Plaque Marks Where Jim Morrison Peed

11/19/08 5:17pm

by Steve McLean (CHARTattack)

Jim Morrison would have turned 65 on Dec. 8 if he hadn't died in a bathtub in his Paris apartment in 1971.

To commemorate the occasion, Los Angeles restaurant Barney's Beanery will dedicate a plaque that evening to something else involving Morrison and soaking: the bar he allegedly urinated on at the night spot he used to spend time at with Janis Joplin in the late '60s.

"We decided to celebrate this occasion because Barney's is a place where Jim Morrison hung out often," says Barney's owner David Houston, who took over the business in 1999. "Whatever point in time you go back to, whoever was making history in pop culture, they seemed to have a foot in the Beanery."

The scene was part of 1991's The Doors, the Oliver Stone-directed film that starred Val Kilmer as Morrison.

While Morrison was barred from Barney's following the incident, a new owner, the passing of time and a chance to grab some cheap publicity have made the venue decide to honour the event instead of remaining pissed off about it. The ceremony will be broadcast live on L.A. radio station 95.5 KLOS.

"I'm hoping Ray's incredibly sharp memory will help us locate it," says Houston of Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek being able to pinpoint where a puddle once formed. "Wherever he says it happened, that's where we'll put it up."

Perhaps a similar plaque will someday be erected at Washington, D.C.'s Nightclub 9:30 to pay respect to Jersey City councilman and Grateful Dead fan Steven Lipski's bladder.

While some fans still cling to the notion that Morrison isn't actually dead, his Doors bandmates Manzarek, drummer John Densmore and guitarist Robby Krieger are definitely still alive. Manzarek and Krieger will be at Barney's on the night (which also marks the 28th anniversary of John Lennon's murder) of the plaque unveiling to sign copies of Live At The Matrix, a two-disc set of previously unreleased recordings from The Doors' two March 1967 shows at San Francisco's The Matrix club where they were still working out arrangements and lyrics for songs that would later become famous.

"This is probably the closest we've come to a true document of The Doors without constraints," says the band's longtime producer and engineer, Bruce Botnick, who worked on the album. "You've never heard the group quite like this."

The fourth release in The Doors' Bright Midnight Archives series comes out next week via Rhino Records. It features liner notes from the three surviving Doors members and cover art by Stanley Mouse.

Here are the songs on Live At The Matrix:

Disc one:

"Break On Through (To The Other Side)"
"Soul Kitchen"
"Money"
"The Crystal Ship"
"Twentieth Century Fox"
"I'm A King Bee"
"Alabama Song/Whisky Bar"
"Summer's Almost Gone"
"Light My Fire"
"Get Out Of My Life Woman"
"Back Door Man"
"Who Do You Love"
"The End"

Disc two:

"Unhappy Girl"
"Moonlight Drive"
"The Woman Is A Devil/Rock Me"
"People Are Strange"
"Close To You"
"My Eyes Have Seen You"
"Crawling King Snake"
"I Can't See Your Face In My Mind"
"Summertime"
"When The Music's Over"
"Gloria"