Angels Dance And Angels Die

Jeff Morehouse, a childhood friend of Jim's: Jim didn’t mention any plans to go into music, or really much at all about his life in Los Angeles. But what was clear to all present was the fact that, at twenty-one, Jim had already developed a serious drinking problem, which he made no effort to hide. “Though the two of them got along very well,” recalls Jeff Morehouse, “Jim drove my mother crazy.”

Morrison would come down in the morning, grab a water glass, fill it full of gin, and drink it straight. “He really had to have a couple drinks to get going,” says Morehouse.

“I’d sit there, my mouth hanging open, like ‘Wow! You can still stand up!’ Because he’d drink first thing in the morning, then he would drink all day, but he didn’t act very drunk. My mother scolded him about it, and he’d just look at her and smile.” Jim spent three or four very pleasant days with the Morehouse family. Jeff never saw him again.

I Remember Jim Morrison

Jim started nipping booze in his teenage years from his parents’ liquor cabinet and from leftover drinks that were as common as houseflies in his and most other homes. The ever-present “cocktail hour” was as sacred as Sunday.

Jim saw his parents and their peers getting a “buzz on” at the same time every single day of their lives. This was the common practice of the day in society at large, but even more pronounced in the “close and closed” military environment. Alcohol and cigarettes were cheaper on the Navy base and were purchased in bulk. Most people drank and smoked to excess.

Most navy people I knew drank too much. Jim was no different than the adults he grew up around. However, he had one disadvantage. He was an ACA (Alcoholic Child of America) whose condition was the direct result of alcohol consumption during pregnancy.

This was also a common practice in those times. In addition to that, Jim was surely affected with what we now know is a defective gene. Until the last twenty years, we knew nothing about its effect. Suffice it to say, one who is affected should simply not drink alcohol. For as sure as day, the "behavior" will emerge.

Light My Fire

Felix was a reprobate and Phil was brilliant but unstable, and the three of them together were incendiary. They drank too much. They indulged in strange chemical substances—Asthmador, belladonna, jimsonweed—just to see what they would do.

If they had read about a crazy drug they wanted to try it. No heroin, however. Just weird shit, and the more arcane, the better. It was Jim’s “derangement of the senses” phase. He told me about seeing the green lady on belladonna. He started hitting the bottle with Felix.

Jim Morrison Los Angeles Free Press interview:

Jim: I went through a period where I drank a lot. I had a lot pressures hanging over me that I couldn't cope with. I think also that drinking is a way to cope with living in a crowded environment, and also product of boredom. I know people drink because they're bored. I enjoy drinking. It loosens people up and stimulates conversation sometimes. It's like gambling somehow, you go out for a night of drinking and you don't now where you're going to end up the next day. It could work out good or it could be disastrous.

It's like the throw of the dice. There seem to be a lot of people shooting smack and speed and all that now. Everybody smokes grass I guess you don't consider that a drug - anymore. Three years ago there was a wave of hallucinogenics. I don't think anyone really has the strength to sustain those kicks forever. Then you go into narcotics, of which alcohol is one. Instead of trying to think more you try and kill thought with alcohol and heroin and downers. These are pain killers.

Sounes, Howard. 27: A History of the 27 Club

"He became downright crazy. He got way too drunk," says Dickie Davis, who knew Jim before he was a star, and shudders at the memory of how his friend abused drink and drugs during the years of his celebrity. Jim had always been a hedonist, but he was much worse now. "It was a tragedy. Tragedy is so romantic when people write about it, but it is horrible to see. There’s nothing pretty about a person destroying themselves. And it gets romanticized. Everybody thinks, Oh, it must have been wonderful to know [Jim]. It was, up until it became a tragedy, and then it was impossible to know him."