116 Morrison On Morrison

Amidst the persistent haze of the “anything goes”, hedonistic Free Love swinging 60s, with its culture of excess and casual debauchery, it was easy to lose sight of the fact that James (Not Jimbo) Morrison was suffering, very publicly, from an incurable disease.

Alcoholism.

Even his closest friends and associates, members of The Doors, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger, and drummer John Densmore, didn’t recognize at the time that alcohol was slowly killing their friend right before their eyes. Night after night, town after town, amidst the backdrop of skewed innocence and the newly emerging riches of the Rock N Roll lifestyle, Jim Morrison was dying.

Years later, when amateur American anthropologist filmmaker Oliver Stone turned his lens upon the Mythology of the Man in the Black leather pants, surviving members of The Doors would work (and ultimately quit their positions) as Special Advisors To The Filmmaker. When Stone began taking liberties with the truth, making stuff up, all three abandoned the project.

In his fictional account of The Doors, director Stone erroneously depicts a clearly flustered Jim Morrison storming out of class because his instructor and fellow students neither liked nor understood his student film. Morrison, the highly romanticized lead character in Stone’s epic tale, presented stereotypically as the rebellious lone wolf protagonist, quits school to live freely amidst the sun and fun of sandy Venice Beach and all the scantily clad teenage girls who call it home.

The only problem with this scenario is that it is not true. Except for the part about Venice Beach and the half naked girls. That came later.

Jim Morrison graduated from George Washington High School in Alexandria, Virginia, in 1961, later earning a bachelor's degree in theater arts (cinematography/film), graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) from UCLA the University of California Los Angeles in 1965.

Previous to earning his degree at UCLA, Morrison had also studied at St. Petersburg Junior College in St. Petersburg/Clearwater, Florida, from 1961 until 1962 before transferring to Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida, in the fall of 1962 before transferring to UCLA.

James (Not Jimbo) Morrison was an intellectual. A thinker. A published poet. And a student of 19th century French teen poet Arthur Rimbaud, so much so that he took time out from his highly publicized Rock N Roll lifestyle to write a humble note of thanks to a 60 year old devout sc