This way to Jim...


The spray painted graffiti begins even outside the cemetery gates: "Jim - THIS WAY." Pere LaChaise, The End for the Paris elite of the 19th and early 20th centuries: Chopin, Edith Piaf, Balzac, Proust, Oscar Wilde, Georges Seurat; the most influential of painters, composers, writers. Yet the most famous of all is an American, Jim Morrison, 28 years old at his death, lead singer of the Doors, arguably the most important American rock band of the 60s.

Morrison was born here in Melbourne, Florida in 1943. At UCLA he would team up with Ray Manzerek to form the Doors in 1965. The pair were obsessed with art, film and music, with Morrison immersed in the avante garde and the surreal, and finding a special kinship with Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception, not to mention alcohol and mind altering drugs. Despite his short, creative career, Morrison was the American Muse of the 60s, writing strange yet melodic lyrics like "When the Music's Over" and the 20 minute "The End," featured in the film Apocalypse Now. Among his other well known songs were Love Her Madly, Riders on the Storm, LA Woman and People Are Strange. (He did not, by the way, write "Light My Fire.") He was an artist of the highest caliber who struggled with depression and drifted along the edge of sanity. After many encounters with the law, and an arrest warrant out in the state of Florida, Morrison and the Doors found great acclaim playing for a European audience that only knew America through the Beach Boys and Top 40 radio. The Doors were new, exciting, wild, dangerous. And while on that roadtrip, Morrison died in his hotel room, his bloodstream a mix of amphetamine and alcohol. That was 36 years ago this month.


Morrison was buried, appropriately, in Pere LaChaise Cemetery amidst composers and poets and authors. Since then, 35 years have not quenched the passion for Jim, his grave has remained one of the top Parisian tourist destinations. The graves surrounding Morrison's are spray painted, engraved, littered with mementoes of fans, with empty wine bottles and flowers, endless flowers. Over the years, the bust of Jim atop the grave has been stolen, pieces of the tombstone have been chipped off as souvenirs, it has been slept on, walked on, picnicked on.

Morrison is a true American icon. His myth gets larger and his music more popular, reaching kids today who could be his grandchildren. Jim, though, will remain 28 forever.


This bio is just one of several that we will explore over the course of the semester. This is a class chock full of literature, music, people, places designed to set you on the pursuit of knowledge as a lifelong learner. There is room upstairs in all that gray matter of yours to fit so much stuff, so cram it in.