Pop Rock, Rock Music - Biography, Pop, Rock, & Soul Musicians - Biography

The Lizard King

Name: The Lizard King
Author: Jerry Hopkins
ISBN: 9780684818665

by Jerry Hopkins

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Overview

Jim Morrison, lead singer of the Doors, has achieved a bizarre cult status since his death in 1971. Morrison was, and is, one of the most popular and controversial figures to emerge during the sixties. He was described as an erotic politician, poet, shaman, and Dionysian debaucher, and his style and influence have grown steadily in the decades since his death, so that the real man has gradually disappeared behind the legend. Now in The Lizard King: The Essential Jim Morrison, Morrison's biographer Jerry Hopkins, coauthor of No One Here Gets Out Alive, reassesses the rock idol's life; his extensive new research provides fresh insights into Morrison as a human being rather than the mythical beast some say he was. But this reappraisal is only part of this remarkable book. At its heart Jim Morrison speaks. In a series of interviews with Morrison, carried out by journalists including Jerry Hopkins himself, Ben Fong-Torres, John Tobler, Bob Chorush, Salli Stevenson, Richard Goldstein, and the late John Carpenter, Morrison shows himself to be articulate, intelligent, and witty. Published uncut, these interviews provide a unique insight into a man whom Jerry Hopkins reveals as a clever boy from a middle-class background who consciously created his own myth, then lived to regret it. Separating the facts from the fantasies regarding Jim's death in Paris in 1971, Hopkins solves the mystery of Morrison's death and takes a long, hard look at what has happened since to the people Jim Morrison left behind. The Lizard King: The Essential Jim Morrison brings sharply into focus the broken dreams and unattainable ideals of one of the sixties' most enduring icons.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

``He was rolling along, drunk much of the time, putting himself out there, pretty much letting life happen to him,'' writes Hopkins of rock star Morrison (1943-1971) in this refreshing addition to the already large shelf of books about The Doors and their lead singer. Neither mythmaker nor debunker, Hopkins ( No One Here Gets Out Alive ) views Morrison as a talented yet disturbed person, easy to dislike but impossible to dismiss. In particular Morrison fans will welcome the most vivid descriptions of the star's death ever published, an unusually sensitive treatment of his first wife, Pam Coruson, and a previously unpublished interview. Hopkins also dispels the rumors about Morrison's possible survival and describes the making of the Oliver Stone film that sparked a resurgence of The Doors' popularity. His polished style and sense of balance, evident throughout, add luster to this well-explored subject. Photos not seen by PW. (Nov.)

Library Journal

It seems appropriate that Hopkins, who coauthored No One Here Gets Out Alive ( LJ 9/15/80), offered the first mainstream Morrison biography and the basis for Oliver Stone's 1991 film The Doors . This effort, Hopkins assures us, is not a No One Here Gets Out Alive reclamation project, but rather ``another attempt to capture, and perhaps get closer to explaining, the mystery and the mystique.'' Hopkins hits all the biographical high-water marks and provides new information regarding Morrison's family, the infamous Miami trial, and, most importantly, Morrison's death, which was ambiguously treated in the previous book. However, Hopkins's big kicker--that Morrison died of a heroin overdose--was previously espoused in Patricia Kennealy's Strange Days ( LJ 3/15/92). Ultimately, the explication of the man who would be Lizard King is best left to Morrison himself, and the collection of seven interviews that follow the narrative yields the most insight. For larger popular music collections, this is a solid contribution to the burgeoning Morrison/Doors canon.--Barry X. Miller, Austin P.L., Tex.