Jim Morrison : Dark Star

Rating:
Summary: Morrison is an Unparalled Musician and Thinker
Review: I bought this book and had it finished in one week. Thomas does and excellent job of describing the life of Jim Morrison, AKA the lizard king, it was one of turmoil and confusion. But Morrison was quite an intellect and poet. Many of the Doors songs spawned from books Morrison had read and he had an unquenched love for the beat generation works, mythology and philosophers. On stage he was an amazing showman and gave the fans what they wanted. But all too many times he would become unruly and downright deplorable. Yet he still was a tremendous thinker, and was the perfect image of a rock and roll star. He truly was a remarkable poet and writer, it is too bad he left the Earth so soon.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent, true book
Review: I have every book written about Jim Morrison collected over the past 20-plus years, plus every performance available on either VHS or DVD, including his film HWY. Dylan Jones has written an indepth, detailed account of Morrison's life, in which he was neither glamorized nor trashed. This book shows Morrison as a human being and not the overblown myth created since his passing. "Dark Star" works best as a reality check against the numerous tomes that lauded Morrison and contributed to his icon status. Jim couldn't live up to the sexy rock star image in real life, hence, his sabbatical to Paris to get away from the Lizard King persona he so carefully crafted. Of course, unless Morrison made a 180-degree change in the way he was living his life (and abusing his body), if he were alive today, he would be considered a "washed up" relic from the 1960s. This book is for those of us who lived through the 1960s and remember the decade for all it was, not just peace and love. We had Vietnam and we couldn't vote until age 21... and for many of our generation who had no choice, the end WAS always near....

Rating:
Summary: Great Photos, Bad Writing.
Review: This a strange book for me indeed. I loved the photos, especially those of The Doors performing, but the writing is bad and depressing. Dylan Jones fails to do anything to capture the essence of Jim Morrison's art and instead writes a book that basically paints a depressing picture. It appears he takes a lot of gossip as truth (though Morrison was known for his "wild child" activities) and I don't understand why so much effort was put into such a gorgeous-looking book when the writing burns the main character. Jones obviously does not understand or feel anything about The Doors considering he called "Waiting For The Sun" a disappointing work and trashes a great song like "Not To Touch The Earth." I'm also surprised he has so many pictures of Morrison at concerts when he totally trashes his moves and wild performances on stage. This is a weird book in that it has so many great pictures, it is a photographic record, but the writing does not strive to dissect The Doors art, it only focuses on the negative aspects of the life of Jim Morrison. I very much more enjoyed the biography "Break On Through" which was smoothly written and treated the bad stuff with style and really dissected Morrison's work. Great photos, disappointing book.

Rating:
Summary: Could we suck up to the "Widow Kennealy" any more?
Review: This book is gorgeous. If you love the young, pouty lion-god, you will love the photos in this book. If you're interested in the rest of the Doors...look elsewhere. This book is largely a paraphrase of Patricia Kennealy-Morrison's _Strange Days_. Yeah, yeah, we already read that one.