Death of a Poet

(Video from Jim Morrison: The Severed Garden)

Jim Morrison was found dead in the bathtub of his Paris apartment on July 3, 1971. The legendary lead singer of The Doors and poet extraordinaire was only 27 years old. Incredibly, his death was ruled to be natural causes, and no autopsy was ever performed.

Fast forward to July 2007. Out of the shadows steps one Mr. Sam Bennett, the then-manager of the fabled Parisian nightclub, Rock 'n' Roll Circus. Bennett claims that he knows how Jim Morrison really died - he was there. According to Bennett, Morrison died of a heroin overdose in the toilet of his nightclub. His body was then moved from the club to his apartment in order to cover up the truth. The startling revelations may lead the French police to re-open the investigation into his death.

However he died, Morrison was certainly a most remarkable man who died much too young. His death was the third in a tragic trilogy of rock legend deaths, Jimi Hendrix and Janice Joplin having died the previous year. Their deaths spotlighted the excesses that can accompany stardom, and put a damper on the party that had begun a few years earlier with the Summer of Love.

Like his music, his poetry was remarkable. In The Severed Garden, he seemed to perhaps foresee his own fate when he wrote...

Do you know how pale and wanton thrillful
Comes death on a strange hour
Unannounced, unplanned for
Like a scaring over-friendly guest you've
Brought to bed

R.I.P. James Douglas Morrison