Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #199193 in Books
• Published on: 1995-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 424 pages

Customer Reviews

As a casual Doors fan: OK by me
I'm no expert on The Doors or Jim Morrison, but this was an engaging read that tried to show a softer side of a man who lived to life's extremes.

I also realize that I am reading this biography 20 years after the fact and that the book was written 15+ years after his death, but to gain a general understanding of who Jim Morrison was this book did the job.

I wouldn't have paid more than the $5.00 I did for it, but if you can find it cheap, pick it up.

The Whisky a Go Go and Morrison's Hotel
This book helped fuel a serious revival of interest in the music of the Doors and the late Jim Morrison, the band's lead singer. One of the coauthors, the late Danny Sugerman, was a long time employee of the band.

Almost simultaneous with the release of this biography in paperback, director Francis Ford Coppola made extensive use of the Doors' song "The End" for the soundtrack of the Viet Nam war film "Apocalypse Now." Rolling Stone magazine took notice of the trend and putting Morrison on the cover of an issue with a reminder to its readers that he was dead. In a few years time, director Oliver Stone adapted the same story for his feature film "The Doors." It should be noted that Stone's screenplay credited drummer John Densmore's book, "Riders on the Storm," as his source material rather than this title.

Morrison and his band mates, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger and John Densmore, made some interesting music that combined lyrics adapted from the poetry of William Blake, the classic Greek tragedy of Oedipus Rex and, seemingly, from the labels of countless empty bottles of whisky.

For myself, it was a heady time, playing Doors records on a college radio station, watching "Apocalypse Now" in its original theatrical release, and hearing Manzarek's keyboard synthezier and Krieger's guitar in the dormitories. The title of the book is, of course, taken from the song "Five to One." This is an extraordinary account of a significant band and the decline and fall of their lead singer.

Really Good Biography
If you like the doors, if you are interested in Jim Morrison , this is the definitive biography. Heavily researched, readable, a little sick, its a rock and roll reading classic. Get it.