Jim Morrison's Cock

Sorry to be so blunt. But when you write about something like this, you have to say it the way it is. No euphemisms. No innuendo. No puns. It has to be said. Jim’s cock played significant role in The Doors story. And it wasn’t just Miami.

For those that don’t know what happened at Miami The Doors played a gig at the height of their fame on a hot summer night in an over-crowded venue. And Jim was late. The atmosphere was tense and when Jim arrived, he made it worse. He was out of his face. He could sing. He became aggressive and treated the audience with disdain. He was inciting a riot. The show fell apart and he teased the crowd, threatening to expose himself. There’s no strong evidence to suggest he actually went through with it, no photographs no reliable eyewitness accounts. Yet despite this he was charged with indecency – and found guilty. As a result, concerts were cancelled all over America. The Doors seemed to be finished. It transpired that they weren’t actually finished but that’s the way it seemed at the time. The episode had a significant effect on Jim. He was already consuming alcohol at dangerous levels and the immense pressure from the trial only encouraged him to drink further. It was a major contribution to his decision to go to France and escape – before sentencing. So Jim’s cock was indeed a major player in the Doors story. But it wasn’t just Miami.

Jim penis features in the autobiographies of Grace Slick (Jefferson Airplane) as well as Ray Manzarek’s who describes in minute detail – I’m not sure that minute is the right word! It features prominently in this famous publicity photo – the fifth member of The Doors!

It is said that every woman wanted Jim and every man wanted to be Jim. He wasn’t just incredibly good looking. He was sophisticated and intelligent. He was articulate and charming. He was famous and talented. And on top of it all – he had a huge cock. Sometimes you’ve just got to say it how it is.

The Doors – the first album

The eponymous album by The Doors as a masterpiece. It’s not perfect. There are some ordinary songs in there, (“I Looked At You”, “Take It As It Comes” and “Twentieth Century Fox”) but, with those few exceptions, each track is truly great with at least three that are genuine classics by any measure.

The album was published when the order of tracks was relevant. Playing a vinyl album began by taking the disc carefully out of its sleeve, placing it on the turntable and delicately dropping the stylus onto track 1, side 1. The warm crackle, like the sound of a gently fire, introduced the first track. A Bossa Nova beat kicks in followed quickly by the bass notes from Ray's left hand then full stereo as Robbie's guitar joins the intro to "Break on Through (To The Other Side)".

This is the best 5 seconds of noise I know. It’s a superb opening to a debut album and to the song that became an anthem.

And side one continues through Soul Kitchen and Crystal Ship. A bizarre diversion via Alabama Song to end the side with Light My Fire. What a journey and what a performance for a debut album – and that’s only side one – and, it gets better.

There’s no shuffle on vinyl. You daren’t pick the stylus up for fear of scratching your prized possession so it’s important that the flow of the album works. The production of this LP is impeccable. Side two delivers a similarly well structured set of tracks with the ultimate climax to an album, “The End”.

When I first listened to The Doors, I was unaware of the censored lyrics in Break On Through. It made no difference. The sleeve notes on another compilation album had explained something of the oedipal nature of The End but I didn’t know what had been removed from the original track. Again, it didn’t make a difference. It just made it that much more enjoyable when, over 20 years later, we got to hear what was really going on.

So I'd discovered the Doors

Like any 16 year old with no money in his pocket, buying a compilation album of a newly discovered artist was a wise investment. In 1976 is was only vinyl and cassette tapes that you had to pay for! No internet in them days.

The album I bought was a compilation album called The Doors Star Collection - Volume II. This is quite an obscure album and can fetch $20 or so now. I believe it was published in Germany and although I've seen it as a double album (with Volume I), my feint memory is that it was a single album.

It has a really unusual selection for a compilation which starts with Hello I Love You, Soul Kitchen and My Eyes have Seen You. But then track 4 is Runnin' Blue - perhaps the least memorable of all Doors tracks and then The Soft Parade at track 5, the title song of The Doors least acclaimed album. Horse Latitudes is in there too. Another unusual choice.


This is how you discovered music in 1976. You discovered new music through word of mouth, gigs and radio. Older music was through friends and their older brothers and sisters. For reasons I didn't understand, The Doors had been off the radar. It was years later that I really began to understand why - and it was part of the magic.

Discovering The Doors

Sure, there are lots of people that were there in the day. People who saw The Doors in concert. People who still own an original vinyl copy of The Soft Parade and remember how they were shocked to see the individual Doors members credited with song writing. I wasn't one of them. I am one of the majority of Doors fans that discovered The Doors after Jim Morrisons death. Not because of his death though. I didn't even know he was dead!

I was a 16 year old living with parents in Liverpool, England in 1976. It was an exciting timer to be a teenager. Music was at this transition stage from the tired prog rock and emerging heavy metal - neither of which had any soul. The charts were full of teeny bopper bands like The Osmonds and the need for some new music was being met by the new wave. Not just The Sex Pistols - there was lots of new emerging music beginning to appear. I didn't pick up on much of it at the time. It was wallpaper then. It's only with the passing of time that you appreciate how much fun it really was. And it was a Friday evening coming home from the pub, parents gone to bed. I sat down to watch TV with my brother. The local TV channel, Granada, was showing a repeat of a documentary called 'The Doors Are Open'. I sat transfixed. How is it that I'd never heard of this group? Such great music. Such a charismatic singer. The following day, I bought a compilation album.

The beginning of an obsession.