Dark Matters Radio

So I turned on the TV Thursday afternoon to check any breaking news and suddenly I was overwhelmed with news reports on EVERY channel and station that Michael Jackson died. The cause that all the talking heads were giving was “cardiac arrest.” His heart stopped. Now wait, that didn’t seem to make any sense, the guy (he was a guy, right?) was only 50 years old. He had more money (or at least spent more money) than God, so I figured if he had any major health problems he sure as hell could afford a doctor. Then it hit me, the only damn thing that seemed to make sense to me, it HAD TO BE DRUGS. I told Vicki, “I bet it was a medication overdose.”

Now, to be perfectly honest, I was ambivalent about Michael Jackson. Oh, the guy had talent coming out his Wahzoo for sure, but hell, he was WEIRD. He never struck me as REAL, at least not my kind of real. Sorry, I guess I am old school but a guy that wears lipstick and talks like a 10 year old little girl just doesn’t “grab” me. I will admit that I enjoyed (back then) his “Thriller” video,  The Thriller Video and he did make MTV when they ran the thing 24/7. (And hell, it had Vincent Price’s voice in it, how could it miss?) And if I am being perfectly honest, the whole “kid molestation” thing back a couple of years ago turned my stomach. Yeah, yeah, I know he was never convicted of anything, but hey damn it, how many MEN over 18 “play” with little kids and have them over for cookies and milk IN THEIR GODDAMN BED? Well, I believe I did say I thought he was weird. Now, I will tell you who I do miss, and have for over 35 years. Jim Morrison.

Jim

The Doors turned rock and roll music on its ear pal. Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger, and of course John Densmore, broke the mold in my humble opinion. Oh yeah, we are honest here so let me say this about that … Morrison was a screwed up guy. When Oliver Stone’s flick “The Doors” opened, Vicki and I went to see it and yeah, I was moved. I recall telling Vicki how pissed off I was at Morrison, that he pissed all that beautiful talent down the drain in a shower of drugs and booze. And he was talented, there is no doubt. There was also no sexual ambiguity about him. He liked chicks, period. He liked to party, also no doubt. And he died in July, 1971, in a bathtub, probably from a drug overdose. (The jury, if you can believe it, is still out on what killed him.)

I was in SE Asia when I heard about his death, Hell it was a replay of a replay, Hendrix was soon to go, Joplin died and now Morrison was gone. At the time there was an empty spot in me, and not just me, a lot of people felt the loss.

It was not quite a year later after I was wounded in Nam that I remember the following. I can recall lying in a hospital bed in Okinawa, early in the morning, and being awakened by the radio, playing “Riders of the Storm.”

Riders of the STORM

It was the first time I heard it and it blew me away. Actually there were two songs I recall then, “Riders” and the other one was Harry Chapin’s “Taxi.” Both songs moved me on a deep emotional level. They still do.

Taxi

Morrison considered himself a poet, even at the expense of being a rock and roll “superstar.” I’ve read and heard a lot of his poetry, and in my opinion, some was very good, some was okay, and some was shit, or at least it was beyond what I could grasp. Perhaps his drug use did open his doors of perception. But having just come from that surrealistic hell-hole that was Viet Nam, one line he wrote rang with me then and rings with me today. “Out here on the perimeter there are no stars, out here we is STONED Immaculate.” (Taken from THE WASP; Texas Radio and the Big Beat, from the album L. A. Woman-The Doors) There were no stars on the perimeter I had just left, believe you me. And we wuz not stoned immaculate, but we wus scared shitless.

So, Michael Jackson has died, yet the world moves on. Almost 38 years ago Morrison died and the world moved on also. When push comes to shove I guess I will still miss Morrison today, tomorrow and forever. Now, that was some MUSIC.

PS Several years ago my buddy Dwight Schultz bought me the boxed set of The Doors CD & DVD set for Christmas. What a damn generous gift, eh? Thanks Dwight, it is appreciated more than you know.