‘WE WANT THE WORLD AND WE WANT IT NOW’: JIM MORRISON AS ‘GUIDING SPIRIT’ OF THE YOUTH COUNTERCULTURE
Proceedings of the 5th Arts & Humanities Conference, Copenhagen July 30, 2019 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.20472/ahc.2019.005.011 via Semantic Scholar
Summary
Jim Morrison, lead singer of The Doors, became an icon of 1960s youth counterculture rebellion, embodying the generation gap between young people seeking change and older authority figures. His outspoken views, bohemian lifestyle, rebellious performances, drug experiences, literary knowledge, and intentional riot-provoking positioned him as a guiding spirit for many. However, this cultural status took a personal toll as his career progressed into the early 1970s, trapping him in a celebrity persona he no longer wanted.
Study at a glance
| Design | historical analysis |
|---|---|
| Population | Jim Morrison and the 1960s youth counterculture in the United States |
| Key finding | Jim Morrison's outspoken views, bohemian lifestyle, and rebellious persona positioned him as a leader of 1960s youth counterculture, but this status trapped him in a celebrity persona he later wished to escape. |
Abstract
As he achieved growing recognition and fame as a singer-songwriter and lead vocalist of the rock band The Doors, Jim Morrison came to embody, in the assessment of his bandmate Ray Manzarek, the spirit of ?hippie counterculture rebellion? during the second half of the decade of the 1960s. In part that is because, with his revolutionary spirit and personal views pertaining to radical potentialities, Morrison began to serve as an impressive icon of the generation gap that existed between young people who hoped to change the world and older individuals, including conventional authority figures, who seemed set in their ways. Accordingly, this presentation examines Morrison?s status as a desirable leader of the youth counterculture in the United States during the 1960s. It demonstrates how Morrison?s outspoken views, bohemian lifestyle, rebellious personality, unpredictable performing style, experiences with psychedelic drugs and alcohol, extensive literary knowledge (which ranged from the works of Beat poets and writers to French existentialist philosophers), and intentional attempts to spark riots effectively combined to position him as an appealing 'guiding spirit' and source of solidarity to countless members of the youth counterculture of his day. It further demonstrates the substantial personal toll this cultural status took on Morrison as his career progressed toward the early 1970s, when he endeavored to take his metier in new directions yet found himself trapped in a celebrity persona he no longer wished to call his own, even though it was very much of his own making.