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Post by ric on May 13, 2006 13:36:02 GMT
Hi,
Jim Morrison was influenced by the French playwrite Antonin Artaud - doe anyone have any information on this aspect of Morrison's inspiration for the Doors, please?
ric
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Post by ensenada on May 13, 2006 13:42:27 GMT
I dont think i have come across this name before....what stuff did this dude do?
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Post by stuart on May 13, 2006 13:57:23 GMT
"The Theatre and It's Double", A Very Interesting and deep book, only read it once mind!!.
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Post by ric on May 13, 2006 19:18:23 GMT
hi,
yep, the 'Theatre & its Double' - also there's one, 'Theatre of Cruelty' about Artaud, by Albert Bermel. Artaud was out to shock audiences out of their complacency. he dreamt of a new 'tangible, objective theatre language ... abandoning our Western ideas of speech, it turns words into incantation'.
Artaud was especially an influence on the anarchic 'Living Theatre' (still being busted, i believe?) which Jim witnessed just before the Miami incident, which the theatre show may have precipitated?
i'm pretty sure Jim would have explored a 'sacred theatre' concept, had he survived -
'People need connectors ... Ceremonies, theatre, dances / To reassert tribal needs & memories / a call to worship, uniting / above all, a reversion, / a longing for family & the / safety magic of childhood'
p14, 'Lost Writings of Jim Morrison: Wilderness, vol 1' (1989)
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on May 13, 2006 21:23:32 GMT
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Post by ensenada on May 13, 2006 23:05:16 GMT
ah ha! so its connected to the living theatre thingy.
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Post by ric on May 14, 2006 3:53:04 GMT
TheWallsScreamedPoetry,
many thanks - some good late night, light reading!
;-)
one of the things which interests me about the Doors is that their music is as relevant today as it ever was -
Morrison had set out to realise something - perhaps like Dante, transforming hell into art, sublimating it - but the story didn't end - i'd like to speculate on where the story would have led though - there are clues, the Kerouac road from HWY (love Bald Mountain) and the coruscating philosophy of Artaud -
perhaps, whilst ideas live on, the mind which dreamt them yet exists, in a sort of way -
Artaud, Morrison - nothing is resolved - the words and the music goad us, and when the music is over, and when ...
no, the music isn't over - because the questions remain unanswered -
'Let's reinvent the gods, all the myths
of the ages / Celebrate symbols from deep elder forests / ... / We need great golden copulations / ... / Do you know we are being led to slaughters by placid admirals / ...
Do you know we are ruled by T.V... ' *
?
* paraphrased from 'An American Prayer'
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on May 14, 2006 9:58:24 GMT
ah ha! so its connected to the living theatre thingy. Not as such Rick though Julian Beck who started it probably read that sort of stuff......they were sort of an anarchic theatre group founded just after WW2 to stage a mixture of offbeat drama and poetry.....by the 60s they were well established and I am sure Jim knew of them before he went to see them.....Beck died in the 80s its still going today with its cofounder Judith Malina at the helm. one of the things which interests me about the Doors is that their music is as relevant today as it ever was When we were kids back in the 60s most of the music we heard seemed to fit the day and the time and we never really thought it in any way timeless....until that is rock began to appear in the late 60s and it seemed to us as pre teens that it was becoming more important......more of an art form than a way to entertain on the radio.....though of course as a 11/12 year old I did not have much idea about art and literature.....I was into Sci-Fi and historical stuff but not in any way as clever as some of the young whippersnappers here.....I began to notice some very interesting music which was unlike anything that was classified as 'the norm'.......I did not go to a 'smart' school just a normal secondary school with a lot of people like me from working class backgrounds who were from the back streets but we all loved music....our kind of music....rock music.....most of the kids I knew were into the usual suspects like The Stones, Beatles, Yardbirds, Move.......I was nevera fan of The Beatles or Stones (never in my life have I bought any of thier records)...still not today....and just recently after 40 years reappraised The Stones and thought them worthy of a decent listen..... I used to listen to a lot of odd bands thanks to my brother in law and listened as a kid to a lot of pirate radio and radio Luxembourg which was a decent rock station......when I first heard The Doors I thought there was certainly something worth filing aeway for future reference....Light My Fire was NOT a hit here in the UK so passed unnoticed in 1967 here and my first real contact with them was 1968 and Hello I Love You which was considered by Doors 'purists' then as a bit of a sell out.....but I admit I noticed something about them that sounded different (although I could not articulate it too well aged 12).....I depended on my sister and her hubby to hear LPs and they were not Doors fans so all I heard was the odd track and the singles I got hold of so it was not till 70/71 that they became my fave band and I got to hear a full album.......the last one I got was Morrison Hotel in Summer/Autumn 1972. But even at the age of 16 I was a seasoned enough rock fan to know that much of this kind of music was indeed timeless and even then I think I knew that The Doors was up there with the best of it........its been a long hard road as a Doors fan as I knew no one who even like the band when I was a kid......only after Morrison's death did I see friends even say they quite liked 'Riders On The Storm' (which was a minor hit at the time) but I saw a lot of Doors bigotry from rock fans during the 70s at gigs and in the pub and from mates......even the missus was not a fan though she got into them as did our cat Scorpion  (which is why this place is here).... I remember when 'punk' had its five minutes of fame and its high priest Johnny Rotten dismissed all my heros as dinosaurs ....except for he said among the few he considered relevant 'The Doors'.....that was interesting  I saw the 80s begin with NOHGOA and Apocalypse Now which reinvented The End for rock fans and saw a softening of attitudes.....the 90s I moved to Croydon in London and the first thing I saw on arriving at East Croydon station in 1990 was THE DOORS in 3 foot letters daubed on the railway bridge outside.......when the movie hit London you could not move for Jim Morrisons image for months there.... I think I finally realised how 'timeless' my fave music was when I got to Paris...............I had never been before 2002 as I thought it a bit tacky.....I knew fans who were not Doors fans who had gone int he 70s and 80s but I never wanted to go as I thought it a bit disrespectful oddly enough. But thanks to a member here, Snake Skin Babe, I made it and that trip confirmed for me that The Doors will always be there in the psyche of each new generation because the last one will pass on the torch to them....the Myth will become Ingrained in the kids of tomorrow because its there in the kids of today.......I love rock music and have done since the late 50s when as a toddler I danced to it to amuse my parents but it became a part of me as I grew older and even today at 50 I still explore new music and enjoy the efforts of todays musicians as much as yesterday and what heartens me most is that after all that time The Doors.....a band I have loved three quarters of my bloody life......is still there going strong and getting stronger! Timeless.............and thats cool with me!  Hey hey, my my
Rock and roll can never die
There's more to the picture
Than meets the eye
Hey hey, my my.Some bloke from Toronto! |
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