Fans gather at the grave of rock singer Jim Morrison in the Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris on Saturday. Photo: MICHEL EULER / AP
Paris was the only place for die-hard Jim Morrison fans on Saturday.
Fifty years after his death at the age of 27, rock music lovers from France and around the world came to the Père-Lachaise Cemetery in eastern Paris, where the front man of The Doors is buried. Many brought candles and pictures and some burned incense near his grave while police watched nearby.
“Jim and The Doors have been our heroes since we were children. It is an honor to be here and to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his death today,” said Dutuar Platzek.
Joachim Tittmar from Germany, left, Walter Homburg from the Netherlands, center and his girlfriend Kate Schirm gather at the grave of rock singer Jim Morrison. Photo: MICHEL EULER / AP
The 50-year-old fan traveled with his childhood friend Mathias Barthel from Halle in Germany. The two had not been to the Pere-Lachaise cemetery in over 25 years.
Year after year, the place has become a place of pilgrimage for fans of Morrison, known for its dark lyrics, wavy locks, lederhosen, steely gaze and theatrical stage presence. Between 1965 and 1971 he brought The Doors to several great hits including “Light My Fire”, “Hello I Love You”, “Touch Me” and “Riders on the Storm”.
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Michelle Campbell was 21 years old when Morrison died in 1971. She lived in Texas and studied photography. Your first “3. July “- the anniversary of Morrison’s death – was 1989. At that time the grave was not marked and a fan had made a wooden cross.
She has since moved to Paris and comes to Pere-Lachaise almost every year to photograph Morrison’s grave and his fans, many of whom have become friends.
“(It’s like) people sitting around on couches in someone’s apartment instead of in a grave just talking and meeting,” she recalls. “It was really nice … I still come as often as I can because it’s always so wonderful.”
Colleen Amblard drove seven hours from her hometown of Domancy in the French Alps to visit the tomb. The 21-year-old student told The Associated Press, “It’s very emotional to be here, to remember Jim Morrison … to show that he’s not forgotten.”
“We recognize his talent and the fact that he was a brilliant person, he really was a genius,” she said.
Like many other fans, Amblard planned to visit other places Morrison lived in Paris, from his apartment to the former nightclub where some say he died of a heroin overdose.
Born in Melbourne, Florida in 1943, Morrison was the son of a US Navy officer and moved constantly as a child, growing up in Florida, Virginia, Texas, New Mexico, and California.
A poster, flowers and pictures are on display on the grave of rock singer Jim Morrison in the Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. Photo: MICHEL EULER / AP
He said he witnessed the aftermath of a terrible car accident on a Native American reservation as a child, an event that featured prominently in his later texts and poems. As an avid reader, he was heavily influenced by the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, the poet Arthur Rimbaud and the surrealist playwright Antonin Artaud.
In 1965 he founded The Doors with keyboardist Ray Manzarek, a film student at UCLA, when he was living in the bohemian neighborhood of Venice Beach in Los Angeles and frequently used LSD. Guitarist Robby Krieger and drummer John Densmore joined shortly afterwards.
Morrison and The Doors burned brightly, releasing the albums “The Doors” and “Strange Days” in 1967, “The Soft Parade” in 1968 and “Morrison Hotel” in 1970. Ed Sullivan Show “and at the Hollywood Bowl.
But the band would burn out quickly when Morrison sank into alcoholism. He was arrested twice for his antics on stage, including a concert in Miami where he was convicted of indecent exposure and profanity. In 2010 he received a posthumous pardon.
Morrison made his last album, LA Woman, with The Doors in 1971 and moved to Paris shortly afterwards.
There he was found dead in a bathtub on July 3, 1971. No autopsy was performed and the causes of his death are controversial.
He was one of several rock stars – including Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, and Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones – who died at the age of 27.
Its status as a rock fanatic myth has never diminished. On the 20th anniversary of his death in 1991, the biopic “The Doors” directed by Oliver Stone, starring Val Kilmer as Morrison, was released.
July 5, 2021
