A tribute to Jim Morrison and the legend of the rock ‘n’ roll frontman, “Break It Up” is a song written by Patti Smith
The act of creating myths is a natural consequence of being a rock star. As a result of their admirers idolizing them and turning their origin stories into great legends, artists are exalted to the status of god inside their own community. The fact that artists such as Bob Dylan, Jim Morrison, and others have filled their pasts with elements of mystery or even fiction is something that some people believe in. Patti Smith, whose livelihood has always consisted of telling stories, finds it to be an intriguing prospect.
Smith is just as much of a music fan as everyone else, despite the fact that she is appropriately referred to as the “Godmother of Punk” due to the significant impact she has had on the music industry. In point of fact, she was working as a music journalist for Rock Magazine before she had even made a single step inside the industry. Her sole purpose was to listen to new music and become closer to the individuals who were responsible for creating it.
Smith, who was born and reared in a tiny town, has always had a soft spot for rockstars or for larger-than-life masculine artists and writers who seemed to exemplify this kind of otherworldly artistry. He has developed a fondness for these individuals. “For a young girl, he was everything you would want in your rock and roll star,” she said, referring to her initial encounter with Jimi Hendrix when she was a young kid. She has vivid memories of this encounter. He was both attractive and intelligent, and he was ravenous. Simply looking at him was an adventure in and of itself. Even when she fled to New York in order to pursue her own creative objectives, she brought a fascination with these guys with her. She treated her passion for artists such as Arthur Rimbaud, Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, and others as if it were a form of religion. It was a complete and utter fascination for Smith, who would go on to become a rock legend herself, since she was completely captivated by the vitality and might of rock legends.
Jim Morrison, in particular, was a subject that captivated her passion. When people discuss the greatest frontmen in the history of the world, the frontman of The Doors is consistently mentioned over and over again. He had the ability to whip his crowds into a frenzy and have them following his every word to an almost terrifying effect. As a result, the band’s performances frequently resulted in confrontations with the police when things got out of control. A portion of this was due to the fact that Morrison made a messiah out of himself on every level, from the manner in which he carried himself on stage to the narrative that he had promoted to the entire globe.
Considering that Smith is a writer who is equally enamored with the art of narrative as she is with music, the legend of Morrison captivated her thoughts. She devoted a track to recreating it in 1975, when she released her debut album. The song “Break It Up” dramatizes the so-called origin story of The Doors singer in the kind of theatrical rock track that it feels like it was designed for.
“Car stopped in a clearing / Ribbon of life, it was nearing / I saw the boy break out of his skin / My heart turned over and I crawled in,” Smith sings as the tension continues to rise. “I saw the boy break out of his skin.” He always said that when he was three or four years old, after seeing some Native Americans dying at the side of the road, the spirits or ghosts of those “dead Indians leaped into [his] soul,” as he was “like a sponge, ready to sit there and absorb it.” She borrows the voice of the soul that Morrison claimed took over him. He claimed that the soul took over him.
The question of whether or not it is true has been debated for a very long time, but in all honesty, it is irrelevant. Due to the fact that the fiction is so magnificent, the fact is irrelevant because it served to assist in the construction of this atmosphere surrounding Morrison. One of the reasons why he is such a tremendous cultural presence and what made him so captivating while he was at the height of his career is because of this. The fact that Smith was so thoroughly enthralled by him and wanted to repeat his story is also a part of the reason for this fascination.
It is almost as if Smith is giving sound to the construction of the myth of Morrison and his ascension to a godlike status as the song continues to rise and build. As she shouts “break it up” again and over again, it is similar to the congregation raising their hands in the air during a praise song. However, rather than narrating the story of a religious figure, it is an ode to a cultural or musical figure that Smith, along with a great number of other fans, worships.