About JayDixon Expertise lyrics, instruments, vocal range
Experience Radio jock with 26 years commercial radio experience and radio station music director. Singer myself, poet and lyric writer. Former lead singer of a Doors tribute band. I own instruments, have the same vocal range as Jim had.
Education/Credentials Bachelor of Business - University of Queensland
Awards and Honors Holder of the CRA (Commercial Radio Australia) "25 Year Award" and a couple of other music and radio awards.
This question has been asked before on AllExperts.com but I will endeavour to give you some idea and interpretations of how Jim Morrison influenced people then and for generations to come.
I don’t know your age or how much you know about Jim Morrison but a short spiel on the background. The Doors only lasted four years with Jim as the vocalist 1967-1971 but in 1967 the 60’s decade was in a BIG changeover period. Bear in mind that up until the 1960’s previous generations tended to toe the line” regarding morality, politics, writing, social behaviour and of course music. Just look back on the artists in the 50’s for example and notice how they dressed and presented themselves, short haircuts and often they wore a suit when entertaining, so your nice guy next door” kind of portrayal.
Along comes the 1960’s, Vietnam war, Kennedy assignation, social change was abound and the youth of that time were crying out for social changes, social justice and above all,,, TO BE HEARD by the establishment. They found a lot of empathy with music artists and their song lyrics, the way they pushed music into a whole different World, poetry, more blatant movies and of course drugs were rife during the 60’s.
Artists wanted to experiment and The Doors were no exception. Jim Morrison was a poet by trade not so much of a singer however by stumbling across Ray Manzarek at college and talking on Venus beach to him that afternoon it would seem that Jim had no intention until then to ever have considered singing in a band. Jim musically was influenced by three main forces. Morrison was a huge fan of what are known as “crooners” the likes of Perry Como, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra etc. He was also influenced heavily by blues music and the third being his poetry.
I concur with my fellow experts on here that Jim was not really that political but he was a child of the times and above all was experimental by nature and also like any poet he wanted to be heard. Poets are like artists, you never really to make it big until you are dead, so by using The Doors as an outlet he was able to turn a great deal of his poetic traits and transform them into song lyrics and hence be heard. A lot of Jim’s lyrics and Doors music is open to interpretation right up until today. Morrison’s poetry books a now highly sought after by younger generations looking for a message and endeavouring to understand what he was trying to say within them.
Jim Morrison influenced not only music with The Doors by blending long ravings of poetry/lyrics into great songs, something no one had ever done before and in my opinion not been done since. Peace Frog, Unknown Soldier, The End, Five to One (“They got the guns,,but we got the numbers”) and the list goes on, all seem to be very politically based writings. Then you look at other songs like Love Me Two Times, Hello I Love You, Light My Fire, Love Her Madly, they seem to portray someone lost and screaming out to be loved and of someone who was in essence, lost, like I said again open to interpretation along with their first hit Break On Through.
But Lennon/McCartney and the Beatles did it too but in a different fashion.
Morrison was known to push the limits, he was also from accounts a very broody kind of person. He experimented with sex (and no, to my readings and research on him over years he was not bi-sexual) he also pushed the limits with drugs for a period but alcohol was his main poison. I believe that Jim was pretty much over the drug scene before his death and was trying to clean up his act with the next on the list being booze to beat. Now there are two ways of using Jim Morrison as an influence. Take his works and his music then study them as a positive influence to derive your own style of poetry or song writing. The darker legacy or influence could be interpreted by him using drugs and drinking to excess, which time, research and history will tell is a one way street in the long run and a good way of digging your own grave.
Today Whitnie, many poets are influenced by the works of Jim Morrison. Many bands and song writers and very good ones I might add, have used his lyrics and Doors music to derive their own styles. Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Live, just to name a few.
I think if Jim were still alive today and you asked him in person what influence or legacy did he really want to leave behind and I would think he’d answer along these lines. Never be afraid to try and explore new boundaries, write from the heart no matter how sullen it seems and “open your mind”
* “If the doors of perception were cleansed, everthing would appear to man as it truly is, infinite” – William Blake/ Aldous Huxley.
Jim Morrison and The Doors also were a very strong influence on what became known in the 1970’s as punk rock and still is today.
I hope this has been of help Whitnie and one other thing. The mark of a great band is of one that can stand the test of time. Jim may be gone and rest his soul but Morrison & The Doors along with their influence on popular culture are standing the test very well and will continue to do so for a long time to come. That alone is a huge influence in it’s own right yes?
Cheers,
Jay Dixon JD
Melbourne. Australia
“We chased our pleasures here,,,dug our treasures there,,but can you still recall the time we cried, break on through to the other side, break on through to the other side ,, yeah,,,c’mon yeah”
