Terry
02-12-2006, 08:07 PM
Picked up this book at a discount dealer today. Was aware it had came out a year or so ago, but couldn't be bothered with it, since I had read so much about Jimbo anyway, and really haven't been interested in much of the non-musical side of the Doors in a number of years.
Anyway, was written by Stephen Davis, who wrote Hammer of the Gods all those years ago, and I remembered enjoying that book quite a bit back in the day, so gave it a shot.
Turns out Davis believes Jimbo overdosed on Pam's heroin, and she scored it from the Count, who was also supposedly the same guy who sold Janis Joplin her last batch of smack that ended up killing her. Davis also floats some rumors that Morrison had a penchant for gay sex and payed his lawyer to hire legbreakers to suppress attempts by his male friends to blackmail him.
The book also casts doubts on a lot of Patricia Kinnealy's claims about the intensity of her involvement with Morrison (she was the woman who claimed she was married to Jim in a Wiccan ceremony and aborted a child she claimed was Jim's).
Did a pretty good job of humanizing Morrison, and does a better service to him than stuff like No One Here Gets Out Alive and Stone's The Doors movie, IMO, which just make him come off like an obnoxious, drunken asshole overall. No doubt he had those traits, but I never thought that was the sum total of his makeup.
Always enjoyed about 50% of what Morrison wrote in the Lords and the New Creatures (the other 50% I consider sophmoric gibberish...but that's always been part of the appeal of Morrison to me; his erratic nature. Sometimes it's just pure garbage then phrases of pure, inventive genius knock you over). Not so much the Wilderness and American Night poetry books, though. Particularly American Night, which has some of his Paris writings in it and are just very depressing (I Wish Clean Death Would Come To Me).
Anyway, if you dig the Doors or Morrison, and think you've read it all, check out what Davis has written. Think it's definitely worth a look.
Anyway, was written by Stephen Davis, who wrote Hammer of the Gods all those years ago, and I remembered enjoying that book quite a bit back in the day, so gave it a shot.
Turns out Davis believes Jimbo overdosed on Pam's heroin, and she scored it from the Count, who was also supposedly the same guy who sold Janis Joplin her last batch of smack that ended up killing her. Davis also floats some rumors that Morrison had a penchant for gay sex and payed his lawyer to hire legbreakers to suppress attempts by his male friends to blackmail him.
The book also casts doubts on a lot of Patricia Kinnealy's claims about the intensity of her involvement with Morrison (she was the woman who claimed she was married to Jim in a Wiccan ceremony and aborted a child she claimed was Jim's).
Did a pretty good job of humanizing Morrison, and does a better service to him than stuff like No One Here Gets Out Alive and Stone's The Doors movie, IMO, which just make him come off like an obnoxious, drunken asshole overall. No doubt he had those traits, but I never thought that was the sum total of his makeup.
Always enjoyed about 50% of what Morrison wrote in the Lords and the New Creatures (the other 50% I consider sophmoric gibberish...but that's always been part of the appeal of Morrison to me; his erratic nature. Sometimes it's just pure garbage then phrases of pure, inventive genius knock you over). Not so much the Wilderness and American Night poetry books, though. Particularly American Night, which has some of his Paris writings in it and are just very depressing (I Wish Clean Death Would Come To Me).
Anyway, if you dig the Doors or Morrison, and think you've read it all, check out what Davis has written. Think it's definitely worth a look.