The Crystal Ship

[cobriaclord]

Before you slip into unconsciousness
I'd like to have another kiss
Another flashing chance at bliss
Another kiss, another kiss

The days are bright and filled with pain
Enclose me in your gentle rain
The time you ran was too insane
We'll meet again, we'll meet again

Oh tell me where your freedom lies
The streets are fields that never die
Deliver me from reasons why
You'd rather cry, I'd rather fly

The crystal ship is being filled
A thousand girls, a thousand thrills
A million ways to spend your time
When we get back, I'll drop a line

I don't understand this song. I always thought it was about Crystal Meth.

I also read this about the song:
I think its about a girl he loved dying, hence the lyrics 'before you slip into unconsciousness' and 'we'll meet again, we'll meet again.' he wants to die with her, to escape the real world and the pain in it, but has his apprehensions about it. At the end he is saying that she can be free and happy in a higher plane of existence with 'a million ways to spend your time' and that he will find her again when he dies too; 'when we get back, i'll drop a line. Also i think this line could mean that he beleives that this is where they were always supposed to be. but hey, feel free to prove me wrong

I also read that the crystal ship was a bottle of whiskey.

I think its about meth because, when he takes a hit off the meth he achieves bliss and then it fades away when the high leaves him. It seems like a love song to meth.

Meth was around at the time; i dont know whether or not jim took it but he prolly did.

Peace

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

The methadrine angle is an easy one to attribute to the song as drugs were an integral part of the music scene back then but it does do a slight disservice to Jim Morrison as someone who read a lot of obscure books............
In the famous Irish 'Book of Invasions' (which 70s rock fans like me got into via the superb irish band Horslips) The Celtic Wizard/God Mannanan, who gave his name to The Isle Of Man, had a ship called 'Scuabtuinne' or Wave Sweeper which was made of crystal and did not need sails as it was propelled by thought...... he held a feast every day to ensure that the Tuatha Dé Danann, who settled Ireland, never grew old by consuming a mystical swine that returned to life each day only to be consumed again.
He also decreed that the world of faries and of Man should forever remain seperate when his wife ran off with a Human.

Its easy to attribute these kinds of drug references to Morrison as many of his peers did exactly that with their lyrics but Morrison was a bit smarter than they were

[ensenada]

also insnt the line actually:

enclose me in your gentle reign

as opposed to rain?

surrendering himself to someone....kind of type thing.

[jym]

Yeah, it is "enclose me in your gentle reign" although even in the The Doors: The Complete Lyrics it says rain, reign makes more sense if it's a girl he wants to be with.

This song occassionally comes up as "proof" of Morrison's death wish becasue of lines like "the days are bright and filled with pain" but I believe it is about exactly the opposite. Lines like "deliver me from reasons/why you'd rather cry/I'd rather fly" & "when we back/I'll drop a line" both very positive images he'd rather fly than crying about what happened, & the trip includes a return "when we get back" & the continuation of the relationship I'll drop a line.

Thanks Alex for the info about the crystal ship in mythology a ship that is propelled by thought must have appealed to Morrison very much.

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

Must admit I don't think I have seen it as anything but 'rain' in anything I have read but both make sense...........I guess we would have to see Jim's original handwritten interpretation to see which way he wrote it.......interesting nontheless...........

[jym]

I've always heard it as reign since he's decribing wanting to be with a woman, I want to fall into your gentle reign. That doesn't mean Morrison didn't intend the double entendre of reign/rain because rain would certainly be a device to help set the tone of the song.

But I've been thinking about this now armed with the info that the crystal ship is a boat powered by thought.

It would seem to me that the woman he wants a kiss from is going on a voyage of the crystal ship, her mind will take her (them?) wherever they want to go, the throes of ecstasy (not the drug) some wild & unexplored wilderness, the "fields that never die"(?)

Also, I think it is a good example of Morrison's optimistic outlook at life at this point, as I pointed out earlier that he wants to fly. Contrast that with another journey The Doors/Morrison wants to show us a few years later on The Ship of Fools, the title explains it all, has the trip become a journey on the ship of fools? Climb on board.

[cobriaclord]

Thanks for the mythology addition, alex. The word "reign" sounds the same as the word "rain" (obviously) and I think it could be either word.
I still think that the song can be viewed as an ode to meth but with all of Morrison's songs, you can't just categorize them as having one meaning.

Peace

[jym]

What would make anyone think it is an ode to meth? What in the song would lead to that connotation? The word crystal? The tempo of the song? If I'm correct, isn't crystal meth(adrine) a form of speed? The tempo would seem wrong for that, as well as the actions of the persons in the song drifting off into unconsciousness.

& reign is almost certainly the correct word, the line prior "the days are bright and filled with pain" the pain of existence so he wants to fall into the gentle reign of her love/sex/whatever to avoid the pain. Although, like I said before it may well be a double entendre on the sound of the word reign/rain.

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

The Meth angle is relatively new and probably just started as a result of the drug rumour mill that stalks the Morrison world...........shit Jim was a druggie so everything he wrote was about drugs.....these people certainly miss the point about Jim and how deep the guy was.........I have argued on LL that NOT every word he wrote had to mean something but I have never argued that most of it did not............rain/reign ......you make a good argument mate but I am not that convinced he must have written it 'rain' or why would all the lyric books this last 30 years say that?
But what you say makes sense nontheless...............a handwritten lyric is whats needed......that'd be cool....

[cobriaclord]

Meth is speed, and the song is about how he misses it so its slowed down.
Lyrics with my annotations.
Before you slip into unconsciousness (pass out from too much drug use)
I'd like to have another kiss (do some more meth, meth is red so its like kissing lips)
Another flashing chance at bliss (flashing becauses its speed)
Another kiss, another kiss

The days are bright and filled with pain (meth makes your pupil dilate and when the sun is bright and your pupils are dilated, it makes yours eyes hurt)
Enclose me in your gentle rain (the smoke but also the reign of the addiction)
The time you ran was too insane
We'll meet again, we'll meet again

I also read that the song was to Mary Werbelo (one of Jim's lovers)

I never read that the song was about meth, thars just what I always thought. The ship powered by thoughts is definitely part of it too.

Peace

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

Mary Werbele probably inspired many of Jim's earliest songs.......The End started off about her..

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

There you go!

In January 1990, a letter to the editor of the Los Angeles Times suggested that the Doors song Crystal Ship was about crystal methamphetamine: The ship stood for a hypodermic needle, the kiss meant drug injection.

Doors drummer John Densmore responded with a letter of his own: "Jim wrote The Crystal Ship for Mary Worbelo (sic), a girlfriend with whom he was breaking up. . . . The song was a goodbye love song."

The first two stanzas:

Before you slip into unconsciousness

I'd like to have another kiss

Another flashing chance at bliss

Another kiss, another kiss

The days are bright and filled with pain

Enclose me in your gentle rain

The time you ran was too insane

We'll meet again, we'll meet again

Everyone who remembers Jim Morrison from his Clearwater days remembers him scribbling notes everywhere he went. Snippets became lyrics.

"That's where the songs came from, out of those notebooks," said Doors keyboard player Ray Manzarek.

[cobriaclord]

Scratch That

Wikipedia "Methamphetamine can be swallowed, snorted, smoked, dissolved in water and injected, inserted anally (with or without dissolution in water), or into the urethra"

Why would someone anally insert their meth?

Peace

[ensenada]

what a great discussion and analysis,

Also about the ship of folls..i am sure i have read somewhere that the ship of fools comes from philosophy...and i am probably imagining this, but hasnt someone done a painting entitled ship of fools?

anyone else heard of the ship of fools connection with philosophy?

[jym]

No, I haven't heard of ship of fools in relation to philosophy, but Ship Of Fools is a painting by Hiernoymous Bosch (sorry if the 1st name is spelled incorrectly).

Good research, as usual Alex, but because over the past 40 years a few have thought Crystal Ship is about any crystalline drug simplifies and underestimates Jim Morrison as a writer. I think it would do those better looking for an easy explantion to argue it's about ships.

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

Its easier to think that all the guys in the 60s were all just writing about drugs than to appreciate that a lot of them were in fact well read and highly intuitive thoughtful people............writing them off as a buncha drugged out hippies makes those that follow feel superior I guess.........

[jym]

Yeah, that may be right. I was thinking though that if you want songs that are about drugs that genre certainly exists White Rabbit, Lou Reed, Jim Carroll, and Lucy in the Skies with Diamonds, even with John Lennon's claim that it was just about a picture Julian drew I think that was a bit tongue in cheek for John, but that's an argument for another board!

[jym]

I was thinking a little more about this today. The songs & writers above that have written songs about drugs the references are pretty straight forward & not obscured even White Rabbit which is 66 or early 67 is right there with the subject. & there's one Doors song which has a clearcut drug reference "I woke up this morning and grabbed myself a beer", and the double entendre of the word numbers in 5to1, numbers slang for a joint (as explained by Mr. Manzarek).

[cobriaclord]

And Break on Through isn't clearly about drugs? (She gets High!)

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

Everybody seems to have some deluded mindset that whenever an artist in the 60s used the word 'high' it had to relate to drugs...........it probably did relate to drugs in BOT and Jim probably did make drug references in his songs but there is more to the lyrics of James Douglas Morrison than drugs.
If all Jim Morrisons lyrics are about is drugs then they are a pretty dull subject for discussion dontcha think......