“This is the side of Jim Morrison few people ever get know. He is always depicted as an obnoxious drunk maniac but he was so much more. He was a highly sophisticated, intelligent, well read southern gentlemen in his quiet moments which his close friends say was his demeanor the majority of the time but his lizard king alter ego was so outrageous and wild that it overshadowed so much of the positive aspects of who he really was .” – Adam Watson
Jim Morrison was interviewed by Tony Thomas of the CBC on June 27, 1970. This is that interview. Jim died 1 year and 6 days later in Paris, France at the age of 27.
Tony Thomas: Jim, what do young people worship today? What do they believe? What do they hang on to? What do they hope for?
Jim Morrison: I can’t speak for young people, but probably a guess would be the same things they’ve all always celebrated. Just kind of a joy of existence, self discovery, freedom, that kind of thing.
Tony Thomas: There’s always been a generation gap in every age, but the gap now seems to be much more of a definite cleavage. The young people today seem to feel and think differently. What do you think has brought this about?
Jim Morrison: So-called generation gap could be a result of larger numbers of young people. I think it happened after World War II. I think it’s something like over half the population in the United States now is under 18 years of age, something like that.
Tony Thomas: Politically and philosophically, the young people now seem to feel very deft ideas about the establishment, old systems of governing people and moral attitudes.
Jim Morrison: Yeah. When I was in high school and college, the kind of protest that’s going on now is totally unheard of. At that time, to be a teenager, to be young was really nothing. It was kind of a limbo state. And I think it’s amazing just in the last five years what’s happened is young people have come increasingly aware of the power and the influence that they have as a group. It’s really amazing.
Tony Thomas: Does it surprise you that there is so much revolt on the campuses of this country against Washington and its policies?
Jim Morrison: It really surprises me because as I said before, when I was growing up in and I was in school it was totally unheard of. Students really had no power. But if you look back in history, it seems to bear out the fact that every revolution has started with students and spread to workers and I’m not predicting that there’s going to be a drastic turnover in this country, but all the indications are there.
Tony Thomas: Life does seem to become more and more involved and complex. We’re becoming computerized and dehumanized in that process. That bugs me. I wonder how it bothers you and your generation.
Jim Morrison: There does seem to be a trend toward a return to a kind of primitive outlook on life, a more tribal attitude and I think it’s a natural reaction to industrialization, but unfortunately it’s kind of naive because I think the future is going to become increasingly mechanized, computerized as you call it and I don’t think there’s any turning back. It’s just figuring out a way to survive and thrive in that kind of society. But I don’t think there’s any chance of going back. Look at it this way too, the hippie lifestyle is really a middle class phenomena and it could not exist in any other society except ours where there’s such an incredible surfeit of goods, products and leisure time. I think that’s the reason for it because the generations immediately preceding ours had world wars and depressions to contend with. And for the last 10 or 15 years in this country, there’s time enough and there’s money enough to live kind of a flagrant outrageous lifestyle, which was impossible before.
Tony Thomas: Jim, there’s a line in your book of poems which reads, the cleavage of men into actor and spectators is the central fact of our time. I think that’s undeniable, but I want to ask, hasn’t it always been that way with society?
Jim Morrison: I suppose it has, but with mass media today it becomes more immediately apparent. I think what I was concerned with in that book was the fact that most people feel completely void and helpless in controlling their own destinies or controlling the destiny of human life. I think it’s sad. More people should be involved rather than designating all these powers to a few individuals. I think the average person, whatever that is, should be a part of it somehow. And I think everyone feels that events are just going on without their knowledge or control. I think it’s one of the tragedies of our time. I suppose it has always been that way, but now it’s just become so obvious. Decisions are made for you in which you have no part of at all. I just lament the fact that so many people are content with living a very quiet, well-mannered, orderly life when so many obvious injustices I guess are going on and they seem to ignore it somehow or not care at all, just let it happen without ever becoming involved. I think that’s sad.
Tony Thomas: Jim, relevant to your theory that people should get more involved in life and thus enjoy it more, you have written a line of poetry which reads, the spectator is a dying animal. Isn’t that a bit of a contradiction to what you’ve said previously?
Jim Morrison: No, it’s concerned with that same split between the actor and the audience. To me there’s something incredibly sad about a bunch of human beings sitting down watching something take place and just when you think about it, I love movies as much as anyone else, but the spectacle of millions and millions of people sitting in movie theaters and in front of television sets every night watching a second or third hand reproduction of reality going on when the real world is right there in their living room or right outside in the street or down the block somewhere, I think it’s a tool to somnambulize or hypnotize people into a kind of waking sleep. But I think the major influence in the next decade or so is going to be the people who are able to assemble masses, these huge masses of people into one spot as we’ve witnessed in pop festivals in the last two or three years, I think will be the major influences on mass culture in the next decade. I think the rock music enthusiasts have created probably some of the most exciting music and theatrical events on the planet. I think they’re fantastic.
Tony Thomas: Well, part of generation gap is the difference in what people like in terms of music. Now, this is something that distresses me a little bit, it seems that the young people like all the same kind of thing. Now I want more out of the young people than just that.
Jim Morrison: Yeah, well, they’re being programmed by their radios. They only play the major radio stations, rock stations only play 30 songs over and over and over 24 hours a day. And it’s been proven what you hear the most is what you like the most. So there’s really no choice involved. Someone is programming it.
Tony Thomas: So we are the victims of media.
Jim Morrison: What everyone should say is the medium is the message and the message is me. And that’s the answer is for everyone to… You’re asking for an answer, the answer is for everyone to stand up and say, I’m me and be fully aware of that fact and let everyone else know it.
Tony Thomas: Yeah.
Jim Morrison: That you are yourself and express it.