Why Ray Manzarek mattered...a brief history lesson for the young 'uns out there...

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Everyone knows we lost Ray Manzarek earlier this week.

Some people might have responded with "Who's Ray Manzarek?"

Others might have said "Oh yeah...he was in Jim Morrison's backing band, wasn't he?"

Truth of the matter...from someone who lived it...is that in his own way, Raymond Daniel Manczarek, Jr. was influential, just as his peers from the "Summer of Love" were influential.

From Rolling Stone:

The Doors didn't have a bassist, so Manzarek often played the bass parts on his Fender Rhodes piano. He also played a Vox Continental organ, which can be heard on the famous intro to "Light My Fire" and numerous other Doors classics. The group shared credit on most songs and split all profits evenly.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/ray-manzarek-doors-keyboardist-dead-at-74-20130520

Ray wasn't a member of anyone's backing band. He was 1/4th of the Doors...just like the other three members.

In the past couple of decades, former Doors drummer John Densmore waged a long and bitter legal battle against Manzarek and guitarist Robbie Krieger for touring as "The Doors" (and later as "Doors of the 21st Century&quot with Krieger and Cult frontman Ian Astbury. I didn't get to see them live but own the DVD and I can tell you this...no, Jim wasn't there, but it was the greatest, most electric, most chill-inducing tribute to that band's legacy imaginable. Hearing Ray's signature licks / fills / melody lines on songs such as "Light My Fire," "When The Music's Over," and "Soul Kitchen" brought the whole experience back in a tsunami of bliss.

Manzarek and Krieger had as much right to tour with this music as Bob Weir and Phil Lesh, first as "The Other Ones," then as "The Dead," and currently as "Furthur." It's about the music. It's not about Ray and Robbie calling themselves "The Doors." It's about them having the audacity to tour without the Lizard King. Well...guess what? Morrison fancied himself a poet, and unless it's read and spoken, poetry dies. Ray used to say that often, maybe not in those exact words, but with that sentiment.

When I lived in Santa Clara, I went on a daily two-mile exercise / stress walk. I brought my iPod with me, and one of the songs I'd put on there was "Light My Fire." I remember equal bursts of adrenaline and excitement as Ray and Robbie exchanged their solos. I'm a guitarist...I'm usually in for the guitar solo first and foremost. But even though he played in a completely different style, Ray was like another recently departed legend, Jon Lord from Deep Purple. Ray was a rock star, but he was also one hell of a lot more. He was a presence, a force of nature, a crazy and eccentric and sometimes self-absorbed son of a bitch who could play music that wouldn't leave your brain for decades after he first played it.

We lost another great one. And up in Rock & Roll Heaven, Ray and Jim are having a beer and Jim gets a sly smile on his face and says "That thing you did with Robbie? I know it pissed of John and a lot of other people too, but it fucking rocked, my man."

It certainly did.

R.I.P, Ray, and thank you.

[Arcanetrance]

1. To be honest while Morrison was the voice Manzarek was the defining sound

[90-percent]

2. Light my Fire

reminds me of my eighth grade youth in the summer of 1967. It was unavoidable on the radio of the time. Short edited version on AM and the longer version on the new fangled FM of the day.

I was always amazed Ray could play two different instruments/parts AT THE SAME TIME. Frank Zappa admitted he wasn't coordinated enough to even sing and play guitar at the same time!

Ray to me always seemed nice and good natured. The Doors did release one post Jim album which I think kind of sucked.

-90% Jimmy

[DFW]

3. If you concentrate, you can do it

I had a band in DC when I was in my teens. I played exactly the same way Manzarek did--Bass keyboard with my left hand and traditional organ solo with the right hand. My band used to do Light my Fire note for note from the record. As I was also the bassist on a normal electric bass, and we didn't have a full-time keyboardist, I learned to do it with relatively little difficulty.

After my electric days, I passed on to acoustic 12 string guitar after hearing Leo Kottke, which was extremely frustrating, as he has four hands with ten fingers on each hand. At least his playing sounded that way. It got even worse when I finally saw him live, and he had only two hands and only five fingers on each.

But those were heady days back in the sixties. Anyone remember the Ambassador Theater in DC in 1967? One of my high points was when we were doing our Doors clone version of Light my Fire and I heard someone who had just come in yell, I thought it was the Doors were playing here!