FRANCE: FANS AND EX-DOORS PAY TRIBUTE TO JIM MORRISON ON THE 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF HIS DEATH.

Record ID: 649246

  • Title: FRANCE: FANS AND EX-DOORS PAY TRIBUTE TO JIM MORRISON ON THE 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF HIS DEATH.
  • Date: 3rd July 2001
  • Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (3 JULY 2001) (REUTERS) 1. GV: OUTSIDE VIEW OF PERE LACHAISE CEMETERY 0.04 2. GV/MV: VARIOUS OF JIM MORRISON FANS AND TOURISTS AROUND GRAVE (6 SHOTS) 0.26 3. MV/PAN/CU: JIM MORRISON'S PICTURE ON GRAVE (6 SHOTS) 0.36 4. MCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) RAY MANZAREK, FORMER "THE DOORS" KEYBOARD PLAYER, SAYING "He was an artist. First and foremost he was a poet. But as a human being he was wonderful, he was very charming, great personality, very funny, a great, biting wit, and he was always making literary and poetic allusions in his conversation. A good man to be with, great deal of fun, a good guy to have a beer with. You could spend a good evening at the pub with Jim Morrison, I tell you that." 1.07 5. MV/CU: VARIOUS OF FANS AND SECURITY AROUND MORRISON'S GRAVE (5 SHOTS) 1.29 6. MCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) MANZAREK "He'd come here to Paris to stop being a rock star. To become an artist again, to become the poet. And I was very excited about that. I thought: 'Jim Morrison is going to Paris, the city of artists, the city of light.'" 1.44 7. MCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) MANZAREK "We had no idea that Jim Morrison was going to die. We didn't think: 'Ah, this is the end of The Doors career'. 1.52 8. MV/PAN/GV: FANS IN CEMETERY (2 SHOTS) 2.03 9. MV: (SOUNDBITE) (English) MANZAREK "It's not important how he died." DANNY SUGERMAN, FORMER THE DOORS MANAGER, SAYING "He undoubtedly died because of self destruction. Jim was an alcoholic. Jim would do whatever drug was offered to him. Whatever combination of drugs killed him that night I don't think is important. It's excess. What Jim Morrison died of is excess. He carried it too far. He never knew how far you could take things before the limit could be reached, and unfortunately he physically reached the limit." 2.36 10. VARIOUS: RAY MAZAREK AND DANNY SUGERMAN VISITING MORRISON'S GRAVE, PRAYING, AND SIGNING AUTOGRAPHS (8 SHOTS) 3.36 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 18th July 2001 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: PARIS, FRANCE
  • Country: France
  • Reuters ID: LVA5AL2D2YIXA076CSZ8JHNM83PI
  • Story Text: Hundreds of rock fans paid tribute to Jim Morrison, one
    of the most enduring icons of the 1960s, thirty years after
    his death.



    Paying tribute at one of rock's most enduring shrines,
    hundreds of fans pressed around the Paris grave of "The Doors"
    cult singer Jim Morrison on Tuesday (July 3), 30 years after
    drug and drink excess claimed his life.

    On alert for trouble that has marred previous
    anniversaries, French security guards hovered as a mix of
    ageing hippies, teenage fans and bemused-looking tourists took
    photos and laid wreaths at his modest plot in Pere Lachaise
    cemetery.

    But with alcohol and music now banned -- and not a whiff
    of the marijuana that shaped the American's own peace and love
    generation -- the mood was more that of an ordinary family
    funeral than a late 1960s "happening".

    Morrison was the archetypal 1960s rock star whose tussled
    good looks and raucous stage show combined with "The Doors'"
    hard-edged mix of electronic blues and West Coast psychedelic
    sound to give them a string of international hits.

    While tracks like "Light My Fire" were hymns to sexual
    abandon, "Unknown Soldier" was an unmistakeable anti-war
    protest song and other pieces delved into Morrison's eclectic
    interest in everything from Greek tragedy to ecology.

    Tiring of his drugs and groupie-drenched milieu and
    increasingly trailed by narcotics officials, he left the
    United States in early 1971 to settle in France to concentrate
    on writing poetry and becoming a true "artist".

    "He'd come here to Paris to stop being a rock star. To
    become an artist again, to become the poet', Doors keyboardist
    Ray Manzarek told Reuters in an interview.

    But a few months later Morrison was found dead in the bath
    of his Paris flat, apparently having succumbed to a lethal mix
    of alcohol, medication, drugs and asthma.

    The French coroner's pronouncement of death by "natural
    causes" and his hurried burial have sparked cover-up theories
    ever since.

    Manzarek said the actual cause of Morrison's death is not
    relevant.

    "What Jim Morrison died of is excess. He carried it too
    far. He never knew how far you could take things before the
    limit could be reached, and unfortunately he physically
    reached the limit", he told Reuters.


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