I stumbled home tonight in an air of triumph yet an air of excruciating sympathy for myself, because what I had just witnessed would change my outlook forever. I’m not talking about my outlook on music, or life, or the news in tomorrows paper, but everything. I feel sorry for myself because it is so clear that nothing will be quite the same again. Rain will be cold and wet yet it wont really bother me. The war will go on in Iraq, but it wont get to me, and I wont let it. Bush and his idiots, Blair and his cronies, Chirac and his minions will always rule the earth and yet it just wont bother me. Why? Because my outlook has changed – shifted almost to a new hemisphere of thinking.

Tonight I embark on a study of what it is to be a Doors fan, and also a deep thinker in the realms of idolatry. I want to know what happens when a Doors fan over – portrays the myth and legend in ones own mind so that should they come face to face with the embodiment, or the real people involved, hey cave and find themselves adjusting to a new reality of what is and is not myth and legend.

Until now I admit that Jim Morrison has always been my hero, an idol and a super hero to a growing child. Some kids wanted super heroes to fly, to save the crying maiden, to rescue the world from certain doom – all I wanted from my super hero as a boy was to have that super hero prove to me that we need not go by what we are shown, we needn’t do as we are told, and that manners and decency are the only guidelines by which we should live our lives…. No other. I found a super hero in my extra-curricular reading and viewing when I stumbled upon a book containing images of Jim Morrison and a brief explanation as to whom he was and why he was important to musical history. I watched a movie called Lost Boys which had the theme tune of People Are Strange, which made immediate sense to me as a kid. Once a thinker, always a thinker, and as soon as I was old enough to question the rules and persuade my mother that what I was asking was voluntary and that it made complete sense to refuse certain obligations (religious education anyone?), the stage became set for what appeared to be an infatuation with rock music in the form of The Doors.

For 17 years this continued and it continued happily. This boy was content in the knowledge that he had his super hero on his pedestal and that nobody could dislodge him, nor would anyone try because unfortunately the world at large tended to view the super hero with a certain atrophy, or outright ignorance. Nobody wanted to know who the Doors were nor what message they were trying to transmit. Why did it die out so quickly? I put it down to something Hunter S. Thompson describes quite appropriately – the wave crashing against the rocks, the message of the 60’s lost and the tide mark is showing – the high water mark…and all that’s left are aging hippies and dead poets. Anyway whatever happened in the 60’s and the years between now and then are irrelevant as my hero was about to undergo a transformation.

First though I want to speak briefly about what I think the Doors and Jim Morrison stood for in my own words. In music, Jim found a beacon, and transmitter. He and Ray, and Robbie and John were collectively or not, trying to communicate a message. I heard the message year after year and I took it to heart but never really found a way to act upon it. The message was one of freedom, love, peace, and courage to do what’s right and have manners, common decency to the fellow man….take no liberties at someone else’s expense….break on through to a higher plane of existence where nobody offends, where there are options and currency is not the common denominator! I heard this message from the age of 11, to the present day when I am now 28 and worth a lot more in my eyes, in terms of experience and knowledge anyway. The message was transmitting through every single word, through ever note and I was listening, and receiving loud and clear. So were many others but I believe somehow the others were outnumbered by those who couldn’t hear, or just didn’t want to. What lazy man wants to hear a message of exercise? What Christian wants to hear a message of Paganism? What democrat wants to hear a message of communism? I believe those who thought they got the message generally didn’t, and this is because the generic model of a human man or woman is essentially a mediocre model – a common breed, a trend, a halfway house between intelligent & perceptive, and insensitive & ignorant. The latter do not hear or see the message being transmitted by those not of the same echelon. Jim, and The Doors were speaking in riddles to these people though rather unfortunately the riddles were disguised and packaged in rather nifty music which appealed to the masses, the mediocrity. This, in my own humble opinion, killed James Douglas Morrison – by long or by short.

I like to think I am one of those people who were perceptive to the message though not perceptive or submissive enough to relinquish my rights, or to follow a common trend. I like to think that if a new idea were tabled at a meeting, I would question first, then act of my own accord. I would never follow the herd in a situation requiring singular thought. This I believe is what Jim Morrison was all about and it seems to me that he played on this notion. He wanted to touch this nerve in people that made those of us who wee interested, act on whatever message we heard in our head.

Mind Control? Maybe….certainly if you’re numb in the head anyway…

The point is, Jim Morrison and The Doors wanted to break on through and to all accounts the response was one of apathy and ignorance – “play light my fire!”, “you’re a Sagittarius, so am I….” a notorious syndrome involving nothing but self pity and attention seeking. One who wishes to have a God, or Demi-God. A Pharaoh, a Shaman…to feed them enlightenment without urging them to cross the bridges. Because they involve slightly more brain power or thought energy than the applicant is willing to commit the messages go unnoticed or discarded on a heap of Kerouac, Ginsberg, Huxley and Blake…

Personally I feel I have done the necessary reading independently to attain a quiet knowledge of what the world is made of, how it is governed, how it was governed, and how it will be governed. I like to think I have a broad understanding of the mechanisms of the universe in terms of human nature and its tendency to screw with everything it touches. I like to think that human nature, and the overall social well being of humans is at worst doomed to 10000 years of ice age and mulling things over in order that it may get it right the next time, however I thick at best we may just be capable of evolving into the brightest, most colourful, artistic, creative, loving and caring species this planet has ever known. I like to think that the genius that was Jim Morrison, that is Ray, and Robbie, and John – also had a vision of this in their mind when they were trying to transmit this message to the hippie populace of the 60’s.

I have come to believe that one of the main reasons Jim Morrison was driven to an early grave was that he saw that he was not getting through to the masses, and only really touching a small percentage of people who came to see him, or who bought the records. He knew he was never going to be the poet he wished to be, instead being utilised as the Lizard King and Electric Shaman, Erotic Politician etc etc…
Are any of these respectful names for a poet and philosopher? A Thinker qualifies to be known by something more appropriate however the press of the day would not, and probably still would not allow him to be seen as he wished. The image of the thinker was gone amidst a heap of photos portraying a bushy haired rebel with not a care and even less respect.

Did anyone stop to ask why? Who WAS Jim Morrison?

So that’s what Jim Morrison and The Doors meant to me, until about 5 hours ago. They had a mythical status only to be tampered with by he makers of the myth, the satyr or the muse. Anything less wouldn’t do and for anyone to speak against the doors was sacrilege. Contempt!
Its easy to spend 17 years listening to the doors and enjoying their music on one hand whilst getting embroiled in philosophical debates with oneself whilst reading the types of books Morrison might have read. To spend 17 years doing anything really means that after that time something becomes set in stone and is very inflexible. Sometimes you don’t want the thing to change its image because it has become comfortable, or because you feel it fits so well but when this image or model is challenged, we find out how our perception really evolves. Our model of myth and legend moves and reconfigures with time and knowledge, and we tend to hang onto things we value but we mustn’t! Let it all change, let it all go…see Jim Morrison for what you believe he was, and do not fear the recognition of him being a drunk, or a womaniser or any of the other nasty bullshit the American authorities would prefer you thought of him, because everyone who has anything in their own head worth a damn, will realise the man was way more than this, and to realise this simple fact – sets you free.

This brings me to what happened to me tonight. I attended my first Riders on the Storm gig…. Ray was brilliant, Robbie was legendary as ever, and Ian was phenomenal. He is REALLY growing into the role isn’t he? He had his hair at the perfect length to look like Jim, he had his beard growing, and wore shades to add to the effect. Brilliant. Great…

What bothers me is that after a show in which I lost my voice, I walked away in quiet contemplation. How could it be that these people were in the same room as myself? They spoke to the crowd, they said things we all agreed with, and they basically had a good time which was shared by all. But, these men…these men formed a paradox without even realising it. These men being in this room tonight, singing and playing, calling for the downfall of certain politicians, and swearing about this and the next thing, basically ruined any mythological status I had ever assigned them as an 11 year old. Rightly or wrongly, these men represented something I couldn’t quite explain, and they filled the void for all of 17 years! Now they don’t…. now they’ve moved onto a whole other level and this is what worries me.

Normally in my life, if I get an idea I really believe will work, I tend to push it to its final conclusion and I cannot rest until I see it fail or crawl struggling and grappling all the way to success. That’s the condition I have… and tonight the doors just did me a huge disservice, by reaffirming themselves as human beings with solid opinions, and real time thoughts. These guys were in the same room as myself, and were no longer icons. It COULD have been Jim. Jim would not have been a myth after tonight, and I guarantee you, had he been singing, or talking – I would have been arrested, such is the power of that message that so many of us seem to have missed or forgotten. “please please, listen to me children….you are the ones who will rule the world!” and said by a 64 year old makes it all the more potent.

I want to say that the doors tonight proved to me that in real life they are more than just a collaboration of musicians, and more than the myth. They are not built on the legend of Jim Morrison but instead ride on the crest of the wave they created with the man himself. They showed me tonight that, just when I thought the doors could do no more to my psyche – they can quite readily mess with you all over again and at will. The messages of voter rights….messages of change, commitment to a cause rang true, as true as I feel they sounded during the playing of Five to One in 1969.

After 17 years, could it be, and this is the final point, the conclusion of my thesis here…could it be that Jim Morrison and the Doors succeeded? Did the message get through and they just happed to miss it? I feel the message was lost on their immediate audience and that all it took was some stoking of the fire. I feel if they continue to stoke the fire then things will happen, people will start voting other ways, people will start writing more, singing more, making more love and peace. Could it be that the thing that drove Morrison to despair was only 30 years behind, and that he was just too impatient for this grand effect to take course?

I think it worked…finally people are getting the message and its more potent today than it ever was in the dope ridden 60’s. I think the Doors as a band and as a message have a lot going for them and I wish them all the e best. I hope they continue along this path as if they can give a fan of 17 years a whole new take on their music, and message – then surely they have more to offer after 30 years of music. Bodies get old, not the message…and I think it would make Jim smile to know that his message finally got through to people, all be it slightly belated. But it got through none the less!

Anyway, the story is long, the arguments are flawed, and the talk is wearing thin. I must retire to bed and do what Ray Manzarek urged us all to do – go in peace, go make love, make peace….make love and have a good time!

In the future I intend to make a dent in my political stance. I intend to not sit back and allow my face to be rubbed in the dirt. I intend to make a difference to those around me and to teach those lacking in manners and common deceny what it is to be decent. I do this because I realise it is required of me as a world citizen…if I do not help those who cannot help themselves we are all doomed.

Thanks for reading...

Spirit

Welcome Spirit.

I found it interesting reading your experiences.

I think on these forums you will find pretty like minded people.

Sorry to have missed you at the gig.

Spirit, welcome! THE DOORS OF PERCEPTION will be cleansed with HOLY SPIRIT and FIRE! So THE WAY tells us not to learn daily, but to diminish, diminish, diminish until we reach the state of non-ado, non-ado yet nothing is left undone. How does THE WAY know this?…by looking within. To be small is to be GREAT, to be GREAT is to GO FAR, to GO FAR is to RETURN!…contemplate the RETURN.

WE ALL LOVE YOU! Unless you are offspring of VIPERS! Then YOU will be driven out with a WHIP!

I know by your WORDS that you are not, how do I know this?..

Hi Spirit you missed out part of Ray's quote.
[quote]I must retire to bed and do what Ray Manzarek urged us all to do – go in peace, go make love, make peace….make love and have a good time!
He said "go in peace, go make love, go make peace, get high, make love have a good time!"

haha yeah i was still slightly off balance at that point

i don't have time right now to read spirits entire post ~ but, i recognize the passion, that's most important...

if nothing else, the DOORS OF THE 21ST CENTURY tours reinvigorated an individuals thought process on what's important to ourselves, and others - the world, what's happening, and what needs to be done... i was truly effected by the power of the music, and the parallels of 2 worlds seperated by 4 decades.

good post spirit.

Thanks

Heres the trick now though, now I can look forward to seeing them again but this time in my home town of Glasgow. Now I can go with a different head on my shoulders having seen them once and penned that article above - and I wonder how it will affect me this time. Do things change the more you see them? Are ideas strengthened as such? When I got home that night i could have written a novel based on my own ideas about how the Doors and Morrison could have helped shape the modern world you know? But I didnt and just as i started coming down from the hysteria I managed to get it together to write this thread. Now i wonder if ill be able to hold it together at all this time, and if i go right out and write that novel!

Its a very powerful thing we have you know and it interests me most. Im just so disappointed that only we as a relatively small group of 'fans' realise it. It bothers me that we are seen as a cultist group of fans and that The Doors are a bygone band, with bygone ideas who are or always were irrelevant. Obviously these people have never listened to Morrison or thought on anything long enough to see what we see. But what IS it we see? Thats my question - why are we so into this trip? Its fascinating, and I feel i slightly missed my own point when i wrote the above post, so im hoping this time i hit the nail on the head....

Well..... a good few months on and another ROTS gig later (this time with a meet and greet to have looked forward to) and myopinions have changed somewhat. The things i wrote above were full of glee i suppose, but then cold hard reality set in after meeting the band and getting up close, and mores the bummer, I didnt like what i witnessed at all.

Musically there shall never be better than the Doors and Riders on the Storm - however...personally - im stunned to find myself swaying away from them now. Especially after having witnessed the treatment of their most devoted and loyal fans.

Unfortunately i cant retype a long and thought out thread i posted last week as it took too long, and was subsequently posted MIA (i wonder - negative feeback not allowed?) but id love to hear anyone elses changed views or, experiences of having something rocked like this....

Spirit.
I can't say I've changed my views since the Glasgow gig,but have sympathy with you for the way that the meet and greet was handled.
They're still the same band,playing the same great music - and Ian Astbury is just incredible,both vocally and visually.
Let's just rejoice,knowing that we all thought he gig at least was so damn good : mind-blowing in fact!
I'm glad that I got to meet them,shake their hands,and say a few of words to each of them.
That's more than I ever could have thought possible.
It could have been more polished,yes,but let's just remember that we were all essentially there for the music and atmosphere of the concert.
Nobody's complained about either of those on these Boards.

There's a great deal of truth in what you have written here Spirit. I agree with you in what you said about 'The Doors' being even more relevant today. I think its about people, taking responsibllity for their own enligtenment. Morrison didn't want to set us free. He knew that only we could do that. He was for me, a messenger, like so many great artists and visionaries. The power of the music is there to wake you up but from that point onwards you kinda have to navigate the path yourself. There are no guarantees and many pit falls but the riches you receive are great. Others have walked this path and the only map you have are their words and art. Once you set path on this journey its almost impossible to go back. I agree with you that Morrison was in some respect killed by his own personal frustration at how this message was being distorted and lost.A song of freedom is dangerous in a prison. especially when the prisoners are their own jailors. Jim Morrison did his bit and I think the responsibility lies with us who are experiencing this world today, to try and live that message and express it in what ever way we are able to.

I think the battle for the human mind and for human consciousness is an ongoing one. The system and society in general has a vested interest in keeping us in a spiritually impoverished place. Its what keeps the whole thing ticking along. This world of 'soft lies' twists,corrupts and breaks what is good and truthfull in us. I thank you for your words because they show that that vision is still alive in many of us today.

Hey Tor, thanks for that - i thought this thread was going to never reach 10 posts

You know its a strange ride this, and I have discussed this many times since i penned the original post a year ago now. It seems to me that the path itself opens up and closes during certain periods of life - you know, certain moments make you more susceptible than others, certain mindsets, certain circumstances etc - and its under those circumstances I had gone to see ROTS that night and wow... the jigsaw had another piece all of a sudden.

But you know I still find it very confusing and ultimately very frustrating that I cant seem to understand my own fascination with The Doors, JDM, ROTS etc...and in the end i think even i - a fan of 17 years, vented my frustration after Ray was rude to me and my friends one night in Glasgow. After a lot of consideration i feel the path is still right there though ya know, and the music is still doing what it always did - more-so! JDMs words still hold meanings beyond anything i can ever take from the Beatles, the Stones....Pink Flloyd...and so on. But what is the fascination!?

Thats been my primary question all along and I often wondered if it was only I who felt that - until I met a bunch of you guys IRL. Hell, now its all the more confusing!

Im glad you enjoyed my post mate - heres to many more experiences! (another of which is happening here in Dublin on the night of 21st June - I shall report!)

Ed

I replied to your post in length earlier Spirit but somehow it got lost. I read your post about the night you met with Manzarek and your disappointment with interest. Like the old addage says about how it can be a dangerous thing meeting your heros and those you look up to. I think the thing to remember here is that they are no different o us and are human beings with ego/hang ups etc. I think you said yourself that the music is the key and is what is important. You see this with the way people often react to books about The Doors - people can get really precious abut their memory and there's a danger in mythologizing them so they become more than human which they were'nt. They were just four guys who came together during a magical time and created a body of work that was and is sublime. At the same time I think you had every reason to feel disappointed he wasn't a little more responsive other wise what is the point in having these things.

I like what you said about the path opening and closing and I think you are right when you point to external factors and influences. I think its a constant battle but its about putting yourself in the right place so you are more receptive and open. I'm travelling over to Glastonbury, this weekend to a place that always helps me tune in to those higher vibes. In this sense Morrison was a prophet and messenger and the music in that sense acts as a guide and a doorway that is always there. Morrison wanted us to realize that it was what was on the otherside of this doorway that mattered.

I'm catching them in Dublin on the 21st so maybe we can grab a ber. I know you've put another post on here regarding this so let me know. even if its a bar near the venue it would be great if some of the people who use this site could hook up there before or after the gig. Its the first ROTS gig for me so you can imagine how I'm feeling about it.

"Bodies get old, not the message…and I think it would make Jim smile to know that his message finally got through to people, all be it slightly belated."

"The old get old, and the young get stronger....may take a week or it may take longer...." That's what Jim said in his song "Five to One". He wanted to send out the message. And I definatly agree with you but its just that I think what you said made Jim DEPRESSED, but I'm not sure how he died...murder, accidental scuicide, purposely committing suicide. That's a mystery but I love him with all my heart and I could relate to the passion of your words. It's what I've always felt like saying but couldn't exactly spell it out.

Love, Nora.