Forever in an instant

Jim Morrison's Changing Grave

"If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear as it is, infinite."

            

       -William Blake

Jim Morrison's untouched grave.

Following his death in 1971, Jim Morrison was buried in an unmarked grave in Paris’ Le Pere Lachaise Cemetery,(1) final resting place for nearly all of France’s greatest artists and other notable writers such as Oscar Wilde. For the few who were present at the time of his burial, their accounts of his funeral seem to be unfitting for such an influential figure. He was placed in a simple veneer coffin, and the actual burial only took approximately 20 minutes at which only a few people were present; no prayers were said and no headstone or marker was placed at the site, all that remained after the funeral was a mound of dirt.(2) Although there was no marker originally, the legion of admirers that Morrison had left behind soon worked out the location of their heroes final resting place; and soon tried to exhume his body to see if he truly was dead.(1) In order to prevent this, cemetery officials decided that it would be necessary to place a cover over his grave in order to prevent the attempted grave robbers, and so a headstone was placed on the spot as well as a bust of Jim Morrison. (Pictured Left) 

Jim Morrison's touched grave.

Those seeking out the final resting place of their idol would not be stopped however, and the site became a shrine for everything that people think Jim Morrison would have approved of. For many years despite security patrols and cameras being installed, many young admirers snuck into the cemetery at night, and one could often find empty alcohol bottles, used needles and used condoms scattered across the area, much to the dismay of cemetery officials.(1) Over the years, everything not bolted down around his grave has been stolen by those wanting a memento, including a park bench in 1992.(2) Much more noticeably, graffiti soon became the most significant part of his grave, with years of visitors leaving their mark not only on Morrison’s grave but also on every other exposed surface within the immediate area. (Pictured Right) 

Eventually though, even this bust and marker were stolen from the gravesite, and the area remained un-marked for a further three years. Finally, in 1991 his parents invested in a new grave marker for the site, a simple stone marker with an inscription that read ‘KATA TON DAIMONA EAYTOY’, which translates from Greek as roughly ‘He Created His Own Daemons’.(2) 

By Brendan Olk

Sources 

1./

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?GRid=740&page=gr

2./

http://pioum.chez.com/morrison/PARIS%20GUIDE%20FOR%20DOORS%20FANS.htm

Jim Morrison

“Who isn't fascinated with chaos? More than that, though, I am interested in activity that has no meaning, and all I mean by that is free activity.”

                                                                                                    -Jim Morrison

Considered to be one of the most influential lyricists of his time, Jim Morrison was and continues to be an important figurative leader for musical counterculture. During the late 1960’s, he and his band The Doors were considered to be one of the most exciting, provocative and successful acts in America and  helped to set off a musical revolution.  

Jim Morrison in 1969

Born December 8 1943 in Melbourne Florida, Jim Morrison spent his adolescent life travelling from military base to military base with his conservative family; his father was an admiral in the U.S Navy and therefore the family moved base depending on his orders.(1) In 1966 he was enrolled at the University of California Los Angeles where he met his future Doors band members, and by 1967 The Doors were the resident band at LA’s Whiskey-A-Go-Go and had recorded their first album. 

On the morning of July 3, 1971, Jim Morrison’s girlfriend found him unresponsive in their bathtub while the couple had been in Paris on vacation. The doctor who had been treating him at the time was called, and after a brief examination, it was determined that he had passed away naturally from heart failure and his death had not been the direct result of the overuse of drugs or alcohol. (2) This began on of the most prevalent conspiracy theories about Jim Morrison, as many people saw evidence that he faked his own death and is currently still living somewhere else, due to the fact that no autopsy was ever performed and only a handful of people actually saw the body after his death.(1)

On the morning of July 3, 1971, Jim Morrison’s girlfriend found him unresponsive in their bathtub while the couple had been in Paris on vacation. The doctor who had been treating him at the time was called, and after a brief examination, it was determined that he had passed away naturally from heart failure and his death had not been the direct result of the overuse of drugs or alcohol. (2) For many of Jim Morrison’s close friends and acquaintances, this was the final chapter for a man who had been in a state of decline for several years. For many of his fans and admirers though, the lack of information surrounding his death has only increased their belief that The Doors front man is still alive.    

By Brendan Olk

Sources.

1./

http://www.americanlegends.com/morrison/aronowitz.html  
2./
The Last Days of Jim Morrison. (2004). Rolling Stone, (952/953), 68-80. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Michael Jackson and Celebrity Status

By Melia Parker

In his article Is celebrity a new kind of status system? Milner (2010) discusses the idea discusses how the designation of celebrity status fits into common notions of status systems. Milner (2010 p.380) argues that modern theorists “exaggerate” when they claim that a system wherein celebrity status exists cannot be explained with ideas about traditional status systems. Milner forms a counter argument to the idea that “in the past fame was due to real and sustained accomplishments, but…this is no longer true,” (2010 p.380) by drawing on historical examples of celebrity that can be compared to current day ones. He argues (Milner 2010, p.383) that visibility and status, virtual intimacy, and fashionability of the idea of a particular celebrity, and stability of level of fame create many similarities between modern celebrities and royalty in past centuries.

Milner’s (2010) article made me consider the idea of status as we discussed it in class relating to very old graves, and what commonalities current-day high status graves have with one another and their older counterparts. Both the elaborateness of graves as well as the use of the gravesites as places of pilgrimage are clear commonalities for very high status burials. Some celebrity burials are particularly elaborate. For example, Jimi Hendrix has a stone gazebo structure around his grave, Jim Morrison has a stone statue of his head, and Bob Marley is buried in a mausoleum in Jamaica (pictured at right), and Princess Diana is buried on a small Island.

However, many celebrity graves aren’t much different structurally from those surrounding them. They are clearly made with fine materials (e.g. marble headstones, or Michael Jackson's gold-plated coffin), but their special "celebrity" status is not necessarily conveyed here. With these graves, the celebrity status is conveyed not by the grave itself but by people’s actions at the grave. Streams of visitors, piles of flowers, letters, cards, and other gifts characterise a celebrity grave, but these things leave little to no archaeological record. When comparing these graves to some wealthy graves that archaeologists have found, it seems that perhaps attitudes toward the dead have changed dramatically. Today it seems that the high status graves are of value more to those on the outside of the grave than those on the inside. Perhaps this is due to current notions of the afterlife which dictate that what we have in the physical world cannot be taken with us into the afterlife.

Michael Jackson fans create an impromptu memorial for the deceased musician (at left).

Valued at a reported $25,000, the casket made by Batesville Casket Company in which Michael Jackson was buried was gold plated and lined with blue velvet. The casket remains at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California where it was buried in its own enclosure in a tomb area of the park called the “Great Mausoleum”.

Sources

Milner, Murray. 2010 Is celebrity a new kind of status system? Society 47:379-387.