Grace Slick/ Jim Morrison and Poetry

[FreedomMan]

Throughout my music experienced life i have always been interested in how different vocalists and songwriters compare lyrically and in comparison to great poets that have had to carry the weight of this unexplainable life that we are given. I was turned onto the doors through essays of Aldous Huxley most of all and have been a huge fan ever since. Jim Morrison i have analyzed and read for years now and believe to be the greatest rock lyricist of all time and sometimes think of Grace Slick as being the greatest female lyricist as well, and see similarities between the two. I was just wondering if anyone else has made the connection between the two and what they think of my opinions on them being the the poets and artists i see them as.

[Guest]

A strange combination ?

Grace Slick & Frank Zappa

(Frank Zappa/Grace Slick)
RCA Studios, Hollywood, CA
June 5, 1968
Produced by Al Schmitt
Engineered by Mark Linett & Pat Ieraci

Grace Slick--vocals, keyboard
FZ--leader
Arthur Tripp III--drums, percussion
Ian Underwood--piano, woodwinds
Donald Preston--keyboards

Left channel:
Snack!
Bet a leader zooms
Some blood down your street
Ehhh, bet you eat his figs, you meek
Help a bleeder, fill it up
And almond eyes went up
B-cup
Ssssleaks
And almond eyes
Want a B-cup leaks
Peak
Expression cause you
Squirt!
Almond eyes want a B-cup leaks
Bet you eat his figs you meek.
Meek.
Meek.
Snack.
Snack.
Snack.
Snack.
Bet a leader zooms
Some blood down your street
I bet you eat his figs you meek.
Help a bleeder fill it up
Help a bleeder
Fill it up
alllllmond eyes
When a bleeder fills it up
Bleeder, bleeder, bleeder,
A bleeder
Would you like a snack?
Uh, help a bleeder
Snack.


Right channel:
Snack!
A real slap on her goony ass
Helps you sleep
Don' it? Don' it?
It helps you sleep.
I'd better eat
I'd better eat
Five year plans are . . . hard to sit through
Do you like me in five? Or 3/4?
Five makes you clap off! Clap off!
Clap off, clap off, clap off, clap off, clap off
Oooh, clap off
I make buns, um, cuz I have trouble
Exploding by myself.
Snacks!
Snacks.
A real slap on a groovy ass
helps you sleep
Bet you eat her figs this week
Bet you eat her figs this week
Would you like a snack?
Get her flat on her back like that,
She leaves in the middle of the program.
Get her back like that and give her a SNACK!
Help a bleeder
Give her a snack
Get her flat on her back, and help a bleeder
And give her a snack
Fill it up, boy, fill it up
SNACKS!
Snack!
I make buns because I have a snack problem.
When my B-cup leaks, I have a SNACK!
Get her flat on back like that,
Give her a snack.
And she leaves in the middle of the program
And she leaves, and she leaves, and she leaves
She leaves you sitting there with
Nothing but a snack!
To keep you from eating cupcakes?
When are the cupcakes?
Would you like a snack?

Grace Slick and Frank Zappa..........
2 strange minds ?...or just having a good time...

I should get some Zappa stuff.....
Chasin'Destiny......

[Box Of Rain]

I was never too enthralled with Morrison as a lyricist, honestly. Don't get me wrong, I didn't think he was TERRIBLE. But (cliche as it sounds) I think Dylan crushes him. Absolutely crushes.

And Grace loses out to Joni Mitchell. But that's the thing about folkies. They ALWAYS win on the lyrics. In terms of rock, Jim and Gracie were certainly at the top of the word-game. And I definitely agree Grace's lyrics are worth analyzing. I mean, White Rabbit's pretty obvious and we all know Rejoyce is a tribute to Ulysses. but her later songs/lyrics - Crazy Miranda, Fast Buck Freddie, Hey Frederick, Eskimo Blue Day... these are some really interesting poems. I'd love to see them dissected and discussed.

Now, much as I love Mary's singing, I can't really say the same for "It's no Secret"... heh heh heh....

[freakmeout]

I was never too enthralled with Morrison as a lyricist, honestly. Don't get me wrong, I didn't think he was TERRIBLE. But (cliche as it sounds) I think Dylan crushes him. Absolutely crushes.

And Grace loses out to Joni Mitchell. But that's the thing about folkies. They ALWAYS win on the lyrics. In terms of rock, Jim and Gracie were certainly at the top of the word-game. And I definitely agree Grace's lyrics are worth analyzing. I mean, White Rabbit's pretty obvious and we all know Rejoyce is a tribute to Ulysses. but her later songs/lyrics - Crazy Miranda, Fast Buck Freddie, Hey Frederick, Eskimo Blue Day... these are some really interesting poems. I'd love to see them dissected and discussed.

Now, much as I love Mary's singing, I can't really say the same for "It's no Secret"... heh heh heh....

At first I read that and thought, "who the hell is Mary?" then I realised you meant Marty.

[DonRico1967]

Thank you for a great and thought-provoking query...

If you want to go way back on the subject of "the doors of perception", past Huxley, check out William Blake... That guy knew a thing or two about "psychedelics"...

Whether or not such things even existed in his "time"...

[Guest]

im not at all bias when it comes to dylan even thoguh im a huge fan , if there was someone better i would be able to admit that , but to say jim morrison is the greatest rock lyricist of all time is hugely flawed , there are far better out there , dylan being the greatest and others behind him such as neil young , lennon and many others

[Chasin'Destiny]

It's the same thing as guitar /bass players...
Everybody knows Dylan....Morrison....
The more i listen to Jack Casady & Jorma Kaukonen
the more i like 'm.....comparing 'm to Clapton & Bruce...
So there are some writers that no one realy knows.....
Maybe much better than Dylan & Morrison.....
That Somebody to love is from Grace Slick doesn't
know everybody, musicmagazines to!...
It's Somebody to love from JA.....

The question is : What makes a good song ?
The writer can say f*ck the system!....
Or love me love you......or what ever is going on.....
What kind of songs do you like ?...
Someone likes lovesongs....some don't...
Then there comes an other question out of the box.....
Who can write good songs for 40 years music ?....

Why is Dylan better than Paul Kantner or Marty Balin ?
Why is a Fender better than a Gibson ?
Why is a Marchall amp. better than an Orange amp.?
And NOTHING compares to a Hammond & Leslie combo !
Maybe an old Moog synth. can do it....

Some songs from Alice Cooper are good,
maybe not because a best of....guitar player...
I like the writings some simple words.....
From :
John Denver ,Simon & Garfunkel ,Don Henley....
Johnny Cash ,Melanie Safka......
Black Sabbath.....Blue Oyster Cult.....
Don Mclean - American Pie....about Buddy Holly...
Los Lobos - La Bamba......story of Ritchie Valens....

Todays music is a much more visual thing,
look at MTV & TMF....looks like bikini shows.....
These 'stars' have nothing important to say.....
Only that my house is bigger than yours.....
Ok....a matter of taste....or no taste....

[Jon_G]

Jim Morrison only actually ever recorded and released one poem with the Doors band and that was of course 'Horse Latitudes'.

The guy remains a very real literary genius, Dylan is I always think more of a polemicist, Morrison hadn't anything like the grudges Dylan was expressing then.

[gTarFreak]

There was a posthumous album released of Doors materiel that included Morrison's poetry. I can't offhand remember much about it, other than it included a kick-ass version of Gloria recorded during a sound check.

Cheers,
Dave

[Jon_G]

unlike some bands I don't think it's always obvious who wrote what on a JA song - but I do want to add something to the Dylan/Morrison comparison and the fact is that a lot of Dylan's sixties material does come across nowadays as a bit overwritten, much as I consider 'Blonde On Blonde' a genuine classic. Dylan (perhaps regrettably) didn't write anything quite as powerful as 'Love Me Two Times' or 'Changeling'. But he did write 'Baby Stop Crying' which is probably my favourite Dylan Song if anyone ever asks me, purely since it is actually a great song in its own right, in much the same way as my favourite Lou Reed song is 'I Love You Suzanne', which I remember hearing in the mid-80's and thinking 'hey, that Lou Reed song doesn't sound ANYTHING like a track from the &Nico album - '