I know the post-Jim Doors machine has been a runaway train business entity, seemingly aimed at squeezing every last cent out of the Lizard King's adoring fans, but maybe this premium-priced box set might be worth close to the asking price of US$90.
The last days of the Doors have a dark attraction to them - sort of like the truck-running-downhill-with-no-brakes finality. "LA Woman" had a damaged, world-weary blues feel that dwarves much of the band's mid-period output.
This one pre-dates The End, documenting NYC gigs that would appear, in part, on the sprawling/bloated "Absolutely Live" set and recorded around the time of "Morrison Hotel", but you can hear where they're heading.
Jim Morrison was an asshole whose bandmates had nightmares because they were worried he was still alive...Jim Osterberg lost his looks and tried to get him sacked...
Uber-starmaker Danny Fields reflects on his rich past in music in the first of a two-part interview at Thirsty Media's e-presence here.
The Internerd throws up the strangest people. Some of them are seriously mentally unwell, I'm sure. But to more important questions: Did Jim Morrison have a son? And does he front a band called Lizard Sun King?
If you haven't heard it before, the story begins with a bloke named Cliff Morrison/Marston. You can see him and his band Lizard Sun King below:
There's a startling physical resemblance between Cliff and The Lizard King in his declining years, sure, and his pitch and tone are similar. But why doesn't the guy go and get a DNA test and grab a chunk of the (ever-expanding) Morrison estate? Or get himself a decent lawyer and stay out of jail if this posting from the John Densmore forum is true.
Here's the San Diego TV news story that announced this whole thing in 1993:
That was 16 years ago and Cliff looks like he's broken through to the other side a few times since then. A confirmed Doors progeny, guitarist Waylon Kreiger, has played with him or has been overdubbed onto one of his recordings, depending on what story you believe.
Cliff sure gets around. According to this, he was married to a member of Marlon Brando's family. He's one of the star attractions at a Las Vegas (where else?) festival to apparently raise funds for research into diabetes here.
If someone tells me that Cliff's CD being flogged on some website called doors.com is irrefutable evidence that the guy sprang from the loins of Jimbo four decades ago, excuse me for guffawing. If that is a legit Doors Pty Ltd website you just know they'd sell the coke-denuded nasal cartilage of the late Danny Sugerman to make a buck.
I doubt the authenticity of this exchange of letters ("legal council"?) in The Lizard King Lounge and what looks like a badly Photoshopped picture of Cliff's band being given star billing at L.A.'s Whisky-a-Go-Go.
Anyway, back to the mentally unwell and there are minutes of entertainment in this gem of a thread from some message board with Jim's daughter solemnly weighing in and the not unexpected contemporary sightings of Mr Mojo Rising keeping things real.
Will the real Morrison offspring please stand up? Given Jim's inability to keep his own lizard in his leather pants, I have a feeling there are plenty of them out there.
