TITLE: CITY AUTHOR UNMASKS REGIONAL TIES OF FORMER ROCK ICON
AUTHOR: NATASHA BROWN
PUBLISHED: 10 FEBRUARY 2005
At age 10, lifelong Greenbelt resident Mark Opsasnick discovered the magic of rock 'n' roll.
He would spend hours at the Greenbelt Library, reading rock publications like "Creem" and "Circus Magazine" from cover-to-cover. He became a fan of The Doors in 1972. Back then, he did not realize that he would retrace the teenage years of Jim Morrison, the band's lead singer.
At that time, Morrison had been deceased for a year and speculations surrounding his life and death had already bombarded the international music scene.
He was found dead in his Paris bathtub July 3, 1971. The official cause of death was heart failure.
At the same time, Opsasnick, now 43,was building a rock 'n' roll record collection impressive for any kid his age.
Though over a dozen biographies have been written about the eccentric rock music icon, few seem to go in depth about Morrison's years in the Washington Metropolitan area from 1959 to 1961.
Opsasnick will provide thousands of "Doors" enthusiasts never-before published facts about Morrison's high school years, in his soon to be completed biography "The Lizard King was Here: The Life and Times of Jim Morrison in Alexandria, Va."
The book title stemmed from one of Morrison's poems in which he wrote, "I am the lizard king, I can do anything," explained Opsasnick.
"Fans should love it because most of the information about this period is very vague," said Art Wray, 52, manager of Lunadisc LPs and CDs in Alexandria. "Most books seem to get what little information they have about this period wrong. Mark's investigative reporting skills are amazing."
Wray was one source for the book.
Now an income assistant program specialist with the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services, Opsasnick did not set his sights on writing early. But in 1993, after hanging out in several nightclubs, local old timers would reveal facts about regional rock history.
He has written five books since his interests have drawn him to answer unknown facts about natural phenomena, music and Prince George's County rock 'n' roll. His most popular book was "Capitol Rock." Opsasnick said that all of the copies of the first printing have sold out. Xlibris Corp., the publishing company would not provide this information.
"For the past year or so, I did not have a project that captured my interests," Opsasnick said. "I went through my notes from 'Capitol Rock,' and a lot of Doors fans spoke about how [Jim Morrison] grew up in Alexandria." He decided to find the never publicized truth about Morrison's Alexandria experience.
"I was just wowing a guy about 18-years-old who's about to do a Web radio station with a college. He was awestruck struck when he found out that Jim Morrison lived here," Wray exclaimed. "I told him, 'pretty soon we'll have a literary reference on this.'"
Last February, Opsasnick began interviewing Morrison's close friends. One year later, he has completed all the interviews, written six chapters and has seven to go. The finished project will be approximately 120,000 words.
"I wanted to get away from those kinds of stories of drugs and sex, and I wanted to find out if there was anything that he had been exposed to in his teenage years in Alexandria that later influenced his lyrics, poetry and performing arts," he said.
Before Morrison was found dead in 1971, he graduated from George Washington High School in 1961 where he was known for his eccentric and artistic nature.
Opsasnick found that Morrison frequented local nightclubs like Bohemian Caverns in the District. He often wrote poetry and liked to take walks in the District.
In chapter seven of the unfinished biography "We All Eat Small Dogs," the nonfiction outlandish tales of Morrison's high school behavior scream through the pages. This section begins with Morrison teaching his Spanish class on Senior Day. Very much in tune with his character, he wrote "we all eat small dogs" on the board in Spanish and the teacher became upset.
Interestingly enough, Opsasnick also had a chance to visit Morrison's former home in Alexandria.
There he browsed the secluded basement where Morrison resided. Back then the future rock star was a military brat, who relocated to the area for a brief time with his family.
"Since Jim Morrison died in 1971, we were probably the only...fans that had ever been in that house," he recalled.
Stan Durkee, 61, an environmental specialist from Bethesda, was George Washington High School's class president in 1961, and one of Opsasnick's sources for the book.
Durkee ran a carpool service, charging fellow classmates a dime each for a ride to school. Morrison would join Durkee in his 1955 Buick.
"I thought he was probably one of the most creative people that I ever met. I was surprised that he became associated with rock 'n' roll," he said. "He was a very special guy, and we knew it."
Chapters in the book are an eclectic mix of Morrison's poetry, real life accounts and extensive research on Alexandria in the '60s.
The last chapter, "Arizona" is an in depth interview with one of Morrison's former friends, a federal judge who claims he saw the rock star in Arizona 10 years ago.
Opsasnick writes approximately a chapter a month and hopes to finish writing by Labor Day and submit it to his publisher Xlibris Corp. by next January.
"There is a whole lot of information...that has never been published. It's definitely a book geared toward those die-hard Jim Morrison fans," Opsasnick said.
