Did he or didn’t he? Today, there would be no question. Thousands of phone videos on social media would show the evidence.
But there were no smart phones when Doors singer Jim Morrison was accused of exposing himself on March 1, 1969 in Miami, Florida. He was arrested four days later and charged with lewd and lascivious behavior, indecent exposure, profanity, drunkenness and simulating oral sex.
In 1969, Morrison was halfway down the road of self-destruction by the time he arrived in Miami. Drugs and alcohol were the vehicles driving him there.
He missed his flight connection to Miami and was an hour late to the concert. An impatient, rowdy and overheated crowd of 12,000 were jammed into the Dinner Key Auditorium where seating was normally 7,000, according to faroutmagazine.com.
Morrison was in no mood to sing, instead, he stopped in the middle of our Song of the Day, and began telling the crowd they didn’t come there for the music. They wanted something more.
The story from there gets muddled. He might have taken his shirt off after somebody threw beer on him. Some say he did expose himself. Others said it never happened.
A jury believed those who said he did. He was found guilty in September 1970 and sentenced to six months in jail. He never served a day. He died in Paris in July 1971, awaiting his appeal. He received a posthumous pardon in 2010.
“Break on Through” was the first song on the Doors’ first album in 1967. It became their first single, though it didn’t reach Billboard’s Hot 100. The song reached 64 on England’s singles chart after the movie soundtrack of the “Doors” was released in 1991.
Song of the Day is created by Sheldon Zoldan, and produced by Pam James for WGCU. Audio production is by Simon Dunham, WGCU. To receive the Song of the Day in your inbox every day, email shzoldan@comcast.net with the subject line ADD ME TO SOTD.
