Lizard King still reigns supreme

MORRISON: THE DOORS STILL RELEVANT 60 YEARS LATER

- Hein Kaiser

Sex god, music deity and poet of chaos Jim Morrison was the reluctant hero of counterculture. The Doors, his vehicle to change the world.

It's been 60 years since the band first released Break On Through, its debut that smashed through punch-drunk sunshine songs to turn out the lights on the social construct of the '60s. And the music kept on doing it through to today because it's still as relevant.

Morrisson rattled authorities in his tight leather pants; his struggle with reality as it was served up, infused with alcohol and narcotics.

His alter ego, The Lizard King, became his poetic persona after penning a poem with the same name. He was an overwhelmingly large personality, shamanic in a way with an intensity of word-smithing that led melody in a way that few rock 'n roll, and definitely zero hip-hop, has mustered since.

The band was born out of a chance meeting between Morrison and keyboardist Ray Manzarek at the University of California Los Angeles in Venice Beach in 1965.