Arthur on Jim & Pam

[jamestkirk]

I thought this was a touching account by Arthur concerning his time with Pam & Jim's personality. Insightful I think...from Arthur's unfinished autobiography
as recounted in Forever Changes.

...that was my first date with Pam Courson. She told me she was from Laguna Beach. As i looked around her place (a garage with furnishings), I noticed something was missing. I don't remember if there was a refrigerator or not but I didn't see any food around. When I asked her if she'd like me to get some groceries she smiled and said "yes". And so it became a routine; as I walked or drove up Kirkwood, I would stop by from time to time and drop off some food for her. Our friendship was cool. It sort of played out after a while, but we remained friends.

I would see Jim Morrison from time to time, and now Pam was with him. I thought nothing of it until Jim's death. Then I noticed that on a poster of Jim, he was standing with a black Labrador retriever just like my dog. Later, a book came out about the DOORS in which Jim said that what he wanted to be was as big as Love. I thought that was such a nice compliment, but I couldn't help thinking that Pam had been my girlfriend, then she was his girlfriend. I had a black Labrador and then he had a black Labrador; i was on Elektra Records and so was he...It seemed to me that not only did Jim want to be as big as Love, he also wanted to be like me. Jim never bothered me, but he did kind of copy me.

I thought Jim was a lonely person. He was searching. Now that I think about it and put it all together, it seemed like he didn't have a self. He only lived on what he was told was happening. He portrayed something that he thought was great but I don't think he got a chance to be his true, natural self--or perhaps he didn't like his natural self. He tried to become something else. It caught up to him. You finally catch up with yourself and look in the mirror. You have to face the judge, jury, yourself, everybody, and everything.

An empathic, sympathetic portrait of Jim by another troubled soul who finally found himself in the end, but it took 60 years. I guess you have to have been there sometimes to know. It' s been said that JIm was an intellectual genius, well read; and Arthur was a street smart genius, never read books....it helps to know life outside a book sometimes...

The Doors really did emulate Love early on. They went down the street after a set to see Love and heard those long blues jazz solos, and they copied it in their long songs but in an Indian raga style, according to John Densmore.
Johnny Echols of Love was the first guitarist that Densmore had seen that played his guitar behind his head...long before Jimi did it.