How Friedrich Nietzsche influenced The Doors frontman Jim Morrison
The Doors were one of the defining bands of the 1960s, led by the enigmatic vocalist Jim Morrison, who pioneered a unique blend of poetry and rock and roll. Although he died aged just 27, Morrison left behind an impressive collection of songs that demonstrated a natural ability for writing as much as singing.
His poetic lyrics allowed The Doors to stand out among their contemporaries, with artists such as Patti Smith citing Morrison’s approach to songwriting as hugely influential. “Jim Morrison was one of our great poets and unique performers. His body of work will always endure,” she once told CBS.
Morrison was significantly inspired by poets and revolutionary thinkers, beginning his literary education at a young age. According to one of his high school teachers, via No One Here Gets Out Alive: “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.”
They added: “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.”
The singer was greatly inspired by French poets such as Arthur Rimbaud and Charles Baudelaire, the Beat Generation, and philosophers such as Albert Camus and Friedrich Nietzsche. The latter was a significant influence on Morrison, whose existentialist ideas crept into many of the singer’s lyrics. For example, much of L.A. Woman sees Morrison explore a world of depravity and hopelessness that feels aligned with much of Nietzche’s work, although there’s an underlying desire for freedom in Morrison’s lyrics.
Most prominently, on ‘The WASP (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)’, Morrison draws upon the philosopher’s ‘God is dead’ ideas from The Gay Science, singing, “I’ll tell you ’bout the heartache and the loss of God/ I’ll tell you ’bout the hopeless night.” Morrison was so obsessed with the writer that, upon his premature death in 1971 following years of drug and alcohol abuse, bandmate John Densmore stated, “Nietzsche killed Jim.”
Rare footage of Morrison improvising on the piano reveals his ‘Ode to Nietzsche’, with the singer playing frantic notes on the keys and performing spoken word meditations on Nietzsche. He bashes the instrument recklessly, moving between calm speech and wild screams. He declares, “And they took Frederick to the asylum, and his mother joined him, and for the next fifteen years they cried and cried and laughed and looked at the sun and everyone.”
Watch the video below.
