JIM MORRISON’S “ORANGE COUNTY SUITE”: BEAT POETRY AND ROCK BALLAD
From 1967 to 1968, Jim Morrison developed a growing interest in poetry. Evident as early as 1965, this passion was amplified following the fame achieved by the rock band The Doors, of which Morrison was the lead singer. One outstanding outcome of his pronounced inclination toward writing in verse is "Orange County Suite," which he composed in 1968. It celebrates the American literary tradition of the Beat Generation (Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, etc.), filtered through Morrison’s unique sensibility and fractured personal experiences. The poem was not included in The Doors' third LP, "Waiting for the Sun", released in July 1968, so the singer incorporated it into the material he recorded alone on February 9, 1969, in Los Angeles. In this recording session the frontman’s voice caresses the microphone with symbolic and provocative images — luminous and dark, seductive and raw — yet devoid of musical accompaniment. An exception to thi...
