Who Was Jim Morrison? A Beautiful, Self-Conscious Dork, Said Eve Babitz
- by Eve Babitz
IN 1991, BABITZ WAS CONSIDERED THE POET LAUREATE OF THE 1960'S L.A. COUNTERCULTURE SCENE. HERE, SHE RECALLED HER AFFAIR WITH THE FRONTMAN, PLUS EVERYTHING THAT OLIVER STONE GOT WRONG IN HIS THE DOORS BIOPIC.
This article originally appeared in the March 1991 issue of Esquire.
J.D. Souther once told me he spent his first years in L.A. learning how to stand. Jim knew how to stand from the start. He stood pigeontoed, filled with poetry against a mike with that honky-tonk Berlin organ in the background, and sang about “another kiss.”
And there is something to be said for singing in tune. Jim not only sang in tune, he sang intimately—as Doors producer Paul Rothchild once pointed out to me, “Jim was the greatest crooner since Bing Crosby.”
He was Bing Crosby from hell.
