So do any of Morrison’s critics in this thread have some poetry of their own they’d like us to evaluate? (Y’know, just for comparison’s sake…)
This is akin to saying one can’t critique a movie, a book, a poem, etc unless one is a director or author or poet. You don’t need to be a poet to recognize bad poetry. I loved Jim Morrison when I was young, but he was a pop singer not a poet. Divorced from the music his words fall completely flat.
Profound? Deep? Only in the sense bathetic.
It’s definitely the work of the Devil. Can’t you see? If you know how to look, the Evil One is everywhere.
I’ve always heard, “memory”.
Snerk away, dude. YMMV and all that, but Bon Scott wrote hilarious, wonderful lyrics.
For what AC/DC was trying to do - which happens to be to write, big, dumb, swaggering boogie rock - those lyrics are perfect.
If Morrison took himself and his art a bit more seriously, bore down and practiced a bit, etc., then he might’ve had potential…again YMMV…
"Lying on stained, wretched sheets with a bleeding virgin
We could plan a murder or start a religion.
I’ll tell you this: No eternal reward will fogive us now
for wasting the dawn"
The guy only lived to be 27 years old. I can forgive him being sophomoric, seeing as his best work came form someone in his early to mid 20’s. Jim Morison could turn a phrase as well as anyone. Had he lived longer and the drugs not wrecked his brain, he could have been a great poet.
Not on the strength of your quoted lines, he wouldn’t. How does a reward forgive anybody? This is typical of the sort of stuff that people write when they’re eight miles high, sounds fantastic when you write it, doesn’t make a lick of sense after.
Sticking to the realm of popular music, just compare it to people like Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, any of the writers of the Great American Songbook, and guys like Chuck Berry later. These are the true lyrucists.
Darn that should be ‘lyricists’ in the last sentence. Missed the edit window the second time.
Or
…there’s a killer with a gizzard
his brain is squirming like a lizard…
Hey, I’m sure he’d have preferred sophomoric to soporific. 
It’s not worthy of being called poetry. It’s awful. And don’t bring up the age thing either, just think of Shelley and Keats, or even Rimbaud.
To be absolutely honest, I’d never heard of sophomoric before this. I’m familiar with sophomore (as in the second year student - although it’s not used in UK english). So thank you for adding a word to my vocabulary.
I’m a great fan of the Doors, and as I’ve said - in context - Jim Morrison’s lyrics are wonderful. As poetry they’re crap. Certainly not soporific, though.
Perhaps you’d prefer the reply poem by Koch?
Dammit I can’t think of the rock critic’s name. He was one of the earliest rambling, off-the-wall rock writers, sorta Lester Bangs godfather. Anyway… I still remember his comment on the L.A. Woman album, that every track contained at least one substantial yuk.
He was right that the album works better if you view the questionable calls as intentional humor.
So… Jimbo’s lines about “squirming like a toad,” and “a dog without a bone” should be regarded as deliberate tomfoolery.
Other bits of rock comedy included:
“I see the bathroom is clear.”
The over-the-top blues solo on I Been Down So Goddamn Long (or whatever the title is.)
The whole poppy froth of Love Her Madly (“wanna meet her daddy.”)
“The negroes in the forest are brightly feathered.”
I think that in Cars Hiss By My Window Morrison intones “Right on” a few times.
There’s a silly line or lick in nearly every song.
And…another vote for “Sweet Emily will die.” If that wasn’t what he sang, it should have been.
Trap one in your hands.
Song lyrics aren’t poetry; they are song lyrics. Their purpose is different. It’s unfair to both art forms to demand each do the work of the other.
I disagree with you on this point. The actual lyric is far more evocative of the despair that one would suffer over the violent loss of someone. You may have wonderful memories of the lives of a family brutally murdered, but those memories would always be overshadowed by the horrifying knowledge of their untimely deaths.
If you give this man a ride,
Sweet memories will die
Your revised lyric lacks an aftermath.
I’m sure his stuff on An American Prayer was specifically meant to be ‘poetry’ though. The music was added years after his death.
I still like this, whether he was a William Yeats, or not. And it works for me, even without its usual accompanying music.
*The movie will begin in five moments
The mindless voice announced
All those unseated will await the next show.
We filed slowly, languidly into the hall
The auditorium was vast and silent
As we seated and were darkened, the voice continued.
The program for this evening is not new
You’ve seen this entertainment through and through
You’ve seen your birth your life and death
you might recall all of the rest
Did you have a good world when you died?
Enough to base a movie on?.
I’m getting out of here
Where are you going?
To the other side of morning
Please don’t chase the clouds, pagodas
Her cunt gripped him like a warm, friendly hand.
It’s alright, all your friends are here
When can I meet them?
After you’ve eaten
I’m not hungry
Uh, we meant beaten
Silver stream, silvery screen
Oooooh, impossible concentration.*
I think of Morrison’s poetry as way more poetic than that dreck read (poorly) at the inauguration.
After listening to that line 1,024 times with headphones, I conclude that is “Sweet mamily will die.” I must agree that the lyric is “family” although I think “memory” sounds better.