Jim Morrison – Quote Investigator®

Jim Morrison? Andrew Doe? John Tobler? Francis E. Walter? Philip F. Pocock? E. S. James? Frank Lisciandro? Apocryphal

Dear Quote Investigator: The activities of rock-n-roll star Jim Morrison received extensive newspaper and television coverage in the 1960s. He was alternately praised and condemned in the mass media. Apparently, he once stated:

Whoever controls the media, controls the mind.

Would you please help me to find a citation?

Quote Investigator: Jim Morrison was the charismatic lead vocalist of the band “The Doors”. The music journalists Andrew Doe and John Tobler published a compilation of quotations from band members titled “In Their Own Words: The Doors” in 1988. The authors credited Morrison with the quotation under examination. The concise label “Jim” preceded the quotation. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:^[1]1988, In Their Own Words: The Doors, Compiled by Andrew Doe and John Tobler, Chapter: Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll & Politics & Films & Stuff, (Quotation attributed to Jim … Continue reading

Jim “Whoever controls the media, controls the mind.” (1969)

Morrison died in 1971. Doe and Tobler did not provide a precise citation to support the date of 1969. QI believes that the attribution is plausible, but QI has not yet located direct evidence in 1969.

Interestingly, Morrison was not the first to express this notion using the same keywords “control”, “media”, and “mind”. U.S. Congressman Francis E. Walter of Pennsylvania, Chair of the House Un-American Activities Committee used an instance during a speech in July 1956 as reported in “The Tablet: A Catholic Weekly” of Brooklyn, New York:^[2] 1956 July 21, The Tablet: A Catholic Weekly, Declare Cogley Report Falsifies, Quote Page 3, Column 3, Brooklyn, New York. (Newspapers_com)

“The Communists know that movie screens and television channels are weapons of far greater potential power than any of the nuclear devices whose secrets we guard so jealously.

“Control of the media of communication and information means the control of the mind, and for the Communists this would mean a victory of far greater importance than victory on a dozen battlefields of war.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Continue reading Whoever Controls the Media, Controls the Mind

References

References
↑1	1988, In Their Own Words: The Doors, Compiled by Andrew Doe and John Tobler, Chapter: Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll & Politics & Films & Stuff, (Quotation attributed to Jim Morrison), Quote Page 85, Omnibus Press, A Division of Book Sales Limited, London. (Verified with scans)
↑2	1956 July 21, The Tablet: A Catholic Weekly, Declare Cogley Report Falsifies, Quote Page 3, Column 3, Brooklyn, New York. (Newspapers_com)

Jim Morrison? Ray Manzarek? Aldous Huxley? William Blake?

Dear Quote Investigator: One of the best rock groups in history is The Doors, and its legendary front man Jim Morrison was one of the greatest rock stars ever. That is my opinion. But I am sending you this message because I want your opinion concerning a quotation:

There are things known, and things unknown, and in between are the Doors.

I was told that this sentence is the explanation that Jim Morrison gave when he was asked how the name of his band was chosen. But I have also been told that the major Romantic figure, poet, and painter William Blake came up with the saying. And somebody else claims that the writer, mystic, and experientialist Aldous Huxley was the creative intellect behind this insight. Could you disentangle this?

Quote Investigator: William Blake’s circa 1790 work “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell” contained a quote that famously spoke of perception and metaphorical doorways:

If the doors of perception were cleansed, every thing would appear to man as it is: infinite.

Aldous Huxley wrote a 1954 book called “The Doors of Perception” that discussed his experiences with psychoactive agents; its title was an allusion to Blake’s work. But QI has not located the quotation under investigation in the texts of Blake or Huxley.

QI believes that the quotation under examination was derived from the words of the musician Ray Manzarek who together with Jim Morrison co-founded The Doors. In 1967 Newsweek magazine profiled the rock group and quoted Manzarek saying the following. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:^[1] 1967 November 6, Newsweek, Music: This Way to the Egress, Page 101, Column 2, Newsweek, Inc. (Verified on microfilm)

There are things you know about, and things you don’t, the known and the unknown, and in between are the doors—that’s us.

QI hypothesizes that this quotation was streamlined and then the words were reassigned to more prominent figures such as Jim Morrison, Aldous Huxley, and William Blake.
Continue reading There Are Things Known, and Things Unknown, and In Between Are the Doors

References

References
↑1	1967 November 6, Newsweek, Music: This Way to the Egress, Page 101, Column 2, Newsweek, Inc. (Verified on microfilm)