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