Last Chapter "Selection of Books Related to James Douglas Morrison"
In thirty years of reading, in the jungle of writings about the boy born in Florida, symbol of Los Angeles and died in Paris, I have already recommended: "Jim Morrison & i Doors On The Road," an incredible book by Greg Shaw on every single concert of the Los Angeles band, "Gli Angeli Danzano, Gli Angeli Muoiono," the most intimate and unique book in retracing the relationship between Jim and Pamela, reevaluating the figure (destroyed by everyone, it was convenient) of the California Weed native girl by Patricia Miller, the old "The Story Behind Every Song by The Doors" by Chuck Crisafulli with the beautiful analysis of every single track of the official discography, and the recent "Riders On The Storm: My Life With Jim Morrison and The Doors," a true self-analysis by John Densmore regarding his relationship with James Douglas during the band's time.
To these, we now add, to finish, "Jim Morrison - A Conversation Among Friends" by Frank Lisciandro.
Frank is someone who believes in it and has always shown it. He grew up in New York, became passionate about documentary photography, and enrolled at Michigan University. Then he left for Europe without a penny on a Slavic freighter; a year of experiences like no other made him grow up quickly. He returned to the States and enrolled at UCLA in California. He met Morrison and Manzarek, especially Ray. Freshly graduated and with the prospect of being called by the Army to go to war in Southeast Asia, he "preferred," with his wife Kathy, to join the Peace Corps and go to Africa to help less fortunate people. He managed to see his friends' debut at London Fog, and after almost a year, he received a copy of Time magazine talking about The Doors' first album; in Togo, in the midst of the poorest and most devastated Africa, Frank and Kathy lived their "Summer of Love"
This is because otherwise, Frank Lisciandro risks always and only being the "photographer" of The Doors and a friend of Jim. This guy is, above all, someone with values and with remarkable courage.
I was saying Frank is someone who believes in it. After returning to the States, he began following The Doors on tour with the task of making films and taking photos but above all, in the last three years of life, he became one of Jim's best friends. Together they worked on some film projects (the only one that saw the real light was "Feast Of Friends"). Frank was probably the one who lived and hung out with him at the most varied moments; besides the film work, he was there when Jim was with the others of the band, was his drinking buddy and perhaps the one best regarded by Pamela.
Frank and Kathy were to join Jim and Pam in Paris. Unfortunately, a couple of weeks before departure, they received a call from Siddons informing them of the tragedy. Jim wrote only two letters from Paris; one to Green, The Doors' financial adviser, asking how long they could live in Paris he and Pam (which says a lot about his non-relationship with money) with the funds they had, and one exactly to the couple of friends inviting them to the French capital.
Besides splendid photography books related to the band but especially to Morrison (Jim trusted him blindly, Frank could photograph him as and when he wanted...the important thing was "not to pose"), Lisciandro has always tried to let the world know who James Douglas Morrison really was. As I mentioned in the writing related to Patricia Butler's book, the internet and technology have played, in this specific case, a constructive and positive role for adequate knowledge.
"A barrage of deliberate misinformation about Jim initiated while he was alive grew in the years following his death. A distorted characterization of his figure had taken hold of the media, and soon an unpleasant representation would be observed in the persistent Hollywood film "The Doors." A caricatured portrait, fueled by gossip and invented situations, depicted Jim as an idiot. I noticed that the people capable of refuting such lies - those Jim relied on and worked with, those with whom he shared his time and thoughts, namely his friends - were never consulted. One by one, I began contacting and meeting them, hoping to extract fresh information and new insights from our conversations. Many of those people had never been interviewed, and some were reluctant to do so. But one thing was in my favor: everyone knew that Jim had sought my collaboration and considered me a close friend." F.L.
Every interview is recorded, everything must be documented. It is no coincidence that Lisciandro began "working" right after seeing the preview of Stone's film - even the title "The Doors" is ridiculous, it tells (very badly) only of Morrison, but we have already mentioned this.
And anyway, the "film" is the straw that breaks the camel's back of that vessel filled in the previous two decades with nonsense from useless subjects of all kinds and species. Although he is a calm type, Frank is slightly fed up; here it is not about the rockstar or the poet, it is about a friend. I understand it is a word that has now disappeared in this shitty world of falsehood and greed, but there are still some Nobles, besides the maladjusted misanthrope trapped writing this "review," who consider friendship one of the greatest feelings. And then Frank is someone who still believes in it, despite everything.
Excerpts from these testimonies were included by Lisciandro in his 1991 book "Jim Morrison - A Feast Of Friends" (poorly written, impulsive, brashly, to put it bluntly). Here the "interviews" are transcribed in their entirety, and what results is a beautiful book where finally those who knew and regularly mingled with Jim speak, not the first fool looking for a scoop and notoriety by bad-mouthing others much more famous than him.
Frank interviews people very close to Jim in daily life, who lived real and intense moments with him and in different contexts and periods of his life.
We find two chapters with the High School friend (Fud Ford) and with the first friends at UCLA (Phil O'Leno) - decidedly the least interesting - before The Doors and their saga. There are three chapters with those who lived Jim with The Doors on tour and in the studio; Rich Lynnell (the roadie friend), Bill Siddons (the manager), and Vince Treanor (the calm road manager). Two more interviews are with two very different friends; the "half" musician and companion of early Doors escapades, Ron Alan, and the famous poet Michael McClure with whom Jim built a very close personal and professional relationship.
The four stories I prefer are those closest to Morrison (in the physical sense, too) in different situations. The interviews with the two Doors employees: Ginny Ganahl and then Kathy Lisciandro, Frank's wife; a lover of Jim, Eva Gardonyi, and the friend who was most with him in the last two years, Babe Hill. Ginny and Kathy can describe the ordinary, unpublished Jim passing through the office to talk about everything with them. As a lover, among all, Frank chooses and gets the interview of the only one not infatuated with Jim. Eva met him in 1969 but had a brief, intense relationship with him just before leaving for Paris; her testimony is therefore not that of a usual deranged and often delusional fan but rather that of a beautiful, libertine woman who could have whoever she wanted and tells us about how that shy, somewhat strange, and sensitive boy was with her. Babe is the right conclusion. Jim's drinking buddy, the friend of the most relaxed and boisterous moments of the last period; the person with whom Jim felt safest because he didn't judge him and didn't treat him like a god, with whom he could even just sit in silence and to whom he didn't have to prove anything. Those years in which James Douglas had definitely separated from Jim the beautiful and damned rockstar.
All people who probably know Jim better than anyone else but who have never really been listened to. Those who were interviewed, among them, never saw their testimony exposed in a book, if not in a summarized and convenient form (for those writing).
None of The Doors' three members were interviewed; it seems a very correct choice by Frank. At that time, to use a euphemism, the last thing Ray, John, and Robby wished was to talk intimately about Jim. Densmore will explain and make "mea culpa" in his beautiful book, here "reviewed" by me ("Riders On The Storm: My Life With Jim Morrison and The Doors").
The kindness in manners and respect for others, education and reserve, unpredictability and the need to verify where the mind can reach, great generosity, that dose of madness in challenging destiny and death, a non-relationship with money and any kind of personal property, an incredibly creative mind and the desire to awaken consciences and crowds almost immediately held back by a world of false values, by a too-strong power and by a people of ignorant subjects, the traits that stand out the most. Besides his innate sense of humor that no one had highlighted until a short time before; more sensational to describe a situation as saturated with madness and drugs than something deliberately comic and grotesque, obvious. It was interesting also for me to discover, after endless readings, "new" things never read anywhere. The book probably gives us the truest James Douglas.
And anyway, Frank is very clear in his beautiful preface: "Trying to accurately remember details and events from decades past can be very difficult. Despite everyone with whom I spoke being a credible witness of those years, I advise reading these pages without giving up your disbelief. What has been recorded and reported here reflects the advantageous subjective position of the participants. Read their memories as you would read any story: knowing that every author and every witness contributes to the account with their own distortions, beliefs, and exclusive hopes."
The absolute truth about everything that surrounded Morrison in those splendid, unique, wonderful sixties we will never know; even those who knew him have their personal "truth." After all, we will never be sure of anything; sometimes even events and situations we see with our own eyes may not be as they seem.
From my side, thank you to this man.
"You could take anything from Jim, but don't mess with his freedom" cit.
On the Debaser bulletin board for those young people (especially) who will read us tomorrow and want to delve into the figure and life, brief but intense enough, of this guy.
Noble regards.
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