RIDERS ON THE STORM: My Life with Jim Morrison and the Doors

by John Densmore ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 14, 1990

Citing the success of other books about Sixties rock legend Jim Morrison and his band (e.g, Jerry Hopkins & Danny Sugerman's No One Here Gets Out Alive), and clearly anticipating a new wave of Morrison mania with the release this fall of Oliver Stone's movie about the Doors, Densmore--the band's drummer--offers his autobiography, pumping up his mostly distant relationship with Morrison via posthumous ""healing"" letters. In 1965, Densmore--a college drop-out infatuated with jazz drumming and LSD--met Morrison, a shy and taciturn student in the UCLA film school. The least musical of the four young men who formed the Doors, Morrison was foremost a poet. He would chant out his dark, mysterious lyrics while Densmore searched for haunting drumbeats and the organist and lead guitarist forged melodies. As the band rose from dives to the Fillmore West and other showcases of the Sixties, Morrison became a musical shaman, moving crowds with his seductive visions. As handsome as a Renaissance prince and as romantically self-destructive as Nietzsche or Rimbaud (both of whom he cherished), Morrison offered a stark contrast to the flower-power bands of the era. Here, Densmore admits that he was ambivalent about Mormon. He and the other band members watched the sensuous ""Lizard King"" get loaded and miss rehearsals, never quite forgiving him for pretending to lead people to a realm beyond the ordinary when he could barely put on his own boots. Thanks to time and stiff doses of therapy and retreats led by Robert Bly, Densmore has finally worked up the nerve to tell Morrison what he really thinks of him. ""I'm still pissed off and hurting,"" he writes. ""I wish I would have had the balls to say some things to you back in the sixties but you were incredibly powerful, and intimidating."" Exploitation and self-promotion dressed up with mock outrage and pallid memories. The least interesting of any book on Morrison and the Doors.

Pub Date: Sept. 14, 1990

ISBN: 0385304471

Page Count: -

Publisher: Delacorte

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1990

Categories: NONFICTION