With Morrison …, each Doors concert or album became more than just music—it was theatre; theatre of the macabre, theatre of cruelty; theatre of the absurd all rolled into one. And always living theatre….

Properly performed (it's not done particularly well on "Absolutely Live") "The Celebration Of The Lizard" lulls an audience with a grotesque recitation before Morrison screams at ear-piercing level "Wake up!" then alternates the two sides of Morrison's psyche throughout the song….

[The Door's first album] showed that Morrison was one of the major "poetic" lyricists of the twentieth century. I use the word poetic to differentiate between him and say, Chuck Berry, who wrote in actual images rather than imagery.

I'm no expert in poetry, but the difference as I see it between the two is that while Berry chose one example ("Johnny B. Goode," say) to sum up a whole generation, Morrison wrote...