Jim Morrison, front man of the Doors, is a God-like hero to many. This poet/singer songwriter is a quintessential part of our rock and roll history. And like so many, he died young. It it because of his seemingly premature death that he has attained the icon status he is held in today. Would be still think of him in the same esteem if he had not died so young? Jim Morrison retains the image he does because he got out before an on-coming burnout could take its toll. ".[His early death] assured him of immortality and a permanent place in rock"n"roll's hall of fame. Had he lived, he would undoubtedly have undone all he had achieved during the last five years of his life; as it is, he remains, along with James Dean and Jimi Hendrix, one of youth culture's most revered heroes,a hero dead before his time. A hero who got out just in time." (Jones 10).
To get a full understanding of Morrison's potential fall from greatness, which was averted by his unfortunate demise, one must first look at his rise to it. By tracking his early life and the beginnings of the career and success of the Doors, it is easier to grasp why Morrison's image, which is now "frozen in time," is so elevated, as well as why his mysterious death was, in some ways, a means of escape, to maintain it. .
From a young age, the gifted Jim Morrison, born December 8th, 1943, was very interested in all things literary. He read philosophers like Nietzeche, as well as beatnik writers, such as Jack Kerouac. But it seemed, above all, he admired Arthur Rimbaud, a Romantic French Symbolist Poet, who once wrote: "A poet makes himself a visionary through a long, boundless, and systematized disorganization of all the senses." Jim seemed to take this belief to heart, which was evident throughout his life. (Lewis 6-7).
Along with writing, one of Morrison's great passions was film. After attending a Junior college, as well as Florida State University , he enrolled in the internationally renowned UCLA film school when he was 20.