Ray Manzarek  

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Raymond Daniel Manczarek, Jr., known as Ray Manzarek (February 12, 1939 – May 20, 2013), was an American musician, singer, producer, film director, and author, best known as a founding member and keyboardist of The Doors from 1965 to 1973. He was a co-founding member of Nite City from 1977 to 1978, and of Manzarek-Krieger from 2001 to his death. Manzarek died on May 20, 2013, of complications related to bile duct cancer.

Contents

Early life

The Doors

In January 1966, The Doors became the house band at The London Fog. According to Manzarek, "Nobody ever came in the place...an occasional sailor or two on leave, a few drunks. All in all it was a very depressing experience, but it gave us time to really get the music together." The same day The Doors were fired from The London Fog, they were hired to be the house band of the Whisky a Go Go.

The Doors' first contract was with Columbia Records,in 1965. After a few months of inactivity, they learned they were on Columbia's drop list. At that point they asked to be released from their contract. After a few months of live gigs, Jac Holzman "rediscovered" the Doors and signed them to Elektra Records.

The Doors lacked a bassist, so Manzarek usually played the bass parts on a Fender Rhodes piano Bass. His signature sound is that of the Vox Continental organ, an instrument used by many other psychedelic rock bands of the era. He later used a Gibson G-101 Kalamazoo (which looks like a Farfisa) because the Italian Continental keys "sticked" and remained "down" without pushing it.

Manzarek occasionally sang for The Doors, including the live recordings of "Close To You," "You Need Meat (Don't Go No Further)", and "Tightrope Ride," as well a studio outtake of "You Need Meat" from the L.A. Woman sessions, which was included on the 40th anniversary reissue of the album. He also sang on the last two Doors albums, recorded after Morrison's death, Other Voices and Full Circle.

On August 4, 2006, Manzarek hosted a program on BBC Radio 2 about the 40th anniversary of the recording of "Light My Fire" and The Doors' musical and "spiritual" influences.

Later career and influence

Manzarek has released nine solo albums, starting with The Golden Scarab. He recorded a rock adaptation of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana (1983) with Philip Glass, produced Echo and the Bunnymen and Los Angeles band X, played with Iggy Pop and backed San Francisco poet Michael McClure's poetry readings. Ray also worked extensively with Hearts of Fire screenwriter and former SCR front man Scott Richardson on a series of spoken word and blues recordings entitled Tornado Souvenirs.

His memoir, Light My Fire: My Life with The Doors, was published in 1998. The Poet in Exile (2001) is a novel exploring the urban legend that Jim Morrison may have faked his death. Manzarek's second novel, Snake Moon, released in April 2006, is a Civil War ghost story.

After living many years in Beverly Hills, Manzarek resides in Napa County, California in a house he remodeled extensively.

In popular culture

In Oliver Stone's biopic The Doors, Manzarek was played by Kyle MacLachlan. MacLachlan's performance was the only aspect of the film Manzarek praised.

Books




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Ray Manzarek" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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