No fawning, just facts from Jim Morrison bio

Jim Morrison once wrote, "I contend an abiding sense of irony over everything I do."

He's the only one.

During his life, and especially since his death in 1971, the lead singer of the Doors has been taken extremely seriously and either glorified as a deity or dismissed as a poseur. When someone starts talking about Morrison and uses a phrase such as "godhead in snakeskin and leather," the way Stephen Davis does on the first page of his new biography, "Jim Morrison: Life, Death, Legend" (Gotham Books, $27.50), the best thing to do is put the book down and walk away, slowly. If such a phrase is followed by the word "Dionysus," run.

Morrison is one of the most fascinating figures in 20th-century musical history, and the posthumous idolization of him, exceeded only by that given to Elvis Presley, is a subject for serious study. His popularity is greater than it was 23 years ago, when Rolling Stone put his picture on the cover with the headline "He's hot, he's sexy, and he's dead." His music is in heavy rotation on classic-rock stations, his albums sell millions of copies every year, and his grave is one of the most popular attractions in Paris.

Rather than critique Davis' sensational, poorly edited biography, why not pull together a few random facts from it and see if they can help make sense of Morrison's amazing life?

1. When the other Doors sold the rights to "Light My Fire" to Buick ("Come on, Buick, light my fire!"), Morrison was furious and threatened to destroy Buicks on stage. His refusal to sell out was carried on after his death by drummer John Densmore, who has turned down millions of dollars (over the strong objections of keyboardist Ray Manzarek) and prevented the Doors' music from being used in commercials. Two ironies: Densmore's strong stance (and that of Morrison's estate) has increased the music's value; and Morrison and Densmore did not get along.

2. Morrison's father became an admiral and was in the Tonkin Gulf when President Lyndon Johnson said North Vietnam threatened U.S. ships and escalated the Vietnam War. Jim Morrison did not see or speak to his parents for the last seven years of his life and said in interviews that they were dead.

3. Actor Harrison Ford worked as a stagehand for the Doors.

4. Oliver Stone's movie "The Doors" depicted three true incidents: Morrison did see a car wreck involving Native Americans when he was a child and believed the spirit of one of the accident victims entered his body. Morrison and Manzarek really did go to film school at UCLA and later ran into each other on the beach, where Morrison recited the lyrics to "Moonlight Drive." Andy Warhol really did give Morrison an antique telephone.

5. Morrison sent a note to a professor at Duke University, thanking him for translating Arthur Rimbaud's poems. Morrison's books of poetry are steady sellers; based on sales, he is one of the most popular poets in America.

6. In the new anthology "Kill Your Idols: A New Generation of Rock Writers Reconsiders the Classics" (Barricade Books, $16 paperback), Lorraine Ali and Jim DeRogatis say Morrison would "be doing infomercials, selling inspirational tapes" if he were alive and call him "the Thomas Kinkade of poetry" and "the Ashton Kutcher of his time."

7. Author Tom Robbins covered a Doors concert in Seattle for a magazine called Helix and wrote that the Doors were "late patricidal, lunchtime in the Everglades, Black Forest blood sausage on electrified bread, Jean Genet up a totem pole, artists at the barricades, Edgar Allen Poe drowning in his birdbath, Massacre of the Innocents, tarantella of the satyrs, L.A. pagans drawing down the moon."