[2007-11-01] Jim Morrison "Angels Dance And Angels Die: The Tragic Romance Of Pamela And Jim Morrison" paperback book

Linda · **Posted:** Sat Jun 20, 2009 11:47 pm

From Booklist
Sixties rock kingpin Jim Morrison personified the period's allegiance to sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll. Butler reexamines his life, emphasizing his "cosmic mate" and common-law wife, Pamela Courson. More or less ignored by previous Morrison biographers, Pam and Jim's relationship was relatively private and long term for a rock couple then and maybe for any couple anymore. A few years after Morrison's 1971 death, Courson died of an apparent heroin overdose. In the finest rock tradition, the circumstances of her death were questionable and were not much investigated: "At that time, in that place, if it looked to us like someone had died of a drug overdose, frankly we thought they deserved it and didn't waste our time on it," said one police officer who asked to remain anonymous. Perhaps this well-referenced, moving book will spark yet another renewal of interest in Morrison. After all, as a 1980s Rolling Stone headline put it, "He's hot, he's sexy, he's dead." More of his strange story only makes him more so. -- Mike Tribby

From Kirkus Reviews
How one views this gossamer-thin account of the doomed Doors frontman and his equally troubled common-law wife rests largely on one's (forgive the expression) ``perception of the Doors.'' This book will be tonic to those eager for more dish on the man they regard as the Rimbaud-esque cynosure of the angst-filled '60s generation. Those baffled by Morrison's fame--particularly the respect he received as a poet--will find this book supports, quite unintentionally, their contentions as well. It's not that Butler didn't do her homework; among the people she interviewed and sources she consulted are the Elektra Records A&R tyro Jac Holzman and the surviving members of the Doors, school and police records, and even medical journals. The problem rests chiefly with Butler's subject. This story has in large part been told many times before, from many angles, and often to better effect. Readers, whether Doors fans or not, will have a tough time piecing events together chronologically, as this narrative only sketchily covers the background events that shaped and defined Jim and Pam's world. Additionally, Butler seems to cast a sentimental and too often uncritical eye on the ``tragic lovers' '' relationship, neglecting to acknowledge that the two were essentially beautiful booze- and drug-addled twentysomethings with money to burn, and that their fatal flaw was not so much being at odds with the material world as it was never having been forced to confront it without help from agents, roadies, groupies, or sycophants. The Doors' keyboardist and co- founder (with Jim), Ray Manzarek, claims that Pamela and Jim will ``go down in history as great lovers,'' and that their tale recalls Romeo and Juliet, Heloise and Abelard. Perhaps one could argue that a more fitting, albeit less flattering, comparison might be Sid (Vicious) and Nancy (Spungeon). -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0825673410/?tag=imwan-20

[2007-11-01] Jim Morrison "Angels Dance And Angels Die: The Tragic Romance Of Pamela And Jim Morrison" paperback book

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