The 1960's

581 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The rise of mass popular culture in the 1920s

The 1960's

The 1960's were turbulent years in America, and Jim Morrison created an image of himself that stretched the boundaries of popular culture and entertainment. He was the first musician to truly live the creed of the moment, " sex drugs and rock and roll." Morrison's complicated lyrics, wild behavior, and personal charisma attracted many fans that worshipped him as a rock and roll icon. Morrision left them with a lot of great music and some very bad memories. Like Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix, he destroyed himself in the process of becoming a star.

Morrison's childhood gave little indication of the road he would follow. He was born on December 8, 1943 in Melbourne, Florida (Hopkins 30). Morrison's father was in the Navy so he moved around frequently. Jim started high school in Alameda, California. With his best friend, Ford Fud, he engaged in typical teenage pranks and problems. His sophomore year, Jim moved to Alexandria, Virginia where he attended a segregated, upper middle class school. In school Jim was constantly calling attention to himself. Once he chased an imaginary bee around the classroom (Hopkins 39). He was never content to be normal or average. Jim also had a huge fascination with literature and poetry, and his IQ was listed as 149 in school records.

After finishing school Jim attended the college of UCLA where he studied film. He shortly droped out and moved to Venice beach. He cut off all ties with his family. In 1965, he met Pamela Courson, a pretty California eighteen-year-old. Jim called her his cosmic soul mate. Though their relationship was as strange as the other parts of Morrison's life, they stayed together until his death (Jones 30). In Venice, Morrison lived on the roof of an apartment for three months. He was heavy into the use of LSD and marijuana. He also used this time to write most of his poems that would later form the basis of his songs.

Morrison's entry into the music scene was purely accidental. Ray Manzarek, a musician friend, read some of his poems and said it was "the best rock and roll lyrics he'd ever heard" (Jones 40). Manzarek suggested that they form a band and make a million dollars. Jim said that is exactly what he had in mind except that money wasn't important. He wanted to " go up like a roman candle, make a bright light and then disappear" (Hopkins 66).

Show More
Related

  • Aberdeen's Influence on Kurt Cobain

    2015 Words  | 5 Pages

    Kurt Cobain was the singer and guitarist for Nirvana. He was born in Hoquiam (population 9,000) and after six months of life moved to Aberdeen (pop. 16,500), an old lumber town at the eastern-most point of Grays Harbor. The town is about four miles wide and three miles long. On the northern and eastern sides of town are steep hills where the richer families live in Victorian-style houses. At the foot of the hills is the poorer part of Aberdeen where Kurt grew up. (Gilmore 44)

    Read More

  • 1960s and Rock 'N' Roll

    558 Words  | 2 Pages

    What emerged after the explosion of rock and roll in the 1950s abandoned the roll and has now come to be known just as classic rock. This rock that was created following the decade of The King became a completely unique and different sound that changed the musical landscape and what was once a single, unified genre gave way for multitudes of variation in its sounds. These new sounds, that came mostly from abroad, had been notably influenced by the American rock of the 1950s, such as Elvis, Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry. These pioneers of rock came to be the essential reason for the arrival of the British Invasion and other sounds that defined the decade of the 1960s.

    Read More

  • Toni Morrison and Beloved

    2628 Words  | 6 Pages

    Morrison studied humanities at Howard and Cornell Universities.  She pursued an academic career at Texas Southern University and Yale.  She has had a chair at Princeton University since 1989.  During these years she has also worked as an editor at Random House, a literary critic, and she has written and given many lectures focusing on African-American literature.  Morrison's maternal and paternal influences greatly affected her outlook on life and this influence is palpable in her works and their characters and themes.  From her father she learned to distrust whites and that she merited self-worth despite the white opinion of those of the black race "She readily admits:  My father was a racist.  As a child in ...

    Read More

  • The Sixties

    1370 Words  | 3 Pages

    Freedom has been discussed and debated for a while now and yet no one can completely agree that it exists. Since the Civil, War America has been conditioned to be divided politically. The conflict over the meaning of freedom continues to exist from the civil war, throughout the sixties and in the present. The Civil War was fought over the question of what freedom means in America. The issue was in the open for all to see: slavery. Human slavery was the shameless face of the idea of freedom. The cultural war in the sixties was once more about the question of what freedom is and what it means to Americans. No slaves. Instead, in the sixties and seventies four main issues dominated the struggle for racial equality: opposition to discriminatory immigration controls; the fight against racist attacks; the struggle for equality in the workplace; and, most explosively, the issue of police brutality. For more than two centuries, Americans demanded successive expansions of freedom; progressive freedom. Americans wanted freedom that grants expansions of voting rights, civil rights, education, public health, scientific knowledge and protections from fear.

    Read More

  • Jimi Hendrix's Contribution To The Evolution Of Rock And Roll

    1924 Words  | 4 Pages

    He aimed to be like the musicians he admired but he focused on creating his own form of music. Something that he could be proud of, expressing himself like the true rebel he was. Jimi Hendrix was also a form of expression for those who did not know how to express themselves. People could connect with his music, they were also very impressionable due to his music.The song where Jimi wrote, “Purple Haze” it was a form of Jimi Hendrix’s expression through music and many people at the time could find some meaning in these lyrics and connect to the song on an emotional level. This connection was what made Jimi Hendrix so popular and influential to the American people. He made people understand the importance of being at peace with your self and being content in life. He supported finding happiness through drugs and through life and he severely influenced the public and many people followed in his steps and this began the hippie movement. Not only did he have an impact on society but also he had an impact in the individual American’s life giving a sense of hope and freedom to the world. On September 18, 1970, Jimi died in London from drug related complications and while he was only 27 years old at the time of his passing, he left his legendary mark on the world of rock music and remains popular to this

    Read More

  • The 1920s

    781 Words  | 2 Pages

    disappointment. It was a decade classified as the "roaring twenties." Men returning from World War I had to deal with unemployment, wheat farmers and oil companies were striking it rich, new modern conveniences were being thought up, and fashion was a major issue among the rich.

    Read More

  • The 60s (movie)

    2037 Words  | 5 Pages

    When deciding what movie to do for this particular paper I faced a few issues. I knew what the requirements were, but I wanted something different and something I could have fun watching and writing as well. So, after looking around and pondering movies for weeks I finally decided on a perfect choice The 60’s directed by Mark Piznarski?

    Read More

  • How Rock and Roll Changed America

    1919 Words  | 4 Pages

    Rock and Roll was the start of a new revolution in America. It introduced the world to many of the famous artists that continue to be a part of our lives today. "Artists who became popular in the 1950s such as Elvis, began to pave the way for others such as Jerry Lee Lewis and Buddy Holly" (The History of Rock 'n' Roll until 1960). With the introduction of rock 'n' roll, there came many new changes to the lives of many Americans. Rock and Roll was a major contributor for the change in teens' behavior in the 1950s because it encouraged new freedoms for teenagers, encouraged new fads among teenagers, and caused a generation gap.

    Read More

  • Good and Evil in Toni Morrison

    1419 Words  | 3 Pages

    Morrison has said, "I can easily project into other people's circumstances and imagine how I might feel if...I don't have to have done this things. So that if I'm writing of what I disapprove of, I can suspend that feeling and love those characters a lot. You know, sort of get inside the character because I sort of wonder what it would be like to be this person..." Both her novels, The Bluest Eye and Sula, speak to this statement.

    Read More

  • Bob Dylan Influence

    1189 Words  | 3 Pages

    Bob Dylan is an important icon whose music continues to influence rock music even six decades later, despite after several top forty hits, not one being a number one hit. His music has inspired many iconic musicians like Johnny Cash and The Grateful Dead (nj101.com) . What Bob Dylan brought to rock music back in the sixties can be heard in today’s music.

    Read More

  • Jim Morrison And Order & Chaos

    2364 Words  | 5 Pages

    Jim’s life began as a story of order and chaos. His father was a career militarist, which brought the order of the military. This job brought a lot of moving and relocation which through Jim’s childhood out of sync. Jim started his life in Clearwater, Florida. Then he moved to Washington D.C., and then on to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Jim’s family kept moving and moving Jim never had time to make any true friends in any one place (Jones 31). To deal with this Jim acted like; one could say the class clown, so he would be liked. This backfired and kids learned to watch themselves around him. With no true friends Jim found that he had no problem manipulating the ones around him. He was his own individual; he just looked out for himself. Morrison received high marks throughout school even though he didn’t put too much effort into the books and spent a lot of time drunk (34). His parents then enrolled him in St. Petersburg Junior College in Florida, but Jim transferred to Florida State University only to drop out and move to UCLA to study film. At the end of the year Jim turned in his film, but he received bad reactions to it and he dropped out of school (Manzarek 60). This made Jim a lot more eligible to be drafted so he moved to Venice just south of Santa Monica.

    Read More

  • The Celebration Of The Lizard King Or Fake Hero

    1543 Words  | 4 Pages

    Jim Morrison is widely considered to be one of the most iconic performers in rock and roll history. Paired with the instrumentals of The Doors, his haunting lyrics and chaotic performance style struck a chord with audiences of the 1960’s and elevated him to “Rock God” status. Morrison undoubtedly lived his life in a way to live up to that title: in his short lifetime he was arrested a total of 6 times and most of his adult life was consumed by copious amounts of sex, drugs and alcohol. Of course, all of this indulgence only led to tragedy, Morrison was often prone to self-destructive and abusive behaviors. Oliver Stone’s 1991 film The Doors as well as James Farr’s essay “'The Lizard King or Fake Hero?”: Oliver Stone, Jim Morrison, and History

    Read More

  • Toni Morrison

    1926 Words  | 4 Pages

    Toni Morrison was born Chloe Anthony Wofford on February 18,1931 in Lorain, Ohio to George and Ramah Willis Wofford. She was the second of four children. Her parents influenced her writing because of their contrasting views. Her father had a very pessimistic view of hope for his people; however, her mother had a more positive belief that a person, with effort, could rise above African-Americans’ current surroundings (Carmean 1-2). Her parents also influenced her because they were “gifted storytellers who taught their children the value of family history and the vitality of language”(Carmean 2).

    Read More

  • Chloe Anthony Morrison Essay

    1342 Words  | 3 Pages

    Growing up Morrison's childhood was filled with African American folklore, music, rituals, and myths which accompany her eternally. Her family was, as Morrison says, "intimate with the supernatural" ( according to http://www.math.buffalo.edu ). This quote demonstrates that Morrison family frequently used visions and

    Read More

  • The Bluest Eye Marxism Analysis

    1649 Words  | 4 Pages

    Toni Morrison born Chloe Walker was born in Lorain, Ohio in 1931. In 1949, after graduating from Lorain high school, Morrison attended Howard University. Where she majored in English and minored in classics, also while attending Howard University Morrison was an active socialite. By 1954 Morrison graduated from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Upon graduation Morrison devoted her time to teaching at prestigious universities such as Yale, Princeton, Howard and Southern University. After her years of teaching Morrison decided to focus her passion on writing. With her literary work Morrison’s works has become a blue print for young black writers

    Read More

More about The 1960's

Open Document