Describe Regarding Books The American Night: The Lost Writings, Vol. 2
| Title | : | The American Night: The Lost Writings, Vol. 2 |
| Author | : | Jim Morrison |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Anniversary Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 224 pages |
| Published | : | July 30th 1991 by Vintage (first published 1990) |
| Categories | : | Poetry. Music. Nonfiction. Literature. American. Biography. Culture. Pop Culture. Canon |
Jim Morrison
Paperback | Pages: 224 pages Rating: 3.97 | 2918 Users | 88 Reviews
Commentary Supposing Books The American Night: The Lost Writings, Vol. 2
Jim Morrison was a philosopher-poet, a mythopoeic visionary in the tradition of Blake, a Dionysian wild child who died before his time.The two volumes of poetry published posthumously as Wilderness and The American Night reveal the growth of Morrison’s poetic voice and his creation of an American mythos that is dark, hypnotic, and transgressive.
The American Night combines performance pieces from The Doors’ discography with previously unpublished poems from his notebooks. The collection begins with An American Prayer, the last of Morrison’s three self-published books of poetry and one of the performance pieces recorded between 1969 and 1970. Here he announces his poetic project:
“Let’s reinvent the gods, all the myths
of the ages” (3)
The West is the Best
The landscape of his new mythos is the desert of the American southwest. The development of this imagery can be traced back to his second self-published volume of poetry, The New Creatures, but it appears here in a more mature form in the poem, “The Desert.”
“The Desert
—roseate metallic blue
& insect green
blank mirrors &
pools of silver
a universe in
one body” (23)
The god of this universe is the Lizard King, with his leather pants, his tousled mane, his deep bluesy voice, and that boyish charisma that could found a cult.
In “Celebration of the Lizard,” Morrison tells a story that he has been developing since The Doors’ first album. Here the Oedipal drama of “The End” reaches its climax. He is omnipotent.
“I am the Lizard King
I can do anything” (45)
This story ~ Morrison’s modern myth ~ follows a hitchhiker named Billy who murders his way across the American landscape. In “The End,” the killer murders his own family. In the screenplay for “The Hitchhiker,” he kills motorists, a sheriff, and a young woman who has sex with him. After he is executed, he walks off into a surreal desert landscape to join a bizarre trio of “hobos in Eternity” (80). In “Celebration of the Lizard,” the desert imagery becomes completely hallucinatory.
“One morning he awoke in a green hotel
W/ a strange creature groaning beside him.
Sweat oozed from its shiny skin” (39).
Morrison’s universe is one in which “all the children are insane” (111). Thus his hero ~ his antihero ~ is an outlaw, a hitchhiker, a killer, someone who exists on the boundaries of society, someone who dwells in the liminal places between real and unreal, good and evil, life and death.
The highway is another such liminal place. On the posthumously-released album An American Prayer, Morrison shares a formative memory from his early childhood. He begins with two lines from “Peace Frog.”
♫ Indians scattered on dawn’s highway bleeding
Ghosts crowd the young child’s fragile eggshell mind. ♫
Then he describes being four years old. His family was driving through the desert and he saw a group of Indians whose truck had been in an accident. They were bleeding to death on the highway. This memory seems to have contributed heavily to Morrison’s personal mythology. This vision of death is the one most often met with in his poetry ~ violent, surreal, and meaningless.
But for all his bacchanalia, Morrison is not at home in a meaningless universe. Like the Nietzschean superman, he seeks a revaluation of all values. And the creation of new values means the destruction of the old. Sex and death. This is expressed most explicitly in “Lament for the Death of My Cock.”
“Death & my cock
are the world” (60)
Some matters are so grave that they can only be approached with humor. And the meaninglessness of sex and death is indeed a grave matter. So Morrison looks to religion, for religion has traditionally given meaning to sex and death.
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The most famous exposition of Morrison’s views on his WASP heritage appears in “The Soft Parade.”
“When I was back there in seminary school
There was a person there
Who put forth the proposition
That you can petition the Lord with prayer
Petition the Lord with prayer
Petition the Lord with prayer
You cannot petition the Lord with prayer!” (49)
As a performance piece, this is powerful stuff. Morrison could have been a preacher if he wasn’t a rebel. His performance pieces are ecstatic rituals, mythic rites in which the audience participates. This is a theme that goes all the way back to his first self-published volume of poetry—The Lords. In that work, he deplores the fact that spectatorship has replaced participation. He remedies this in “Celebration of the Lizard.”
“Is everybody in? (3)
The ceremony is about to begin.
Wake up!” (39-40)
He exhorts his audience to participate. He calls to them to join him.
“Brothers & sisters of the pale forest
O Children of Night
Who among you will run w/ the hunt?” (45)
In his search for meaning, he rejects his Protestant upbringing. In “I Want to Tell You,” a variation on LA Woman’s “The WASP: Texas Radio and the Big Beat,” he subverts his religious tradition.
“no eternal reward will
forgive us now for
wasting the dawn” (126)
And in “Celebration of the Lizard,” he perverts it.
“The minister’s daughter in love w/ the snake” (43)
In “Always a Playground Instructor,” he plays with Catholicism ~ an aesthetic and visceral faith compared to Protestantism.
“The dark girl begins to bleed.
It’s Catholic heaven. I have an
ancient Indian crucifix around
my neck. My chest is hard
& brown. Lying on stained &
wretched sheets w/ a bleeding Virgin.
We could plan a murder, or
Start a religion” (124)
But Morrison needs something more primitive, more primal. He needs wild abandon, savagery. He needs drums and dancing. And so it is to the religions of indigenous peoples that he turns. To the Ghost religion of the American Indians. To the tribalism of Africa. And to the revelry of the rock concert.
Stoned Immaculate
In “The WASP: Texas Radio and the Big Beat,” Morrison combines verses from the poems “I Want to Tell You” and “Now Listen to This” to create a church of psychedelic blues. He has moved beyond the questioning and criticizing of religion. Now he offers something. He creates something. It begins with rhythm.
♫ I want to tell you about Texas Radio
and the big beat
It comes out of the Virginia swamps
Cool and slow, with plenty of precision,
and a back beat
Narrow and hard to master ♫
Then it all comes together: the death of God ...
♫ Listen to this and I'll tell you about
the heartache,
I'll tell you about the heartache and
the loss of God ♫
... the sermon delivered in the booming preacher’s voice ...
♫ Some call it heavenly in its brilliance
Others, mean and rueful of the
Western dream
I love the friends I have gathered
together on this thin raft
We have constructed pyramids in
honor of our escaping
This is the land where the
Pharaoh died ♫
... the rebirth of the phallic snake ...
(On LA Woman, this performance piece is preceded by a cover of the traditional blues song “Crawling King Snake,” a song most associated with bluesman John Lee Hooker.)
♫ I’m a crawling king snake
And I rule my den ♫
... and salvation.
♫ The Negroes in the forest
brightly feathered
And they are saying,
“Forget the night! Live with us in
forests of azure.
Out here on the perimeter there are
no stars
Out here we is stoned—immaculate. ♫
I consider this to be Morrison’s masterpiece. Here he brings his vision of a new American mythos to fulfillment. He confronts “the loss of God” and the failure of “the Western dream.” In place of what is lost, he offers primitive innocence and ecstatic revelation.
This brilliant poem also sketches a history of American music.
He uses the familiar imagery of the Exodus to rouse his congregation, to inspire their own escape from enslavement to a foreign god, but this verse also recalls the spirituals and gospel songs of the American south as well as the rhythmic music of the preacher’s sermon.
The use of “Crawling King Snake” introduces American blues and reinforces the relationship between American music and its African roots. The “brightly feathered” natives in their “forests of azure” are the ancestors of American bluesmen, as blues is the ancestor of rock & roll.
When the Music’s Over
Morrison never got the chance to reach his full potential as a poet, but reading his poetry ~ from the early pieces of The Lords and the New Creatures to the lyrics he wrote for The Doors to the more polished poems on the recording An American Prayer ~ one thing is clear: Morrison was more than just the shaman of psychedelic blues, more than just the patron saint of sex, drugs, and rock & roll, more than just the rock god worshiped by thousands of adoring fans. He was a true poet.
Particularize Books As The American Night: The Lost Writings, Vol. 2
| Original Title: | The American Night: The Writings of Jim Morrison |
| ISBN: | 0679734627 (ISBN13: 9780679734628) |
| Edition Language: | English |
Rating Regarding Books The American Night: The Lost Writings, Vol. 2
Ratings: 3.97 From 2918 Users | 88 ReviewsAssessment Regarding Books The American Night: The Lost Writings, Vol. 2
This book is a vibrant collection of Jim Morrison's work. Morrison proves himself as a true poet several times. Although some of his works are not amazing, there are a good number of poems and pieces that stand out. The poem "Awake" was my favorite in the whole collection. The first line of this poem really speaks to me, it goes: "Awake, shake dreams from your hair, my child, my sweet one." It is this sort of writing that hooked me as a fan of Morrison's poetry, and I have reread his poems manyFluidity is key, and Morrison always had a ring of them like a rogue custodian, often peeking into rooms clearly labeled "Do Not Disturb". This is the definitive collection of 'The Lizard King's' poetry, despite the fact that it is the second volume in the collection. This collection displays Morrison's true potential as a poet, more-so than his lyrics or even his previous works (The Lords & New Creatures/ Wilderness). It also shows the diversity of his work. Through The American Night you
I had actually saved up money to buy this book and I NEVER save money.Besides being a Doors fan and absolutely drooling over Jim Morrison, I was more enchanted by Jim, the poet, the prophet.The American Night is a gold mine, full of terrifyingly beautiful poetry, to which you can relate in your own way. Its dark, twisted, yet truthful & beautiful.Jim's mind must have been so enticingly dark.All hail the lizard king.He'll remain in our hearts forever.
As crazy as ol' Jim clearly was, something about his poetry speaks to me. I don't know what's gonna happen, but I'm gonna get my kicks before the whole shit house goes up in flames. Pure poetry.
The bulk of Morrisons greatest works, all packed into one slim volume. He was this and so much more. Id very much like to quote particular passages, but Id have to include at least 70% this volume alone to do him justice, so instead, listen to him reciting his poems & lyrics as you read them. That is all.
Wish I could go back in time and see The Doors live.
The BasicsA collection of poetry, lyrics, and prose by Jim Morrison, lead singer of The Doors.My ThoughtsI dont feel qualified to talk about poetry in a greater, broader sense of the term, as in encompassing a whole genre. I dont read enough of it to be able to do that. I cant compare Morrisons work to anyone, because I wouldnt know how. I can only really talk about his work from the standpoint of being a fan of his music. If you wanted something grander than that, turn away now.One thing I can
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