ALEXANDRIA’S
ROCK ’N ROLL
LEGENDS by Mary Ann Barton
Alexandria's rich history as a place that shaped the nation and where George and Martha Washington and Robert E. Lee once lived is well known. But some might not know that much about the history of rock 'n roll in Alexandria, a place some of the groundbreaking giants of the genre have called home.
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alexandrialivingmagazine.com • November / December 2021
You know the day destroys the night Night divides the day Tried to run Tried to hide Break on through to the other side Break on through to the other side Break on through to the other side, yeah — LYRICS TO “BREAK ON THROUGH,” BY JIM MORRISON
Jim Morrison & The Doors The lyrics from “Break on Through,” the opening track to The Doors debut album, were written by Jim Morrison, the group’s lead singer who lived in Alexandria as a teenager, from 1959 to 1961. The rock band released that first single in 1967 and would go on to see more than 100 million of their records sold worldwide. James Douglas Morrison and his family made their home in Alexandria’s Jefferson Park neighborhood, on Woodland Terrace. He attended George Washington High School (now a middle school, at 1005 Mount Vernon Ave.) for part of his sophomore year and all of his junior and senior years. The family, his mom Clara and dad Steve, and his younger siblings Andrew and Anne, moved to Alexandria because of Steve's career as a rear admiral in the Navy. Andrew Morrison has said that his brother Jim was an avid reader, collecting more than 1,000 books in his basement bedroom with many of them later donated to a local library. Morrison’s senior year English teacher noted that “Jim read as much and probably more than any student in class, but everything he read was so offbeat I had another teacher (who was going to the Library of Congress) check to see if the books Jim was reporting on actually existed,” according to the book “No One Gets Out of Here Alive,” by Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman.
November / December 2021 • alexandrialivingmagazine.com
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