A couple of days ago I finished reading No One Here Gets Out Alive, a biography of Jim Morrison (for the clueless, lead singer of The Doors). This got me thinking a bit about PoDs and alternate histories involving him.
The problem with pop culture, as I see it, is that unlike history, which this board seems to connect with the Great Man theory, pop culture seems to come in waves. Even the most revolutionary artists, poets, writers, musicians, filmmakers, draw their inspiration from similar sources. Without one...well, it could have been the next one.
That being said, a couple ideas I have, not sure where they could lead to.
1. The most obvious...Jim Morrison doesn't die at age 27 in 1972 in Paris, but lives longer. The book suggests that during his time in Paris he was actually drinking and take drugs less than normal - that to a certain amount he seemed to be 'recovering.' I imagine more Doors albums, continuing with the blusier sound. The more important question here IMO is the obscenity trial in Miami - where Jim was arrested on stage. IIRC, he could have faced years of jail time if convicted. How does this change the 70s, and even some of the right-wing neocon type movements, to see an obscene rock star locked up in jail? Student outrage? Neofascism?
2. Jim didn't die in Paris, but actually went into hiding - and revealed himself, years later?
3. It seems to me (in the book) that Jim's decision to go into music was almost random. He went to UCLA for film making, and he considered himself foremost a poet. Jim as a major film maker? Jim as a martyred poet?
The problem with pop culture, as I see it, is that unlike history, which this board seems to connect with the Great Man theory, pop culture seems to come in waves. Even the most revolutionary artists, poets, writers, musicians, filmmakers, draw their inspiration from similar sources. Without one...well, it could have been the next one.
That being said, a couple ideas I have, not sure where they could lead to.
1. The most obvious...Jim Morrison doesn't die at age 27 in 1972 in Paris, but lives longer. The book suggests that during his time in Paris he was actually drinking and take drugs less than normal - that to a certain amount he seemed to be 'recovering.' I imagine more Doors albums, continuing with the blusier sound. The more important question here IMO is the obscenity trial in Miami - where Jim was arrested on stage. IIRC, he could have faced years of jail time if convicted. How does this change the 70s, and even some of the right-wing neocon type movements, to see an obscene rock star locked up in jail? Student outrage? Neofascism?
2. Jim didn't die in Paris, but actually went into hiding - and revealed himself, years later?
3. It seems to me (in the book) that Jim's decision to go into music was almost random. He went to UCLA for film making, and he considered himself foremost a poet. Jim as a major film maker? Jim as a martyred poet?