Ray Manzarek - RIP

The Doors were unique.  They had a front man who was part Elvis Presley, part Frank Sinatra, and part Arthur Rimbaud.  Their guitar player started out playing flamenco.  The drummer’s roots were in jazz.  They didn’t have a bass player.  And they had a keyboard player schooled in classical music, bebop jazz, and the blues.  I don’t know if Ray Manzarek is one of the more influential keyboard players in the history of rock, but he is definitely one of the most recognizable.  Within four notes, once you heard him you knew who it was.  In the studio he’d play any number of keyboard instruments.  Such is the magic of overdubbing.  On stage, his right hand was The Doors’ keyboard player, while his left hand was The Doors’ bass player.  While it is true that Ray Manzarek went on to do other things after The Doors closed in 1973, rightly or wrongly he will be best-remembered for the music he created with John Densmore, Robby Krieger, and Jim Morrison.  Ray Manzarek quietly slipped into the big sleep today [as I write this] at the age of 74.

Words – how would I describe Ray Manzarek’s playing?  Trippy, carnivalesque, hypnotic, whirling, bluesy, barrelhouse, psychedelic, jazzy, gentle, creepy, moody.

Tools of Ray’s trade – Ray Manzarek colored his music with many different kinds of keyboard instruments.  Some of the tools in his toolbox included:  Vox Continental, Gibson G101, tack piano, Hammond C-3, Fender Rhodes Piano Bass, Wurlitzer piano, grand piano.

Tony’s favorite Ray Manzarek bits.  It could be a solo, it could be a riff that drives the song, or just background music.  But these are the bits [in the order that I thought of them] that immediately come to mind when I think of Ray Manzerek.  Some of the songs were hits, some of them are very deep tracks, but here they are:

Moonlight Drive [Strange Days, 1967] – This is the song that started it all.  One day in 1965 at Venice Beach, a shy Jim Morrison sang an original song to Ray Manzarek, a fellow student at the UCLA Film School.  Ray liked it and convinced Jim they needed to form a band.  They did just that, on the spot.  The band was The Doors.  This was that song.

The Crystal Ship [The Doors, 1967] – Ray played the tack piano a lot, but this is one of those times when he played a grand piano instead.

End of the Night [The Doors, 1967] – Ray’s organ at its most creepy can be heard here.

The Unknown Soldier [Waiting for the Sun, 1968] – This one’s pretty creepy too.

Strange Days [Strange Days, 1967] – Not only is there Ray’s organ, but some kind of synthesizer thrown in for more color.

Summer’s Almost Gone [Waiting for the Sun, 1968] – This piano solo isn’t creepy – it’s pretty.  That’s not a word one would normally associate with a Doors song, but in this case it fits.

You Make Me Real [Morrison Hotel, 1970] – A catchy piano/guitar riff that showed The Doors could still play balls-to-the-wall rock and roll.

Love Her Madly [LA Woman, 1971] – It’s Robby Krieger’s song, but Ray’s all over it with the tack piano.  He plays a cool organ solo in the middle too.  Bruce Botnick did the 5.1 mix with the piano in the left ear, and the organ in the right ear.  Very cool…

Break On Through [The Doors, 1967] – one of the best organ solos I ever heard Ray Manzarek play.

Light My Fire [The Doors, 1967] – The Doors’ first #1, and probably the song for which most people who aren’t fans associate with The Doors.  The first notes you hear on after the crack of John Densmore’s drums is Ray’s organ.  Many people my age can play the organ solo in our heads note-for-note without even hearing it. Iconic.

Hyacinth House [LA Woman, 1971] – Jim Morrison’s song about wanting to get away from it all and not have anyone depend on him.  Ray plays a wonderful organ solo in the middle that quotes Chopin.

Spanish Caravan [Waiting for the Sun, 1968] – I like this song for Robby Krieger’s flamenco playing, but at the end Ray plays a pretty wacked-out solo on either an organ or a synthesizer.

Waiting for the Sun [Morrison Hotel, 1970] – Psychedelia!  This one’s all about mood, and Ray’s organ provides it and then some.

The Spy [Morrison Hotel, 1970] – Thirteen years before The Police scored a monster hit with a song about stalking [Every Breath You Take],The Doors did this quiet, disturbing blues. 

Riders on the Storm [LA Woman, 1971] – Ray’s electric piano is the dominant instrument on this last song from LA Woman.  He also came up with the bass line.  Though it was easy for Ray to play on the keyboards, it was hard for Jerry Scheff to play on the bass, but Jerry somehow managed.

LA Woman [LA Woman, 1971] – Ray plays a great solo on the tack piano.  He’s also playing the Wurlitzer lower in the mix, matching Robby Krieger note-for-note.

Roadhouse Blues [Morrison Hotel, 1970] – Here’s where the word “barrelhouse” fits in.  This is The Doors at their bar-band best.

My Eyes Have Seen You [Strange Days, 1967] – see Roadhouse Blues.  More tack piano.

Maggie M’Gill [Morrison Hotel, 1970], The Changeling [LA Woman, 1971], The Wasp (Texas Radio and the Big Beat) [LA Woman, 1971] – the Hammond! To my untrained ears I think these are the only songs on which Ray played the Hammond.  I wished he played that instrument more often.

When the Music’s Over [Strange Days, 1967] – there’s no specific reason I can point to why I like this bit.  Ray and Robby are good counterpoints to each other.  This one does have a mad, carnival-like atmosphere at the end.

The End [The Doors, 1967] – This song is The Doors at their most hypnotic.  Ray’s organ has a lot to do with putting the audience in a trance. Isn’t that enough?

When asked in 2008 how he’d like to be remembered, Ray had this to say:

“I want to be remembered by my family as a husband, father and grandfather. A brother. But it doesn’t matter… I think the last thing in the world that you are going to be concerned about when you’re gone is what people think of you here [laughter]. This LSD talking man, when you die, you go into infinity. You could care less about this quick snap shot in time, this little moment in infinity… You’ve moved on to a new existence, and that existence is called infinite. You become one with the energy itself. That energy is called God. We become one with God. You are God...  You could care less about what “they” think about a human entity called Ray Manzarek that existed between 1939 and, let’s say, 2030… Who cares!  Just a grain of sand on the beach. Just a drop of rain in a thunderstorm. That’s all you’ll be. It won’t matter at all… The joy, the good times that you are having here and now… That’s what it is all about!  I don’t want to be “remembered.” I want to live this life and have a great time occupying this fleshy form.” 

The music’s over…turn out the lights.