What do you think?
Rate this book
The Top 10 Commandments of Jim Morrison: Priceless Prescriptions for the Soul
The Top 10 Commandments of Jim Morrison highlights the controversial singer's most cogent commands for breaking through to higher consciousness and self-knowledge. Jim Morrison just won’t fade away.
Despite many attempts over the years to put the final nail in Morrison's coffin and banish him forever from our consciousness, The Doors are as popular as ever. Many critics said the group wouldn’t last, but millions of fans of all ages continue to say otherwise. Unlike most other music from the 60’s, The Doors are still fresh, compelling, and relevant. For a band that was dismissed by major rock critics like Lester Bangs, Greil Marcus, Robert Christgau, and Dave Marsh (to name only a few), the list of what some might call astonishing facts about The Doors goes on and on. Consider the
In 2010, the hit television program Cold Case featured all Doors music in an episode called Metamorphosis. In 2000, National Public Radio selected Light My Fire as one of the NPR 100, its “list of the most significant American musical works of the last century.” In 1999, twenty-eight years after Morrison’s death, he was chosen by a live VH-1 studio audience as the #1 frontman in all of rock and roll. 45 million Doors albums have been sold since 1991, a year in which Caryn James wondered “what the fuss is about” in her review of Oliver Stone’s The Doors. Morrison’s grave in Pere Lachaise is one of the top Paris tourist destinations and is said to be the 3rd most visited celebrity gravesite on the planet. People from all over the world make it a destination, not just a place to visit while in Paris. The word “pilgrimage” has been used by various writers trying to figure out the continuing allure.
Morrison’s legacy is still highly controversial, with some calling him an intrepid seer and others a mock-Dionysian sex god. No one doubts the genius of The Beatles, Bob Dylan, or The Rolling Stones, but The Doors’ artistry is still widely debated and often ridiculed. Even today. In early 2011, Alex von Tunzelmann said this about the Oliver Stone “It's a bloated, pompous, unbalanced film, which looks great but has nothing going on beneath the surface. This is the biopic Jim Morrison deserved.” In 2010, Stephen Holden summed up Morrison as “faintly ludicrous” and “a charismatic male pin-up.” In 1991, George Will pilloried Morrison in Slamming The Doors, his double-length Newsweek “Jim Morrison is dead, dead as a doornail. He has been since 1971, when he expired, bloated and burnt out, in a bathtub in Paris at 27, not a moment too soon. His life was a bad influence.” Dave Marsh wrote in 1979 that The Doors were the most “overrated group in rock history.” Many people apparently agree with Marsh, Will, and von Tunzelmann. But anyone who thinks that there is “nothing going on beneath the surface” of Jim Morrison is very badly mistaken and missing out on something of extreme importance.
In this work, I do not explain the continuing popularity of The Doors and their meaning in detail. I happen to think that they are the most underrated group in rock, despite all the accolades, but I haven’t listened to 10,000 bands. Here, I am mainly interested in what Morrison did in order to have us reach higher knowledge. Jim Morrison was a fearless explorer of the unknown who made an amazingly profound discovery of universal significance. Morrison journeyed to the edge of consciousness and brought back findings of great importance to all of us. He had something of the utmost magnitude to teach EVERYONE. And I mean EVERYONE. If you can fog a mirror, this includes you.
There is unique healing power in the music of The Doors, and Morrison wants you to experience it for yourself.
Despite many attempts over the years to put the final nail in Morrison's coffin and banish him forever from our consciousness, The Doors are as popular as ever. Many critics said the group wouldn’t last, but millions of fans of all ages continue to say otherwise. Unlike most other music from the 60’s, The Doors are still fresh, compelling, and relevant. For a band that was dismissed by major rock critics like Lester Bangs, Greil Marcus, Robert Christgau, and Dave Marsh (to name only a few), the list of what some might call astonishing facts about The Doors goes on and on. Consider the
In 2010, the hit television program Cold Case featured all Doors music in an episode called Metamorphosis. In 2000, National Public Radio selected Light My Fire as one of the NPR 100, its “list of the most significant American musical works of the last century.” In 1999, twenty-eight years after Morrison’s death, he was chosen by a live VH-1 studio audience as the #1 frontman in all of rock and roll. 45 million Doors albums have been sold since 1991, a year in which Caryn James wondered “what the fuss is about” in her review of Oliver Stone’s The Doors. Morrison’s grave in Pere Lachaise is one of the top Paris tourist destinations and is said to be the 3rd most visited celebrity gravesite on the planet. People from all over the world make it a destination, not just a place to visit while in Paris. The word “pilgrimage” has been used by various writers trying to figure out the continuing allure.
Morrison’s legacy is still highly controversial, with some calling him an intrepid seer and others a mock-Dionysian sex god. No one doubts the genius of The Beatles, Bob Dylan, or The Rolling Stones, but The Doors’ artistry is still widely debated and often ridiculed. Even today. In early 2011, Alex von Tunzelmann said this about the Oliver Stone “It's a bloated, pompous, unbalanced film, which looks great but has nothing going on beneath the surface. This is the biopic Jim Morrison deserved.” In 2010, Stephen Holden summed up Morrison as “faintly ludicrous” and “a charismatic male pin-up.” In 1991, George Will pilloried Morrison in Slamming The Doors, his double-length Newsweek “Jim Morrison is dead, dead as a doornail. He has been since 1971, when he expired, bloated and burnt out, in a bathtub in Paris at 27, not a moment too soon. His life was a bad influence.” Dave Marsh wrote in 1979 that The Doors were the most “overrated group in rock history.” Many people apparently agree with Marsh, Will, and von Tunzelmann. But anyone who thinks that there is “nothing going on beneath the surface” of Jim Morrison is very badly mistaken and missing out on something of extreme importance.
In this work, I do not explain the continuing popularity of The Doors and their meaning in detail. I happen to think that they are the most underrated group in rock, despite all the accolades, but I haven’t listened to 10,000 bands. Here, I am mainly interested in what Morrison did in order to have us reach higher knowledge. Jim Morrison was a fearless explorer of the unknown who made an amazingly profound discovery of universal significance. Morrison journeyed to the edge of consciousness and brought back findings of great importance to all of us. He had something of the utmost magnitude to teach EVERYONE. And I mean EVERYONE. If you can fog a mirror, this includes you.
There is unique healing power in the music of The Doors, and Morrison wants you to experience it for yourself.
22 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 10, 2011
4 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 17, 2014
This book was an interesting idea. The author focused on the collective lyrics and poetry of Morrison and chose the 10 most poignant themes. At first I admired the fact that he was willing to offer the counterpoints of Morrison's critics, but it soon became annoying, as he would quickly dismiss the critics on the basis that they just didn't get Morrison. It would have been better without any of that.
Displaying 1 of 1 review