Defend the indefensible: Jim Morrison's lyrics

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Inspired by the numerous Doors threads, how 'bout it?

I mean, they're pretty fucking awful, aren't they? I cringe whenever I hear "you know that i would be a liar / if i were to say to you / girl we couldn't get much higher," but surely there are some occasionally bright moments?

Someone was just talkin' about Jim's rap on "the End", when he says "cancel my subscription to the resurrection..." I mean, that IS kinda cool, no? Anyone else dig the (clumsily obvious) Odeipal vibe of the 'poem'?

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 16:17 (twenty-two years ago)

"I found an island in your arms, country in your eyes" is good rock lyrics.

― Maxwell von Bismarck (maxwell von bismarck), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 16:20 (twenty-two years ago)

The only truly great American poet after Jim Morrison was GG Allin (also "Light My Fire" was written by Robby Krieger.)

― Mark (MarkR), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 16:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Also "cancel my subscription..." is from "When the Music's Over."

― Mark (MarkR), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 16:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Fuck, shows what a huge Doors fan I am! :)

I coulda sworn Jim wrote the words to "Light My Fire" but again, I'm no expert.

and yes, "Sluts in the City" kills anything the Doors ever did or inspired. I'm looking at you, Iggy!

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 16:44 (twenty-two years ago)

And IIRC the next line in "When the Music's Over" is "Send my pretensions to the house of detention", which is at least as good and rhymes pretty well. I used to kind of like how it sounds when he sings "I really must be going but I need a little time/I promised I would drown myself in mystic heated wine". He really could have a knack for a catchy memorable couplet when he wanted to. "People Are Strange" is a good example - and it does come together to give you a decent image. The simple wordplay actually works with the tune to make the song catchy. I mean:

People are strange when you're a stranger
Faces look ugly when you're alone
Women seem wicked when you're unwanted
Streets are uneven when you're down

When you're strange
Faces come out of the rain
When you're strange
No one remembers your name
When you're strange

There's nothing wrong with that at all, I don't think. And I think it actually makes sense that it's all repeated verbatim - it's part of the dizzy, confused mood. When he wasn't pulling his dumbass beat poet shit or his dumbass "mojo rising" shit, he was all right.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 19:16 (twenty-two years ago)

I always thought it was ". . . poetry in your eyes" BTW but "country" would make sense.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 19:25 (twenty-two years ago)

"you know that i would be a liar / if i were to say to you / girl we couldn't get much higher" is the Ur bad rock lyric, it's something no parodist would even dream of coming up with.

― amateurist (amateurist), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 19:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, I'd say Morrison's lyrics are way underrated on ILM (tho perhaps overrated elsewhere). "Soul Kitchen" is one I like to mention - captures as well as any other song I can think of the romance of being wasted at 3am with nowhere to go.

― o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 19:29 (twenty-two years ago)

"you know that i would be a liar / if i were to say to you / girl we couldn't get much higher" is the Ur bad rock lyric, it's something no parodist would even dream of coming up with.

Oh, it's not *that* bad. Yer man Noel Gallagher has committed far worse lyrical crimes, and does it much more often. I mean, just look at "All Around The World":

It's a bit early in the midnight hour for me
To go through all the things that I wanna be
I don't believe in everything I see
You know I'm blind so why'd you disagree

Now, that's fucking beyond parody. Just look at that appalling "me/be/see/disagree" rhyming structure. Morrison gets lots of flack for his lyrics, but out of all the Doors songs only a few are genuinely awful, Oasis-bad.

Jim's poetry on the other hand...

― Philip Alderman (Phil A), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 20:19 (twenty-two years ago)

I woke up this morning and I got myself a beer... best lyrics evah in a Morrison song.

― Bryan Moore (Bryan Moore), Thursday, 21 August 2003 00:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Here is the genius of Jim Morrison's lyrics in a nutshell.

From The End:

Father, I want to kill you.
Mother, I want to... (insert sound of projectile vomiting)

― Aimless, Thursday, 21 August 2003 03:31 (twenty-two years ago)

"the end" is a choice song, that bit just makes me laugh tho.

― duane, Thursday, 21 August 2003 05:00 (twenty-two years ago)

every now and then, mojo risin came up with a genuinely catching line or original & striking lyrical image, like this one ... "there's a killer on the road/his brain is squirming like a toad/take a long holiday/let your children play/if you give this man a ride,/sweet Emily will die."

― Tad (llamasfur), Thursday, 21 August 2003 05:59 (twenty-two years ago)

"his brain is squirming like a toad" = one of the best metaphors for madness and mental confusion i've read.

― Tad (llamasfur), Thursday, 21 August 2003 06:00 (twenty-two years ago)

why would a toad squirm? unless it was trapped inside a dude's head. that's not a "good metaphor", that's just some glossolalia bullshit!

― duane (24 hour troubleshooter), Thursday, 21 August 2003 06:07 (twenty-two years ago)

wow, that IS a pretty good lyric. Huh.

It's like a recent thread where someone actually wrote out the lyrics to "Hippie Dream" By Neil Young, a song I never cared for, and they read much better than I remember them being.

I swore (and swear) I'll NEVER print lyrics on any record I'm involved with, but this does make a case for 'lyrics out of context,' doesn't it?

I'd start a thread ('printing lyrics with the cd: c or d?') but I think we've alreday done that

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Thursday, 21 August 2003 06:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Jim was a steaming load of shit who should have stuck to the booze. Acid eff'ed up a lot of decent lyricist and made a bunch of hollow- headed hippies think that piss tasted like wine. I'll agree that "Woke up this morning..." was brill-building genius, and also serves to prove my point. Ever notice how the resurgence of hallucinogens preceeds an upswing in the interest in the Lizard King? When your minds ripped on a couple of tabs, you can find symbology in a dirty bathmat. How about this instead, "Father, I want to beat your lying skull in with a pool cue. Mother, I want to steal you wallet."?

― Speedy Gonzalas (Speedy Gonzalas), Thursday, 21 August 2003 06:32 (twenty-two years ago)

Right on, Speedy.

Not that I don't love a good 8 hour acid chuckle now and again.

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Thursday, 21 August 2003 09:17 (twenty-two years ago)

"There's a killer on the road/
His brain is squirmin' like a toad"
That pair always bugged me. Like Jim just randomly grabbed the first word he thought of that rhymed, and to hell with how it scanned.

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Thursday, 21 August 2003 15:44 (twenty-two years ago)

there's a "tom joad" version sitting somewhere in the elektra vaults.

― amateurist (amateurist), Thursday, 21 August 2003 17:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Right next to Springsteen's demo for the Ghost of Squirming Toad?

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Thursday, 21 August 2003 17:32 (twenty-two years ago)

waiting for the summer rain~the children go insane

― kephm, Thursday, 21 August 2003 18:52 (twenty-two years ago)

what the hell does "fashionably lain" mean??

i realize for the first time that i've always thought it was "coke tree in your eyes" wtf

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 21 August 2003 19:44 (twenty-two years ago)

more people need to use "rank a scene" on a regular basis btw, it's such a great expression. "WHY is she always RANKING OUR SCENE?"

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 21 August 2003 19:49 (twenty-two years ago)

I used to dislike "brain is squirming like a toad" but it's really striking and fairly accurately pegs how I imagine a killer's internal state might feel. I think both "Riders on the Storm" and "Love Her Madly" are decent; JM better pop lyricist than poet, and for sure "People Are Strange" is pretty great, esp. "faces look ugly when you're alone" although my own version goes "faces look ugly when they're melting like wax"

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Thursday, 21 August 2003 19:51 (twenty-two years ago)

why would a toad squirm?

Ever picked up a toad?

― My name is Kenny (My name is Kenny), Friday, 22 August 2003 02:41 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah any animal would squirm if you picked it up tho right? i mean CATS do it. i never met a toad tho i confess, we don't have em here.

― duane, Friday, 22 August 2003 03:22 (twenty-two years ago)

what i think makes the "squirming like a toad" such a striking and good lyric is that (a) toads are commonly perceived as being slimy and rather unpleasant animals; and (b) killers are also rather slimy and unpleasant. plus "squirming like a cat" doesn't rhyme with "there's a killer on the road."

― Tad (llamasfur), Friday, 22 August 2003 03:45 (twenty-two years ago)

"The. Monk. Bought. Lunch.
Yeah he bought a little"

The 2nd line's the killer

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 22 August 2003 11:56 (twenty-two years ago)

killers are also rather slimy and unpleasant.
Not really. Theodore Bundy was considered to be suave and debonair, except for the killing thing. The killing thing tended to shorten his relationships. Especially with the girlfriends he killed.

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Friday, 22 August 2003 13:13 (twenty-two years ago)

i always liked "not to touch the earth/not to see the sun" but it's ripped from the golden bough, and the next line is way lame

killers have warts and a jewel in their heads

― mark s (mark s), Friday, 22 August 2003 13:18 (twenty-two years ago)

seven months pass...

aight this is sick how can u make fun of jim in any way. the mans vision of the world was one in a million. now the music being produced today is mindless garbage. baby i want u back, baby i love you. zeppelin was the only band that cood get away with saying baby i love you and still be cool. the doors 3were teh most influential group around. when everyone else was singing bo bob crap the doors were cutting edge. they were on teh crest of the horizon of music. their time and classics can never be duplicated. jims lyrics are simply an inner mind that could grasp reality in a state of insanity, that could speak thru you and effect you all at the same time. you dont need drugs to listen to it, but it sure all makes sense when you are. loosen up. jim made things happen.

― bisghow, Thursday, 8 April 2004 00:20 (twenty-one years ago)

wow I could've basically told you what that post said before I even read it.

― oops (Oops), Thursday, 8 April 2004 00:24 (twenty-one years ago)

on teh crest of the horizon

Strictly speaking, is this possible?

― m.e.a. (m.e.a.), Thursday, 8 April 2004 00:33 (twenty-one years ago)

the blue bus is calling us.
always thought that was some deep shit.
oh, and the west is the best.
frickin' genius.
i dare someone to say he wasn't a poet.

― Bruce Urquhart (Bruce Urquhart), Thursday, 8 April 2004 00:50 (twenty-one years ago)

He wasn't a poet.

― m.e.a. (m.e.a.), Thursday, 8 April 2004 01:04 (twenty-one years ago)

you're right.

― Bruce Urquhart (Bruce Urquhart), Thursday, 8 April 2004 01:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes, in printed form, Morrison's lyrics are less than exciting.
But he came up with so many great hooks I can't complain.

BTW, is there any better than the righteous-martyr-tone of
a true fanboy? "how could u make fun of jim in any way," oh
man, now that you mention it, I'm sorry. I really shouldn't
have.

― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Thursday, 8 April 2004 01:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Why isn't it enough to be a good lyricist? As if being a poet makes one a more legitimate writer.

When you hear a great vocalizer of poetry read something he or she wrote you realize that lyrics to music and poetry are probably more different than they are alike, even as they borrow from each other.

― shookout, Thursday, 8 April 2004 03:37 (twenty-one years ago)

You know the day destroys the night
Night divides the day
Tried to run
Tried to hide
Break on through to the other side
Break on through to the other side
Break on through to the other side, yeah

punk as fuck.

you don't go from being the king of psychedelic rock to the king of orgasmic rock with nothin'...now do ya?

― p.j. (Henry), Thursday, 8 April 2004 03:53 (twenty-one years ago)

punk as Bob Dole popping Viagara.

― jack cole (jackcole), Thursday, 8 April 2004 05:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, I was about to give him gratefully sincere thanks for NOT succumbing to the temptation to rhyme "fire" with "desire" - unquestionably the most insipid, lazy, meaningless-through-overuse rhyme in music history - offering instead "liar", "mire", "pyre" and more. Now I find out that he didn't even WRITE "Light My Fire"! With that in mind, this Morrison lyric speaks for itself: "Mute Nostril Agony!"

(BTW, "Break On Thru", "Crystal Ship" and "Moonlight Drive" are the best, if you ask me.)

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Thursday, 8 April 2004 07:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Cemetary
Cool & Quiet
Hate To Leave Your Ancient Lay
Dread, The Milky Coming Of The Day...

yuk.

― mzui, Thursday, 8 April 2004 08:04 (twenty-one years ago)

I thought Robby Krieger wrote "Light My Fire"?

― Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 8 April 2004 08:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Random googlers taking illiterate umbrage at the treatment of their heroes are fast becoming this place's crowning glory, speaking for myself... I know I'm probably months behind everyone else in this respect but you know.

― DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Thursday, 8 April 2004 08:18 (twenty-one years ago)

I think Myonga was alluding to that fact, Dadaismus

― oops (Oops), Thursday, 8 April 2004 08:47 (twenty-one years ago)

six years pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GPEbWnh2pQ

^terrible. The guy had a pleasing powerful singing voice, and was v handsome, but his lyrics/"poetry" were indeed indefensibly bad. Doors were a good band I thought, but their material was v v hit & miss.

I hadn't even thought about this guy for at least a year, till this got linked on some musician form I look at sometimes.

He seems like a figure from the vanished past to me, moreso that some of his contemporaries, like he fell off the edge of history a few years ago and no-one noticed. Who, if anyone (contemporary) wd cite Morrison as an "influence" today?

― dead flower :( (Pashmina), Sunday, 25 April 2010 23:36 (fifteen years ago)

i used to make fun of the guy, but as i slip into middle age the automatic piling on just fatigues me. For all the Pavement fans out there who love the title of their dvd "Slow Century", it's nicked from "Celebration of the Lizard". Yes, they were over the top, in bad taste, foolish, etc, but there are great things all through their career. I read some incredibly snarky review of that pieced together documentary recently that was just a string of Morrison putdowns, and it said more about the reviewer than his subject.

― iago g., Monday, 26 April 2010 00:59 (fifteen years ago)

one year passes...

http://thisiheard.blogspot.com/2012/03/doors-not-to-touch-earth-1968-ship-of.html

― timellison, Monday, 26 March 2012 02:12 (thirteen years ago)

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