“He was quite drunk and who knows what he was saying. Stumbling his way through songs, forgetting lyrics, he cursed at the crowd, calling them “idiots” and “slaves.” Later, reflecting on his conviction, he admitted, “Miami blew my confidence, but really I blew it on purpose.”Īgreeing that the trial made Morrison realize he needed a reset and led him to seek solace in Paris, Chewning says the trip was “kind of what he needed.” “He actually said, ‘Maybe I was ready to be done,’” she shares. By the time he turned up to the venue, he was steaming. Joy of films is pleasure of writing.”Īccording to reports at the time, Morrison had been drinking heavily that day, already missing his flight from Los Angeles to Miami. About halfway through the trial he scrawls, “The joy of performing has ended. It perhaps served as a wake-up call that he was no longer fulfilled creatively by touring with his band. Morrison viewed the trial as a pivotal moment in his life, making clear that he wanted the entire transcript of his trial included in his future book. “There once was a group called The Doors / Who sang their dissent to the mores / To be young they protested / As the witnesses attested / While their leader was dropping his drawers,” he doodled. In true Morrison fashion, sprinkled throughout his copious notes are also short poems and lyrics. He also seems surprised by the severity of the charges he’s facing. He pays keen attention throughout the trial, noting how one housewife during the jury selection had two grandchildren and “digs it.” Elsewhere, he wonders if one man’s zodiac sign is a Leo. Starkly different to his surrealist poetry and abstract lyrics, Morrison comes across more observational, even journalistic. It’s in these legal pads and composition notebooks from the 40-day trial that fans get a clearer sense of Morrison and how he thought. He was sentenced to six months in jail in October of 1970, but was released on bail while he appealed the ruling, which was still making its way through court when he died. However, he was only convicted on misdemeanor charges of indecent exposure and open profanity after getting a crowd worked up into a tizzy and allegedly flashing his penis during a 1969 concert (he was posthumously pardoned in 2010). He was charged with lewd and lascivious behavior and public drunkenness, which is a felony. The book also shares, for the first time, Morrison’s uncensored feelings about his high-profile 1970 Miami trial for indecent exposure. “The repetition of some things and how things came to be, you know, his Hitchhiker and lyrics. Still, Chewning says readers can see “the inner workings of his mind.” “You see his notes and his ramblings, but you also see the finished product,” she explains. Working with author and close Morrison pal Frank Lisciandro, who penned the book’s introduction, the musician’s poems are arranged in chronological order, although we can’t be sure since Morrison often didn’t date his entries and bounced between notebooks. I wanted this to be Jim and in Jim’s words, talking about himself and explaining his words, not other people’s input.” We wanted the reader to see the complete Jim, to see that he was a full writer in multiple areas, thinking in lots of different directions. “I want to dispel the ‘Lizard King’ and all those things that you hear. “There’s so many young people who just see him as a rock star,” Chewning explains. There’s the early poems Morrison wrote in elementary and high school, his first mentions of the Lizard King and Dionysus recurring themes of Americana, eroticism, and violence his screenplay for The Hitchhiker family photos and a haunting epilogue compiled from Morrison’s thoughts scattered throughout his writings-the closest he’ll get to saying goodbye. It’s a heavy-duty, nearly 600-page book that contains the entire contents of Morrison’s journals, complete with full-sized photos of the notepads themselves. The result is The Collected Works of Jim Morrison, out June 8 and published by HarperCollins. While perusing the 28 journals and various other fragile loose papers that Morrison had filled with his musings, poetry, screenplay ideas, and lyrics, Chewning came across one page titled “Plan for Book.” It spelled out exactly what Morrison had in mind for all his writings-so that’s exactly what she did. Michael Caine Is One of the Coolest Motherf*ckers Alive
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