Paris - Père Lachaise - 19e

Plate CXVIII – Pere Lachaise II – Jim Morrison  …

Just follow the arrows if you’re here to pay homage to Jim, for fans and vandals (in this case synonymous) have carved, cut, scratched and painted directional markers to his grave throughout the cemetery.

Perhaps the most unexpected ‘resident’ of Père Lachaise, and today still certainly one of the most celebrated for his presence here is the US rock singer and poet (as billed in my Chambers Biographical Dictionary) James Douglas (Jim) Morrison. Best known as the lead singer/writer of the late 60’s rock band The Doors, Morrison died in Paris in mysterious circumstances in 1971. As a child of the sixties myself I rocked and grooved to such hits as Light My Fire, When the Music’s Over, People Are Strange, and Whisky Bar (an unlikely Doors’ choice from the songbook of Kurt Weill and Bertold Brecht, but a hit none the less). One of the original non-conformist rock rebels of the age, Morrison’s chemically-enhanced lifestyle and outspoken political sentiments (expressed in such lyrics as Five To One or the brilliant The Unknown Soldier) often brought him into conflict with authority. To me he was pure genius, and with the possible exception of the Rolling Stones no rocker band comes close to evoking a blast from that past, with only a few familiar chords of almost any of their tracks, as do the Doors.

The daily crowds gathered around Morrison’s shrine (many of them modern day Goths) will let you know you’ve found him, and the grave itself was strewn with mementoes (from tear-stained handkerchiefs to items of jewellery) left by worshippers of the Lizard King. I wondered who finally collects them.