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Doors visit Morrison tomb in Paris

PARIS, dec 8 (AFP) – Two of the three surviving members of the 1960s band the Doors were joined by fans, journalists and security guards in roughly equal numbers for a photo-op Monday at the Paris graveside of late lead singer Jim Morrison on what would have been his 60th birthday.

Robby Krieger, 57 year-old guitarist, and keyboard-player Ray Manzarek, 64, were in France on the European leg of a world tour with the Doors of the 21st Century — the re-formed Doors with Morrison-lookalike Ian Astbury of British band The Cult at the microphone.

The pair lit candles and set fire to a piece of paper bearing a poem to Morrison that had been left on the tomb in Paris’s Pere-Lachaise cemetery. They then blew the ashes over the grave. “It is to invoke the spirit of Jim,” said Krieger.

Press photographers and cameramen filmed the visit but questions were not allowed. Krieger and Manzarek were briefly joined at the graveside by Astbury, whose mop of dark hair was uncannily reminiscent of the man he was chosen to replace.

The creator of classic rock-songs such as Light My Fire and Riders on The Storm, Morrison was 27 when he died of a drug-induced heart attack in Paris in 1971.

His tomb is one of the most visited in the Pere-Lachaise cemetery – resting-place of other artistic greats such as Oscar Wilde and Edith Piaf – and bears a permanent decoration of flowers, album covers, photographs, candles and beer cans.

After Krieger and Manzarek formed the Doors of the 21st Century in 2002, the third survivor of the original group, drummer John Densmore, tried to sue them for misappropriating the trademark. Morrison’s parents George and Clara Morrison also filed suit at a Los Angeles court.

 © AFP

                                                                Subject: French news