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Jim Morrison: LIfe, Death, Legend
I knew next to nothing about Jim Morrison and the Doors before reading this book, but I found this to be a detailed and comprehensive source. At first I thought, Davis was writing a fluff piece on his idol, but he quickly dispells this image by diving straight into Morisson's drug use, violent behavior, and selfish antics. However, Davis is always reminding the reader of Morrison's love of books, poetry, and philosophy, and how he incorporated these into his song writing.Davis focusses mainly on the years of the Doors, and describes in detail most of their major concerts from the first LA club shows to the large-scale arenas. Although, "death" and "legend" are in the subtitle, these 2 issues are only a small portion of the book.
Jim Morrison: LIfe, Death, Legend
This book is so well written. It really gives a lot of insight to Jim Morrison's life. I have learned so much about him, things I would never have thought of. I think everyone who is a fan of the Doors and of the Rock Movement should really read this book. I have told everyone I know about the book and all my friends are taking turns reading it, and so far its also a HUGE hit with everyone I know. If you want to know about Jim, and all the different sides of him, you really do need to read this book!
Jim Morrison: LIfe, Death, Legend
I read this book because my mother found an abandoned copy in the laundry room of her apartment building. I began to read it and got hooked, the way one might get hooked eating potato chips or watching a sleazy reality show on TV. Much like Mr. Davis's earlier book on Led Zeppelin, this biography of Jim Morrison is largely a chronology of drunken escapades. Page after page, chapter after chapter, we read about Jim Morrison getting drunk, getting stoned, getting his butt kicked, night after night. Somehow, Davis gets all the detail, including how many glasses of wine, bottles of beer, lines of cocaine, and kicks to the head. There's precious little psychological analysis of the man, not to mention any attempt at group psychology of the band, whose members must have spent most of their time wondering why they kept Morrison on. Analysis of Morrison's written work is brief, and takes up less space than the descriptions of his stage act. (Either Davis feels Morrison's stage act was more influential than his music, lyrics or poetry; or the stage act was easier to write about.) The descriptions of the Doors' albums--both making them and critique of the final products--are frustratingly brief. Davis is an intelligent, literate writer, and I wanted him to offer more analysis of the work and its significance, and a bit less counting of cuts, bruises and empty bottles.
Jim Morrison: LIfe, Death, Legend
i could not put this book down...i also have a thing for the doors and jim morrison...what an incredible person..this book takes you through his life with detail. loved it
Jim Morrison: LIfe, Death, Legend
The book was quite entertaining and included a number of stories I hadn't read before, some of which may even be true. The number of obvious and glaring factual errors give it a credibility somewhere short of Mother Goose.
Jim Morrison: LIfe, Death, Legend
I went into this book really excited because I am a HUGE Morrison fan and have read everything on him as well as have loved his work seemingly as far back as I can remember. I find him to be one of the most charismatic, unique and talented rock & roll icons in the history of modern music. I feel that when he died, he took with him HIMSELF, and that his death was, and continues to be, a terrible loss for my generation who grew up with the DOORS. But for what it's worth, this book seemed to me to be nothing more than a desperate and childish (and somehow the word "disgruntled" and also comes to mind) attempt to literally ruin Morrison's reputation in some sort of in-arrears frenzy ... although I'm pretty Jim Morrison's reputation is immune to such absolute nonsense and blatant mean-spiritedness. This book is quite strange. Not only does this author say things like "so and so's rep was cred" (I guess that means someone's reputation was credible," or so it would seem. The language of this book gets even more childish from there,which begs the question, HOW OLD IS THIS AUTHOR? He uses a strange plethora of "cool" language, like you're back in 8th grade, and he just walked straight out of "hep cat" heaven from the 1950s.) But, regardless of that, the author trashes EVERYONE - not just Morrison. According to this author, Morrison is the biggest loser on the planet, everyone hated him, and he had no talent. Which left me scratching my head wondering if this guy understands that Morrison's reputation is already pretty well set in stone. He treats Morrison with utter disdain and, yes, even contempt and possibly even hatred. He also does this with anyone who ever knew Morrison, played music with him, was friends with him, had a professional relationship with him; and yes, who even merely contemplated Morrison's existence. He did NO research; he plagiarized straight out of "Light My Fire, Ray Manzarek's firsthand account book depicting both his personal and professional relationship with Morrison; and he even goes so far as to make up entire dialogs as if he had been a fly on the wall when these so-called conversations allegedly took place - which, unless he copped them out of other people's books, they did NOT. He condescendingly calls Jim "Jimmy" throughout this book of fabrications. This author seems to have a personal ax to grind here - and Morrison has been dead for nearly 40 years now, so ... I don't know .... it's just weird. Fortunately, I do believe Jim Morrison will stand the test of time as he ALWAYS has. This author's strange (and excessively lewd for lewdness' sake), book will go down as a "weird deal." This man's mentality seems to be that of your typical 6-year-old child (no offense to six year olds). Waste of good money, waste of time ... unless you care to visit the strange world of the author's, I hate to say it, REAL hatred of Morrison, I'd skip it. EVERYTHING about this author's vehement, seeming hatred of Jim Morrison rings loud and clear; but, unfortunately, Morrison's actual story does not. Jim Morrison is and always WAS amazing. This book is an absolute travesty on Morrison. Which begs my next question: WHY? (don't answer). Thanks.