25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The erotic politician, August 10, 2005
This review is from: Break on Through: The Life and Death of Jim Morrison (Paperback)
Mad poet. Adored icon. Wild rocker. Alcoholic genius. Brilliant musician. Jim Morrison died in 1971, but his legend still sits among us.
With people who are brilliant and badly-behaved, as Morrison was, it's difficult to get a balanced view that seems like an actual person. But James Riordan's "Break On Through: The Life and Death of Jim Morrison" manages to do just that.
James Douglas Morrison was an army brat, intelligent and well-read, who began to blossom into a poet and musician in college. He went on to become the singer/frontman of the band "The Doors," adding his outstanding poetry-like songwriting to his bandmates' equally outstanding musical skills. Soon they were a massively popular rock band.
But Morrison had other facets as well: He was attracted to the bizarre, and could be cruel, sweet, loving, strange, and often drunken and loutish. He was also contradictory: He sought notice as a poet, but was still mainly known as a rock star; he slept around and handfasted a rock critic, but always stayed with girlfriend Pamela Courson. After living on the edge for years, Jim passed away in Paris, under strange circumstances.
Most biographies of Jim Morrison err on one side or another. Either they portray him as a sadistic, drunken lout, or they show him as a transcendent gentleman. The truth isn't usually that simple, and neither was Morrison. And Riordan shows us the different sides of Morrison's personality -- good and bad, together.
Like Morrison himself, the book has its contradictions: There is a somewhat fannish tone to the some of the writing. On the other hand, it's willing to acknowledge that Morrison could be lewd, weird, obnoxious and drunken. Riordan also shows us Jim's gradual flowering into a poet, his literary influences such as Nietszche, and the relationships between the Doors.
Riordan also courts controversy by studying and dissecting the various theories about Morrison's death. Don't expect wacked out conspiracy theories, or medical improbabilities -- Riordan stays calm and rational throughout the whole thing, and reveals the most likely scenarios. He also avoids outright judgements on controversial figures like Patricia Kennealy.
As the book draws to a close, Riordan keeps things dignified. He devotes the final chapters to studying the lives of Pamela Courson and the other Doors in the years following Morrison's death, as well as the creation of the "American Prayer" album. The only flaw is Kennealy's bizarre description of Morrison's "fetch," which seems more fiction than fact.
Jim Morrison's wild life and mysterious death are the stuff of which tabloid biographies are made. But James Riordan keeps things simple and smart in "Break on Through: The Life and Death of Jim Morrison."
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Deja vu all over again, July 15, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Break on Through: The Life and Death of Jim Morrison (Paperback)
This book touts itself as the definitive account of Jim Morrison's life and art but it's essentially a re-write of Jerry Hopkins' "No One Here Gets Out Alive". Really! Compare the two yourself: there are numerous passages in this book that are basically paraphrased from the original 1980 bio. I simply don't see much evidence of the authors' claimed extensive research. However, to give credit where it's due: some of the writing is evocative and downright excellent. For example, the passages on Morrison in Venice, CA when he first begins writing music or as he put it "meeting the spirit of music" put you right there in a genuinely moving manner. Also, the depiction of Morrison's last concert in New Orleans where that spirit abandons him is also striking.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Classic Biography Of A Classic Rock Icon., May 23, 2004
This review is from: Break on Through: The Life and Death of Jim Morrison (Paperback)
While the world awaits the new book on Jim Morrison by Stephen Davis, you can still take time and appreciate James Riordan's classic work on this already classic subject. Jim Morrison remains one of the great icons of rock music, his image of a brilliant, insane poet who's antics and stage presence paved the way for gothic, theatrical rock (artists like Iggy Pop, Marilyn Manson and Scott Weiland all confirm the influence) is timeless and still inspiring to many. Riordan does his subject total justic with a book written with a literary flair in the words and an attention to detail that makes it vital to both the newcomer to The Doors and to Morrison followers. The portrait we are presented with at the end is of a genius driven by ideas and troubled by personal demons that probably did him in. What's fascinating is how Riordan has managed to dissect every aspect of the man. He studies in detail Morrison's tastes in surrealism, poetry and shamanism and makes comparisons between shamanistic rituals and Morrison's own stage behaviuor. And yet amongst all this the author never loses touch with what has made Morrison immortal in popular culture, the music. We get in-depth examinations of the lyrics and sound of The Doors and it's influence on artists such as Patti Smith, U2 and Alice Cooper. And Riordan never loses the sense of making the book entertaining, he writes with a novelistic touch that makes the book feel almost cinematic in it's approach, just read the first chapter, or better yet, the first page. "Break On Through" is a brilliant biography that any bookphile or rock enthusiast would enjoy. It's a captivating character study and an interesting look at the power of rock music in our age.
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