‘The Spy’: The Doors song inspired by the erotic writer Anais Nin
Jim Morrison is one of the most enigmatic figures in music history, known for leading the influential blues-inspired rock band The Doors. Audiences were captivated by the sultry sway of his voice, his mysterious and often scandalous stage presence, and his, of course, his leather outfits. Morrison became known for his reckless persona, stemming from an alcohol dependency that resulted in multiple on-stage arrests.
However, before Morrison’s life descended into chaos, he was revered for his lyrical talents, taking a distinctively poetic approach to writing the words that formed The Doors’ songs. Morrison showed great interest in literature and philosophy from a very young age, even naming the band after Aldous Huxley’s book The Doors of Perception.
A quote from one of Morrison’s former teachers can be found in No One Here Gets Out Alive by Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugarman, detailing Morrison’s impressive knowledge of literature during school. It read: “Jim read as much and probably more than any student in class, but everything he read was so offbeat I had another teacher (who was going to the Library of Congress) check to see if the books Jim was reporting on actually existed. I suspected he was making them up, as they were English books on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century demonology. I’d never heard of them, but they existed, and I’m convinced from the paper he wrote that he read them, and the Library of Congress would’ve been the only source.”
Morrison was inspired by countless writers, such as French poets Charles Baudelaire and Arthur Rimbaud, the Beat Generation, classic Romantic poets, and the controversial Marquis de Sade. However, some other influences found their way into Morrison’s own writing, such as Anais Nin, the French-born American writer known for her erotica.
Nin, born in 1903, was an extraordinary writer who wrote frankly about sex, desire and loneliness through fictional stories and personal diaries. She was unafraid to depict female sexuality honestly and openly, even delving into incredibly taboo topics, such as an incestuous sexual relationship between herself and her father. Moreover, she was greatly inspired by her affairs with famous figures such as Henry Miller and Otto Rank, which she documented in her diaries and semi-fictionalised short stories such as The Four-Chambered Heart.
Morrison was clearly influenced by the boundary-pushing writer, using her 1954 novel, A Spy in the House of Love, as a source of inspiration for The Doors’ song ‘The Spy’. Appearing on the band’s stunning fifth album, Morrison Hotel, the track is a seductive number in which Morrison croons, “I’m a spy in the house of love/ I know the dream that you’re dreamin’ of/ I know the word that you long to hear/ I know your deepest secret fear”.
A Spy in the House of Love follows Sabina, a character that appears in several of Nin’s stories, as she engages in sexual relations with men outside of her marriage, confessing her activities to a stranger down the phone. As she continues her deceitful exploits, Sabina refers to herself as “an international spy in the house of love.” The novel’s themes reflect Morrison’s lyrics, which are accompanied by evocative instrumentation that feels like the musical embodiment of Nin’s sensuous writing.
Listen to the song below.
