Retro Raunch Revisit

JUL 3, 1971: This was the end for singer Jim Morrison of The Doors who is found dead in a Paris bathtub with the official cause listed from heart failure but as no autopsy was conducted, it is widely believed that he died from heroin. Since Mar, Morrison was on hiatus in France after the band had recorded their final album "L.A. Woman" back in Los Angeles. Drummer John Densmore was the last band member he spoke to after calling him to find out how their album's final mixing sessions were doing (with the record released in Apr). The Doors were formed in Jul 1965 after he met keyboardist Ray Manzarek while at UCLA who suggested Morrison put his poems to music and the band's name came from Aldous Huxley's book The Doors of Perception. His nickname of the 'Lizard King' came from his reputation for heavy drinking, drug abuse and wild onstage antics that sometimes resulted in police arrests. While on sabbatical, he joined his girlfriend Pamela Courson (herself troublesome with the pair's relationship often turbulent) and they rented an apartment where he shaved his beard, lost weight, and wrote letters to friends describing long walks alone through the city. Courson later said his last words to her were "Pam, are you still there?" Film director Agnès Varda later admitted she was the one who hid the bathtub incident from the media, deliberately keeping it a secret when the news leaked and reporters began calling who were told Morrison was hospitalized for exhaustion. The band's manager Bill Siddons following suit to prevent a sensation told other sources that Morrison had suffered a heart attack or was being treated for pneumonia. Varda was one of the only 4 mourners to attend his burial at the Père Lachaise cemetery which is also the site of many other historical figures such as Olivia de Havilland, Marcel Marceau, Marcel Proust, Frédéric Chopin, Édith Piaf, Oscar Wilde, Max Ernst, Jean Moulin and Sarah Bernhardt. Conspiracy theories about his death have involved him being either murdered or accidentally overdosed by the drug dealer ex-boyfriend of Marianne Faithfull, having died at a nightclub and his body moved back to his aprtment, faking his own death to escape fame's limelight and live in seclusion, and/or assassinated by the CIA who wanted to eliminate high profile counterculture musicians. Morrison's death came 2yrs after Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones in Jul 1969, and within less than a year of the deaths of Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin -- all aged 27, leading to the emergence of the '27 Club' urban legend whose tragic list includes Kurt Cobain, Robert Johnson, Dave Alexander, D. Boon, Mia Zapata, Kristen Pfaff, Amy Winehouse and Pamela Courson herself. She inherited Morrison's entire estate as she was named his heir and died in Apr 1974 from a heroin overdose. When her parents inherited the fortune, Morrison's parents fought the executorship and after legal battles over inheritance, the dispute was settled out of court in 1980 after both parties agreed to equally split royalties from the estate. In 1988, a marble bust of Morrison was stolen from his cemetery tombstone and recovered 37yrs later in May 2025. His gravesite has become a popular tourist attraction & shrine for fans around the world who flock to leave flowers, letters, wine bottles, photos, light candles & burn incense sticks in tribute. In 1991, Morrison and The Doors were the subject of an Oliver Stone movie.