Song of the Day 5/20: The Doors, “Touch Me”

Big news for fans of the Doors: The bust that decorated Jim Morrison’s tomb, stolen 37 years ago and presumed lost forever, was found in Paris by police investigating unrelated financial crimes.

Morrison died in a Paris bathtub in 1971 and was interred in the city’s historic Père-Lachaise Cemetery, where his tomb, like Oscar Wilde’s further up the hill, quickly became a pilgrimage site for fans. Wilde’s gravesite is adorned with lipstick smudges; Morrison’s quickly attracted graffiti. On the 10th anniversary of Morrison’s death a bust of by a Croatian sculptor was added. It, too, was damaged and defaced before it was stolen.

I would have thought the band’s fans were growing scarce, but last time I was in Père-Lachaise I met several Americans who were there specifically to see his modest grave, which is wedged awkwardly into a corner and usually strewn with flowers. There’s no word on whether the bust will be returned to its original spot atop his tombstone.

Jim Morrison was an early member of the “27 club” of musicians who died at that age, but unlike Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix, his repute has dimmed over the decades, in large part because of the way his sloppy descent into alcoholism destroyed the Doors. His appeal was linked to his charisma, which is hard to preserve. This performance on the Smothers Brothers show captured him at his most subdued. The band is backed by the Nelson Riddle Orchestra and, like the recorded version, features a sax solo by Curtis Amy.

“Touch Me” reached No. 1 in Cashbox in early 1969, making it the band’s third and last chart-topping single.