JIM MORRISON: FRIENDS GATHERED TOGETHER Publication Reading

Jim Morrison: Friends Gathered Together, a new book by Frank Lisciandro about the legendary rock singer and poet has been published by Vision Words & Wonder.
Lisciandro, who first met Morrison as a fellow student at the UCLA Film School and later collaborated with him on both of his film projects—Feast of Friends and… HWY—was a close friend, photographer and confidante over the last three years of Morrison’s life. In 1990, Lisciandro recorded more than a dozen in-depth interviews with Morrison friends as research for his 1991 photography book, Morrison: A Feast of Friends (Warner Books). Now, for the first time, the full-length interviews have been published in Jim Morrison: Friends Gathered Together. The interviews offer a very different look at the man who has been negatively portrayed in books, magazines and on the screen.
Among the friends interviewed in the book are Bill Siddons, the former manager of The Doors; Michael McClure, the renowned poet who suggested to Morrison that he self-publish his writings; Ginny Ganahl who helped Morrison publish his books of poetry; and Ron Alan, fellow musician and denizen of  Sunset Strip during the early days of  Morrison’s public appearances.
The seeds of Jim Morrison: Friends Gathered Together were planted on an otherwise mundane Saturday in 2011 when Lisciandro, while looking for something else in his studio, stumbled upon a box that contained audio tapes, floppy disks and transcripts of the interviews he had conducted with Morrison’s friends more than 20 years before.
“As I re-read the transcripts, I found a lively and wide-ranging discussion about Jim Morrison and, surprisingly, an oral history of the turbulent times and glittering city that gave rise to a music revolution in Los Angeles,” writes Lisciandro in the book’s introductory chapter. “Most of the people I interviewed were themselves active participants in the West Coast arts scene: musicians, concert promoters, publicists, filmmakers, band managers, and poets. It became clear that these interviews needed to be published in their entirety in a format and fullness that respected their documentary and historical significance.”
To retain control of the content and look of the book, Lisciandro chose to self-publish. “I’m pleased to be able to put these transcribed interviews in your hands,” he writes, “and hope you enjoy the detailed historical tapestry they weave. In these pages Jim is candidly revealed by the people who knew him, who were his pals, colleagues, mentors and lovers. You’ll find funny stories, secrets revealed and truths more startling than any of the distortions spread during and after Jim’s life. By weighing the observations of those who knew him you can reach your own conclusions about who Jim Morrison was and what his life meant.”
The book also includes more than 50 of Lisciandro’s original photographs, many never before published in the United States.
About the Author Frank Lisciandro is a documentary filmmaker and photographer. He attended the UCLA Film School with Jim Morrison and Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek, and later collaborated with Morrison on his two films—Feast of Friends and HWY. A close friend and confidante of Jim Morrison, Lisciandro was the co-producer of the
Grammy-nominated album An American Prayer, which featured Morrison’s spoken word poetry with musical backing by the three surviving Doors. In 1982, Lisciandro released his first photo book, An Hour for Magic, which featured more than 100 photos and personal anecdotes about his work, travels and friendship with Morrison. In the late Eighties, on behalf of the Morrison Estate, Lisciandro went through the vaults containing Morrison’s personal writings and co-edited two volumes of previously unreleased Morrison poetry for Villard Books: Wilderness (1989) and The American Night (1990). Lisciandro has made more than 25 documentary films and has shown his photographs in the United States, Canada, England, France and Italy.
The Print and Kindle versions of Jim Morrison: Friends Gathered Together are now available at Amazon.com, along with ebook versions for the Nook, Kobo and iBooks.
Media contact:  Steven Wheeler, stevenpforty@yahoo.com, (310) 218-7839