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The American Night
THE AMERICAN NIGHT presents Morrison's previously unpublished work in its truest form. WIth their nightmarish images, bold associative leaps, and volcanic power of emotion, these works are the unmistakable artifacts of a great, wild voice and heart.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
211 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1990
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About the author
Jim Morrison
116 books1,106 followersJames Douglas Morrison was an American singer, poet, songwriter, writer, and film director. He is best known as the lead singer and lyricist of The Doors, and is widely considered to be one of the most charismatic and influential frontmen in rock music. He was also the author of several books of poetry and the director of a documentary and short film.
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March 1, 2020
Jim Morrison was a philosopher-poet, a mythopoeic visionary in the tradition of Blake, a Dionysian wild child who died before his time.
The two volumes of poetry published posthumously as Wilderness and The American Night reveal the growth of Morrison’s poetic voice and his creation of an American mythos that is dark, hypnotic, and transgressive.
The American Night combines performance pieces from The Doors’ discography with previously unpublished poems from his notebooks. The collection begins with An American Prayer, the last of Morrison’s three self-published books of poetry and one of the performance pieces recorded between 1969 and 1970. Here he announces his poetic project:
“Let’s reinvent the gods, all the myths
of the ages” (3)
The West is the Best
The landscape of his new mythos is the desert of the American southwest. The development of this imagery can be traced back to his second self-published volume of poetry, The New Creatures, but it appears here in a more mature form in the poem, “The Desert.”
“The Desert
—roseate metallic blue
& insect green
blank mirrors &
pools of silver
a universe in
one body” (23)
The god of this universe is the Lizard King, with his leather pants, his tousled mane, his deep bluesy voice, and that boyish charisma that could found a cult.
In “Celebration of the Lizard,” Morrison tells a story that he has been developing since The Doors’ first album. Here the Oedipal drama of “The End” reaches its climax. He is omnipotent.
“I am the Lizard King
I can do anything” (45)
This story ~ Morrison’s modern myth ~ follows a hitchhiker named Billy who murders his way across the American landscape. In “The End,” the killer murders his own family. In the screenplay for “The Hitchhiker,” he kills motorists, a sheriff, and a young woman who has sex with him. After he is executed, he walks off into a surreal desert landscape to join a bizarre trio of “hobos in Eternity” (80). In “Celebration of the Lizard,” the desert imagery becomes completely hallucinatory.
“One morning he awoke in a green hotel
W/ a strange creature groaning beside him.
Sweat oozed from its shiny skin” (39).
Morrison’s universe is one in which “all the children are insane” (111). Thus his hero ~ his antihero ~ is an outlaw, a hitchhiker, a killer, someone who exists on the boundaries of society, someone who dwells in the liminal places between real and unreal, good and evil, life and death.
The highway is another such liminal place. On the posthumously-released album An American Prayer, Morrison shares a formative memory from his early childhood. He begins with two lines from “Peace Frog.”
♫ Indians scattered on dawn’s highway bleeding
Ghosts crowd the young child’s fragile eggshell mind. ♫
Then he describes being four years old. His family was driving through the desert and he saw a group of Indians whose truck had been in an accident. They were bleeding to death on the highway. This memory seems to have contributed heavily to Morrison’s personal mythology. This vision of death is the one most often met with in his poetry ~ violent, surreal, and meaningless.
But for all his bacchanalia, Morrison is not at home in a meaningless universe. Like the Nietzschean superman, he seeks a revaluation of all values. And the creation of new values means the destruction of the old. Sex and death. This is expressed most explicitly in “Lament for the Death of My Cock.”
“Death & my cock
are the world” (60)
Some matters are so grave that they can only be approached with humor. And the meaninglessness of sex and death is indeed a grave matter. So Morrison looks to religion, for religion has traditionally given meaning to sex and death.
Cancel My Subscription to the Resurrection
The most famous exposition of Morrison’s views on his WASP heritage appears in “The Soft Parade.”
“When I was back there in seminary school
There was a person there
Who put forth the proposition
That you can petition the Lord with prayer
Petition the Lord with prayer
Petition the Lord with prayer
You cannot petition the Lord with prayer!” (49)
As a performance piece, this is powerful stuff. Morrison could have been a preacher if he wasn’t a rebel. His performance pieces are ecstatic rituals, mythic rites in which the audience participates. This is a theme that goes all the way back to his first self-published volume of poetry—The Lords. In that work, he deplores the fact that spectatorship has replaced participation. He remedies this in “Celebration of the Lizard.”
“Is everybody in? (3)
The ceremony is about to begin.
Wake up!” (39-40)
He exhorts his audience to participate. He calls to them to join him.
“Brothers & sisters of the pale forest
O Children of Night
Who among you will run w/ the hunt?” (45)
In his search for meaning, he rejects his Protestant upbringing. In “I Want to Tell You,” a variation on LA Woman’s “The WASP: Texas Radio and the Big Beat,” he subverts his religious tradition.
“no eternal reward will
forgive us now for
wasting the dawn” (126)
And in “Celebration of the Lizard,” he perverts it.
“The minister’s daughter in love w/ the snake” (43)
In “Always a Playground Instructor,” he plays with Catholicism ~ an aesthetic and visceral faith compared to Protestantism.
“The dark girl begins to bleed.
It’s Catholic heaven. I have an
ancient Indian crucifix around
my neck. My chest is hard
& brown. Lying on stained &
wretched sheets w/ a bleeding Virgin.
We could plan a murder, or
Start a religion” (124)
But Morrison needs something more primitive, more primal. He needs wild abandon, savagery. He needs drums and dancing. And so it is to the religions of indigenous peoples that he turns. To the Ghost religion of the American Indians. To the tribalism of Africa. And to the revelry of the rock concert.
Stoned Immaculate
In “The WASP: Texas Radio and the Big Beat,” Morrison combines verses from the poems “I Want to Tell You” and “Now Listen to This” to create a church of psychedelic blues. He has moved beyond the questioning and criticizing of religion. Now he offers something. He creates something. It begins with rhythm.
♫ I want to tell you about Texas Radio
and the big beat
It comes out of the Virginia swamps
Cool and slow, with plenty of precision,
and a back beat
Narrow and hard to master ♫
Then it all comes together: the death of God ...
♫ Listen to this and I'll tell you about
the heartache,
I'll tell you about the heartache and
the loss of God ♫
... the sermon delivered in the booming preacher’s voice ...
♫ Some call it heavenly in its brilliance
Others, mean and rueful of the
Western dream
I love the friends I have gathered
together on this thin raft
We have constructed pyramids in
honor of our escaping
This is the land where the
Pharaoh died ♫
... the rebirth of the phallic snake ...
(On LA Woman, this performance piece is preceded by a cover of the traditional blues song “Crawling King Snake,” a song most associated with bluesman John Lee Hooker.)
♫ I’m a crawling king snake
And I rule my den ♫
... and salvation.
♫ The Negroes in the forest
brightly feathered
And they are saying,
“Forget the night! Live with us in
forests of azure.
Out here on the perimeter there are
no stars
Out here we is stoned—immaculate. ♫
I consider this to be Morrison’s masterpiece. Here he brings his vision of a new American mythos to fulfillment. He confronts “the loss of God” and the failure of “the Western dream.” In place of what is lost, he offers primitive innocence and ecstatic revelation.
This brilliant poem also sketches a history of American music.
He uses the familiar imagery of the Exodus to rouse his congregation, to inspire their own escape from enslavement to a foreign god, but this verse also recalls the spirituals and gospel songs of the American south as well as the rhythmic music of the preacher’s sermon.
The use of “Crawling King Snake” introduces American blues and reinforces the relationship between American music and its African roots. The “brightly feathered” natives in their “forests of azure” are the ancestors of American bluesmen, as blues is the ancestor of rock & roll.
When the Music’s Over
Morrison never got the chance to reach his full potential as a poet, but reading his poetry ~ from the early pieces of The Lords and the New Creatures to the lyrics he wrote for The Doors to the more polished poems on the recording An American Prayer ~ one thing is clear: Morrison was more than just the shaman of psychedelic blues, more than just the patron saint of sex, drugs, and rock & roll, more than just the rock god worshiped by thousands of adoring fans. He was a true poet.
The two volumes of poetry published posthumously as Wilderness and The American Night reveal the growth of Morrison’s poetic voice and his creation of an American mythos that is dark, hypnotic, and transgressive.
The American Night combines performance pieces from The Doors’ discography with previously unpublished poems from his notebooks. The collection begins with An American Prayer, the last of Morrison’s three self-published books of poetry and one of the performance pieces recorded between 1969 and 1970. Here he announces his poetic project:
“Let’s reinvent the gods, all the myths
of the ages” (3)
The West is the Best
The landscape of his new mythos is the desert of the American southwest. The development of this imagery can be traced back to his second self-published volume of poetry, The New Creatures, but it appears here in a more mature form in the poem, “The Desert.”
“The Desert
—roseate metallic blue
& insect green
blank mirrors &
pools of silver
a universe in
one body” (23)
The god of this universe is the Lizard King, with his leather pants, his tousled mane, his deep bluesy voice, and that boyish charisma that could found a cult.
In “Celebration of the Lizard,” Morrison tells a story that he has been developing since The Doors’ first album. Here the Oedipal drama of “The End” reaches its climax. He is omnipotent.
“I am the Lizard King
I can do anything” (45)
This story ~ Morrison’s modern myth ~ follows a hitchhiker named Billy who murders his way across the American landscape. In “The End,” the killer murders his own family. In the screenplay for “The Hitchhiker,” he kills motorists, a sheriff, and a young woman who has sex with him. After he is executed, he walks off into a surreal desert landscape to join a bizarre trio of “hobos in Eternity” (80). In “Celebration of the Lizard,” the desert imagery becomes completely hallucinatory.
“One morning he awoke in a green hotel
W/ a strange creature groaning beside him.
Sweat oozed from its shiny skin” (39).
Morrison’s universe is one in which “all the children are insane” (111). Thus his hero ~ his antihero ~ is an outlaw, a hitchhiker, a killer, someone who exists on the boundaries of society, someone who dwells in the liminal places between real and unreal, good and evil, life and death.
The highway is another such liminal place. On the posthumously-released album An American Prayer, Morrison shares a formative memory from his early childhood. He begins with two lines from “Peace Frog.”
♫ Indians scattered on dawn’s highway bleeding
Ghosts crowd the young child’s fragile eggshell mind. ♫
Then he describes being four years old. His family was driving through the desert and he saw a group of Indians whose truck had been in an accident. They were bleeding to death on the highway. This memory seems to have contributed heavily to Morrison’s personal mythology. This vision of death is the one most often met with in his poetry ~ violent, surreal, and meaningless.
But for all his bacchanalia, Morrison is not at home in a meaningless universe. Like the Nietzschean superman, he seeks a revaluation of all values. And the creation of new values means the destruction of the old. Sex and death. This is expressed most explicitly in “Lament for the Death of My Cock.”
“Death & my cock
are the world” (60)
Some matters are so grave that they can only be approached with humor. And the meaninglessness of sex and death is indeed a grave matter. So Morrison looks to religion, for religion has traditionally given meaning to sex and death.
Cancel My Subscription to the Resurrection
The most famous exposition of Morrison’s views on his WASP heritage appears in “The Soft Parade.”
“When I was back there in seminary school
There was a person there
Who put forth the proposition
That you can petition the Lord with prayer
Petition the Lord with prayer
Petition the Lord with prayer
You cannot petition the Lord with prayer!” (49)
As a performance piece, this is powerful stuff. Morrison could have been a preacher if he wasn’t a rebel. His performance pieces are ecstatic rituals, mythic rites in which the audience participates. This is a theme that goes all the way back to his first self-published volume of poetry—The Lords. In that work, he deplores the fact that spectatorship has replaced participation. He remedies this in “Celebration of the Lizard.”
“Is everybody in? (3)
The ceremony is about to begin.
Wake up!” (39-40)
He exhorts his audience to participate. He calls to them to join him.
“Brothers & sisters of the pale forest
O Children of Night
Who among you will run w/ the hunt?” (45)
In his search for meaning, he rejects his Protestant upbringing. In “I Want to Tell You,” a variation on LA Woman’s “The WASP: Texas Radio and the Big Beat,” he subverts his religious tradition.
“no eternal reward will
forgive us now for
wasting the dawn” (126)
And in “Celebration of the Lizard,” he perverts it.
“The minister’s daughter in love w/ the snake” (43)
In “Always a Playground Instructor,” he plays with Catholicism ~ an aesthetic and visceral faith compared to Protestantism.
“The dark girl begins to bleed.
It’s Catholic heaven. I have an
ancient Indian crucifix around
my neck. My chest is hard
& brown. Lying on stained &
wretched sheets w/ a bleeding Virgin.
We could plan a murder, or
Start a religion” (124)
But Morrison needs something more primitive, more primal. He needs wild abandon, savagery. He needs drums and dancing. And so it is to the religions of indigenous peoples that he turns. To the Ghost religion of the American Indians. To the tribalism of Africa. And to the revelry of the rock concert.
Stoned Immaculate
In “The WASP: Texas Radio and the Big Beat,” Morrison combines verses from the poems “I Want to Tell You” and “Now Listen to This” to create a church of psychedelic blues. He has moved beyond the questioning and criticizing of religion. Now he offers something. He creates something. It begins with rhythm.
♫ I want to tell you about Texas Radio
and the big beat
It comes out of the Virginia swamps
Cool and slow, with plenty of precision,
and a back beat
Narrow and hard to master ♫
Then it all comes together: the death of God ...
♫ Listen to this and I'll tell you about
the heartache,
I'll tell you about the heartache and
the loss of God ♫
... the sermon delivered in the booming preacher’s voice ...
♫ Some call it heavenly in its brilliance
Others, mean and rueful of the
Western dream
I love the friends I have gathered
together on this thin raft
We have constructed pyramids in
honor of our escaping
This is the land where the
Pharaoh died ♫
... the rebirth of the phallic snake ...
(On LA Woman, this performance piece is preceded by a cover of the traditional blues song “Crawling King Snake,” a song most associated with bluesman John Lee Hooker.)
♫ I’m a crawling king snake
And I rule my den ♫
... and salvation.
♫ The Negroes in the forest
brightly feathered
And they are saying,
“Forget the night! Live with us in
forests of azure.
Out here on the perimeter there are
no stars
Out here we is stoned—immaculate. ♫
I consider this to be Morrison’s masterpiece. Here he brings his vision of a new American mythos to fulfillment. He confronts “the loss of God” and the failure of “the Western dream.” In place of what is lost, he offers primitive innocence and ecstatic revelation.
This brilliant poem also sketches a history of American music.
He uses the familiar imagery of the Exodus to rouse his congregation, to inspire their own escape from enslavement to a foreign god, but this verse also recalls the spirituals and gospel songs of the American south as well as the rhythmic music of the preacher’s sermon.
The use of “Crawling King Snake” introduces American blues and reinforces the relationship between American music and its African roots. The “brightly feathered” natives in their “forests of azure” are the ancestors of American bluesmen, as blues is the ancestor of rock & roll.
When the Music’s Over
Morrison never got the chance to reach his full potential as a poet, but reading his poetry ~ from the early pieces of The Lords and the New Creatures to the lyrics he wrote for The Doors to the more polished poems on the recording An American Prayer ~ one thing is clear: Morrison was more than just the shaman of psychedelic blues, more than just the patron saint of sex, drugs, and rock & roll, more than just the rock god worshiped by thousands of adoring fans. He was a true poet.
May 22, 2017
Both of Jim Morrison's poetry books are actually quite good. You can hear Densmore's drumbeat, Kreiger's guitar and Manzarek's wonderful organ as you allow your eyes to soak in the works. As usual with works like this, it serves to remind us of the artists that the 60s killed off and wonder what could have been.
September 14, 2014
Welcome to the American Night...
I didn't understand what it meant and yet it meant so much to me, this immature 18-year-old still finding out about the world by inserting himself into the universe of others. Along came Jim Morrison, singer/poet, a forever-young manchild...so appealing to a youth entering adulthood unwillingly.
Morrison's words, scribbled out in notebooks upon rooftops in Venice, California, would become the basis of lyrics to the inflammatory songs created by late '60s rockers The Doors.
And many of those scribbles are found within The American Night: The Lost Writings, Vol. 2: The End, The Soft Parade, Moonlight Drive, Soul Kitchen, L.A. Woman, When the Music's Over.
Perhaps it's that familiarity which made this second volume of Morrison's work more enjoyable to me. I already knew and loved the entire Doors catalogue and here, now and then, popped up the lyrics to one of their tunes. And there was more familiarity to latch on to, as seen in live performances, such as his "rock opera" the Celebration of The Lizard...
Is everybody in?... Is everybody in?... Is everybody in?... The ceremony is about to begin.
Morrison and his words could be oh so very melodramatic.
He seemed to intentionally revel in the bizarre, if for no other reason than to shock. Take for instance Lament for the Death of My Cock (which I think I used for a school English project my senior year):
Lament for my cock
Sore & crucified
I seek to know you
acquiring soulful wisdom
you can open walls of
mystery
strip-show
How to get death
On the morning
show
T.V. death
which the child
absorbs
death-well
mystery
which makes
me write
Slow train
The death of my cock
gives life
Guitar player
Ancient wise satyr
Sing your ode
to my cock
caress its lament
stiffen & guide
us
...
It goes on and on like this. Silly stuff. Never did figure out the point of breaking up the lines like that. Did he think he was writing out the lines of a song? Perhaps and why not, some of this tripe did get turned into songs...well, the better stuff anyhow. However, much of this needed editing to say the least and most should never have seen the light of day. It's the stuff of teenaged angst. What artistically-minded kid didn't fill up a notebook or two with their unintelligible, overly emotional ramblings? I filled six, myself!
If you've read down this far, you're clearly a fan (or someone with some time on your hands) so I suppose I could recommend this book to you. I might also recommend The Doors' album An American Prayer. It takes snippets of spoken word by Morrison from the compositions included in this book, so you get to hear him reading them in the way he intended. Unfortunately, the remaining Doors members decided to add their own backing tracks, jam sessions and incidental noise to the background, which was not in keeping with Morrison's original intention. Eh, it is what it is.
I didn't understand what it meant and yet it meant so much to me, this immature 18-year-old still finding out about the world by inserting himself into the universe of others. Along came Jim Morrison, singer/poet, a forever-young manchild...so appealing to a youth entering adulthood unwillingly.
Morrison's words, scribbled out in notebooks upon rooftops in Venice, California, would become the basis of lyrics to the inflammatory songs created by late '60s rockers The Doors.
And many of those scribbles are found within The American Night: The Lost Writings, Vol. 2: The End, The Soft Parade, Moonlight Drive, Soul Kitchen, L.A. Woman, When the Music's Over.
Perhaps it's that familiarity which made this second volume of Morrison's work more enjoyable to me. I already knew and loved the entire Doors catalogue and here, now and then, popped up the lyrics to one of their tunes. And there was more familiarity to latch on to, as seen in live performances, such as his "rock opera" the Celebration of The Lizard...
Is everybody in?... Is everybody in?... Is everybody in?... The ceremony is about to begin.
Morrison and his words could be oh so very melodramatic.
He seemed to intentionally revel in the bizarre, if for no other reason than to shock. Take for instance Lament for the Death of My Cock (which I think I used for a school English project my senior year):
Lament for my cock
Sore & crucified
I seek to know you
acquiring soulful wisdom
you can open walls of
mystery
strip-show
How to get death
On the morning
show
T.V. death
which the child
absorbs
death-well
mystery
which makes
me write
Slow train
The death of my cock
gives life
Guitar player
Ancient wise satyr
Sing your ode
to my cock
caress its lament
stiffen & guide
us
...
It goes on and on like this. Silly stuff. Never did figure out the point of breaking up the lines like that. Did he think he was writing out the lines of a song? Perhaps and why not, some of this tripe did get turned into songs...well, the better stuff anyhow. However, much of this needed editing to say the least and most should never have seen the light of day. It's the stuff of teenaged angst. What artistically-minded kid didn't fill up a notebook or two with their unintelligible, overly emotional ramblings? I filled six, myself!
If you've read down this far, you're clearly a fan (or someone with some time on your hands) so I suppose I could recommend this book to you. I might also recommend The Doors' album An American Prayer. It takes snippets of spoken word by Morrison from the compositions included in this book, so you get to hear him reading them in the way he intended. Unfortunately, the remaining Doors members decided to add their own backing tracks, jam sessions and incidental noise to the background, which was not in keeping with Morrison's original intention. Eh, it is what it is.
January 10, 2024
Wish I could go back in time and see The Doors live. This book of poetry encapsulates what was going on in the 60's so well; a time of hope, a time of betrayal, a time to try to set things right. We are (in my opinion) entering another 'American Night' right now - and that is a good enough reason to recommend this book.
August 26, 2015
2015 Reading Challenge #06: A book written by someone under 30.
¿Tal vez hay que estar drogado con ácido para poder apreciar esto?
Esta es una clara representación de lo que puede hacer un nombre. Lo que de mano de cualquier otro hubiese sido tachado como malo, en Jim Morrison es alabado como genialidad. C'est la vie.
¿Tal vez hay que estar drogado con ácido para poder apreciar esto?
"Todos se unen ahora en un lamento
por la muerte de mi falo,
una lengua de conocimiento
en la noche emplumada,
los muchachos enloquecen su cabeza
y sufren,
sacrifico mi falo
en el altar
del silencio."
Esta es una clara representación de lo que puede hacer un nombre. Lo que de mano de cualquier otro hubiese sido tachado como malo, en Jim Morrison es alabado como genialidad. C'est la vie.
May 8, 2019
I'm proud to say I haven't outgrown my Jim Morrison and the Doors phase. Thirty years ago I became a fan of Jim's lyrics and the Door's eclectic mix of the blues, jazz, rock, and carnival music, and having recently revisited their albums and Jim's lyrics and poetry, I'm still a big fan.
The American Night is much better than I expected it would be. Given it's the last collection of Jim's work and was published many years after his death, I thought it might be a 'scraping of the barrel' effort. But it's not--this is a solid collection of interesting, original, and entertaining poetry.
I've alluded to this before, but it's hard to judge the outside writing efforts of one's favourite songwriters; part of the fun is bound to be noticing references to their lives or experiences or albums, as well as a general high level of rock 'n' roll excitement (plenty of sex and drugs and rebellion). Often you can be reading along enthralled, but a part of you wonders if what you are reading is actually any good. I think Jim's poetry is the real thing and it's too bad he didn't live further to develop his voice and substance.
This collection is put together nicely--it clearly wasn't just a quick cash-in to profit from Jim's fame and celebrity. The contents include 'An American Prayer,' the two performance pieces that became songs, 'A Celebration of the Lizard' and 'The Soft Parade,' Jim's poems from The Village Reading, various sets of the poems from his journals, several of his lyrics, and the last poems he wrote as his 'Paris Journal.' It's quite a diverse offering and there is an illuminating description of where each section's poems came from.
I think it's true that Jim's lyrics are stronger than his poem's overall, perhaps because he chose the best poems to turn into lyrics and then fine-tuned them down into tighter and somewhat more coherent works. But his poems are fascinating to me and I recommend this book if you are a fan of Jim Morrison's lyrics and the Doors.
The American Night is much better than I expected it would be. Given it's the last collection of Jim's work and was published many years after his death, I thought it might be a 'scraping of the barrel' effort. But it's not--this is a solid collection of interesting, original, and entertaining poetry.
I've alluded to this before, but it's hard to judge the outside writing efforts of one's favourite songwriters; part of the fun is bound to be noticing references to their lives or experiences or albums, as well as a general high level of rock 'n' roll excitement (plenty of sex and drugs and rebellion). Often you can be reading along enthralled, but a part of you wonders if what you are reading is actually any good. I think Jim's poetry is the real thing and it's too bad he didn't live further to develop his voice and substance.
This collection is put together nicely--it clearly wasn't just a quick cash-in to profit from Jim's fame and celebrity. The contents include 'An American Prayer,' the two performance pieces that became songs, 'A Celebration of the Lizard' and 'The Soft Parade,' Jim's poems from The Village Reading, various sets of the poems from his journals, several of his lyrics, and the last poems he wrote as his 'Paris Journal.' It's quite a diverse offering and there is an illuminating description of where each section's poems came from.
I think it's true that Jim's lyrics are stronger than his poem's overall, perhaps because he chose the best poems to turn into lyrics and then fine-tuned them down into tighter and somewhat more coherent works. But his poems are fascinating to me and I recommend this book if you are a fan of Jim Morrison's lyrics and the Doors.
October 3, 2012
Jim Morrison should have lived in some phantastic ubber cool, mind blowing community with The Doors, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Hunter S. Thompson, and all should have write a piece together and what The American Night is like a poetic masterpiece by a poet turn singer. A must read for all free minds out there.
July 18, 2009
My ex recommended this book. At least he was good for something.
March 5, 2015
It's worth reading for "The Hitchhiker" short script alone. It is also cool to see song lyrics in their expanded poetical form. The imagery throughout the book is incredible.
March 15, 2020
The most I've known of Jim Morrison was from Lana Del Rey's songs. I've never listened to "The Doors", never read his works. I found this book in the library and remembered the lyrics "I'm living like Jim Morrison" from Lana's song "Gods and Monsters". I was curious- what kind of life was she talking about? I checked the book out and read it, and now I think I could claim it as one of the most enchanting poetry books I've ever read.
The author takes us back to 1960-1970 America. The vivid imagery (especially in "The Hitchhiker"), the criticism, the good, the bad, the glory, the gore, the way of living. You feel it in your bones- that feeling expressed through bold, bright imagery and metaphors, the lack of sense and the madness. Everything falls apart and comes back together. The descriptions dance around you, form themselves if your mind and completely sucks you into the beauty, one that is not always appealing.
"Love cannot save you
from your own fate
Art cannot soothe
Words cannot tame
The Night."
Heaven or Hell, Jim Morrison
I must start by saying that this book was more of an experience than a read. The poems are surreal, hard to understand at first and have this almost unearthly feeling. I loved some the poems, but "Celebration of a Lizard", "The Soft Parade", "Welcome to the American Night", "In that year...", "Curses and Invocations", "Stand there listening", "Always a playground instructor", "The sidewalkers moved...", "Be awoke, talking...", "Heaven or Hell", "Scour the Mind..." and "Lessons on becoming" made me think a lot about the energy they give off and greatly affected me.
"-I'm surprised you could get it up.
He whips her lightly, sardonically
w/belt.
-Haven't I been thru enough? she asks.
The dark girl begins to bleed.
It's Catholic heaven. I have an
ancient Indian crucifix around
my neck. My chest is hard
& brown. Lying on stained &
wretched sheets w/a bleeding Virgin.
We could plan a murder, or
Start a religion."
Always a playground instructor, Jim Morrison
The ambiance is grim, the action is damned, the characters are destined to live the life they live. The poems are fatalistic, almost nightmarish. The author uses strong imagery to convey an uneasy, gut-wrenching feeling. The book leaves a heavy aftertaste, one that does not dilute easily. it makes you think, it makes you mutter "what the hell..." and leaves you in a state of misunderstanding. It scares you, it attracts you. It triggers your fight or flight.
"Be awoke, talking. Telling dreams.
an explosion during the night.
A new siren. Not cop. Fire,
New York ambulance or european
movie riot news but the strange
siren predicting war. She ran
to the window. The yellow thing
had risen."
Be awoke, talking..., Jim Morrison
The rhythm is mesmerizing. The lines don't make sense when taken out of context, and form such a beautiful image when together. The rhymes flow like a song, not obvious, but present. These rhymes make the most gruesome descriptions beautiful, and the most beautiful things disturbing. They give a strong flavor to the poem and leave you yearning for more.
A must-read, I recommend it. Better read at night.
The author takes us back to 1960-1970 America. The vivid imagery (especially in "The Hitchhiker"), the criticism, the good, the bad, the glory, the gore, the way of living. You feel it in your bones- that feeling expressed through bold, bright imagery and metaphors, the lack of sense and the madness. Everything falls apart and comes back together. The descriptions dance around you, form themselves if your mind and completely sucks you into the beauty, one that is not always appealing.
"Love cannot save you
from your own fate
Art cannot soothe
Words cannot tame
The Night."
Heaven or Hell, Jim Morrison
I must start by saying that this book was more of an experience than a read. The poems are surreal, hard to understand at first and have this almost unearthly feeling. I loved some the poems, but "Celebration of a Lizard", "The Soft Parade", "Welcome to the American Night", "In that year...", "Curses and Invocations", "Stand there listening", "Always a playground instructor", "The sidewalkers moved...", "Be awoke, talking...", "Heaven or Hell", "Scour the Mind..." and "Lessons on becoming" made me think a lot about the energy they give off and greatly affected me.
"-I'm surprised you could get it up.
He whips her lightly, sardonically
w/belt.
-Haven't I been thru enough? she asks.
The dark girl begins to bleed.
It's Catholic heaven. I have an
ancient Indian crucifix around
my neck. My chest is hard
& brown. Lying on stained &
wretched sheets w/a bleeding Virgin.
We could plan a murder, or
Start a religion."
Always a playground instructor, Jim Morrison
The ambiance is grim, the action is damned, the characters are destined to live the life they live. The poems are fatalistic, almost nightmarish. The author uses strong imagery to convey an uneasy, gut-wrenching feeling. The book leaves a heavy aftertaste, one that does not dilute easily. it makes you think, it makes you mutter "what the hell..." and leaves you in a state of misunderstanding. It scares you, it attracts you. It triggers your fight or flight.
"Be awoke, talking. Telling dreams.
an explosion during the night.
A new siren. Not cop. Fire,
New York ambulance or european
movie riot news but the strange
siren predicting war. She ran
to the window. The yellow thing
had risen."
Be awoke, talking..., Jim Morrison
The rhythm is mesmerizing. The lines don't make sense when taken out of context, and form such a beautiful image when together. The rhymes flow like a song, not obvious, but present. These rhymes make the most gruesome descriptions beautiful, and the most beautiful things disturbing. They give a strong flavor to the poem and leave you yearning for more.
A must-read, I recommend it. Better read at night.
March 14, 2014
Fluidity is key, and Morrison always had a ring of them like a rogue custodian, often peeking into rooms clearly labeled "Do Not Disturb". This is the definitive collection of 'The Lizard King's' poetry, despite the fact that it is the second volume in the collection. This collection displays Morrison's true potential as a poet, more-so than his lyrics or even his previous works (The Lords & New Creatures/ Wilderness). It also shows the diversity of his work. Through The American Night you find ties to a whole world of lesser know Morrison artifacts, like the original screenplay that his film HWY: An American Pastoral was based off of. Many of the poems included are also featured on the spoken word album An American Prayer (with music by the Doors).
This collection does it all, it bites like sandpaper, speeds like a rocket, and makes you wish you were a stronger swimmer in the ocean of Morrison's mind. Throughout the collection you find scanned copies of Morrison's original handwritten versions of the poems in his unmistakable cursive, giving more insight into how he organised his thoughts. My only problem with this collection (and all other collections of his work) is that they didn't publish it under the name "James Douglas Morrison", which is where my research has brought me to believe he preferred.
I highly recommend this to any fan of poetry (unless you're Gregory Corso, who seems to have been upset with Jimbo calling himself a poet) and I feel obligated to recommend this to any Doors fan.
This collection does it all, it bites like sandpaper, speeds like a rocket, and makes you wish you were a stronger swimmer in the ocean of Morrison's mind. Throughout the collection you find scanned copies of Morrison's original handwritten versions of the poems in his unmistakable cursive, giving more insight into how he organised his thoughts. My only problem with this collection (and all other collections of his work) is that they didn't publish it under the name "James Douglas Morrison", which is where my research has brought me to believe he preferred.
I highly recommend this to any fan of poetry (unless you're Gregory Corso, who seems to have been upset with Jimbo calling himself a poet) and I feel obligated to recommend this to any Doors fan.
May 10, 2010
Jim Morrison seems to be comfortable with nightmare, exploring confidently in places where others would try to force themselves awake.
Some of these poems are unintelligible to me, yet they still invoke emotion with their texture and imagery.
Other poems that seem unintelligible at first blush become powerful with a more careful reading.
It was a very good read.
"Naked we come
& bruised we go
nude pastry
for the slow soft worms
below"
Some of these poems are unintelligible to me, yet they still invoke emotion with their texture and imagery.
Other poems that seem unintelligible at first blush become powerful with a more careful reading.
It was a very good read.
"Naked we come
& bruised we go
nude pastry
for the slow soft worms
below"
July 25, 2014
I had actually saved up money to buy this book and I NEVER save money.
Besides being a Doors fan and absolutely drooling over Jim Morrison, I was more enchanted by Jim, the poet, the prophet.
The American Night is a gold mine, full of terrifyingly beautiful poetry, to which you can relate in your own way. Its dark, twisted, yet truthful & beautiful.
Jim's mind must have been so enticingly dark.
All hail the lizard king.
He'll remain in our hearts forever.
Besides being a Doors fan and absolutely drooling over Jim Morrison, I was more enchanted by Jim, the poet, the prophet.
The American Night is a gold mine, full of terrifyingly beautiful poetry, to which you can relate in your own way. Its dark, twisted, yet truthful & beautiful.
Jim's mind must have been so enticingly dark.
All hail the lizard king.
He'll remain in our hearts forever.
October 27, 2019
The bulk of Morrison’s greatest works, all packed into one slim volume. He was this and so much more. I’d very much like to quote particular passages, but I’d have to include at least 70% this volume alone to do him justice, so instead, listen to him reciting his poems & lyrics as you read them. That is all.
September 30, 2014
The Basics
A collection of poetry, lyrics, and prose by Jim Morrison, lead singer of The Doors.
My Thoughts
I don’t feel qualified to talk about poetry in a greater, broader sense of the term, as in encompassing a whole genre. I don’t read enough of it to be able to do that. I can’t compare Morrison’s work to anyone, because I wouldn’t know how. I can only really talk about his work from the standpoint of being a fan of his music. If you wanted something grander than that, turn away now.
One thing I can say is that with my unfamiliarity with poetry, I struggle to find where I want to start. Frost and Dickinson always left me feeling bored and then utterly shocked when people said their work meant this or that when I couldn’t see it. Shows what a layman I am, saying that.
But it also leads me into how this book made me feel. Morrison spun his words purposefully and well. His imagery was crisp and raw, and it evoked so much emotion. The meaning behind what he meant to say was never lost on me. Even though it was psychedelic and strange, it was charged with an energy that you will instantly grasp as you read. He doesn’t hide a deeper meaning behind anything pretty, and most of the poems here have a transgressive leaning, all of which I appreciated. I found I couldn’t read it in one sitting because it was almost overpowering, which I mean as a compliment.
If you’re interested in 60s counterculture or transgressive literature of any kind, this is a good find. And as you can see, even the uninitiated in the poetry world can find an easy in here.
Final Rating
5/5
A collection of poetry, lyrics, and prose by Jim Morrison, lead singer of The Doors.
My Thoughts
I don’t feel qualified to talk about poetry in a greater, broader sense of the term, as in encompassing a whole genre. I don’t read enough of it to be able to do that. I can’t compare Morrison’s work to anyone, because I wouldn’t know how. I can only really talk about his work from the standpoint of being a fan of his music. If you wanted something grander than that, turn away now.
One thing I can say is that with my unfamiliarity with poetry, I struggle to find where I want to start. Frost and Dickinson always left me feeling bored and then utterly shocked when people said their work meant this or that when I couldn’t see it. Shows what a layman I am, saying that.
But it also leads me into how this book made me feel. Morrison spun his words purposefully and well. His imagery was crisp and raw, and it evoked so much emotion. The meaning behind what he meant to say was never lost on me. Even though it was psychedelic and strange, it was charged with an energy that you will instantly grasp as you read. He doesn’t hide a deeper meaning behind anything pretty, and most of the poems here have a transgressive leaning, all of which I appreciated. I found I couldn’t read it in one sitting because it was almost overpowering, which I mean as a compliment.
If you’re interested in 60s counterculture or transgressive literature of any kind, this is a good find. And as you can see, even the uninitiated in the poetry world can find an easy in here.
Final Rating
5/5
July 3, 2015
Un recuerdo para Jim Morrison hoy que se celebra el aniversario de su muerte.
Poesía joven, solo diré eso.
Una selección de versos que me han gustado:
"Being drunk is a good disguise.
I drink so I can talk to assholes.
This includes me."
"THE OPENING OF THE TRUNK
—Moment of inner freedom
when the mind is opened & the
infinite universe revealed
& the soul is left to wander
dazed & confus'd searching
here & there for teachers & friends"
"You're too young to be old.
You don't need to be told,
You want to see things as they are.
You know exactly what I do.
Everything."
"IF IT'S NO PROBLEM...
If it's no problem, why mention it?
Everything spoken means that
it's opposite, & everything else.
I'm alive, I'm dying."
"In conclusion, darling, let
me repeat: your home is still
here, inviolate & certain
and I open the wide smile of
my remembrance. This to you
on the anniversary of our first
night. I know you love me
to talk this way. I hope
no one sees this message
written in the calm lonely
far out languid summer afternoon
W/my total love."
Poesía joven, solo diré eso.
Una selección de versos que me han gustado:
"Being drunk is a good disguise.
I drink so I can talk to assholes.
This includes me."
"THE OPENING OF THE TRUNK
—Moment of inner freedom
when the mind is opened & the
infinite universe revealed
& the soul is left to wander
dazed & confus'd searching
here & there for teachers & friends"
"You're too young to be old.
You don't need to be told,
You want to see things as they are.
You know exactly what I do.
Everything."
"IF IT'S NO PROBLEM...
If it's no problem, why mention it?
Everything spoken means that
it's opposite, & everything else.
I'm alive, I'm dying."
"In conclusion, darling, let
me repeat: your home is still
here, inviolate & certain
and I open the wide smile of
my remembrance. This to you
on the anniversary of our first
night. I know you love me
to talk this way. I hope
no one sees this message
written in the calm lonely
far out languid summer afternoon
W/my total love."
January 25, 2020
Somehow not as powerful as Wilderness. Could be because I read them almost back to back, so there was just too much Morrison in such a short time span. Or these later poems, from the bottom of the barrel so to speak, were just worse. The script for "The Hitchhiker" was a highlight, as well as the "Paris Journal", which Morrison had apparently polished just before he passed on in a Parisian bathtub.
I feel the imagery was much more religious in tone, mystic; though there was plenty of esoteric symbolism in Wilderness as well, here it felt more explicit. But maybe I was just more in tune to receive. Death is very much present.
— The cycle begins anew
a luring lulling sick-sad maddening
haunting ego-familiar strain
calls the wayward wanderer
home again
a music mosaic made of all image
tunes preceding
The whistle or warm woman's cry that
calls the child home from play
I feel the imagery was much more religious in tone, mystic; though there was plenty of esoteric symbolism in Wilderness as well, here it felt more explicit. But maybe I was just more in tune to receive. Death is very much present.
— The cycle begins anew
a luring lulling sick-sad maddening
haunting ego-familiar strain
calls the wayward wanderer
home again
a music mosaic made of all image
tunes preceding
The whistle or warm woman's cry that
calls the child home from play
October 5, 2012
Containing a partial screenplay and copious amounts of lusty and trippy poetry, The American Night represents for me the true poet beneath the famous���often infamous���front man, Jim Morrison. Revealing even more about death and society than some of his original lyrics, these pieces form a liberating, yet provocative and stimulating, style unique to Morrison. A perfect supplement to the music of The Doors, Morrison's poetic distinction is stirred by the smooth sounds and distinct vocabulary of his verse, which have greatly enhanced my perspective on poetry. Delicately balancing the abstract and concrete, he reveals, not only the thin line between reality and hallucination but also, his own poetic prowess.
April 15, 2010
This book is a vibrant collection of Jim Morrison's work. Morrison proves himself as a true poet several times. Although some of his works are not amazing, there are a good number of poems and pieces that stand out. The poem "Awake" was my favorite in the whole collection. The first line of this poem really speaks to me, it goes: "Awake, shake dreams from your hair, my child, my sweet one." It is this sort of writing that hooked me as a fan of Morrison's poetry, and I have reread his poems many times. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in poetry. Wether you like it or not it is an interesting read.
January 27, 2011
Everyone goes through their Jim Morrison phase, right?
July 10, 2012
Jim Morrison, may have been in a great band, but his poetry is like something you'd read in a junior high creative writing class and he was obviously on lots of acid at the time.
January 29, 2016
A book you don't let people borrow. You will never get it back.
January 24, 2022
I don't know if every Doors fan would like it, because Morrison's poetry is in some cases very different to their music. It is, however, a good compilation of poems, some being more abstract and that some readers might find difficult to dive into, some being pretty much images built with words, some being more explicit and less "poetic", etc, so it depends if you enjoy the style or not. Some of them I really liked, some of them made me think, and some others didn't captivate me so much, but I liked it, overall.
I don't know if the Doors lyrics section was necessary in the book, but it doesn't do any bad. There are also some poems that appear in the bands lyrics, with extra parts, etc. What I found like a nice addition was The Hitchhiker (An American Pastoral), which is a screenplay he wrote. (There's also a film he recorded called An American Pastoral, which I think was based in this idea).
Also, there are a couple of scans of a few of his handwritten poems, which was cool to see.
I read somewhere that what made this works interesting was probably Jim Morrison himself, and it probably is like that in some cases, but if you are interested in getting into more personal works of his, give it a try, because a lot of them are very good.
Also, there is a recording of Morrison reciting poems in a poetry session, some of which appear in the book. I recommend you checking that out if you have read it and if you haven't, it'll give you an idea of his poetry works, though here there are a lot more, including drafts.
I don't know if the Doors lyrics section was necessary in the book, but it doesn't do any bad. There are also some poems that appear in the bands lyrics, with extra parts, etc. What I found like a nice addition was The Hitchhiker (An American Pastoral), which is a screenplay he wrote. (There's also a film he recorded called An American Pastoral, which I think was based in this idea).
Also, there are a couple of scans of a few of his handwritten poems, which was cool to see.
I read somewhere that what made this works interesting was probably Jim Morrison himself, and it probably is like that in some cases, but if you are interested in getting into more personal works of his, give it a try, because a lot of them are very good.
Also, there is a recording of Morrison reciting poems in a poetry session, some of which appear in the book. I recommend you checking that out if you have read it and if you haven't, it'll give you an idea of his poetry works, though here there are a lot more, including drafts.
June 6, 2023
Morrison was a better performer than a poet, though each aspect feeds the other and the strongest Doors tracks are those which found a synthesis between the two. That’s the simplest way to say that I enjoyed these selections quite a bit, but they lack the depth which is imbued by Morrison’s vocals. I did enjoy An American Prayer and Celebration of the Lizard, though I’d heard them recorded prior to reading. Most of these were at least provocatively interesting otherwise, and I enjoyed them while recognizing they aren’t up to snuff with work such as Cohen’s. This is a symbolic 3.5.
October 30, 2025
this book is the greatest thing that every happened to me. I've liked the doors ever since my dad first played them to me, one day I went to the library and I got this book because I've always wanted to read Jim's poetry knowing how good he write and I have never been the same since.
October 1, 2023
LFLF (little free library find): absolutely insufferable read that is probably incredibly important to many people. 2 stars only because it was quick.
April 14, 2024
Some poetry to get me out of reading slump
wow did he really like writing abt sex
wow did he really like writing abt sex
October 6, 2007
Jim Morrison lived for years in Astoria, Oregon.
Permanent sunburnt cheeks (not rosy health) from summers on a tuna boat in the Alaskan waters.
"It's a good honest living, man."
He draped his wiry body in a great white coat and mumbled to himself in line at Safeway, sustaining an existence on Marlboros, Miller Genuine Drafts and beef jerky.
"It's good and honest to live, man. Live and learn."
"What about the bath tub? What about Paris?"
"What about Paris, man? That was another Jim. That was another life altogether."
"Don't go, Jim."
"It's tuna season, man. I gotta go. It's good. It's...it's honest."
Permanent sunburnt cheeks (not rosy health) from summers on a tuna boat in the Alaskan waters.
"It's a good honest living, man."
He draped his wiry body in a great white coat and mumbled to himself in line at Safeway, sustaining an existence on Marlboros, Miller Genuine Drafts and beef jerky.
"It's good and honest to live, man. Live and learn."
"What about the bath tub? What about Paris?"
"What about Paris, man? That was another Jim. That was another life altogether."
"Don't go, Jim."
"It's tuna season, man. I gotta go. It's good. It's...it's honest."
February 28, 2011
Jim Morrison was the front man for the band, The Doors, in the 60's. He always wrote controversial lyrics in his songs about war, death, sex and love. He always considered himself more of an American poet than a rock star. This collection of poems and songs shows that he truly was a great poet. The collection varies from poems that have never been published before to songs that have been hits back in the 60’s. Most of his poems have some kind of order and rhyme scheme but some are just scatterbrained and really out there but it’s still very interesting and entertaining. I really enjoyed The American Night and all Morrison’s poetry collections.
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