Lightweight and unpenetrating hagiography
|
Rock biographies can be wonderful things - Guralnick's two volume life of the king Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley and Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley; the Gillmans' Alias David Bowie; and anything by Lester Bangs rank amongst the best biographies written about anyone - but despite having an undoubtedly fascinating subject in Jim Morrison and good pedigree in the Rolling Stone credentials of its authors, No One Gets Out Of Here Alive fails to impress on any level.
For me a decent biography has to have a thesis: A (perhaps controversial) view of its subject that the authors, having immersed themselves in research, can present, backed by evidence, to put a new perspective or shed some new light on a familiar subject: to tell a new story for a casual reader. Hopkins and Sugarman make no such effort: Morrison is portrayed as a clever, well-read alcoholic with an authority problem and a pretty apparent (but entirely unexplored) general social unease. The events of his life are thus trotted out is a somewhat patchy fashion, without the attempt to stitch together some overlying narrative or explanation where it feels one is called for: after all this phenomenon still occupies some (diminishing) part of the collective consciousness nearly forty years later. Yet James Morrison comes across as no more worthwhile or interesting a figure than Robbie Williams or Amy Winehouse, and while that may be true, I doubt it, and it doesn't explain the eerie and evocative content of nearly all the Doors' records. I can't imagine a Robbie Williams over the opening credits of Apocalypse Now, nor coming up with an album closer like Maggie McGill or Riders on the Storm.
This book doesn't even pretend to be a story about the rest of the band, and therefore leaves this fascinating artifact we still know as The Doors pretty much uninvestigated, let alone unexplained. Ray Manzarek is, at least, a peripheral figure: poor Robby Krieger and particularly John Densmore are barely mentioned, and the relationships, dynamics and creative processes of the band - which led to some undeniably memorable and haunting music, after all - are wholly unexplored. In any case Jim Morrison, even in his own right, can't be understood properly except through that prism, so this feels to me to be a dramatic failing.
Lastly, Hopkins and Sugarman indulge in absurd speculation about Morrison's demise - or more accurately the lack of evidence for it. Yet all of Morrison's behaviour before his, er "disappearance" - as patiently documented in this volume - points to exactly the sort of early death he apparently suffered, and the idea that such a publicity seeking (and utterly recognisable) drunkard could suddenly, miraculously, vanish without trace from the entire planet's conscience simply beggars belief.
There must be more rewarding accounts of The Doors than this.
|
|
If you only buy one book, buy this one!
|
|
If you have just discovered The Doors & want to know more about jim Morrison, buy this book! It must be the starting point of most Doors fans collections (it certainly was mine!), well written & very interesting - A must!
|
|
A Must For Every Jim Morrison Fan
|
this is the first book ive read concerning Jim Morrison and it has made me feel that i know an awful lot alot Jim and his life. its such a powerful book,well written and very entertaining. the amount of research that has went into the book is extremly obivious as it gives a near day by day account of Jims life.
this is a book for all Doors/Morrisons fans.
|
|
Hmm, great band, and very efficient self-publicists.
|
|
Nobody has yet written a biography of Morrison or an account of the Doors that could be in any way definitive. This one is long on trivia, drops in some intriguing fictionalised details for spice (like what Jimbo was thinking at various key moments in the Doors' career- yep, they had telepathy in the '60s) and of course has its own versions of most of the Doors stories. There's so many different versions of these that we'll never know the truth now. However this is an entertaining book- but if you want the truth, you'll have to buy ALL the Doors books, and stitch your own version together.
|
|
|
A biography to end all biographies!
|
|
This book is excellent for avid Doors fans or anyone interested in the 1960's music and art scene. "No one here gets out alive" provides the reader with an accurate, honest account of Morrisons life from his days of having to move around with his family from state to state, to that tragic day in Paris in 1971. This biography gives you the chance to get to know the real Jim Morrison and anyone who wants to continue viewing him through rose coloured glasses probably shouldn't read this book as he was not quite the lovable rouge that we all hoped he would have been. This book is a brilliant read, not concentrating solely on Jim, it provides you with the other band members perspectives and thoses of the people around Jim in the 1960's. You will feel like you are back there with the Doors and you may even come to feel a little bit sorry for Jim Morrison when you realise that if he had only let himself live through the experience of fame and fortune instead of fighting against it, he would probably have been around for a lot longer.
|
|
|
United States | 
United Kingdom | 
Canada