27: Jim Morrison by Chris Salewicz

27: Jim Morrison
    On Monday 7 March 1968, an incident took place at The Scene, the New York club in the Hell’s Kitchen area of Manhattan. It was one in which the three participants involved – Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison – seem, with the benefit of cruel hindsight, to have been brought together by fate.
    Located at 301 West 46th Street, The Scene was New York City’s hippest club-sized venue of the era. From 12 June to 2 July 1967 The Doors had played two sets a night there, supported each evening by the eccentric Tiny Tim. This New York residency had proved a triumph for the Los Angeles group, cementing in New York the status newly achieved by their first US number one single, ‘Light My Fire’. This in turn would drive
The Doors
, their eponymously titled first album released in January that year, to the number two slot – one place beneath the Beatles’ epochal
Sgt Pepper
– on the US album charts that September, establishing their eminence as the first nationally successful propagators of what quickly had become known as acid rock.
    The Doors had repeated their residency at The Scene from 1 to 5 October, promotion for
Strange Days
, their second album, which was released that month. It reached number three in the US album charts while its predecessor was still in the Top 10. While many acts struggle with their second album, having used up most of their best material on their first release,
Strange Days
only improved on the first LP.
    Jim Morrison was now embedded as a fixture at The Scene, a status he exploited when The Doors returned to New York City, to headline on 22 and 23 March with two shows a night at the newly opened Fillmore East, becoming only the second act to top the bill at the venue. Prior to these dates, The Doors played shows in Hamilton, Rochester and Boston. The concerts in March 1968 in the north-eastern United States would become legendary as The Doors’ greatest ever live performances. Audiences were amazed by an anti-Vietnam war film they projected to accompany the as yet unreleased song ‘The Unknown Soldier’, and the group played with such ferocity that they took the crowd’s collective breath away. Jim Morrison, moreover, was neither too drunk nor too stoned, as he so often was, and performed at the peak of his powers in these breathtaking dates.
    Based in Manhattan for this short tour of the US north-east, The Doors had arrived in the city from the West Coast early in the month, to take part in publicity and promotion. And so it was that late on 7 March, Jim Morrison found himself at The Scene. The Young Rascals, who had already had US number one singles with ‘Good Lovin’’ and ‘Groovin’’, were playing at the club that night. Towards the end of their set they were joined on stage by Jimi Hendrix, always partial to sitting in with suitable musicians. Permanently primed for the magic potential in impromptu musical get-togethers, Hendrix plugged in the open-reel Ampex recorder that he took everywhere with him.
    By the time Jimi stepped out onto the stage, Jim Morrison was demonstrably inebriated – he had already irritated Janis Joplin, also in the audience, by drunkenly knocking over her table of drinks. The Doors singer staggered his way to the front of the stage, clambering onto it. According to Danny Fields, later to manage Iggy Pop and the Ramones, Jim – who was ‘very drunk’ – ‘wrapped his arms around Hendrix’s knees and started screaming, “I wanna suck your cock.” He was very loud and Hendrix was still attempting to play. But Morrison wouldn’t let go. It was a tasteless exhibition of scene stealing – something Morrison was really into.’ 1
    Janis Joplin had already had a brief sexual frisson with Jim in Los Angeles. But this did not curb her actions. ‘Janis walked up and tried to smash a bottle over Morrison’s head to get him