Monday, 3rd July 2006, 18:44
The last writings of Doors singer
Jim Morrison before his tragic early death in 1971 are expected to fetch
£100,000 at auction in London later this month.
A notebook containing poems, lyrics and musings jotted down by the troubled
star in the last few months of his life is being sold for the first time by
auctioneers Cooper Owen at London's Abbey Road studios on July 28.
Mystery has surrounded Morrison's death at the age of 27 in Paris, where he
had moved from America to concentrate on writing, 35 years ago today.
The influential singer was found dead in his bath having suffered heart
failure and many people, including his then girlfriend, have suggested he had
taken a drugs overdose, either by accident or deliberately.
The eccentric rock star and poet regularly carried notebooks with him to jot
down ideas as they came to him. Throughout his time in Paris, he was always
seen with a white plastic carrier bag containing his notebooks and other
possessions.
This spiral-bound pad contains 20 pages of his last writings, including
variations on older poems as well as new poems and partial lyrics full of
profanities and sexual references.
The lines in the book will give biographers and fans an insight into the
star's mind in his last few months. One new song lyric seems to sum up his
Paris idyll: "Let the piper call the tune / March, April, May, June."
Others reveal a different mood with outbursts such as "JERK-BAIT SCROTUM, INC
... F**K S**T P*SS C**T". One page reads: "What can I say? What can I do? I
thought you found my sexual affection stimulating," followed on the next page
by: "UMHM / Glorious sexual cool / I'm finally dead."
This book is now being sold by musician Philippe Dalecky, who has held onto it
for 35 years since Morrison left his bag with him the last time they saw each
other, three weeks before he died.
Mr Dalecky said today: "I met Jim when he came to Paris in March 1971. We used
to hang around and drink and play music together.
"One day I saw him and he was carrying in his bag reel-to-reel tapes he had
made and I took him to my place to make a cassette recording of it for him. We
had a few drinks and then he left with the cassette.
"I saw Jim had forgotten the bag so I shouted after him, but he just said,
'OK, keep it for now', and I never saw him again. I went to St Tropez the next
day and it was a real shock when I came back to Paris and heard he was dead.
"Jim was like a shooting star in my eyes. I saw him only about seven or eight
times but each time was really intense."
Included with the notebook is one of the last photographs taken of Morrison,
which shows him staring out of the window of the Paris flat where he died.
Louise Cooper, of auctioneers Cooper Owen, said: "Jim's last days are a bit of
a mystery, but from his writings you can see he had a very troubled mind.
"People knew this book existed but nobody except the author of his biography
had seen it. It the most important pi
"This is a very important piece of history because it sheds a little more
light on what he was thinking before his tragic death."
Copyright © 2006 National News +44(0)207 684 3000
July 3, 2006
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