Friday, May 14, 2010

Not Jim


Bárujárn, Reykjavík, 2009

In the calm before the strum, I had struck up a conversation with a local musician. I had seen her perform a lively set in this same building in 2006. She was curious about me: Why was I there? What were my interests in music? Why Flippism? We had a nice talk. She asked if I had done any recording. I mentioned that I had released a 45 in mid-seventies.

"What was it like?"

"It was horrible!"

"No, I mean what kind of music was it? Did it sound like any other group?"

"Well, I guess some people thought it sounded like the Doors..."

PBS ran a new documentary about that band last night. It was pretty good in capturing the smoky, greasy hedonism of that era- lots of vintage clips, mixed in with some modern re-enactments. It didn't glorify the band and it certainly showed the bad side of Jim Morrison, especially when he had been drinking. But the music itself remains as it was: neither rock nor jazz, not really blues either, sounding almost like a carnival or burlesque theater at times. The band as a whole was certainly greater than the sum of its parts. And Jim was beautiful and sexy and dark- he was the antithesis of the pop singers of the day. I never bought any Doors records, I didn't need to- their music was everywhere, I knew most of the songs by heart. That record which I had made in 1976 may have been an unconscious emulation of the Doors, although my dark days had been several years earlier- at just about the same time that Jim was on his downward spiral:

By Professor Batty


8 Comments:

Anonymous Andy said...

I have that record...


Blogger Professor Batty said...

Uh Oh...


Blogger Heiða said...

ooo, líke the photo!


Blogger Professor Batty said...

Heida ~ you were there!


Anonymous Jon said...

"When the music's over, turn out the lights" - just sayin'.

Is that too dark?


Blogger Professor Batty said...

Jon ~ I want to hear the scream of the butterfly...


Blogger Darien Fisher-Duke said...

Ha! Batty. Time to grow that hair again!


Blogger Professor Batty said...

The spirit is willing but the follicles are weak!

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