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Life Before The Doors...
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Jim Morrison was born on December 8, 1943 to George and Clara Morrison. George, being a Navy admiral, decided to name Jim after the war hero Gen. Douglas MacArthur, hence the name James Douglas Morrison. Jim's childhood was not a great one. His dad was constantly being stationed at different places around the U.S. Jim was slightly overweight early in his life. One evening, Jim's parents were taking Jim across a highway in New Mexico when they witnessed indians lying on the road dying. They had been thrown from the back of a truck. Jim said that one of the indian's spirits entered his soul that day and had stayed there. In the song "Peace Frog", there are two lines which refer to this incident: "Indians lying on dawn's highway bleeding//Ghosts crowd a young child's fragile, eggshell mind". While in highschool, Jim was always goofing off. He was the class clown, but he was also the smartest kid in the class. When Jim took an I.Q. test, he was classified as a genius. This intelligence helped
him to be accepted at Florida State University and UCLA, where he earned his Bachelor's Degree. Jim wanted to major in Films, but his first and only film recieved a grade of a D. Jim was outraged and said that he would move to New York. Jim had a change of heart, however, and decided to stay and write poetry. While walking around Venice beach one day in 1965, Jim ran into Ray Manzarek. Ray asked Jim what he why he didn't go to New York and Jim said he wanted to write some more poetry from the beach. Ray asked Jim to read some of his his poetry and Jim hesitantly agreed. After reading the first four lines of "Moonlight Drive", Ray was amazed and asked Jim to join his band. Jim agreed and Rock and Roll history was about to be changed.
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