2006

The Lizard King Was Here: The Life and Times of Jim Morrison in Alexandria, Virginia
by Mark Opsasnick

I've read a number of Doors books and whenever they talk about his school yrs I often wondered if anyone would investigate it. Now this book covers Jim's High School yrs from 1959 to 61 graduation. Some of these stories make sense to a number of antics Jim has later done as a rock star. I remember reading that Jim would just leave The Doors for days & no one would know where he ventured. Jim as a 17 yr old did this as well. I believe this comes from being a military brat that he would move from state to state.

Jim did have friends just no one close. A lot of them said Jim would test people’s reaction & put them in awkward situations. A number of his friends say they couldn’t hang out too long w/ him. Since he would have these spontaneous eruptions of making people feel uncomfortable.


No one ever remembers Jim even talking about forming a band or shown any interest in rock music. Besides influences of philosopher Nietzsche, French poet Rimbaud, British Poet/artist William Blake I liked the chapter that talks about his books and favorite authors like Kafka, James Joyce, Camus, and the Beat Generation Kerouac, Burroughs, Ginsberg to name a few. The author gives a brief description of these writers & their books. Very interesting to see where Jim got his influences. This is a very good source of reading material if you ever want to explore more what has Jim read.

Even in high school Jim would be talk to his friends about faking his death. I've found this book very interesting and explains a lot about Jim Morrison, good & bad.