Some Are Born to Endless Night - Gerry Kirstein

Written as an autobiography about the turbulent 1960's and set against the backdrop of the emerging rock music scene, drugs, political assassinations, and the Viet Nam war, Some Are Born to Endless Night explores Jim Morrison's vision of American society in the growing chaos of that decade and highlights the literature and revolutionary philosophies behind his lyrics as a singer with the Doors. Nearly 40 years after Morrison's death Kirstein undertakes a review of Morrison's songs that reflected his crumbling psychological profile. As a devotee of Morrison and the music of the Doors he explores the mindset of Morrison and his rich literary and philosophical origins that include insights from Aldous Huxley, William Blake, poet Arthur Rimbaud, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Norman O. Brown's interpretation of both Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud. Kirstein discusses Nietzsche's magnetic influence on Morrison, and he interprets for the reader how Morrison may have unconsciously intimated a prophecy of riots and destruction by fire in a future Los Angeles. The author pieces together an unusual narrative that traces the decline and fall of the United States as reflected in Morrison's songs, starting from the JFK assassination in 1963 to a point where we currently find ourselves in a parallel world four decades later. The book describes a sense of unease in America which launched Kirstein into a self-exile as an international drifter who is ultimately drawn to a remote river in South America called Xingu. For followers of Jim Morrison and the Doors this book provides a diverse cultural snapshot of 1960's America and illustrates Morrison's remarkable talent as a lyricist and visionary, helping to explain the ongoing interest in Morrison's legacy and continuing popularity of the Doors music.