The Piper and The Lizard King

The German town of Hamlin was infested with rats. Food stores were destroyed, children were bitten, and women’s conversations were impossible because of the loud squeaking. Just when the town despaired of ever finding a solution to the vermin problem, Hamlin was visited by a strange man dressed in rags of every imaginable hue. Under his arm he carried a flute. He promised to rid the town of rats if the town would pay him a handsome sum. The mayor readily agreed to this proposal, and the piper immediately began playing a strange and hypnotic tune. The rats stopped scurrying about and clustered in the town center to listen to the strange musician. Their beady little eyes glazed over as they followed the piper through the streets, over the hills, and far out of town. The people of Hamlin were overjoyed! Finally life could resume its normal pattern!
The next day the piper returned to receive his payment, but the mayor refused on the grounds that the town couldn’t afford the expense. A dangerous look appeared in his eyes, and the piper raised the flute to his lips menacingly. The mayor laughed. He was not frightened of flautist! The piper began to play a different tune, stranger, more complex, and more compelling. The townspeople watched in horror as their children emerged from houses and schools bearing the same glazed eyes as the rats. Before the mayor could say a word, the piper and the children marched out of town. As the townspeople watched, they saw the children disappear into a cave that was said to link to a child’s paradise where no one ever grew old or had to obey capricious and hypocritical adults. Neither the piper, nor any of the children, was ever seen again.
Seven hundred years later, in a kingdom across the sea, there appeared a man who sometimes called himself “The Lizard King,” sometimes “Mr. Mojo Rising,” and sometimes he was simply called Jim. Under his arm he carried a microphone. He and his band of musicians played their music for children all over the kingdom and gained admirers in every town they visited. His music was odd and hypnotic. The precise subject of the lyrics was difficult to pinpoint, but often imagined a paradise of perfect peace, beautiful color, and physical ecstasy. Many young people in the kingdom were being sent away to fight a war across yet another sea. They were angry with the grown-ups, and liked Jim’s music because it was escapist and anti-establishment.
Finally The Lizard King and his band were called upon by the King of Network Television to perform a great concert for everyone in the kingdom. The king did not like Mr. Mojo Rising, but his councilors said that the concert would please the young people in the crowd. The king finally agreed, but had extreme reservations. Like many of the grown-ups who had heard Jim’s strange music, he found it unappealing, inappropriate, and possibly dangerous. Right before the band was going to take the stage to perform their most popular song, the King made them promise to change the words of his song so it wouldn’t offend the grown-ups. Jim just nodded, promising he would, but someone paying closer attention would have seen the dangerous glint in his eyes. The band took the stage and began playing. As they came to the chorus, Jim walked towards the front of the stage and belted out the lyrics he had promised to change. The king was outraged, but couldn’t stop the concert in the middle of the song. When it came time for the king to interview the band after their performance, his rage was barely concealed. The king vowed that Jim and his band would never again perform at one of his concerts, but the damage was already done. That night children who had never heard of The Lizard King were enchanted by his music and his disregard for the grown-ups, and they were carried away into the paradise of earthly delights described in his songs.
Northrop Frye argues that all literature is displaced myth, and within class discussions this theory has actually been expanded to encompass not just literature, but in fact all life. The idea that all lives are constructed out of fragments of fantastic myths and archetypes of literature seems incredible since most of life is fairly insignificant moments of tying shoes, brushing teeth, and breathing. Nonetheless, there are examples of lives that follow a similar trajectory to traditional myth. The preceding paragraphs illustrate two tales, one ostensibly fiction and the other ostensibly fact. The first story is the traditional Pied Piper tale while the second is a thinly veiled description of The Doors first, and only, appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. Jim Morrison’s life followed the myth of the Pied Piper, but his signature is so significant that it actually creates its own Lizard King myth.
“The Pied Piper of Hamlin” is somewhat unusual as far as fairy tales are concerned because there are specific dates and locations associated with the tale. The piper apparently appeared in the small town of Hameln on June 26, 1284 and marched of with 130 of the town’s children, but where the children went and what happened to them is still completely unknown. “The oldest remaining source is a note in Latin prose, written down 150 years later (1430-1450) as an addition to a 14th century manuscript from Lüneburg,” but this source merely affirms that something happened in 1824 with 130 local children (Kuhn). Traditional versions of the Piper’s tale usually end with the children disappearing, moving to Transylvania, or being spirited off to heaven. The rat catcher theme was added roughly 200 to 300 years later and was absorbed from numerous European rat catcher myths. It’s possible the children were victims of the plague, a children’s crusade, or a mass migration by a number of citizens, “children of Hamlin,” to Transylvania. However, if the story had absolutely no basis in the historical tradition it would be an equally valuable story. The Piper’s message is a warning, not to children like most fairy tales, but to adults. The importance of honoring responsibilities is paramount in this text and suggests that if the parent does not they will lose their most valuable asset: their children.
Morrison mirrors the Piper in the creation of hypnotic music that entrances the young. Morrison accomplished this by creating songs with lyrics about passion, sex, drug use, and general carousing. Morrison also wrote and preformed in defiance of authority figures throughout the US and abroad, perhaps most notably in the performance that ended in an arrest for public indecency. Morrison’s wild antics and blatantly anti-establishment performances led many authority figures to label him a public menace. He inspired fear in parents who saw their children as slipping out of their control. As active drug users and advocates, The Doors created an environment of escapism that mirrors The Piper’s ability to transport the children to paradise. The Doors’ Sullivan experience presented them to an entire group of listeners who had not previously been exposed to their music and, like the Piper leading the children out of town, was a direct defiance of the authority figures. Ed Sullivan’s attempt at controlling the unpredictable and obstinate Morrison is a good match for the mayor trying to control The Piper and proved to be equally fruitless.
There are numerous parallels between The Piper and The Lizard King, but the most important thing to remember is that Morrison is a modern signature on a tale that is nearly a thousand years old. A thousand years from now The Lizard King may be an equally appropriate character with which to discuss the obligation a parent has to preserving decency and protecting their children from hedonistic figures. There is a tendency to regard myth-making as a historical procedure. Yes, Jim Morrison is a Pied Piper figure but there are poets and musicians today who are being referred to as Jim Morrison figures. The Morrison signature on the Pied Piper tale is now a myth for other artists to emulate. Jim Morrison’s saga has become the archetype for the ultimate rock god. It’s the new American dream to be a charismatic musician, to build up a massive public following, to change the musical landscape, and then to burn out spectacularly. Just as Morrison’s life was a signature on the Pied Piper, the life of Shannon Hoon, Brad Nowell, or Hillel Slovak become a kind of signature for The Lizard King. All life is displaced myth, and life is constantly creating new myths to displace.

Copyright 2004, Allison Bailey