Mr. Mojo

August 1, 2015

British GQ editor Jones (Elvis Has Left the Building) begins and ends his compact biography of Doors singer Jim Morrison (1943-71) at the Paris cemetery where fans from around the world still congregate almost 45 years after his death. Jones's concise look at Morrison focuses on the years of his meteoric rise and fall from 1965 to 1971, with the text a revised and updated version of Dark Star, his pictorial book from 1990. Jones adds cultural perspectives and observations of the time period and of the myths surrounding Morrison that have endured for decades, yet he doesn't ignore criticism as well as unflinching considerations of Morrison's excessive behavior and habits that increased to almost unbelievable extremes in the last years of his life. There are reasons that fans still flock to his gravesite and that Doors recordings and reissues still sell, and the author captures his subject's magnetism and flaws in equal measure. VERDICT A succinct introduction to Morrison and a solid place to start for new fans; those wanting a more detailed history are given myriad sources to expand their knowledge of Morrison and the Doors.--James Collins, Morristown-Morris Twp. P.L., NJ

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June 29, 2015
In this fast-paced, irreverent biography, British GQ editor Jones grapples with the Lizard King, tracking back from his funeral bed at Père Lachaise to the Manhattan apartment of his partner, writer Patricia Kennealy (they were extralegally married in a Celtic ceremony). Morrison, the son of a high-ranking naval officer, rebelled against the confines of his peripatetic military household, escaping into romantic literature and substance abuse. After leaving UCLA's film school, he drifted into the bohemian undertow of Los Angeles, where a chance meeting with Ray Manzarek led to the formation of the Doors. Clad in skintight leather, Morrison appealed to teenyboppers as well as L.A.'s drug users, and quickly became an international sensation. Ambivalent about his fame but nonetheless enabled by it, Morrison descended into alcoholism and became a charter member of the "27 Club" by way of heroin overdose. Refreshingly, Jones doesn't cater to the exaggerations of the Morrison myth, and his wry analysis provides the lucid center of the book. However, readers looking for a thorough investigation of the moment that produced the Doors or deep insights into the troubled singer will be disappointed; Jones tends toward unsupported generalizations and relies on attitude to make his arguments. This is a fair and extremely readable account of a distant era when Lizard Kings walked the earth and prodigious justifications were provided for their bad behavior.

September 1, 2015
A slim revised biography of the Lizard King. A quarter-century after his first attempt at illuminating his subject (Jim Morrison: Dark Star, 1991), Jones has changed more than his subject has. The author has earned renown in his native Britain and won awards as editor of the British edition of GQ. His career accomplishments make his decision to return to the subject of Jim Morrison (1943-1971) all the more curious. This overwritten, underreported revision, with a new title but much of the same material and flaws as the earlier biography, offers little in the way of fresh insight or revelation. Though he claims to have interviewed "thirty or so people" for this book (most of them presumably for the earlier biography), the only one he singles out for personal contact is magazine editor (and "practicing white witch") Patricia Kennealy, perhaps the final love of Morrison's life and the one who might have saved him from the fate of having "died of self-indulgence." Much of the rest of the book seems taken from the reporting and reviewing of others, except for the gravesite visit that provides the book with its framing and which could have made for an engaging magazine article. When Jones describes a performance in detail, it is generally without date and location, perhaps apocryphal, as if the author is working from other descriptions rather than personal experience. He inflates the significance of his subject, writing that Morrison was "becoming the most adored American entertainer since Elvis" and that the Doors, on their good nights, were "the best band in the world." (After Morrison's death, the author dismisses the other musicians in that band as a "bunch of flyweights.") Jones has not learned enough since his previous biography to warrant fresh publication with a new title. A definite pass for all but the most obsessed Morrison devotees.

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