Happy Birthday, Jim. I know I'm a day late in wishing you one, but you know how its been the last 30 years - the focus has been on John on December 8th. You probably understand and don't mind people remembering his death before your birth...but I just wanted you to know, I didn't forget.
Oh, and btw, I heard you were being pardoned for your "indecent exposure" charge all those years ago. Times have changed, its amazing what people do on stage these days. I doubt that you were indecent at all...maybe just a little feisty.
8 comments:
I'd heard the same thing about his indecency charge in Florida... To me that's kind of like the Catholic Church apologizing for excommunicating Galileo Galilei several hundred years after his death and finally acknowledging he was right-- the Earth DOES indeed revolve around the sun long after it had become commonly accepted by not only church but also much of society.
I'm sure Jim was not completely innocent that night but he did not deserve an arrest and felony conviction for what he did. Morals were so much more in question then. Now if someone did what he may have done it doesnt even get a second look. I am glad they cleared his name at least. It was a railroad if there ever was one. Remember Anita Bryant? She was behind all of these holier than thou shenanigans.
Happy belated birthday Jim!
Perplexio - great comment. I can always count on you for coming up with some sort of intelligent analogy.
Dan, hmmm, "innocent" and "Jim Morrison" don't seem to go well in the same sentence. But you are so right about this. I forgot about Anita Bryant...wow, she would be freaking out today if she were still around, hehe.
hbd
There are many differing accounts of what actually happened during the course of that infamous performance in Miami. Morrison was pretty plastered and was stopping the other three, mid-song so that he could address the audience. The transcripts of what he had to say are pretty interesting. He definitely wanted to stir up the crowd, though his motivation was not to merely incite a riot. His attempt to put across concepts that he had experienced by attending performances put on by a troupe called The Living Theatre just didn't translate to the masses attending the show that night.
Their expectation of him was what Morrison was trying to deconstruct and do away with.
Did he really whip it out? Maybe, no one seems to know for sure.
Fact always dissolves into myth in the re-telling of any story.
Morrison had the charisma and the personality. Not to mention he was a great lyricist. But I've often felt Ray Manzarek and Robbie Kreiger kind of got the shaft. They had the musical talent that Morrison lacked. Manzarek's organ/mellotron/keyboard playing were as much a part of the Doors sound as Morrison's vocals were. Kreiger's guitar playing was also an integral part of the pie, although the Doors were such an organ driven band that Kreiger's contributions get overlooked.
And then there's John Densmore... I read that he refused to participate in Robbie and Ray's new Doors projects because he felt the only singer equal to the task of replacing Jim Morrison was/is Eddie Vedder who actually did sing lead with The Doors at their induction ceremony when they were first inducted into the RRHOF.
Happy Birth day From us
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