"MOONLIGHT DRIVE": JIM MORRISON THE POET

 

Poetry was one of Jim Morrison's most important artistic and cultural interests, and he made repeated forays into this art outside of the music he created with The Doors.

In fact, there are numerous poems that he left for us and thought about without music as the context for which they were intended.

As a poet, Morrison published several poetic works, either in individual form (in magazines) or as verses collected in special publications.

His role as a musician, however, was closely intertwined with his poetry output, as evidenced by the haunting lyrics he wrote for the songs of the band he was in. This is feature that no other band or artist of the time could match, except, of course, Bob Dylan.

A poet, then, who was able to break out of the conventions that bound American society in the 1960s and, at the same time, to astonish and shock the music scene with the words of his songs.

Sometimes cryptic and indecipherable, sometimes direct and uncompromising, the lyrics Morrison composed for The Doors are written in the collective memory as well as in the history of modern music.

He was able to deal with multiple themes and aspects of human reality, always finding original points of view and angles, like a painter capable of revealing the unexpected soul of a subject through a picture.

His poetic and literary training, ranging from Kafka to Kerouac, included 19th-century poets such as William Blake and Arthur Rimbaud.

From them Morrison drew inspiration to translate the startling thoughts that populated his fertile imagination into evocative and thought-provoking images.

In this regard, among the songs composed by this immense artist, we want to highlight here "Moonlight Drive".

Besides being one of the first compositions conceived by the genius of the singer in the summer of 1965, it possesses lyrics strongly inspired by the themes of nineteenth-century romantic poetry and literature.

These are cultural references that were unfortunately underestimated at the time of the song's release within "Strange Days", The Doors' second album released on September 25^th, 1967.

The lyrics of this composition include references to the path to personal freedom and to breaking free from the social conventions that imprison us and frustrate our brightest aspirations.

It is a theme that affects each of us, and Morrison addressed it through a series of vivid and highly effective metaphors.

Chief among them is swimming to the moon, abandoning the city as a symbol of conformity and the oppressive patterns of life imposed on the individual from above.

In addition, the text is rich in images belonging to nature. They are meant to lead man to a broader self-awareness that is open to a passion for life.

The reference to Romantic poetry of the 1800s is so clear in this lyrics, both in form and content, that the connection between them and Morrison's readings of poets belonging to that artistic-poetic school seems direct.

Indeed, Romantic poetry adopted the same types of metaphors inspired by natural elements, linking their meaning to the inner movements of the human soul.

This magnificent song thus gives us the opportunity to penetrate the appearances that the rock star figure built and consolidated around Jim Morrison.

In this way, it is be possible to penetrate beneath the surface of transgression to find a poet and an educated, curious and sensitive artist.

The attention paid to the words written by the singer for the songs of The Doors, as we briefly did in the case of "Moonlight Drive", deserves to be restored.

In this way, it will be possible to do justice to the lyricist and to the man interested in all forms of art who hid behind the spotlight figure and the journalistic speculation (always ready, in the 1960s, to demonize any behavior that did not conform to the expectations of the dominant culture).

Combining the rock of the Californian band with the poetic value of Morrison's lyrics and their deep meanings, we will be able to derive even more pleasure from the already delightful and amazing listening offered by The Doors' songs.

P.S.: My book "The Doors Through Strange Days"- The most comprehensive journey ever made through The Doors' second LP, is out and available on Amazon.com!

Here’s the link:

Amazon – “The Doors Through Strange Days”