THE POET
James Douglas Morrison was born on December 8th, 1943 in Melbourne, Florida. He was raised in a military family, the oldest child of of Steve and Clara Morrison. He had a sister, Anne, and a brother, Andy. As is life in the military, the Morrison family never stayed in one place for long. Young Jim never had the opportunity to put down "roots" in any one place. From an early age he proved to be a precocious youngster,always vying for attention. Jim enjoyed the appeal of "shock" and grasped many opportunities to gain attention with his bright wit and outlandish behavior. He demonstrated impressive intellectual and linguistic abilities though he had a lack of concern for discipline. With an IQ of 149 he rose above his peers and pursued the studies of some of his favorite philosophers and poets such as Nietzsche, the American greats such as Kerouac, Ginsberg, Ferlinghetti and the French poet Rimbaud, to name a few.
Against the wishes of his father, Jim elected to attend UCLA Film School. It was there in 1964 that Jim met his friend, Ray Manzarek. Though showing brilliant promise, Jim became disillusioned with school. The forum of the university became too limiting for him so he went traveling. He sought out other horizons on the streets of L.A. He started hanging out in Venice (my home town) which is one of Los Angeles' more colorful beach cities. He again met up with his friend Ray and showed him some of the poetry and songs that he had been working on. Impressed, Ray, an accomplished musician, suggested that they form a rock band and make a lot of money. Thus began the birth of THE DOORS. Along with band members Robby Krieger and John Densmore the guys struggled, practicing and getting small gigs here and there until they landed a gig at The Whisky, a famous landmark spot on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood where they were finally noticed and landed a contract with Elektra Records.
The rest is history...
