Jim Morrison was probably the most intelligent of the major
rock stars, at least in a bookish sense. He did not show much practical intelligence, dying young, but he showed the fiery
poetic intelligence and disdain for ordinary, day-to-day
reality that is the mark on the foreheads of the
Dreamer race.
He was interested in
Blake, and Morrison's relationship to Blake extends past copping a few lyrics and ideas. For example, both poets, Blake and Morrison, created a dual body of play--at least, a body of play that has been dually interpreted. The popular "
Songs of Innocence" and "
Songs of Experience" of Blake and the Songs (with
The Doors) of Morrison are the accessible and popular tip drawing the audience into the respective men's play. But both poets also created a deeper, more obscure body of play. Blake created his
epic visions by reshuffling and reinterpreting the elements of
Judeo-Christian mythology and world
history. Morrison made his own, book-published epics out of the bits and pieces of the world of the
West Coast 60s, invigorating them with the
eternal dreams of poets. Blake's obscure poems reside in a world of freshly invented
angels,
demons,
maidens, and
beasts. Morrison's--in
desert highways,
city alleys,
piers, broke-down
car shops, seedy
bars and the entire retinue of the
LA aesthetic previously explored with different poetic stimulation by
Raymond Chandler. Another similarity is that while Blake and Morrison's short
lyrical works are quite
popular, their longer explorations are rarely read, and rarely enjoyed. When you go past a certain point into a poet dreamer's world, you have to go slowly, building up your own anchors, because the poet offers no guidance and no map.
Anyone in doubt of Morrison's poetic ability should consider the following verse from
Strange Days:
Strange days have found us
And through their strange hours
We linger alone
Bodies confused
Memories misused
As we run from the day
To a strange night of stone
Consider also Morrison's great ability as a
punster and artist of the
double entendre, which allows us to see the above lines in a different way, facilitated by the slurred way in which Morrison often
sang:
Strange days have found (founded, made) us
And through their strange Ours
We linger on loan
Bodies con-fused (fused together)
Memories miss-you-sed
As we run from the day
To a strange night of stone
Powerful stuff, either way you see it.
And then there is the exquisite little "
Under Waterfall" verse from "Far Arden":
Under waterfall
Under waterfall
The girls return from summer balls
Let's steal the eye that sees us all
Note the reversal in "Let's steal". "Let's" is almost the phonetic reverse of "steal". L-E-T-S-T-I-L.
Now to rewrite the verse a different way:
Underwater Fall
Underwater Fall
The girls return from Summer balls
Let's steal the I that seizes all
Etc, etc.