Exploring the poetry of Jim Morrison through his best lyrics
Jim Morrison was more than just a singer in one of the most famous rock bands of all time. He was more than just a leather-trouser-clad, hyper-sexualised icon of the 1960s. He was admittedly both of those things and then some, but the truth of the matter is that Jim Morrison was, above all, a truly unique and sensitive poet.
Morrison’s effortless ability with words and his keen interest in the objects of enquiry that lie beyond our everyday human perceptions helped The Doors to stand out from the other blues-rock bands of the 1960s. In that light, Morrison is a poet of the eternal, and perhaps his untimely early death has immortalised him in the pantheon of the great poetic composers.
However, as Morrison was indeed the head of a rock band rather than a poet ‘proper’, his name is not necessarily uttered in the same breath as some of his literary heroes. Although, in light of Bob Dylan being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in recent years, it would be hard to argue that Morrison does not possess an unrivalled literary talent and a keen ear for phrasing and words that combine beauty and a political sensibility: everything that a poet ought to be.
So to celebrate what would have been Morrison’s 79th birthday, let’s take a closer look at his poetry by exploring some of his best-ever written lyrics. Prepare to get mystical.
Jim Morrison’s best lyrics:
‘Riders on the Storm’
“Into this house we’re born / Into this world we’re thrown / Like a dog without a bone / An actor out on loan / Riders on the storm”.
There are several archetypal Doors songs, and certainly amongst them is ‘Riders on the Storm’. The track closed the band’s final studio album LA Woman and is arguably one of the most iconic tracks of the 21st Century. Lyrically, it contains perhaps some of the most autobiographical of Morrison’s many words.
In these particular lyrics, it appears that Morrison is lamenting the nature of fate and the futility of attempting to direct our lives in any way, shape or form. After all, we are cast into the world without consent to live in unwanted solipsism. Even if we achieve our goals in terms of our career (in this instance of the actor), we are merely “out on loan” in the grand scheme of things.
‘Stoned Immaculate’
“Like some new language, reaching your head with the cold, sudden fury of a divine messenger / Let me tell you about heartache and the loss of god / Wandering in the hopeless night / Out here in the perimeter there are no stars / Out here we is stoned immaculate”.
‘Stoned Immaculate’ arrived as a recorded release in 1978, quite sometime after Morrison’s death. The Doors had continued without Morrison for a short while, but things never really worked out without their talisman at the helm. An American Prayer is composed of brilliant instrumental jams with Morrison’s prior recorded poetry and spoken word placed atop.
Morrison is in fine form on ‘Stoned Immaculate’ and perhaps emulates one of his poetic idols, William Blake. Morrison had always been interested in the worlds that lie beyond our everyday physical understanding. In fact, in these words, there are many of his interests, nature, religion, language, and, of course, getting high.
‘LA Woman’
“Well, I got into town about an hour ago / Took a look around, see which way the wind blow / Where the little girls in their Hollywood bungalows / Are you a lucky little lady in the City of Light? / Or just another lost angel? City of Night”.
Robbie Krieger once described ‘LA Woman’ as “the quintessential Doors song”, and it’s admittedly hard to disagree with the band’s guitarist. Others have said that the track is Morrison’s love letter to his Los Angeles home in which he described the Californian city as a lady of the night.
The song opens with lyrics that suggest that Morrison has rolled into town looking to get up to no good. Fortunately for him, he is likely in the right place. Whilst perhaps these lyrics are the least elaborate on this list in terms of their poetic beauty, they show that Morrison was also able to turn his writing abilities to the every day as well as the mystical.
‘When The Music’s Over’
“What have they done with the earth? / What have they done with our fair sister? / Ravaged and plundered and ripped her and bit her / Stuck her with knives in the side of the dawn / Tied her with fences and dragged her down / We want the world and we want it now”.
Whilst ‘LA Woman’ and ‘Riders on the Storm’ are arguably the most quintessential Doors songs, perhaps ‘When the Music’s Over’ is their best. The 11-minute jam track closes their second studio album and predominantly laid out the blueprint for the future longer tracks. Morrison delivers some of his best vocals here, shifting between a whisper and a yelp with effortless ease.
One of the track’s most captivating parts is when the band slows things down to a simmer before its crescendo. During this time, Morrison laments the damage that society has done to the environment. He longs for things to change and eventually delivers the call to arms, “We want the world and we want it now”.
‘The End’
“Lost in a Roman wilderness of pain / And all the children are insane / All the children are insane / Waiting for the summer rain”.
Alongside some of those archetypal Doors track is, of course, ‘The End’. It’s another 11-minute jam in which the band just seem at their best, effortlessly gliding through a variety of sonic textures. These lyrics, in particular, appeal to the great English Romantic poets that Morrison adored, and he highlights the insanity of contemporary society.
However, Morrison (like many great poets) was unsure of what the words actually meant. He once said: “Every time I hear that song, it means something else to me. I really don’t know what I was trying to say. I could see how it could be goodbye to a kind of childhood. I really don’t know. I think it’s sufficiently complex and universal in its imagery that it could be almost anything you want it to be.”
‘Ghost Song’
“A vast radiant beach and a cool jewelled moon / Couples naked race down its quiet side / And we laugh like soft mad children / Smug in the woolly cotton brains of infancy / The music and voices are all around us”.
‘Ghost Song’ is another brilliant track that arrived on 1978’s An American Prayer. Instrumentally, the tune is some of the Door’s best work. By the late 1970s, the recording quality had improved drastically, and much of the album brings Krieger, Densmore and Manzarek’s talents to the fore.
Lyrically though, Morrison produces some of his finest work here. He crafts the imagery of an alternate world or a dream landscape in only the way that he honestly can. Again, there is an element of the madness of society and the beauty of nature. ‘Ghost Song’ is simply one of the Doors’ best (and perhaps most unrecognised) tunes.
