Making my way through the Wonders of Rock music I decided I did not want any grave sites but one nudged its way in anyway.
The grave of Jim Morrison in Paris has become a phenomenon. And is Wonder #4
It is not only rock music fans, but all get drawn to a place that holds a strange type of cultural and mystical attraction.
Why some things set fire to the imagination can’t always be explained.
The fascination that the Doors and Jim Morrison continue to hold by casting a spells on fans in different generations is operating on a different plane of consciousness than just good music.
The Doors were the first band that I went back in time to get hooked on.
I did not grow up with them. And I am not alone in this.
Maybe there is something to the 4 year old witnessing death on the highway and feeling the spirit of the Shaman enter his body. (This is in that realm of -did this really happen or did something close to it happen and the memory gets twisted and tweaked over time until the by-product drives you over the edge?… Reaching god-like superstar status just before falling off the face of the earth) I am no psychologist but writing about Jim Morrison makes you think about altered states of mind.
I will suffer Paris to visit this place.
This does not seem like a nice relaxing stroll in a friendly charming city. I see Paris as teeming with tourists combined with local residents that could care less if we tourists help subsidize the quality croissants that they consume and will not help us find. It is going to be a fight through crowds in order to spend about 15 seconds at the resting place of the most romantic and wounded spirit of Rock Music. Rock stars may not go to Paris to die but poets and artists do and Jim Morrison was all of these.
Cave of Fame 
Another great post in this fascinating series. However, I think you have the wrong idea about Paris and the French. Sure, I know they have a reputation for being rude and unhelpful and surly but, in my experience, and my wife and I have spent a lot of time in France and we’ve been to Paris a number of times (although, sadly, I have never found the time to visit either Jim Morrison’s grave or Rue Rory Gallagher…) and we both both love Paris and France. I have also found that if you make an effort to speak French while you’re there it makes all the difference to how you are treated. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect that when you’re visiting another country that you should try and speak the language so…. Apart from that, Paris is a great city, full of culture and art. It has the Eifell Tower and The LOurve and it’s worth going for that alone….
Thanks and I will try and keep an open mind….the good news is I think I have time to learn French before I will be able to put that part of the trip together:)
I was also a post-mortem follower of Jim Morrison. I had a poster of him bare-chested in my room, along with a sign which read, “Jim says…” Whenever I would come up with what I just knew were profound revelations (often drug-induced), I would post it on the wall beside Jim and stand back and marvel at our collective genius. (Or would that be “geiui”?)
Thanks Tony..
And genius or not- Jim and Ray know more about what is on the other side of that door than we do right now. Or do they? Is each journey through this life a personal trip that we all face ultimately alone? We will all find out in the end.
per lachaise is an amazing place to visit, not just for morrisons grave , people like oscar wilde are also buried there as well as being an amazing setting, if I’m honest my whole reason for visiting was to see Morrisons grave and it was the least pleasant part. Appropriate that you posted this in the week that we also lost the great Ray Manzrek too.
Hey, I’m with you…I hate crowds and stuff too. Actually it’s pretty imhibiting for me, I rarely even go to concerts.
But if you get to go to France to Morrison’s resting place, I hope it’s an awesome experience for you!
I guess with this seven wonders thing I am putting together my bucket list of places to go…And I can’t just keep putting up stock images…I gotta go!
There you go! That’s a cool way of looking at it. There would be one similar one on my own list — finding Bonham’s grave.