The Celebration Of The Lizard

[Stuart]

Vince , what do you think of the"Celebration of the Lizard"? i think it is an important work of morrison's that he wrote, the lyrics are very cinematic-

Lions in the street and roaming
Dogs in heat, rabid, foaming
A beast caged in the heart of a city
The body of his mother
Rotting in the summer ground
He fled the town

He went down South and crossed the border
Left chaos and disorder
Back there over his shoulder

One morning he awoke in a green hotel
With a strange creature groaning beside him
Sweat oozed from its shining skin
is everybody in?
is everybody in?
is everybody in?
the ceremony is about to begin


Wake up!
You can't remember where it was
Had this dream stopped?

The snake was pale gold
Glazed and shrunken
We were afraid to touch it
The sheets were hot dead prisms
And she was beside me
Old, she's no, young
Her dark red hair
the white soft skin

Now, run to the mirror in the bathroom
Look!
shes coming in here
I can't live thru each slow century of her moving
I let my cheek slide down
The cool smooth tile
Feel the good cold stinging blood
The smooth hissing snakes of rain . . .

Once I had, a little game
I liked to crawl, back in my brain
I think you know, the game I mean
I mean the game, called 'go insane'

you should try, this little game
Just close your eyes, forget your name
Forget the world, forget the people
And we'll erect, a different steeple

This little game, is fun to do
Just close your eyes, no way to lose
And I'm right there, I'm going too
Release control, we're breaking thru

Way back deep into the brain
Back where there's never any pain
And the rain falls gently on the town
And over the heads of all of us
And in the labyrinth of streams
Beneath, the quiet unearthly presence of
gentle hill dwellers, in the gentle hills around
Reptiles abounding
Fossils, caves, cool air heights

Each house repeats a mold
Windows rolled
Beast car locked in against morning
All now sleeping
Rugs silent, mirrors vacant
Dust Lying under the beds of lawful couples
Wound in sheets
And daughters, smug
With semen eyes in their nipples

Wait
There's been a slaughter here

(Don't stop to speak or look around
Your gloves and fan are on the ground
We're getting out of town
We're going on the run
And you're the one I want to come)

Not to touch the earth
Not to see the sun
Nothing left to do, but
Run, run, run
Let's run
lets run

House upon the hill
Moon is lying still
Shadows of the trees
Witnessing the wild breeze
C'mon baby run with me
Let's run

Run with me
Run with me
Run with me
Let's run

The mansion is warm, at the top of the hill
Rich are the rooms and the comforts there
Red are the arms of luxuriant chairs
And you won't know a thing till you get inside

Dead president's corpse in the driver's car
The engine runs on glue and tar
C'mon along, we're not going very far
To the East to meet the Czar

run with me
run with me
run with me
let's run

Some outlaws lived by the side of the lake
The minister's daughter's in love with the snake
Who lives in a well by the side of the road
Wake up, girl! We're almost home

We should see the gates by mornin'
We should be inside by evening,

sun sun sun
burn burn burn
burn, burn, burn,
i will get you
soon,
soon,
soon

i am the lizard king
i can do anything

We came down
The rivers and highways
We came down from
Forests and falls

We came down from
Carson and Springfield
We came down from
Phoenix enthralled
And I can tell you
The names of the Kingdom
I can tell you
The things that you know
Listening for a fistful of silence
Climbing valleys into the shade

for seven years, i dwelt
in the loose palace of exile
playing strange games with the girls of the island
now, i have come again
to the land of the fair, and the strong, and the wise
brothers and sisters of the pale forest
children of night
who among you will run with the hunt?
now night arives with her purple legion
Retire now to your tents and to your dreams
Tomorrow we enter the town of my birth
I want to be ready'

[vince]

There is a lot of images in this work. Much of this is either Jim commenting on events, incidents he observed or that he participated in. Some are real dreams.

Some of the places he mentioned are real though you would have to be in Hwd. to appreciate them and the meaning for Jim.

There is a lot of fantasy as well. Kind of a "What If..." thing.

Remember that Jim liked to shock for the observation of the reaction. There is shock effect here as well.

It is a long piece and the changes in musical format, tempo and arrangement really show the talent of the performers and the amount of time they took to work this out. This is somewhat on the same scale or catagory and Music is Over and The End. The length is what really sets it aside.

It is a monumental piece and unfortunately, probably owing to the elngth, not often performed on stage.

[nephron]

IMO only (I write, but as a release...how do you JUDGE such things?), I think celebration as a POEM was not good. Not good at all. Why? Firstly, the backbone of the thing is based roughly on an old referenced myth (I can't recall it at this time). Therefore, with this backbone, all he had to do was put words together in stanzas and make it apply to him or this century. We all know Jim was very good at stringing words together, and he had an exceptional talent at 'image creation', and the strength of delivery. However, if you read a multitude of data about this poem, you'll find that not only was it put together whilst he was seriously jacked up on alcohol all the time, but disjointed in time and as relates to where he was at the time. Jim seems to write reflectively, based on personal experience (hence, blue buss, blah, blah, blah). Doesn't work all the time. For instance, recall the lines in stanza "The mansion is warm at the top of the hill" followed by, next stanza "Dead president's corpse in the driver's car" (followed immediately by an attempt at rhyme....).

Can anyone put together these two, when the story is about a tribe seeking deliverance and new life? The former described Hearst's castle as he drove by it on his way from Santa Barbara to San Francisco. The latter is about Kennedy.

It sounds good.
It's reasonable lyric (he's got better).
But I just don't get it. Maybe that's it. I'm just dumb.

[cutis]

Have to disagree with you, nephron. Again, COFTL, is classic "Morrisonian" poetry. It does not follow any established rhyme or meter that conventional poetry does. This is Morrison at his creative best!

I don't know what "myth" you are referring to. If you don't know it or can't find it, then there's no point in mentioning it. I plead ignorance since I really have no background in mythmaking or the study of myths. And being ignorant, I find Morrison's "alleged plagiarism" downright fascinating. Again, Morrison's talent at stringing words together served him very well. One of the reason's why I fell in love with the Doors was their rendition of COTL at the Aquarius, released on Absolutely Live. When I first heard it, I was totally swept up by Morrison's choice of words and the images he created.

Dust blind under the beds of lawful couples
Wound in sheets
And daughters, smug with semen
Eyes in their nipples

Absolutely marvelous! Morrison is brilliant, here! I'd almost describe what he's doing as some kind of "elegant vulgarity."

For seven years I dwelt in the loose palace of exile
Playing strange games with the girls of the island
Now I have come again to the land of the fair
And the strong and the wise

Brothers and sisters of the pale forest
Children of night
Who among you will run with the hunt?

Now night arrives with her purple legion
Retire now to your tents and to your dreams
Tomorrow we enter the town of my birth
I want to be ready

How sublime! I mean, that line, "night arrives with her purple legion" it's so Tolkienesque!! "Brothers and sisters of the pale forest" "Retire now to your tents and to your dreams" Morrison took a page from somewhere from the Lord of the Rings! I felt like he was telling me a story around a camp fire and I'm being held captive by his words and the myth he's describing. I fall asleep shaking dreams from my mind to fill up my morning cup of coffee with.

Maybe you are dumb! But trying to understand Morrison proves futile. Morrison purposely chose to remain esoteric and blurred in his writing, sort of like a scrambler suit, the latter invented by Philip K. Dick in his novel, A Scanner Darkly. Morrison's writing constantly forces people to interpret and then re-interpret what they've just thought they understood but now find puzzling. Sort of stuck in some state of "mute nostril agony." )

The more you don't "get it" the closer you are in getting it!

IMO only (I write, but as a release...how do you JUDGE such things?), I think celebration as a POEM was not good. Not good at all. Why? Firstly, the backbone of the thing is based roughly on an old referenced myth (I can't recall it at this time). Therefore, with this backbone, all he had to do was put words together in stanzas and make it apply to him or this century. But I just don't get it. Maybe that's it. I'm just dumb.

[vince]

OK - Let's say both of the last posts are, in part or whole, are right. Nephron - when oyu suggest that Jim took something from somewhere you may be right but please do hold that up to the light that we can all understand.

Jim did not often write in rhyme or meter. Yet, see some of his songs most definitely show soe close attempt.

I think you have to know Jima nd his experiences to understand his writings. He did write, and speak, to creat controversy, images, and peculiar things that make you wonder who waz more lunatic - you or him. But that was his intent and style. You bet that half of what he wrote had no meaning at all. The rest was real inagery based on real life of either his or someone elses that he observed. Some of it might well be based on pages form books of others and, of course, his fears and dreams.

Whatever it is, we all admit that many of his writings are interesting and have things to say. His lyrics are for the most part, most interesting. And they say much. Whether he sand his stories or spoke them - as Horse latitudes.



Food for though people.

No one is lacking in brains or intellect because Jim's writings are obscure. Perhaps he intended this just to make you think. Maybe - just mabe he was playing a joke leaving behind writings that people will spend ages trying to figure out the meaning that was never there.

[Snakeskin]

OK -.

No one is lacking in brains or intellect because Jim's writings are obscure. Perhaps he intended this just to make you think. Maybe - just mabe he was playing a joke leaving behind writings that people will spend ages trying to figure out the meaning that was never there.

That's the puzzlement of JDM

[nephron]

"You bet that half of what he wrote had no meaning at all. The rest was real inagery based on real life of either his or someone elses that he observed. "

Exactly.