First, there's always contention amongst fans about what is true or untrue in the narrative of Jim and The Doors. This seems to have always been the case.
If you're not that familiar with The Doors, I think it's best if you start with No One Here Gets Out Alive. I suggest it in the same way that if you're not familiar with The Doors musically that much, you'd be best off starting with their greatest hits, picking a favorite song from it and getting the original album that the favorite song is on. Once's you've tired of the studio albums, move on to the live albums. Then, move on to the poetry sessions.
Here's the reading list, in recommended order:
No One Here Gets Out Alive
Robbie summarizes about No One Here, as do I, that, "even with all the massaged stories, I have to admit it's still one of the better books out there about our history."
No One Here Gets Out Alive
Robbie's Set the Night on Fire is the best autobiography.
Set the Night on Fire
Densmore's Riders on the Storm was good, too. I reviewed it for my college newspaper 30 years ago.
Riders on the Storm
Ray's Light My Fire isn't the most mature take, but has a lot of good insights.
Light My Fire
Lisciandro's Friends Gathered Together is great. Collection of informal interviews that are revealing.
Friends Gathered Together
Summer With Morrison by the guy that let Morrison sleep on his rooftop in Venice.
A lot of people don't get that the conversations he recounts are "dramatic recreations". He's not trying to recall verbatim, but give a sense of the literary interests he shared with Jim. He also has some revealing anecdotes worth knowing about.
Summer With Morrison
The Lizard King - collection of interviews. Really puts Morrison's intelligence on display.
Lizard King
I Remember Jim Morrison by the husband of Anne Morrison (Jim's sister) has a few good nuggets in it. Mostly recounts the days they went out drinking.
I Remember Jim Morrison
The Doors Summer's Gone - collection of anecdotes that actually are quite good.
Summer's Gone
Angels Dance and Angels Die by Patricia Butler
Covers the same ground as No One Here, but with a focus on Jim's relationship with Pamela.
Angels Dance And Angels Die
Wonderland Avenue by Danny Sugerman.
Danny's the guy that cowrote No One Here biography of the Doors. He's open and honest about his messed up life. Some interesting Jim and Doors info.
Wonderland Avenue
Some honorable mentions
The Doors Illustrated History - mostly great pictures, promotional articles and marketing type stuff.
Illustrated History
The Doors Unhinged - what happened after Jim died and Ray and Robbie tried to tour using the "Doors" brand without John Densmore (or Jim). Some interesting court room stuff.
Doors Unhinged: Jim Morrison's Legacy Goes on Trial
Jim Morrison Collected Works - I relate to it the way I relate to the Doors post-Morrison. Interesting, but their music didn't come together without him in the same way his poetry didn't come together without their music.
Collected Works of Jim Morrison: Poetry, Journals, Transcripts, and Lyrics
Paul Ferra's Flash of Eden wasn't that good, but having a film background myself, some parts were interesting as he made a lot of the original documentary footage.
Jim Morrison's Clearwater had some interviews with some of Jim's friends from the teen years he as there. There were a lot of the behaviors on display; public drunkenness, lewdness and whatnot that would only get amplified later.
The Lizard King Was Here had some interesting details and captured the formative era of Jim's teenage years, but was a bit tedious.
All other books I would describe as non-essential, repetitive, read like promotional material or read like straight up fan-fiction, but of course, have fun reading them if you want to! Here's a decent list that is actually not complete.
I find the reviews of albums to be mostly non-sensical and don't bother with them. Take this LA Times review of the first Doors album.
There's a transcript by Max Fink, the lawyer for Jim that represented him for the Miami trial among other things. It has some very salacious material that exists no where else.
Unfortunately, it reads like one part dime store novel and one part copy and paste from a 1950's psychology text book. I haven't included it in this blog because I don't have it and it is only referenced in the Butler and Davis biographies. I'd like to read the whole transcript as the parts referenced sound like Max Fink was trying to get people to read it and sell it.
There's an archived thread from the early days of the internet when Patricia Butler, author or Angels Dance, engaged with some very antagonistic Doors fans. You can read it here.
There are also interviews that No One Here Gets Out Alive is based on. I'd love to get the original interviews and see just exactly what was "sensationalized" or misattributed. The problem with all the claims of No One Here Gets Out Alive is that, out of all this reading I've done, I've only read a few minor details that might have been wrong.
People's complaint about No One Here seems to be that the focus of the book misses out on Jim's sense of humor or "Southernly gentleman" spirit, but they then never really offer up either of those in their own books and instead focus on the completely out of control drinking, drug use, problems with the law, family, members in the band and so on.
Robbie Krieger writes, "When we met [Danny Sugarman] he wasn't even old enough to get into some of the clubs we were playing. But he claimed to be an insider and he punched up Hopkins's manuscript by exaggerating some stories and completely inventing others. I could go page by page and catalog all the falsehoods in the book... we never played a bar mitzvah... we never went to Disneyland as a band... I didn't whisper in Jim's ear at the New Haven show... but those aren't worth getting upset about. I could forgive Danny for taking a little creative license and even putting a few words in my mouth. But there were a few parts where it seemed like he was also putting words in Jim's mouth, and that, for me, is where he crossed a line."
There was also a lot of upset about the book claiming that Jim might not be dead. Danny talks about it here.
Robbie also asserts that Ray Manzarek had his hands in sensationalizing the stories. However, in the end, Robbie summarizes, as do I, that, "But even with all the massaged stories, I have to admit it's still one of the better books out there about our history."
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