WTM #1130: Jim Morrison Dead ~ Radio Patapoe ~ Amsterdam ~ Ethno-Illogical Psycho-Radiographies 11.07.11
Under JM's influence at age 16 I wrote my 1st term paper on his poetry. It got me a B. I think the adjunct sensed I was a sensitive sort & so she, in deepest discretionary sympathy, gave me the benefit of all the doubt she had. He hadn't been dead long & fell into a long tradition of tragic poets ending their lives mythically young. He fancied himself the offspring of Rimbaud-Verlaine-Baudelaire. Who didn't @ the time. His efforts @ cool outrage to break thru with the magic of words as a naive, hopeful guy who thot words functioned as film frames spoke to me. In 78, I visited Pere Lachaise & was spooked by dark hero worship goings on. Returned 1o yrs later; same scene. Took daughter paloma in 07; same scene: grafitti, bad guitar, cheap wine, candles & a search for communal mystification-connotation. Riders on the Storm WAS way ahead of its ambient time. photo: Jacob Sonne.
