New Clip of Jim Morrison

[Panamark]

http://entertainment.news.com.au/story/0,10221,12500737-7484,00.html

[Panamark]

FLORIDA historians have discovered a 40-year-old film clip of a clean-cut Jim Morrison that will give fans a different view of the Doors singer before his wilder days as a drug-using rock legend who drank hard and died young.

The 1964 black-and-white public relations film, shot at Florida State University (FSU,) shows a nerdy-looking Morrison, a rock bad boy who died in 1971 at 27 years old, acting the part of a young man whose university application has been rejected.
The 16-minute video has Morrison among wholesome scenes of college life, parades and football, a sharp contrast to his image as a long-haired, leather-clad rebel poet accused of exposing himself and simulating a sex act at a Miami concert in 1969.

"It's incredible. He's so clean-cut and soft-spoken," said Jody Norman, archives supervisor at the State Library and Archives of Florida, and a Doors fan.

The website ifilm.com, which features video of all kinds, posted the clip under the heading "Jim Morrison: College Dork".

In the film, the Florida native plays a dejected would-be university student who reads a rejection letter from a school and then earnestly questions a school administrator as to why he can't go to college.

"But what happened? How come my parents and the state and university didn't look ahead?" he said.

The Doors were one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s whose hits included Light My Fire and Riders on the Storm. They broke up a few years after Morrison died.

He was found dead in the bath of his Paris apartment on July 3, 1971, apparently of a lethal mix of alcohol and drugs. The French coroner's verdict of death by natural causes and his hurried burial sparked cover-up theories.

[Full Bug]

Here's a link to the film....

http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2665896

Interesting seeing a younger Jim, not really much to it though.....

[Jérôme Frenchise]

Sounds most interesting, Panam'. I hope we'll see it soon.

I only discovered the Doors in 1990, 1 year before Oliver Stone's movie, at University. Back then, they had been utterly forgotten. I quickly bought their albums as I went a bit like mad about their music.

Later, with my second band, I sang "Roadhouse blues" at every rehearsal and gig (we always opened with that one). The last time I sang it was in July 2003 in a pub in Ireland, with a band who hired me for 3 songs (the other 2 were "Sweet Home Chicago" and "Gloria"). Great time!

In June last year, we dined at a local restaurant with colleagues and a dozen pupils (girls). There was a big karaoke with big equipment in that huge (the ceiling is 10 yards high, and there were about 250 guests that night) Savoy-style restaurant.
Our pupils knew I played in a local band, so they kept on pushing me. I had spent 2 hours with pals in another pub before coming. The courses ended the day after for every student, so I went to see the guy and asked him if he had some rock stuff.
I chose "Light my fire". He had kept bashing improvised singers in a right-wrong manner for more than 2 hours, and there was some kind of tension towards him. I sang it and got a mere triumph (I won't show off, I know what karaokes are worth, but a musician buddy of mine was there and told me he was very impressed). The evening went on, and in the end, the guy made his last sour-sweet comments. I was just ordering pints at the bar when I heard in the loudspeakers (aimed at my colleagues): "Next time, leave Jérôme at his home (...)." What he said next that I didn't hear was something like "... I don't like chaps who steal the show."
I took my beers away, stopped standing in front of him, and told him, looking into the white of his eyes: "Go to fuck." He said: "What?" I repeated: "I said: 'go to fuck.'" He said, holding his mike towards me: "Would you repeat it in there?" Which I did.
The morning after, I was 5 minutes late at work (I had phoned sooner I would be). When I arrived at the lycee, students and colleagues said hello with some ironic smile. I went to the classroom where my pupils (25 girls) were waiting for me. I said: "Hello, everybody, sorry, I'm a bit late this morning. I..." Then a student said: "Yes, we know, the supervisor told us you'd be late because you had a party yesterday night..." Well, luckily, 23 out of the 25 of them graduated...
Later in that morning, another of my pupils who was at that restaurant the night before, told me he'd phoned one of his schoolmates, said I was singing, put his phone up in the air to prove it...
I've never been more relieved to reach the end of a schoolyear!

I didn't get rid of my Doors records, though. But I think I haven't played any of them ever since.

[Rikk]

Great clip. I'm a major DOORS freak. I have everything they did...even the two albums they did without Jim after he died.

Fascinating to see Morrison as such a well-spoken, calm kid.

[Hardrock69]

When I was in Tallahassee a couple of years ago I saw the house where he lived while he was going to Florida State.

I hear it has been torn down and is now a parking lot.