Jim Morrison: The Bad Boy of Classic Rock

Source: The New Democrat– The Lizard King Jim Morrison.

Source:The New Democrat

“Flashback Friday, this week brings the story of famous American singer and poet James Douglas ‘Jim’ Morrison. Known widely as the lead vocalist of psychedelic rock band ‘The Doors’, Jim was a charismatic singer and regarded as the most iconic figures of popular rock music history. He is remembered today for his outrageous stage performances and rebellious lifestyle other than his unforgettable songs and lyrics.

Jim Morrison was born on December 8, 1949 in Melbourne, Florida. Jim was a dutiful and intelligent child, a voracious reader and a passionate diarist. Morrison joined University of California at Los Angeles after graduating from high school to study film. It was here at UCLA that he developed an avid interest in poetry.

Ray Manzarek, a former classmate from UCLA and Jim came with an idea of putting together a band for which they recruited Robbie Krieger as the guitarist and John Densomore as the drummer and began calling themselves ‘The Doors’. Elektra Records signed the Doors in 1966-67 for a recording contract. After the modest success of their first single, “Break on Through” it was their second single, “Light My Fire,” which catapulted the band to the forefront of the rock and roll world, reaching No. 1 on music charts. The group became known for its charismatic stage personality and its hypnotic music and Jim gained a reputation for erratic public behaviour.

In a small but inspiring journey, Jim Morrison led a bohemian life and remained infamous for alcohol dependency, drug use, violent temper and infidelity which led him into many troubles and life long depression.

In an attempt to get his life back in order, he took time off The Doors and moved to Paris where he departed at the age of 27, on July 3 1971, allegedly due to heroine overdose. His early death deprived the world of beautiful music and poetry. However, the most legendary and mysterious rockstar of all time, Jim Morrison continues to inspire many disaffected people around the world, who in his words find the expression of their hopes and frustration!

His legacy and popularity can be best testified in the fact that his grave located at Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris is one of the world’s most visited resting place to this day.

From Fame Music

Jim Morrison aka The Lizard King, is the bad boy and frontman of classic rock and blues rock.

I’m not interested in heavy metal and punk rock, where I’m sure you’ll find guys who got into more trouble and perhaps had even bigger addiction problems. Curt Cobain and Axel Rose come to mind damn fast for me.

But, the heavy reliance and influence of black leather that you saw at least in the 1980s and 1990s especially with the leather jeans, boots, jackets, came from Jim Morrison. Which just to my point about how big a deal The Lizard King is when it comes to rock and roll and not just classic rock and blues rock where he made his biggest impact. But again heavy metal when you’re talking about wardrobe with the leather jeans, boots and jackets. That Jim Morrison made a staple of his wardrobe in the late 1960s, when almost no one else outside biker culture was wearing at all.

I don’t know of a frontman that meant more to his band than Jim Morrison. Not to take anything away from Ray Manzarek especially, who was great on the keyboards and also had a great singing voice. And Robby Krieger was an excellent guitarist and John Densmore could play the drums.

But The Doors are famous because of Jim Morrison, but Morrison wouldn’t have needed The Doors at least the group that was put together to be famous and successful. How many other rock frontman at least from that generation, had the intelligence, the wit, the writing ability and then throw in the style that The Lizard King had.

In an era where frontman looked somewhat preppy except for the long hair and looked like hippies, I mean we are talking about the late 1960s after all, Jim Morrison is wearing a black leather suit, skin-tight black leather jeans, that would be called skinny leathers today. With a black leather suit jacket, an Indian concho belt and black suede and leather boots.

Jim Morrison not just put leather jeans on the map in rock and roll, but leather period. To the point that Elvis Presley starts wearing a black leather suit in the late 60s and early 70s. John Kay, from Steppenwolf has his own Lizard King outfit. With a leather vest, black leather jeans and an Indian belt.

The hard rockers of the 1980s Kiss, Motley Crew, Guns N Roses, as well as heavy metal bands like Skid Row, are all wearing leather jackets and leather jeans. But much more casually than Jim Morrison and wore biker jackets and t-shirts with their leathers.

Morrison, again was a rebel and did his own thing and did it so well that he made it so cool and had others following him. To the point that there are countless Doors cover bands and Jim Morrison covers. With the Jim Morrison figure always in his black leathers and concho belt and at times with the black leather jacket.

But with The Lizard King, it’s not just his leather rock and roll fashion. And the fact that perhaps no other man has ever wore a black leather suit better. Or the fact that thousands of women went to Doors concerts to check the man out every night and to see what he would do on the stage next. But it was also his music and the fact that he and The Doors did their own thing and made their own music and to a certain extent sung about the times the 1960s, but did it their own way.

Morrison, especially didn’t want to fit in some place, but instead create his own place that was even different from his own band members from again how he carried and presented himself on stage. And then see if others would follow him.

The Baby Boom Generation, the 1960s rockers who made it big in that decade, lost three great stars. Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. But I’m not sure as great as Jimi and Janis would’ve been even combined would’ve they’ve meant more to rock and roll than Jim Morrison. The Lizard King was one in a kind and great at simply being himself as an entertainer. And we haven’t seen anyone as good, or similar since.

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Julie Skyhigh: Smokin in Jeans in Boots

Source:Lucina Rochelle– Julie Skyhigh, smokin in jeans in boots.

Source:The New Democrat

“Woman Smoking Cigar skyhigh smoking in suede boots and fitted MET jeans.”

From Lucina Rochelle

Interesting video. Beautiful woman in skinny Met denim jeans, in suede boots, with a beautiful jacket, smoking a cigar. I understand the skinny jeans in suede boots look. I’m one of the biggest fans of that and one of the earliest fans of that when it came back into style in 2005. After disappearing when it came into style originally in the late 1970s as part of the designer jeans revolution.

It’s the smoking with a cigar and the need that some women seem to have to show themselves smoking in skinny jeans. I’m not a fan of smoking and I’m not a smoker, but that’s not what I don’t understand about that. It’s the fact that this is no longer the 1960s or 1970s, 1980s even. When you almost had to smoke at least in celebrity and entertainment culture to be considered cool.

Smoking has been going out of style since the 1990s or so with all the bad information that we have about the dangers of tobacco. And yet some women seem to think it’s cool to be seen smoking with jeans and smoking with jeans and boots. If you want to continue to look sexy in skinny jeans and boots, then give up the tobacco and you’ll make that easier, because you’ll age slower. Along with staying in shape.

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Jim Morrison Project: ‘Jim Morrison’s 1967 Shelby Mustang- Best Quality’

Source:The New Democrat – The Lizard King Jim Morrison.

Source:The New Democrat

“Jim Morrison driving his 1967 Shelby G.T. 500. The clip is from the film “When You’re Strange” (directed by Tom DiCillo) which is in turn borrowed from the movie “HWY: An American Pastoral” which Jim made in 1969 with some friends (Paul Ferrara, Babe Hill, and Frank Lisciandro). This footage is considerably clearer than my previous post of Jim driving the car. Go full screen with this clip, the resolution is killer. You can even see dust on the car it’s so crisp and clear.

I did a lot of research on the Shelby and all indications are it was trashed after Jim hit a telephone pole when he was drunk. He had clipped it before, but on that occasion he bent the frame, ending his time with The Blue Lady (his name for the car). Jim met the same fate as the Shelby two years later, though some think he’s still alive. It’s kind of fitting as some people are convinced this car still exists. Maybe he’s still driving it?

Shelby fans, note the car has no front grille emblem, no trunk emblem, small lettered Speedway 350 tires, uneven, hammered rear exhaust outlets, comfortweave seats, fender mounted antenna, and half the molding on the driver’s side taillight is missing. LOL. Best of all, it’s a 4-speed nightmist blue car with parchment interior and 10-spoke wheels. He knew how to pick ’em, huh? That’s the way I would have ordered it. If only you could go back in time!

I posted an almost identical clip about 4 years ago but something eventually happened with the formatting and as a result it looked like garbage. I deleted it after posting this newer, better, and even clearer clip even though the old one had about 225,000 views and 300 comments. This clip should be formatted correctly and in HD and will undoubtedly be ripped off by others just as my previous post was. So much for ingenuity. I’ve kept another post up which also features the car and includes the stock audio from “HWY” but the video quality lacks. Regardless, a nightmist blue parchment interior ’67 G.T. 500 4-speed car just like Jim’s sold at Barrett-Jackson auctions for $440,000 in January, 2015. Who would have ever believed it?”

Source:Toodlem– Jim Morrison and his 1967 Ford Shelby Mustang.

From Toodlem

This video was part of a 2010 PBS film about The Doors, really about Jim Morrison and The Doors, which what really drew my interest to the film that I have on dvd. And this is how the film starts off, with The Lizard King taking to the highway I believe in Southern California desert. And he starts off hitchhiking and someone in a Shelby Mustang, great car by the way, picks him up and somehow which is not shown in film, The Lizard King ends up with the car and driving the car.

Only The Lizard King would wear skin-tight black leather jeans in the California desert, but that is one thing that made him The Lizard King. And the original film I believe from 1969 I believe was part of Morrison needing a break from the music business and perhaps The Doors as a whole. And that is what they show with Lizard King hitting the road and seeing what life if like outside of his world. And its a good little film, the 1969 version and the 2010 PBS version Strange Days is even better and it shows this part in that film.

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Jim Morrison & The Doors: Live in Frankfurt, Germany (1968)

Source: Getty Images– The Lizard King Jim Morrison and The Doors, in Frankfurt, Germany. 

Source:The New Democrat 

“The Doors perform outside the Frankfurt town hall for German television.”

From Getty Images 

“The Doors truly are one of the all-time greatest and one of the most iconic rock bands in history. Jim Morrison was without a doubt one of the most prolific and charismatic frontman in all of rock, and his influence is still regarded as such even to this day. The Doors were one of the best, pure and simple.”

Source:Society Rock– Jim Morrison and The Doors: Live in Frankfurt, Germany in 1968.

From Society Rock

I think the Crawling King Snake video from The Doors with Jim Morrison perfectly sums up the style and career of Jim Morrison. The man made leather jeans and rock and roll culture and why it looks the way it does today, at least with hard rockers and headbangers. The Lizard King obviously wasn’t a hard rocker or a headbanger, but he put his signature black snake skin leather jeans on the map and made them cool. To the point by the 1980s they were standard for rockers male and female. And probably a big reason why Melissa Etheridge and Joan Jett got into them and why you saw rock and roll bands like Guns N Roses and Kiss get into them and of course the metal bands like Skid Row and Motley Crew.

And that is what you see in this video. The Lizard King moving so smoothly in his snake skin’s and cowboy boots and the concho belt. He combined rock and roll culture and lifestyle, with Western and American-Indian culture with the leather jeans, cowboy boots and concho belt and the leather jacket as well. He put these looks on the map in rock and roll, because of how often he wore this outfit in public and all the images that have come from those appearances. That were famous then and if anything now more popular forty-five years later. And without the Lizard King, rock and roll probably looks a lot different in the 1970s, 80s, 90s and today.

Leather in general wasn’t very popular in America when it came to wardrobes pre-late 1960s or so, except for perhaps biker and to a certain extent Western culture. So Jim Morrison in his full leather suit and then throw in the cowboys boots and the concho belt, that if anything even highlighted his leather jeans even more, especially in front, he was taking a risk. But he had the style, the look, the moves to make it work to the point that he became a rock and roll and perhaps even style icon in America and not just in rock and roll. And all of this is part of legacy that is still alive and well today.

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The Merv Griffin Show: Dennis Hopper Interview- Easy Rider, The Last Movie: From 1971

Source: Merv Griffin Show– Hippie Dennis Hopper 

Source:The New Democrat 

“Maverick actor/filmmaker Dennis Hopper appeared on the Merv Griffin Show in 1971 as a disenfranchised idealist having recently fallen from Hollywood’s good graces. After riding high on the success of “Easy Rider” he made “The Last Movie” which won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival but was trashed by critics and moviegoers in America. He certainly stands out on this panel which includes fellow actors James Brolin and Diane Baker as well as baseball legend Willie Mays.

While many of the original tapes of the Merv Griffin Show were preserved, this one was lost and this clip is an example of a show preserved on color kinescope. Merv Griffin had over 5000 guests appear on his show from 1963-1986. Footage from the Merv Griffin Show is available for licensing to all forms of media through Reelin’ In The Years Productions.”

From the Merv Griffin Show

“Easy Rider’s tagline of “A man went looking for America and couldn’t find it anywhere” transcended moviedom. Once called The Loners, Dennis Hopper co-wrote, directed, and starred in the Oscar-nominated biker flick about two men riding motorcycles from Los Angeles to New Orleans to Florida during the tumult of the Vietnam-era ’60s. Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson also starred, and Fonda co-wrote the script with Terry Southern and Hopper, and produced it.”

Source:Mental Floss– Dennis Hopper and Pater Fonda were Easy Riders.

From Mental Floss

There is such a thing as being ahead of your time, but I don’t think that applies to Dennis Hopper. Who I consider to be a baby boomer born in the mid-1930s, I believe 1936. He is obviously not a boomer, but he fits into that generation so well, especially the Hippie Culture, the Counter Culture of the 1960s. And a lot if not most of his movies from the 1960s and 70s, had something to do with the current culture of that era and a lot of them were about Hippie Culture. So if he had a movie that didn’t do very well in that era and it was about Hippies, it probably wasn’t because Dennis was ahead of his time. That argument could’ve been made about someone making a counter-culture movie in 1955 or so. But you make a movie like that in the late 1960s and early 1970s, you’re in the perfect time frame for that movie.

So Dennis’s problem with The Last Movie, perhaps was the title, but anyway it might just have been that the movie wasn’t very good. And I’m saying this as someone who is a big Hopper fan and have liked a lot of his movies. As far as this interview, classic Dennis Hopper I believe, at least from that era. I mean he just did Easy Rider in 1969 and he walks onto the stage as a Hippie drifter. Which is essentially what he played in Easy Rider. He is a man for his times, as he was back then and is still today. So whether he doesn’t do as well as he wants to, it just might be because the movie or his performance wasn’t as good as it needed to be for him to do as well as expected to do. It is easy to put it on the audience, or people you work with, but harder to look at yourself to see where you came up short.

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Jas Bains: Catherine Bach: The Real and Only Daisy Duke From The Dukes of Hazzard

Source:Jas Bains– Tom Wopat, as Luke Duke and Catherine Bach as Daisy Duke, from The Dukes of Hazzard.

Source:The New Democrat

“One Daisy Duke Video to rule them all! Awesome collection of Daisy Duke ( Catherine Bach ) clips compiled to an awesome song by Lamb, called Gorecki. Visit my site at:Jas Bains. Video blocked in Germany due to music copyright issues.”

From Jas Bains

When I was growing up my favorite TV show was probably The Dukes of Hazzard. A CBS action comedy where everyone on the show met about every single stereotype both good and bad of what life and the people were like living in the country. It took place in a small county called Hazzard. Naturally with a police department that had two sometimes three cops including the sheriff who was named Roscoe. It had people with names like Daisy, Roscoe, Cletus, Enos, Cooter.

Guest stars with people with names like Billy Bob, Billy Joe, Marly Lu. It had every two name, name you can think of. It had dirt roads, country music, car races and car chases. Great country food, with the fried chicken, mash potatoes, biscuits and gravy. Fast cars being chased by big police cars. A town where everyone knew each other and where the whole town knew when someone from out of town was in Hazzard.

It had Pickup Trucks, farms, crooked politicians and cops, ignorant people who didn’t seem to know what they were doing. It had moonshine whisky, a county next door called Chickasaw that only had one cop, the Sheriff on the Police Force. And it had a lot of beautiful sexy women on it. Including Catherine Bach who played Daisy Duke. Forget about Jessica Simpson who played Daisy Duke in the movie Dukes of Hazard. She’s more qualified to play Sally Smith head cheerleader at Valley High, then to play a country girl.

The hot, sexy baby-faced country girl was the perfect role for Catherine Bach on Dukes of Hazard. Because she was and actually still is gorgeous, baby-face adorable with a great body. Two of the best legs this country has ever seen, just like Tina Turner or Raquel Welch. She was very funny and even though she was (actually still is) baby-face adorable, could probably kick ass as well as he her cousins Bo and Luke Duke. Played by John Schneider. (Great last name by the way) And Tom Wopat the brains of the operation. And as adorable and sexy as Daisy was, you didn’t want to mess with here, because she could kick your ass and look hot doing it. In her famous tight denim jeans and shorts.

And her tight denim jeans and cowgirl boots, Catherine Bach now has her own Denim Line. She was no Sally from the Valley, but a tough but adorable sexy country girl. Who could be sweet as candy until you messed with her. Catherine Bach will always be Daisy Duke and since she played that role perfectly. Unfortunately will always be typed cast, because its so hard to to think of anything else other than Daisy Duke when it comes to Catherine Bach. But she has done other things and has actually has been very active and successful pre and after. Dukes of Hazzard and is someone who’s career should be looked at. To give her the type of respect she actually deserves.

The original Dukes of Hazzard tv show, was and still is the Dukes of Hazzard, at least as far as I’m concern and as far as a lot other Dukes fans are concern as well. The recent movies and everything else are for a younger generation where everything that was around before they were even born or old enough to remember is considered, “like so yesterday and so over and needs to be changed for the new century. But there are reasons why sequels to great shows and movies tend not to be as good as the original. Because the original was done so well, that any new version of it looks like pretend or a copy.

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Alex Owskignr: Miami Concert Scene From Oliver Stone’s The Doors- One of the Few Accurate Scenes From the Movie

Miami Concert

Source: This piece was originally posted at The New Democrat

As I mentioned yesterday, The Doors is a very entertaining movie and in at least one sense is accurate as portraying Jim Morrison as a very wild and perhaps immature young man. Who fit in very perfectly in the 1960s generation and the time he grew up in and came of age. But the Miami concert scene is one of the few accurate scenes in the movie. The Lizard King did show up to the 1969 Miami concert, not high, but drunk and was a few hours late.

Morrison was noticeably off and did an awful job and even had a hard time standing up because he was so drunk from the plane ride and from the bar before the flight. Morrison did stop singing all together, got frustrated and started cussing at the audience. And they did boo him and security had a hell of a hard time trying to secure the arena because it was so hot, wild and overcrowded. Sort of like an American prison actually.

But the Miami scene and the New Haven scene might be the only two accurate scenes in the movie. If you are simply just looking for a good fictional movie about a rock and roll band, The Doors is probably a good movie for you. But if you are really interested in the life of Jim Morrison and perhaps the run that The Doors had, I suggest you go the documentary route that is just as entertaining about The Lizard King and The Doors band. But you’ll actually learn some things about them as well.
Alex Oskignr: The Doors- Five to One- Scene From The Movie

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Dusty Mendoza: Janet Jackson- ‘Live in Tampa, Florida: December 4, 2011’

Source:Dusty Mendoza– Janet Jackson, Up Close & Personal.

Source:The New Democrat 

“Janet Jackson Live Tampa, Florida December 4, 2011” 

From Dusty Mendoza

I think the thing that most impresses me most about Janet Jackson, is the dancer. Janet dancing on stage is truly a pleasure and watching her dance in a music video the same thing. She is not someone who typically sits on a stool, or stands in front of a microphone and just sings. She sings obviously, but she’s usually on the move as she’s singing and having to perform the song as well. Her own music and the dance routine at the same time.

And then you combine the great body and the great shape that she’s always in and those classic Levi’s black denim jeans with the boots and t-shirt or leather jacket and get to see her move in that outfit and showing everyone what she has to work with (so to speak) and you have one of the most entertaining and sexiest performers you’ll ever see. Even if you’re not crazy for her music, but perhaps crazy for great entertainment and sexy yet professionally well-done entertainment.

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Inter Planet Living: Scream & Rhythm Nation, From Sydney, Australia

Up Close & Personal

Source: This piece was originally posted at The New Democrat

Janet Jackson is simply one of if not the sexiest female performers live and in concert. Because she’s a not just a singer, but a performer who is also a great dancer. And then you combine that with her beautiful baby-face appearance and the great body and how well she shows off her body and I don’t know of a sexy performer right now. She is so professional and not just great onstage, but the work she does offstage to remain the great performer that she is.

If you have a front row seat to a Janet Jackson concert, that seat should be probably worth somewhere around a million dollars. Even if you are not a fan of her music and I like some her songs, but not all of them, but whatever she’s singing, she always looks great singing and performing because of talents and ability to both move and sing as a performer. And all the work that she does offstage to stay in the great shape she’s always been in.
Inter Planet Living: Janet Jackson- Rhythm Nation Breakdown- Sydney Australia

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Enjoy Music: Janet Jackson If, Scream & Rhythm Nation, From Sydney Australia

Up Close & Personal

Source: This piece was originally posted at The New Democrat

Just to speak very personally and frankly for a minute and then I’ll go back to being a distant liar. Ha, ha, but checking out Janet Jackson up close and personal, which was the title of this album, feels like a great Christmas gift. With that voice, that body, her in those tight Levis black denim jeans, the boots, that belt, the tight black t-shirt, makes me want to get down on my knees and thank God I’m a man. Or at the very least get down on my knees and scream, yes!!! At the top of my lungs.

Janet is one of the cutest, sexiest, sweetest, singers and performers you’ll ever see and she’s still only like forty-eight years old. Obviously not a little girl anymore, just with a face that makes her as cute as a little girl. And then you throw in that she’s a hell of a writer and singer who sings about her real-life as a person and what is going on in the world around her. As attractive as she is. her professional talents as a dance, singer and writer or just as great.

Janet Jackson is not a one-hit wonder or a bimbo whose famous because of who her father is. And there are plenty of women and men who are and I’m sure you are already aware of this, unless you’ve grown up in Afghanistan or some place that is completely isolated from the world. There are plenty of people who are famous because of their parents. Janet comes from a great music family, but she’s been as successful as she’s been unlike some of her siblings because she’s a great talented performer.
Enjoy Music: Janet Jackson- If, Scream & Rhythm Nation

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