWY is the only real film I did. I was involved in the other
ones but they weren't totally my films. HWY is, to a large
degree. I
only see films as a team effort except in a few rare cases. I'd
like
to get HWY shown. I think maybe it might work on educational
television. N.E.T. It's about the right length. You see, it's
an
uncommercial type film. It's too long for a short play with
another
feature and it's not a feature itself. It's fifty minutes, an
awkward
length but I think maybe educational TV might be a good spot for it.
I was always fascinated with a story about a hitchhiker, who becomes
a mass murderer. I set out to make that film but it turned into a
different film. A much more subtle fantasy. Someday, I'd still
like
to make that hitchhiker film. `Cause I think it's a good one.
Bob: You played the hitchhiker in HWY. Is acting something you want
to get into?
Jim: No, it was just easier that way.
Bob: A couple of things that you said about The Lords interested me,
like `the appeal to cinema lies in the fear of death.' Is
that
something you can explain?
Jim: I think in art, but especially in films, people are trying to
confirm their own existences. Somehow things seem more real if they
can be photographed, and you can create a semblance of life on the
screen. But those little aphorisms that make up most of The Lords
–<br>if I could have said it any other way I would have. They tend to be
mulled over. I take a few seriously. I did most that book when I was
at the film school at U.C.L.A. It was really a thesis on film
aesthetics. I wasn't able to make films then, so all I was able
to do
was think about them and write about them and it probably reflects a
lot of that. A lot of the passages in it, for example about
shamanism, turned out to be very prophetic several years later
because I had no idea when I was writing that I'd be doing just
that.
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Post by darkstar on Jan 3, 2005 1:14:51 GMT
Bob: At the end of The Lords, you define the Lords as the people that
are controlling art. Did I understand that right?
Jim: Strangely enough, that's what I meant. Not controlling art
necessarily. What that book is a lot about is the feeling of
powerlessness and helplessness that people have in the face of
reality. They have no real control over events of their own lives.
Something is controlling them. The closet they ever get is the
television set. In creating this idea of the Lords, it also came to
reverse itself. Now to me the Lords mean something entirely
different. I couldn't really explain. It's like the opposite.
Somehow
the Lords are a romantic race of people who have found a way to
control their environment and their own lives. They're somehow
different from other people.
Bob: Is there a particular person you could think of……….?
Jim: No, it's not about any particular person.
Bob: I wanted to talk a bit about your poetry also.
Jim: Sure, go right ahead.
Bob: The New Creatures. There's a lot of creatures in everything
you
do. Lizards and snakes and snakeskins. That's part of your
reputation. `The Lizard King', How did all that come about?
I had a book on lizards and snakes and reptiles and the first
sentence struck me acutely – `reptiles are the interesting
descendants of magnificent ancestors'. Another thing about them
is
that they are a complete anachronism. If every reptile in the world
were to disappear tomorrow, it wouldn't really change the balance
of
nature one bit. They are completely arbitrary species. I think that
maybe they might, if any creature could, survive another world was or
some kind of total poisoning of the planet. I think that somehow
reptiles could find a way to avoid it.
Bob: Does that fit into your own self-concept?
Jim: Also, we must not forget that the lizard and the snake are
identified with the unconscious and with the forces of evil. That
piece `Celebration of the Lizard' was kind of an invitation
to the
dark forces. It's all done tongue-in-cheek. I don't think
people
realize that. It's not to be taken seriously. It's like if
you play
the villain in a Western it doesn't mean that that's you.
That's just
an aspect that you keep for show. I don't really take that
seriously.
That's supposed to be ironic.
On a much more basic level, I just always loved reptiles. I grew up
in the South-West and I used to catch horned toads and lizards. Of
course I still can't get too close to snakes. I mean it's
hard for me
to pick up a snake and play with it. There's something deep in
the
human memory that responds strongly to snakes. Even if you've
never
seen one. I think that a snake just embodies everything that we fear.
Basically their skins are just beautiful. I guess that's why
they're
so fashionable. I think they always have been.
Bob: There's probably also a little victory in taking the snake
and
wearing it.
Jim: Yeah, sure. What do they call it – a totem. No, not a totem,
a
talisman. When I wrote The New Creatures, I was very naïve. It
wasn't
something that was born of any great awareness of the universe.
It's
a very naïve little book, but somehow a lot of it holds up.
Bob: Do you think you'll be able to do as well on film as you did
with the Doors?
Jim: I don't see why not. I get an instinctive feeling for the
film
media. I think I'll do pretty well.
Bob: I've noticed that when someone puts down a good film the
best
reaction you can get if it's of the same intensity as a Doors
concert
is that people walk out on it.
Jim: Well, see, I think that kind of thing. I've never thought
that
an audience should be as passive as they've become. I think that
an
audience should be an active participant in creating what's
happening. You can even do that with a film. For example, it's up
to
you to close your eyes anytime you want or get up and walk out for
five minutes. That makes it an entirely different movie than what a
person would see if he sat dutifully through it from beginning to
end, right?
Bob: Did you try to do a live performance as part of Feast Of Friends
in San Francisco?
Jim: Did we show that up there? I think we may have at one time. We
showed it at the Aquarius after the concert was over, but that
doesn't mean anything. That was just because we'd made this
film and
we felt it was really good and no one would distribute it. So we just
show it when we can. I'm glad we made it. It will be a good
document
of that era.
Bob: Do you feel that people are more willing to accept your films or
more willing to reject them knowing your notoriety or your background
as a singer?
Jim: I think that I may be a chance to do a film, because of that
notoriety. I'll probably get one chance. If it doesn't really
make
it, it will probably be very hard to get another chance. But I think
that almost anyone can get one chance nowadays to make some kind of
film.
Bob: Do you find your reputation as `rock singer' gets in the
way?
Jim: They always want a soundtrack or they even have the audacity to
want you to play a singer for the movie. I'm not really
interested in
acting. It doesn't matter that much.
Bob: What's your reputation as a drinker?
Jim: (long pause) I went though a period where I drank a lot. I had a
lot of pressures hanging over me that I couldn't cope with. I
think
also that drinking is a way to cope with living in a crowded
environment, and also a product of boredom. I know people drink
because they're bored. I enjoy drinking. It loosens people up and
stimulates conversation sometimes. It's like gambling somehow,
you go
out for a night of drinking and you don't know where you're
going to
end up the next day. It could work out good or it could be
disastrous. It's like the throw of the dice.
There seem to be a lot of people shooting smack and speed and all
that now. Everybody smokes grass – I guess you don't consider
that a
drug anymore. Three years ago there was a wave of hallucinogenics. I
don't think anyone really has the strength to sustain those kicks
forever. They you go into narcotics, of which alcohol is one. Instead
of trying to think more you try and kill thought with alcohol and
heroin and downers. There are pain killers. I think that's what
people have gotten into. Alcohol for me, because it's
traditional.
Also, I hate scoring. I hate the kind of sleazy connotations of
scoring from people so I never do that. That's why I like
alcohol,
you can go down to any corner store or bar and it's right across
the
table.
I think what happens now is that people smoke so much and so
constantly that it's not a trip anymore. I think they build up a
cellular tolerance for it. It just becomes part of their body
chemistry. They're not really stoned.
****Morrison talks on. Always conscious about his image. Relaxed. He
is fascinated by a mini-skirted girl who gets out of a car across the
street, and by Zap Comix. He wants to write about his trial and
wonders where he should submit his story. He drops hints about a
friend of his who could be the world's greatest female vocalist.
He
seems nervous about getting back to the studio. He's already two
hours late But…….
There is no story really, No real narrative…he drives into the
city…<br>he goes out…or something…it just kind of ends like
that….and…when the
music's over, turn off the lights…<br>
Jim Morrison's film career is about to begin.
Source: The Lizard King - The Essential Jim Morrison by Jerry Hopkins
(pages 249-260)
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Post by darkstar3 on Jan 20, 2011 20:33:04 GMT
The Alt Daily Looking Back at the Lizard King Words Bob Chorush Thursday, May 20th, 2010 at 9:20 am I was a bit surprised when my editor at The Los Angeles Free Press told me that Jim Morrison, lead singer of The Doors, wanted me to interview him. I was just out of college and one of many freelancers writing about the Los Angeles music scene. I'd written a couple of short articles for The Free Press about Jim after he was arrested in Florida, and later, about his trial. Jim was known around town as a bad boy, a hard drinker, and a less-than-pleasant drunk. He had been banned by many of the more popular drinking spots, including The Troubadour. Still, his arrest in 1969 in Miami for indecent exposure during a concert enraged his fans. Nobody really doubted Morrison's exposure, but everyone questioned whether it was indecent, let alone illegal. This was, after all, the same year as Woodstock and two flower-ful years after the notorious Summer of Love. Jim Morrison didn't give many interviews and The Free Press really wanted an exclusive with him. I was told that I could make the interview as long as I wanted and that there would be room for several pictures. Get him talking about his drinking my editor said. See if he's still doing drugs. Patti Ferala, a publicity person at Elektra Records, contacted me and after several delays set up the interview. On the day of the interview, late in 1970, I arranged to meet her and photographer Andy Kent at Elektra's offices on La Cienega Blvd, a short drive from the Free Press offices near Fairfax St. Patti, Andy and I walked over to The Doors office several blocks away. It wasn't much of an office. More like a rehearsal building and rock-and-roll man-cave. There was a pool table, a pinball machine, and a bunch of couches. Patti introduced me to Ray Manzarek, John Densmore and Robby Krieger, who seemed to be just hanging out. After a few minutes, Jim joined us. It was clear to all of us that Jim was the main attraction. Once he entered the studio, the others faded into the background. Jim was calm, steady, sober and intense. Both of us had long hair and beards. I'm not sure what I expected, but Jim's apparent inner calm and controlled demeanor surprised me. We decided to walk to a nearby restaurant for lunch and talked while we walked. Sadly, I had a $19.95 cassette recorder that jammed, skipped, and garbled much of our talk. After the interview, I lent the tapes to someone and never got them back. Years later, they appeared on YouTube as a six part series. Jim answered all the questions I asked, but he steered the conversation towards his current interests; making movies, writing poetry, and getting some distance from his rock-and-roll persona. Jim was known for controlling his image by limiting his exposure to the media. After the interview, I realized that he had told me only what he was prepared to, downplaying drug use and focusing on his plans for the future. When You're Strange, Tom DiCillo’s new documentary about The Doors, is being screened at the Naro Cinema at 10:15 tomorrow night through Thursday May 27. The movie consists almost entirely of archival material, home movies, and photographs set to a soundtrack of Doors hits. There has been enough said about Jim Morrison, but Tom DiCillo’s film is the reality version, unlike Oliver Stone's 1991 feature starring Val Kilmer as a drug-and-death obsessed Morrison. My interview with Jim was the last major interview he gave prior to his death. You can listen to it here, or read a reprint in Jerry Hopkins’ book The Lizard King – The Essential Jim Morrison. www.altdaily.com/blogs/music-blogs/artist-profiles-blogs/looking-back-at-the-lizard-king.html |
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Jan 22, 2011 13:36:06 GMT
The Alt Daily Looking Back at the Lizard King Bob Chorush Thursday, May 20th, 2010 at 9:20 am When You're Strange, Tom DiCillo’s new documentary about The Doors, is being screened at the Naro Cinema at 10:15 tomorrow night through Thursday May 27. The movie consists almost entirely of archival material, home movies, and photographs set to a soundtrack of Doors hits. There has been enough said about Jim Morrison, but Tom DiCillo’s film is the reality version, unlike Oliver Stone's 1991 feature starring Val Kilmer as a drug-and-death obsessed Morrison. The amount of people who claim that DiCillos film is the 'real thing' is mind boggling and shows that people are truly distracted by images just as Jim said. The footage may be decent, if badly edited, but the narration that is at the heart of the project is utterly abomanible. Stone may have portrayed a drug-and-death obsessed Morrison but DiCillo does a lot worse. I cannot understand how so many of those in the know could not see the film for what it really was when both myself and Bad Cowboy, who are mere fans, saw instantly the movies faults after one screening in October 2009. Really weird  When You're Strange Critique |
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