The Doors: The Soft Parade

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"The movie begins in five moments, "

the mindless voice announced.

"All those not seated

must wait for the next show."

We filed slowly,

languidly into the hall.

The auditorium

was vast and silent.

After we'd sat down, it grew dark,

and the voice continued:

"The program for this evening isn't

new. You know it through and through.

You've seen birth, life and death.

You might recall all of the rest.

Did you have a good life

before you died?

Enough to base a movie on?"

Hey Jim,

it's your birthday, man!

Let's finish this another night.

Turn the lights down

a little bit more.

Hey man, how come

the Doors aren't in on this?

No music, no Doors.

Come on, let's roll.

Rolling.

Is everybody in?

Is everybody in?

Is everybody in?

The ceremony is about to begin.

Let me tell you about heartache,

and the loss of God.

Wandering, wandering

in hopeless night.

Out here in the perimeter

there are no stars.

Out here

we're stoned, immaculate.

It's beautiful,

look at those clouds.

Jimmy, wake up!

Come on!

What's going on?

I don't know.

Officer, what happened?

Can we help?

No sir,

we've got everything under control.

Just a dream, Jimmy,

that's all it is.

Just a dream.

You got a problem with doors?

Waste of time.

I followed you from the beach.

You followed me? Why?

'cause you're the one.

Maybe you should meet my old man.

- What's your name?

Mine's Jim.

- Pam.

Pam and Jim.

Who the hell was that?

- I have no idea.

Nietzsche said,

"All great things must first wear

terrifying and monstrous masks,

in order to inscribe themselves

on the hearts of humanity."

Listen, children,

to the sound of the Nuremburg night.

In the sance,

the shaman leads a sensuous panic.

He acts like a madman,

a professional hysteria.

Have you ever seen God? A mandala.

A symmetrical angel.

We got our final vision by clap.

Columbus's groin

got filled with green death.

I touched her thigh,

and death smiled.

Hey Morrison!

F*** 'em, it's great.

It's non-linear, poetic,

it's what Godard stands for.

This world. The monster of energy.

Without beginning, without end.

Likewise, without

increase of income,

disclosing nothing.

This world,

this world is a will to power,

and nothing besides.

Very pretentious, Jim, not easy

to follow. A little incoherent.

Dancing bears, Nazism, masturbation,

what's next?

What do you guys think? - Boring!

- It's better than a Warhol picture!

No, it was worse!

A guy sleeping for 7 hours!

- There was no political content!

You need your art

spoon-fed to you!

Right on, man! Let's ask the filmmaker

what he thinks.

Mr. Morrison?

I quit.

Awake.

Shake dreams from your hair,

my pretty child, my sweet one.

Choose the day,

and choose the sign of your day.

The day's divinity,

the first thing you see.

Come on out for a walk!

It's a beautiful night!

The vast radiant beach

and cool jeweled moon.

Couples, naked, race

down by its quiet side ...

... and we laugh

like soft, mad children,

smug in the woolly

cotton brains of infancy.

Choose, they croon, the ancient ones.

The time has come again.

Choose now, they croon, beneath

the moon, beside an ancient lake.

Enter again the sweet forest.

Enter the hot dream,

come with us.

Everything is broken up and dances.

"Now I have come again to the land

of the fair, strong and wise.

Brothers and sisters

o'er the pale forest.

Children of the night,

who among you will run with the hunt?

Now night arrives

with her purple legion.

Retire now

to your tents and dreams.

Tomorrow we enter the town of

my birth. I want to be ready."

That's beautiful.

Do you like that?

- It's beautiful!

I've never read much poetry before.

What's a shaman?

He's the medicine man of the Indians.

He gets into a peyote trance, and

he gets deeper and deeper

and has a vision,

and the whole tribe is healed.

All cultures have a version of it.

The Greeks had

theater and gods.

The Indians say

the first shaman invented sex.

They call him

"The one who makes you crazy."

What turns you on?

I don't know ...

Experience.

Freedom.

Love.

Now.

The first time I did acid

I saw God.

And I saw a friend of mine,

who was Christ, but he was Judas, too.

And I realized that, somehow,

that was the secret of everything.

We're all one,

the universe is one.

And everything is beautiful.

- I don't know ...

I feel most alive

confronting death, experiencing pain.

I think you're most alive

recognizing beauty,

seeing truth.

Does death turn you on?

You love death?

Life hurts a lot more.

When you die, the pain's over.

"All the poems have wolves in them.

All but one.

The most beautiful one of all.

She dances in a ring of fire

and throws off the challenge

with a shrug."

That's beautiful.

Who did you write that for?

I wrote it for you.

Try acid, Ray.

It's guaranteed.

Sh*t, Morrison!

My last trip was a real bummer, man.

I never had a bummer on acid.

- I'm trying naturally high now.

Whatever works.

You making movies at MGM yet?

The production head there said to me,

"Where's your script?"

And I said "I don't need a script.

Godard doesn't use one."

He says, "Great! Who's Godard?"

I'm off movies, man.

I went out to the desert

and got lost.

I've been livin up on Trick's rooftop.

Got stuck on a chick.

- What else you doing?

Writing.

Songs, poems, stuff like that.

You're writing songs?

Let me hear one.

I'm shy.

- Sing it to me. - I can't sing.

You sing better than Dylan.

Well let me hear your words.

Let's swim to the moon.

Let's climb through the tide.

Penetrate the evening,

that the city sleeps to hide.

Let's swim out tonight,

love,

it's our turn

to try.

Parked beside the ocean

on our moonlight drive.

Those are great f***in' lyrics, man!

You write this?

You got others in here?

Yeah,

I have a whole concert in my head.

I see a Dionysian scene.

- What happened to you in the desert?

Ecstasy and madness!

- Let's start a rock'n'roll band!

I got so much stuff, tons of songs.

- Things are gonna explode, Jim!

I can feel it. People want to

fight or f***, love or kill!

Vietnam is right out there, man,

sides are being chosen.

Everything's going to flame, man,

the planet is screaming for change!

We've got to make the myths.

- There ought to be orgies.

When Dionysus arrived in Greece,

he made all the women mad,

leaving their homes

and dancing off into the mountains.

There'll be copulations in the street.

- Let's call ourselves "Dionysus!"

I've got a name:
"The Doors."

- The Doors of your mind. Huxley!

"The Doors of Perception."

- Acid. - Great!

William Blake, actually: "When the

doors of perception are cleansed,

things will appear as they truly are,

infinite." I like it.

What's the matter?

- It just doesn't sound right.

I know, John. Jim, stay in time.

- Let's try that Bossa Nova beat.

I think it's hot.

The lyrics are weird, man.

You write one, man!

We need more songs anyway.

- I thought it was pretty good.

Let's go outside.

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