Reviewer Kristine Morris Interviews Bill Cosgrave, Author of Love Her Madly: Jim Morrison, Mary, and Me. He'd name the book, the author and more context than they cared to hear. Still a fine listen, with the nightmare carnival organ and Kriegers wacky guitar that rocks sarcastically yet supportively. January 4, 1967: Imagine it. As writer of a number of Doors articles for Gonzo Today, I immediately want to interview author Bill Cosgrave, who was friends of the couple and crashed on Werbelows living room couch in the pivotal Summer of 1965. He lives high atop Topanga, California, where owls hoot and coyotes howl. The lyrics dont really advocate taking LSD, because they assume you are already Hip. She always assumed he had her wait at different phones for her protection; now she's thinking it was his way of making sure she wrote him at least once a week. "It was too much for me to bear.". "He wanted me to look like an angel coming off the plane.". Well, Top 40 airwaves. Everybody, everybody, remembers the notebooks. Side One, Cut Five: Alabama Song (Whisky Bar). What they didn't know was how out of place Mary felt in her social circle. Late 1968. Everyone who remembers Jim Morrison from his Clearwater days remembers him scribbling notes everywhere he went. He just finished a year at SPJC and will head to Florida State in the fall. The cover boy, 26 now, has a paunch and beard, a cowboy hat with a skull and crossbones and noticeably slurred speech. Your own family and your true love say you suck ouch! Genres: Funk, Minneapolis Sound. She never saw him again. I figured it was about some girlfriend being cajoled into cooking and sex, and indeed, there are some echoes of Morrisons ex-girlfriend Mary Werbelow in there, with the learn to forget repeating lyric. I actually restart Musics Over at various points over and over. The bottom four sections are from FSU, where he got A's in Collective Behavior and Essentials of Acting, and a B in Philosophy of Protest. A marxophone! The darkness she had always seen seemed to be overtaking him, and she didn't want to watch him explore his self-destructive bent. In 24 hours his darkness . The first major relationship in Morrison's life wasn't actually Pamela Courson. Trop dfonc l'acide pour chanter, il saborde la session qui est . Few bands divide critical opinion like the Doors. Mary Werbelow is polite but firm: She doesn't do interviews. Furious at her father's snooping, she burned all Jim's letters, a move she came to regret, deeply. 1 record and included their second No. Think about that for a minute. There were no computer edits then, so the tape was chopped! January 1967. Wild insanity: this, along with Jimi Hendrix, was peak psychedelia from the summer of 1967. So, I often start the song over again from there. He was unmarried but had a common law wife named Pamela Courson, and in his will, he left everything to her. Jim Morrison and Mary Werbelow meet on Clearwater Beach. Loser picks up the last one. Didn't you know that?". He broke a lot of ground, and never got the loot. Arrrgh. Blues rock. It stands up after 50 years of overplaying all right, the long version! Always that tension hearing it on the radio, waiting to see if its cut. Perhaps. She had visions of them at the last judgment, watching her. For nearly 40 years, all manner of people have tracked Mary down and asked for her story, including Oliver Stone, when he was making his movie starring Val Kilmer as Jim. Prologue. Sept. 17, 1967. A few minutes ago, I finally saw pictures of one. . I never gave him that second chance. They were virtually soul mates for three or four years.". In Polyphonic's explainer video on "The End," he pulls apart The Doors' magnum opus, the closer to its 1967 debut album, analyzing the song in real time as it unspools. I put the needle onto the lead-in groove, Side One, Cut One: Break on Through. Especially if I was high. It was on the Doors first album, along with The End, which also was to/about Mary. Some guy was bending over to talk to her and Jim got jealous. She's worried that others will seek interviews that she does not want to give. "So that crowd control works," Kallivokas teased, talking about theories that intrigued Jim in Collective Behavior class at FSU. She wants that made clear: She does not want to talk about Jim anymore. A recording musician since the 70s and radio broadcaster in multiple fields in the '80s and '90s, Kyle sometimes supports himself part time as a Union film crew member in Hollywood. Even today, there is no definitive cause of death listed for him - some believe it could have been congestive heart failure or a heart attack. Billy didn't know it yet, but their lives would become intertwined with his for years to come. Jim liked his alone time, in his bedroom, reading. The days are bright, and filled with pain Morrison sings in The Crystal Ship. "There was no one who wasn't under observation," Gates says. He says Mary wanted Jim to go back to school, get a master's degree and make something of himself. The Doors were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. The key fact: Mary Werbelow didnt believe in Jim Morrison, despite their being each others first lovers. From Bill's clandestine crossing of the Canadian-American border to homelessness on a Los Angeles beach and the formation of The Doors, we are in for a wild ride in the literary equivalent of a 1965 VW love and peace bus. This song was too hip then, and almost still is now. His articles and interviews first appeared in Gonzo Today in early 2015, and some of them are fairly good. She says she was his anchor to the times before things got crazy. No doubt about it, she was a knockout. Now we get three short cuts, starting with this wonderful throwaway. Then I start the whole song over when Morrison starts singing again, about canceling his subscription to the resurrection. General CommentIt's about Mary Werbelow. Morrison's words were dredged from memories of hitchhiking down dusty Florida roads as a teenager en route to visit his girlfriend Mary Werbelow. Jim est devenu un peu fou au moment de l'enregistrement. That destroyed me for so long. Friends from Clearwater never saw it coming. ", By phone from his home in Northern California, Manzarek says all the guys in film school were in love with Mary. Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. She doesn't think the early Doors albums are all about her but says the lyrics include references to her and Jim's shared experiences, including the "blue bus" in The End. Movie posters. DeSantis vetoed a $1M Day of Service program that was worth so much more | Column, DeSantis calls for open market to compete with Advanced Placement, Supreme Court weighs Biden student loan plan worth billions, Maple Leafs: Lightning, other division rivals did not spur deal, The youngest Grand Prix of St. Petersburg driver? She enrolled in art school. What are you gonna do! He attended St. Petersburg Junior College for the 1961-62 academic year, then transferred to Florida State University. I became aware of this book, Love Her Madly: Jim Morrison, Mary and Me just last night, which happened to be Halloween. The lyrics at the start and ending are heartbreaking. Girls? As close to bubblegum as The Doors ever got. 16 February 2023. Later shed be singing the song, but 6-7 months later. Too long for an unknown bands first hit single. So, then, what you are holding, here, is testimony as to how Dennis Jakob is, by fluke, . Finally Ill keep listening as Morrison sings the first verses. Shortly after, Mary says, he told her he was humiliated, considered his formal education over and needed to forget everything. Without Mary Werbelow, there would be no Doors lyrics agonizing over her loss: therefore, no Doors. Morrison and Darryl Arthur "Babe" Hill arrested for public drunkenness in Clearwater. When he started film school at UCLA and Mary announced she was following him to Los Angeles, they were devastated. This is just two musicians, but sounds like three. They started the band that became the Doors. Now we get three short cuts, starting with this wonderful throwaway. Funeral arrangements by: Gendron Funeral & Cremation . Scary looking little thing. Something wrong, something not quite right. They don't even mention Kennealy by name." Its oddly comforting. Please ignore rumors and hoaxes. On her beach towel, Mary turned to her friend and uttered the first sexual comment of her life: Jim tagged along when his friend came over to flirt with Mary Wilkin. Now, it is important to remember from the outset that, at the very instant of our first meeting, Jim and I were both living out of a book. She held a deep place in his soul. Fate then handed him the drug-addled enabler Pamela Courson, who arguably killed him. Thats some severe karma. They don't really have a clue," says Mary Werbelow. Around Jim, you always felt watched. Over time, the lyrics of the song evolved, and they became longer. I looked at you, you looked at me. Hmmrocking track though. But what the hell. "It was heartbreaking. I bought and downloaded it and read it avidly. On July 3, 1971, Pamela Courson reported that she found him dead in the bathtub of their apartment in Paris. Paul: I thought it was a miracle that anyone got her to tell her story. I needed to be by myself, to find my own identity.". The first Strange Days session had been back in May, but now - August -- is the group's first chance back in the studio since then. Kyle K. Mann is the pen name of a contributor to, and publisher of, Gonzo Today. . So why wasnt this a hit single, released days before the album on the first day of 1967? ", The Doors' 11-minute ballad The End, Manzarek says, originally was "a short goodbye love song to Mary." Hit a pothole and bang! She was, of course, colossally wrong, epically mistaken, tragically incorrect and then to have him turn into the Greek God of the 60s, then die yet not die, living on and on thats Deep Karma. "You're all a bunch of f - - - - - - idiots!". Two UCLA film students put their talents together in 1965 _ Ray Manzarek and his keyboards, Jim Morrison and his poetry _ and started the band that became the Doors. In the fall, Jim transferred to Florida State. Fast cut, sexy, about making love and prolonging it, Dont move too fast stuff, modal organ solo. What an illustration of the Law of Unintended Consequences. The tempo downshifts and accelerations buttress Morrison's last. The End gained additional cultural clout by being used powerfully in Coppolas Apocalypse Now. Later, Cosgrave hooked up with them again, this time in L.A., and when Werbelow and Morrison broke up, Cosgrave and Morrison spent countless . Amid the chaos, he supposedly unzipped his pants, exposed himself and simulated sex with guitarist Robby Krieger. But the relationship of Pamela Courson and Jim Morrison was far from a fairytale. They would rag Jim that the books crowding his living space were for show. She considered writing about the references but decided against it. Its much harder to wear out a CD than a phonograph album, which would start skipping and popping within a few months, if you kept playing them. Morrison wrote this piece for his girlfriend Pamela Courson, and it was about the street in Laurel Canyon, California, where they stayed. Hot! As opposed to the first track, listeners fifty years ago had no clue what this song meant. If you are a Doors/Morrison fan, its a must-read. Amid the flattops on the pier, the guy with the mop of hair stood out. This was not puppy love, Mary says, like the earlier boyfriend who played guitar, wrote songs and serenaded her by phone. Its impossible to overstate how important this was. Since she was the same age as Jim Morrison, Mary Werbelow may have passed away by now. The demo tape has a tentative Morrison singing with Ray Manzarek. He would eventually ask if she had changed her mind. 50 years later, its a bit much. Doors concert at Miami's Dinner Key Auditorium. "I was so scared," she says, laughing. Jim talked like no one she had met. Putting this tune on was heavy, because you knew what was coming. Id taken my first acid trip a few months earlier, and another in December. Travis Barker's Finger Is Now the Enema of Blink-182 Fans; On July 3, 1971, Courson found him in the bathtub. Its still a good listen, if you accept it for what it is. 3. "You're going to leave me," he would tell her. 1 on the Billboard charts. She lives in California, alone, in an aging mobile home park. Morrisons slight addition to the tunes lyrics, ditto. The title dates the song, though I suppose it could be sung Twenty First Century Fox but, you know, Im glad it isnt, that I know of. Doors drummer John Densmore responded with a letter of his own: "Jim wrote The Crystal Ship for Mary Worbelo (sic), a girlfriend with whom he was breaking up. . A click on my car stereo instantly starts the track over. She says his heroes were William Burroughs, William Blake, Hieronymus Bosch, Norman Mailer, Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl Marx, Arthur Rimbaud, Aldous Huxley, Jack Kerouac. And here was the soundtrack to the opening months of 1967. But there. Its title would be Strange Days. What are you gonna do about it? Ship of Fools brings you back to the blues. Jim's parents, living in Virginia, send their increasingly incorrigible son back to Clearwater to live with his grandparents. She never sees Jim again. I knew I wanted to be with him, but I couldn't.". The Doors' final concert with Morrison, in New Orleans. Mary Weberlow, Marylou F Werbelow, Mary Lou Werbelow and Mary L Werbelow are some of the alias or nicknames that Mary has used. Conspiracy theorists had a field day. If you really did your homework on Jim, his true love was Mary Werbelow who he was very serious with prior to him becoming famous. "His only purpose in life was observation.". We have all felt it, some more than others. We have enjoyed the re-release of The Doors, and the bonus content. Jim's was not among them. Love Her Madly - Jim Morrison, Mary, and Me, the book recounting the author's times with his friends, is born. She still aches for love lost; her regret never relents. ", What a stupid question, she thought, and answered: "I'd let him grow it. Jim had begun the wax job when Mary's father rescued him with a picnic basket and suggested the couple adjourn to the Clearwater Causeway. The organ solo is spare, clean, more Latin Rocky, Morrison yelling She gets They couldnt say high so Morrison just howls, but we get it. If she won? Shes turning her back on James Douglas Morrison, who not much later conquered the world, an Icon forever. Mary performed matadorlike body twirls. The idea of a solitary road trip also emerged in his unfinished film HWY: An American Pastoral, where he looms like a deranged Charles Manson - the killer on the road. More about Mary Werbelow edit Dating History Grid # 1 Jim Morrison 19 2 1962 - 1965 There are snippets about her on YouTube. Often I begin with When the Musics Over. Yes, Ive written about this before. Then repeat at that length. No sonic tricks, no fuzz, no wah, just notes. He lives in Kelowna, British Columbia. And it didn't for a long time. Their debut album, released in January 1967, included Light My Fire, Break on Through and The End. The version I heard in March 67 at the Avalon Ballroom, that one time I saw the Doors. The remaining members released two more albums and split up in 1973. Can you picture what will be, so limitless and free, desperately in need, of some strangers hand, in a desperate land.. Cymbals crash fade. "He didn't sit around and sing," Mary says, laughing. As the song builds, Morrison brings you down and . "The Bomb.". Side One, Cut Four: Twentieth Century Fox. I admit my car audio is hard on them, since the player is in the trunk of the 99 Honda Civic. To write this mad half-century-later review, I looked up marxophone on Wikipedia. The great Krieger guitar solo. . He went from zero to sixty as a singer in a single year. Any time, any place, Jim would fish one from his back pocket, scribble and chuckle. Mary Werbelow photo shoot. The days are bright, and filled with pain he sings, working to let her go but still gutted, reminding her that the time you ran was too insane and making us wonder what the hell it was that happened that provoked the running. I smiled in anticipation, my memory of that poker-game tape still fresh. December 30, 2016 I miss my baby. Its Morrison being dealt epic humiliation. But, he was jealous. She won a small legal settlement after she said she developed multiple chemical sensitivities from rat poison that seeped through the vents of her art studio over the years. Ballad time. Maybe not. "Listen to this, listen to this," he'd say, "Tiger, tiger, burning bright . It is said that Mary was Morrison's one and only true love and that the . I couldn't put this book down and read it in one setting (although it is a fairly decent length). In the spring of 1965, Bill Cosgrave was smuggled across the border into the United States after receiving an irresistible invitation from his captivating friend Mary Werbelow. The song is based on Jim Morrison's story of his break up with a long-time girlfriend, Mary Werbelow. Cosgrave remained good friends with them both after their breakup, but lost track of them after he left L.A. right about the time The Doors first rehearsed in the late summer/early fall of 1965. Shoutingly gnarly delivery on the final lyrics. And yet, Morrison continues in a musical bridge that appears only once in this 11 minute long song. "Today I went to visit the building w/ the infamous garage apartment where Jim Morrison hid in the closet w/ Clearwater girlfriend, Mary Werbelow. On Oct. 30, 1970, he was sentenced to six months of "confinement at hard labor" in the Dade County Jail. Therefore, the couple shared the same tragic end at the same . A new world was dawning in my brain, in our beings, despite teachers, despite Vietnam, despite cops and nagging parents. Its the biggest hit of 1967. Its too bizarre, edgy, freaky. Mary vehemently denies it, but Manzarek says she told Jim, "The band is no good and you'll never make it." Billy Cosgrove was a teenager with a huge and enduring crush on Mary Frances Werbelow, an older girl in high school. If she won, it was on to Miss Florida. Densmores fills are almost ironic, like the one after the organ solo. The two young men quickly bonded. A popular theory was that to escape the demands of celebrity, Morrison faked his death and vanished. This book gives some glances and insights into the intense love they shared, the influence Mary had upon Jim's writing, and how the ghosts of the past sadly haunted Mary even decades later. In the summer of 1962, Mary met Jim Morrison near Pier 60, Clearwater. Always she said thank you, no. Later, she donned a fringe skirt and boots as a go-go dancer at Gazzari's on the Sunset Strip. . We'd look at each other and know what we were thinking.". January 17, 1970, New York City, Show 2 (17:46), released on Live in New York [36] May 8, 1970, Cobo Arena, Detroit (17:35), released on Live in Detroit [37] June 6, 1970, Pacific Coliseum, Vancouver, Canada (17:58), released on Live in Vancouver 1970 [38] Marilyn Manson cover The coffin was sealed before his family or the American Embassy were notified. "Needless to say, we were asked to leave.". General CommentAnd then I found THIS COMMENT: This song came from poetry written in Jim Morrison's notebooks. It's very painful to think of that. Kyle K. Mann Bill and Jim were still in contact with the beautiful, radiant Mary who had now dropped-out and was performing as . Music is your only friend The song there halts completely for about 4 seconds. One links to a promotional film for Florida State University that features a 20-year-old Jim Morrison, in coat and tie, playing the role of a student whose college application was denied; he questions a college official about why. What ever happened to her? What you thought was a true love, and now your life is ashes and dust. Three years after Morrison's death, Courson also died of overdose heroin at the age of 27. "So, now you live in a screened-in porch?" . March 1, 1969. An incredible accomplishment! In late 1968, Mary moved to India to study meditation. By phone she is told that back in Clearwater, they're tearing down the house on N Osceola Avenue, the place Jim lived in when they met, to make way for condos. RidderOnTheStorm1969: Even that crackpot Patricia Kennealy announced Fireheart to be published on 3 July 2021, half a century since the day Morrison died. Mary Werbelow was born in 1945 and is 78 years old now. But there was one person who should have been there, but wasnt. Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window). "Oh, yeah," mom said, "she'll be happy to do it. . She didnt like The Doors, and didnt think the band had a future, and while its not clear, it appears that her disbelief in Morrison was at the heart of their breakup around the summer of 1965. They wanted Kallivokas to come party, but he had a term paper due the next day, on Lord Essex. Death. At FSU, he had a girlfriend, Mary Werbelow. But I know whats coming. State witnesses saw what they saw. July 3, 1971. Cosgrave, a Kelowna author, has written a new book about the experiences he shared with Morrison, the mysterious Mary Werbelow, girlfriend to Morrison and secret love to Cosgrave, during a period of all their young lives in the mid-60s called Love Her Madly: Jim Morrison, Mary and Me. "Maybe you like it. I didn't knew that he had some participation in Ston'e movie but I think I read once that he participated in Coppola's Apocalypse Now (Creative Consultant, or something similar). She is finishing her junior year at Clearwater High. Realms of Bliss, Realms of Light give way to the endless night., Side Two, Track Four: Take it as it Comes. Over the decades, there have been a number of insider accounts of the pre-Doors era of Jim Morrison, but this one shoots to the top of my list. . Honed on the Sunset Strip, developed and expanded on acid, the song that got them a record deal and ejected The Doors from the womb of The Whisky. Its about taking acid! _ excited, like it was breaking news, not William Blake. In 1963, Cosgrave left Canada at 16 for Florida, where he met Mary Werbelow and her boyfriend, the then unknown Morrison. Once safely home with my prize, I examined the dark cardboard cover that encased the precious disc. What are you gonna do about it? And she felt he had swallowed her identity. With the country debating indecency run amok, Jim Morrison was Exhibit A. He didn't even appear to have rhythm. That The Doors could continue on after all that, for five more albums of sometimes great recordings that remained popular across generations, is their stupendous triumph. That arc, from Werbelow meeting Morrison on the beach in Florida in 1962, to his death in 1971 at age 27, is a story of overwhelming intensity. Limitless and free. This is directed to Mary Werbelow, has to be, as she planned to be a model or movie star. It was not until six days later that the Doors' manager announced Morrison's death to the world. Mary Werbelow pushed Jim Morrison away from her apartment and became a high-class but ultimately cheesy go-go dancer, telling Morrison that they would marry someday after they discovered themselves. Thats a colossal, controlling mind-fuck. Hillsborough forms had errors, Evacuation alerts could be better _ and louder. ", "That's a real key to understanding Jim," Gates says. And the Strange Days re-release is next. I once read an interview with white bluesman Paul Butterfield, who Rothschild also produced, before The Doors. "She was Jim's first love. That bass line is hypnotic, compelling and maddening. Gradually over the decades we discovered it was about Olivias, a special Venice Beach hang of the Doors before they were the Doors, when they were low on cash and wanted a big filling home cooked meal. The top section of his transcript shown here is from SPJC, where he got B's and C's in basic classes, including English, math and biology. While in Florida, Morrison began a love affair with a woman named Mary Werbelow. "He was a genius," Mary says. I can listen now thanks to Densmore and Krieger, but this might be the weakest cut on the record. Maybe you love getting your face stuck in the s - - -. The song drifted from the conventional Doors sound, and some even described it as baroque pop because of its use of classical orchestral influences. Mary was on the high school homecoming court. WHERE THEY MET: Clearwater Beach, Pier 60. They don't really have a clue.". With the Doors coming for their first Florida concert, Chris Kallivokas left a message with his old friend's record company. Total silence. Ill spare you, and me. But Morrison is at war with his own dark demons. Then, Densmores first two snare hits exactly in synch with the bass notes man, thats punchy. January 1964. He wasn't home the next morning. He said that he met Werbelow and took this photo in 1968 after she returned from Iran and Iraq where she was studying meditation, that's why she has her head covered like that in the photo, that she was Jim Morrison's first love, that he thought she was beautiful. The end of laughter, and soft lies. Cover your ass, with the soft, but its ok. The end of nights we tried to die. "I hated to let him go at night. Ok, cool. She discovers Jim sleeping with a woman who claims they were married in a Pagan witch ceremony. The whole dramatic section about What have we done to the Earth and We want the world and we want it now was a later revision. Sept. 20, 1970. When the Musics Over was written and evolved, I believe, just before the Doors started playing at London Fog on the Sunset Strip in May, 1966. She did the bossa nova. (There's a few moments where Polyphonic and Morrison are vocalizing at the same timewe recommend turning on captions). It hurts to set you free, but youll never follow me, is Jim Morrisons epitaph to his love bond with Mary Werbelow. Kallivokas remembers the night his Clearwater High buddies and a new kid came by Alexander's Sundries, his father's drugstore on Clearwater Beach.
