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Ray Manzarek


E-minor7

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Sad.

 

The summer of 1967 was an extraordinary moment in pop music history. Three albums that summer forever changed my still-forming adolescent brain: The Doors, Are You Experienced, Fresh Cream. I don't know that we'll ever again see such a pivotal moment in musical culture.

 

Rest in peace Ray.

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Sad.

 

The summer of 1967 was an extraordinary moment in pop music history. Three albums that summer forever changed my still-forming adolescent brain: The Doors, Are You Experienced, Fresh Cream. I don't know that we'll ever again see such a pivotal moment in musical culture.

 

Rest in peace Ray.

 

That summer was certainly a sea change for me, as a 20-year-old college student. Little did I know the order of magnitude of changes that were just around the corner. The years 1966 and 1968 might as well have been in different centuries from each other, from my perspective. Everything moved at break-neck speed.

 

In the fall of 1967, I had my first real experiences with drugs. I remember smoking up, wondering if I was really stoned, and going to see the Doors in concert at Meehan auditorium, Brown University.

 

I was, most definitely, stoned, and Ray's solos seemed mind-boggling in their simultaneous simplicity and complexity, if you can dig that dichotomy.

 

We'll miss you, Ray.

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Yes, most top bands of the era were highly original and Doors was definitely one of them.

I got Waiting For the Sun in '68 or 9 and though barely 10 understood what I heard.

Even learned to draw the the significant logo and did it again and again.

 

They were so different and (we have to use the cliche) dangerous and Manzarek really did send out, , , rays.

An aura of something clever – intellectuality was an unknown word in my realm – which gave the group that otherly charisma.

Morrison, of course, came on as a missile. . .

 

As soon as 1969 I swapped the Doors-LP for Beatles For Sale with an older hippie though.

He was very keen and I couldn't resist the possibility to own both Help! and For Sale.

Still keep those 2 monos in the collection.

 

But enjoy this mountain - they don't go higher

 

 

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=CBmJfxhwoaw

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Loved "Break on Though" when it came out,

and later "Love Her Madly" & "Love Me Two Times".

After that, got bored pretty quickly

with Morrison's grunts & shouts.

 

But not doubt about it, Ray's work stood out.

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Loved "Break on Though" when it came out,

and later "Love Her Madly" & "Love Me Two Times".

After that, got bored pretty quickly

with Morrison's grunts & shouts.

 

But not doubt about it, Ray's work stood out.

 

 

Amen.

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But not doubt about it, Ray's work stood out.

Yeps. . .

 

I recall when Jim's dropped out. Liked the band, but was too young too understand his deathwish.

 

Later on exactly that annoyed me -

and I was pissed that Doors and Velvet U. were the only 60's-bands embraced by the f...... punks and new wave people.

 

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What amazed me about Ray was not his keyboards but the way he worked the bass pedals on that Vox Continental.

 

 

That Vox really changed things for touring groups that couldn't practically travel with the a big organ like the Hammond B-3. When I was touring with a group in 1970-'71, we had two electric keyboards: an early RMI Electra-piano, and a Yamaha organ. They were easy to handle in our touring van, and sounded decent in the (mostly) small venues we played, generally the mid-west college "coffee house" circuit.

 

When we first went into the recording studio in New York, I had my first hands-on exposure to the Hammond B-3 and Leslie speaker, although I had played "church" organs before, from WW2 folding field foot pump models to smallish consoles. But whoa! That B-3 was (and still is) a different world.

 

The Vox Continental had that thin, artificial sound that you associate with early transistor organs, but somehow, it worked in the context of the Doors, probably because of Ray's skill and the general "other-worldliness" of their songs. To this day, I still can't sit through the entire "Strange Days" album without starting to feel uneasy and slightly out of kilter with reality.

 

However, it's hard to imagine Garth Hudson playing the opening riff of "Chest Fever" on a Continental.....

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My band had a Hammond B3 and Leslie cab. It belonged to the keyboardist's parents and it was all he had. I hated lugging that thing around. It got worse at the end of the decade though when the bass player started using one of the Ampeg 8 x 10" cabs.

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Ouh yeps, , , and then funnily enough this one (plus 2 small handfuls of others).

 

"Gibson G-101 Kalamazoo combo organ (which looks like a Farfisa) because the Continental's plastic keys frequently broke, according to Manzarek".

 

Wiki-quote

 

 

I'm not surprised they broke, the way he pounded on them when I saw the Doors. I couldn't swear what organ he was playing that night (October 1967).

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I'm not surprised they broke, the way he pounded on them when I saw the Doors. I couldn't swear what organ he was playing that night (October 1967).

 

It's so cühl you saw the band back then, no kiddin'.

 

But that's how it is with you older 'overtheres' - you saw history being born.

 

Zomb took J. Mitchell as she rose, if I'm not too far off, , , well took and took ;-)

 

And Danvill met the whole bunch - in those golden boots (still not kiddin').

 

I only go back to Jethro Tull, 1974 when it comes to international acts - mindblowing in its own rrrrite.

 

Rock on dinos -

 

 

 

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Rock on dinos -

 

 

That's what I keep telling my wife: rumors of my extinction are greatly exaggerated. Some of us live in our own little Jurassic Park, where nothing after about 1972 or so actually happened, and everything before that is frighteningly alive.

 

It's the vast open field of the distant past, viewed brightly through the bottleneck of recent memory, which is sometimes dim......

 

One thing you have to remember is that venues back then were smaller for the most part, and a typical ticket price for a top act might be as little as $5. Even an impoverished college student like me could come up with that by going without a couple of meals. or perhaps even getting lucky with a sympathetic road manager or a star who felt sorry for you and might let you in (like my encounter with Judy Collins just a couple of months after this Doors concert......

 

People like the Doors, Dylan, Janis Joplin, James Taylor, and others had not yet achieved mythical status back then, and you could realistically sit a few feet away from them if you were lucky. They were just great musicians either on the way up, or at the top of their game.

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That's what I keep telling my wife: rumors of my extinction are exaggerated. Some of us live in our own little Jurassic Park, where nothing after about 1972 or so actually happened, and everything before that is frighteningly alive.

 

It's the vast open field of the distant past, viewed brightly through the bottleneck of recent memory, which is sometimes dim......

 

Yeah, , , now you sound as if you read - if not followed - A. Huxley's book. . .

 

 

OOooooooh h h h h h H

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Yeah, , , now you sound as if you read - if not followed - A. Huxley's book. . .

 

 

OOooooooh h h h h h H

Yes. yes, I did. Huxley, Hesse, Castaneda, and all the rest. It's a shame I didn't put the same effort into my university studies.

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