Post by casandra on Jan 27, 2011 19:04:43 GMT
This article was published in a Spanish newspaper on June, 30, 2007. It is a bit imaginative, but it contains some details about the days that Jim Morrison and Pamela Courson were in Granada.
In Spanish: www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2007/06/30/cultura/1183197722.html
In this blog, someone did an English traslation of a part of it and he added some comments:
trip-away.blogspot.com/2007/07/la-alhambra-granada-morrison-last.html
LA ALHAMBRA-GRANADA, MORRISON LAST VISION?
The 10th of April 1971, 3 months before he died, Jim Morrison and girlfriend Pamela Courson traveled all along the south Europe, from Paris where he was living at the time, Lyon and then Spain crossing finally to the north of Africa. They rented a Peugeot and went all the way through the Pyrenees and Catalan countryside, drove across Spain and then headed down south to Granada.
Some of the places where they stayed during those 3 weeks remains a mystery, although I´ve been told by some relatively reliable sources that Jim was spotted here and there by the time [In Costa Brava and even in the Balearic islands!], you know the classic, I know someone who knows someone.. etc etc..
In the Andalusian city of Granada Jim and Pam were supposed to meet some local people who owned a club. The place was called 'Zingara' and it was build in a cave facing a top view of 'The Alhambra'. You could see live bands there every night, poetry gatherings, painting expositions and other cultural acts.
A pretty avant garde place if you ask me, considering the situation in Spain at the time.
A young lad from Granada called Angel Carmona, one of the former founders of the club, lived for a while in California on the late sixties so he experienced the explosion of the Hippie culture at the time. He later brought all his knowledge to Spain, a place where all this things were still undiscovered.
His friend Rafael Cuellar lived in the US too and also helped Angel to build the club when he was back. They both made good friends in America so few years later 'Zingara' got loads of American visitors, people from the US, Canada and other parts of the globe. Bands like Ten Years After, Jefferson Airplane, Santana or Jimi Hendrix were played and also mixed with some of the local folk music.
One night going to his club Angel noticed a car parked on the front door, a pretty uncommon thing he said, apparently due to the narrow streets and the hard accessibility to the place [bloody Americans ...ha ha].
It was Jim Morrison, he was told through some circles in L.A. about that club and wanted to pay a visit.
As soon as Angel was inside he noticed the female waiters very excited because the unannounced visit of Jim and his partner. Joanie Roseblant y Joanne Yablosky were two young Californian girls traveling around Europe and they were working in 'Zingara' temporarily. They were the ones who recognized the bearded singer. Pam told them they were there for few days invited in some Australian friends place. She told them they both wanted to remain incognito.
According to Angel, Jim ordered some whiskey, a drink they didn't have in the bar so he offered to send someone to find some of the stuff in town. Later that night while Angel admits his friends didn't drink much and remained quiet, Mr. Mojo Risin' drank the whole bottle. Apparently he enjoyed the live bands and although at some point he kindly refused to sing, Jim asked for some Janis Joplin music to be played instead.
The next day early on the morning they went with Angel to see the great 'La Alhambra' the Moorish palace whose gardens and architecture is one of the wonders of the world, a pilgrimage Mr. Morrison had wanted to do for years. Seems the 'ol Jimbo was instantly trapped by the magic of the palace. He apparently went there few more times.
There is some Super 8 movie video recording of Pam shooting Jim sat where the Alhambra lions and the fountains are [along with other footage they previously taped during the trip] and at the end of the film he approaches towards the camera with his arms stretched wide until only one Morrison eye filled the last frame of the sequence. Apparently that was the last footage they recorded ever while in Spain. It has never surfaced.
Few days later they flew to Tangier [Where Jim is reportedly being ripped off trying to score some solid!], Marrakech and then finally a clean shave Morrison went back to Paris on the 3rd May 1971, two months before he died.
The rest is story.
His body was found on the bath on a 4th floor in 17 de Rue de Beautreillis Paris just 36 years ago today. The official version says he died of a heart attack.
But french Gilles Yepremian, who knew and meet Jim Morrison few times in París says he died on the toilets in a pub called 'Rock and Roll Circus' [57 rue de la Seine], after he tried some of the strong chinese heroin [China White] he supposedly bought for his girlfriend.
I personally think we will never know what happened the 4th of July, 1971. Pamela Courson said they came back home from the movies later that night [They watched Robert Mitchum film 'Pursued'], played some 'The Doors' tunes by Jim request and also watched some of the films they did record on their holidays in Spain as seems that night Jim was unable to get any sleep.
If we give the credit to Pamela version perhaps last thing Jim ever saw before he died was the unseen footage they both recorded in La Alhambra?
History by the Spanish journalist Juan Jose Lahuerta.
In Spanish: www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2007/06/30/cultura/1183197722.html
In this blog, someone did an English traslation of a part of it and he added some comments:
trip-away.blogspot.com/2007/07/la-alhambra-granada-morrison-last.html
LA ALHAMBRA-GRANADA, MORRISON LAST VISION?
The 10th of April 1971, 3 months before he died, Jim Morrison and girlfriend Pamela Courson traveled all along the south Europe, from Paris where he was living at the time, Lyon and then Spain crossing finally to the north of Africa. They rented a Peugeot and went all the way through the Pyrenees and Catalan countryside, drove across Spain and then headed down south to Granada.
Some of the places where they stayed during those 3 weeks remains a mystery, although I´ve been told by some relatively reliable sources that Jim was spotted here and there by the time [In Costa Brava and even in the Balearic islands!], you know the classic, I know someone who knows someone.. etc etc..
In the Andalusian city of Granada Jim and Pam were supposed to meet some local people who owned a club. The place was called 'Zingara' and it was build in a cave facing a top view of 'The Alhambra'. You could see live bands there every night, poetry gatherings, painting expositions and other cultural acts.
A pretty avant garde place if you ask me, considering the situation in Spain at the time.
A young lad from Granada called Angel Carmona, one of the former founders of the club, lived for a while in California on the late sixties so he experienced the explosion of the Hippie culture at the time. He later brought all his knowledge to Spain, a place where all this things were still undiscovered.
His friend Rafael Cuellar lived in the US too and also helped Angel to build the club when he was back. They both made good friends in America so few years later 'Zingara' got loads of American visitors, people from the US, Canada and other parts of the globe. Bands like Ten Years After, Jefferson Airplane, Santana or Jimi Hendrix were played and also mixed with some of the local folk music.
One night going to his club Angel noticed a car parked on the front door, a pretty uncommon thing he said, apparently due to the narrow streets and the hard accessibility to the place [bloody Americans ...ha ha].
It was Jim Morrison, he was told through some circles in L.A. about that club and wanted to pay a visit.
As soon as Angel was inside he noticed the female waiters very excited because the unannounced visit of Jim and his partner. Joanie Roseblant y Joanne Yablosky were two young Californian girls traveling around Europe and they were working in 'Zingara' temporarily. They were the ones who recognized the bearded singer. Pam told them they were there for few days invited in some Australian friends place. She told them they both wanted to remain incognito.
According to Angel, Jim ordered some whiskey, a drink they didn't have in the bar so he offered to send someone to find some of the stuff in town. Later that night while Angel admits his friends didn't drink much and remained quiet, Mr. Mojo Risin' drank the whole bottle. Apparently he enjoyed the live bands and although at some point he kindly refused to sing, Jim asked for some Janis Joplin music to be played instead.
The next day early on the morning they went with Angel to see the great 'La Alhambra' the Moorish palace whose gardens and architecture is one of the wonders of the world, a pilgrimage Mr. Morrison had wanted to do for years. Seems the 'ol Jimbo was instantly trapped by the magic of the palace. He apparently went there few more times.
There is some Super 8 movie video recording of Pam shooting Jim sat where the Alhambra lions and the fountains are [along with other footage they previously taped during the trip] and at the end of the film he approaches towards the camera with his arms stretched wide until only one Morrison eye filled the last frame of the sequence. Apparently that was the last footage they recorded ever while in Spain. It has never surfaced.
Few days later they flew to Tangier [Where Jim is reportedly being ripped off trying to score some solid!], Marrakech and then finally a clean shave Morrison went back to Paris on the 3rd May 1971, two months before he died.
The rest is story.
His body was found on the bath on a 4th floor in 17 de Rue de Beautreillis Paris just 36 years ago today. The official version says he died of a heart attack.
But french Gilles Yepremian, who knew and meet Jim Morrison few times in París says he died on the toilets in a pub called 'Rock and Roll Circus' [57 rue de la Seine], after he tried some of the strong chinese heroin [China White] he supposedly bought for his girlfriend.
I personally think we will never know what happened the 4th of July, 1971. Pamela Courson said they came back home from the movies later that night [They watched Robert Mitchum film 'Pursued'], played some 'The Doors' tunes by Jim request and also watched some of the films they did record on their holidays in Spain as seems that night Jim was unable to get any sleep.
If we give the credit to Pamela version perhaps last thing Jim ever saw before he died was the unseen footage they both recorded in La Alhambra?
History by the Spanish journalist Juan Jose Lahuerta.