Morrison, a Feast of Friends

by Frank Lisciandro

Genres: Nonfiction, Music

174 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1991

Reviews

[Clark Hallman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Morrison: A Feast of Friends by Frank Lisciandro – A long time ago, when I was in high school and college I was obsessed with The Doors, and even more obsessed with their lead singer, Jim Morrison. I have read several books about The Doors and Jim Morrison over the years, and I purchased this book shortly after it was published in 1991. I kept it on my bookshelf where I would see it every day just waiting for the right time to read it. Well, I read it over the last few days and I found it to be fascinating. This book emphasizes Morrison’s lifelong interests, friendships, personality, and emotional struggles through the memories of his friends and associates. Each chapter is anchored by the memories of Morrison’s closest friends and associates and covers a different period of Morrison’s life from high school, UCLA film school, the creation of the Doors, the difficult times with the band, his downward spiral, and more. Overall, it characterizes Morrison, not as his wild and crazy stage personality, but instead as a very intelligent, gentle, compassionate and determined man who wanted to be more than a rock n’ roll singer. His real love was poetry and he wanted to focus on that instead of music, but it was difficult to disentangle himself from his musical commitments. The book also presents him as a man who used some chemical stimulation, and reveals his truly uncontrollable addiction to alcohol. It provides a very informative, interesting, compelling, and I believe accurate, depiction of Morrison’s personality and life. It also presents over 100 photographs of Morrison and his friends and associates. I enjoyed reading this book very much and I will return it to my bookshelf where it belongs.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intimate remembrances of Morrison's closest friends.

[Joy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Frank Lisciandro has compiled reminiscences of friends of Jim Morrison, those friends who Ray Manzarek described as encouraging Jim in his self-destructive excesses. Actually, guessing from the various descriptions of Jim, it's doubtful he needed encouragement. This book is lined with many pictures of Jim that I haven't seen elsewhere, which somewhat makes up for the lack of substance.

[Marcello · Rating 3 out of 5]

A chi fosse veramente interessato a conoscere meglio l'uomo Jim Morrison consiglierei di partire da questo libro, in cui Frank Lisciandro ha intervistato amici e collaboratori di Jim: ne esce qualcosa di molto lontano dallo stereotipo "sesso, drog & rock and roll" che gli è stato cucito addosso.

[Ana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cool set of interviews by Frank Lisciandro (Feast of Friends, HWY) but really just a complement to other Morrison/Doors readings. Amazing photos though, many of them I'd never seen anywhere else.

[Chris Balz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the best book on Jim Morrison out there.

[Jurgen Struyve · Rating 5 out of 5]

In tegenstelling tot vele biografieën geeft dit boek een beeld van hoe de vrienden en kennissen van Jim Morrison hem zagen. Op die manier zie je hem tot leven komen als een gewone kerel van vlees en bloed. Het boek biedt een blik op zijn mooie karaktertrekken maar bevestigt daarnaast wel zijn 'wilde aspecten'. Een noodzakelijk boek voor iedere fan van Jim Morrison en the Doors.