Manzarek: the key keyboardist
Ray Manzarek, keyboardist and founding member of The Doors, has died at 74.
I can’t say I ordinarily notice keyboardists, except in a very general way. But Manzarek was different. I didn’t know his name until a few years ago, but I certainly noticed him, because he was a huge part of what made The Doors what they were. To me, he was every bit as important as the more telegenic and flamboyant Jim Morrison, if not more so. I thought it was his playing that gave what was then called the “long version” of “Light My Fire” (which was usually played on the radio at the time of its heyday only in the short version, alas) the qualities that caused it to become a rock and roll standard that has handily stood the test of time.
I was happy to see, when I looked Manzarek up some years ago online, that he was still playing.
But the obituary I’ve linked to contains this passage:
[Manzarek’s] creepy organ line on “Light My Fire” adds a weirdo menace to what outwardly is a rock ‘n’ roll pick-up song.
Creepy? I beg to differ, strongly. The adjectives I’d use instead to describe it would be unexpected, infectious, mesmerizing, and instantly memorable. You might have more:
RIP, Ray Manazrek.
“You might have more:”
Oh yes I do. One of which would be “effective.”
He could play creepy when he wanted to, though.
RIP, Ray.
“Lead guitar-ish”?
Neo I thought the same as you. It was what made the song memorable. Loved it. By all accounts that I can remember from the time, he was the real musical talent of the Doors. Morrison was sort of a flamboyant kook with a good voice.
Upon hearing the song the first time, a friend said that Manzarek went through about every variation he could have. Don’s know if EVERY variation had been taken care of, but it showed Marzarek was a skilled and inventive musician. Creepy? Only for a garage rock schlub who doesn’t know the least thing about music.
He was a very, very good musician, and classically-trained, IIRC. I remember listening to a radio interview with him years ago, and he said something about how one had to be conversant with the classical repertoire first, and then with that knowledge under the belt, one could go in all sorts of directions. I’ve always thought he was the inspiration for the bit in Spinal Tap, where the interviewer is listening to the Tap keyboards guy play a rather complicated, classical and Bach-ish sounding melody. At the end of the piece, the interviewer asked him casually what the piece was titled, and they keyboardist shrugged and answered, “Oh, I call it ‘Suck My Love Pump.”
“Creepy?” Is that what passes for musical interpretation these days ? Sad & pathetic.
It was an awesome piece, that long version kind of transport you somewhere exotic, it had the sense of a desert to me for
some reason.
Have fun reconnecting with Jim, Ray. I read some remarks Ray made on life, sounds like he wasn t ready to go. He talked about the great adventure life is & wanting to *look after* the vessel that you are in for 70, 80, 90 yrs ! Alas.
BTW he was a Chicago native, well nobody’s perfect.
Sgt. Mom: he certainly played as if he had some classical training. Variations on a Paisello Theme and all that. Loved the story about Spinal Tap. Haven’t seen it yet.
You haven’t ever seen Spinal Tap???! Next you’ll be telling us you never saw Blazing Saddles, either… 😉
Sgt. Mom, I have seen Blazing Saddles. I didn’t like Blazing Saddles that much, perhaps because I never liked Westerns that much.
What made “Light My Fire” great? I mean, really, really great?
When it first came out it was the very best, and by far the most effective, bit of seduction rock ever.
I don’t know if more people “broke on through” to getting laid to “Light My Fire” than any other song but it is certainly in the top five.
Back in the day, two drinks and/or one joint + “Light My Fire” = One hot evening and breakfast together the next morning.
At seven minutes it gave a young man a lot of time to work.
And here’s a performance of When the Music’s Over….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLAr-WlxMZY
For the music is your special friend
Dance on fire as it intends
Music is your only friend
Until the end
Until the end
Until the end
Cancel my subscription to the Resurrection
Send my credentials to the House of Detention
I got some friends inside
The face in the mirror won’t stop
The girl in the window won’t drop
A feast of friends
“Alive!” she cried
Waitin’ for me
Outside!
Before I sink
Into the big sleep
I want to hear
I want to hear
The scream of the butterfly
One of the interesting things about that clip referenced just above is that it has a lot of overhead shots so that you can follow Manzarek’s keyboarding in concert.
IIRC, he wrote Light My Fire — the music, at least.
IIRC, it was their breakout piece — taking them to Ed Sullivan’s Show.
It’s a wonderful thing that there is an endless range of musical expression and appreciation! Count me in, though, as one of those who always found the Doors REALLY depressing. Creepy too, but mainly depressing. Like, almost every song makes me want to sink into the slough of despair. Or at least the trough of despair. Eleanor Rigby is a veritable Hakuna Matata in comparison.
blert Says:
May 21st, 2013 at 8:46 pm
True. It was their first big hit single.
The story is that Sullivan or somebody else at the network told them to tone down or change the line “Girl we couldn’t get much higher”, since there was a lot of controversy about “drug lyrics” at the time.
So Morrison sang, “Girl we couldn’t get much HIGH….ERR!”
They weren’t invited back.
I came of age in the 70s and I loved the Doors. I was listening to them at the same time others my age were listening to disco.
No contest, in my opinion.
You want creepy? Well, here you go.
Gringo:
Spinal Tap was one of the funniest movies ever made. It was a sendup of progressive rock bands of the 70s as well as heavy metal bands of the 80s. It’s funny whether you like them or not.
Years ago I met one of the members of the band 10,000 Maniacs, and he said, “When we first started out, we went through more drummers than Spinal Tap.”
I suspect that movie is popular with rock musicians; at least the ones who don’t take themselves too seriously.
While most of the links here went to their “big” songs, among my favorites were “Soul Kitchen” and “20th Century Fox” from their first album.
Soul Kitchen
20th Century Fox
“I suspect that movie is popular with rock musicians”
A good suspicion. I’ve been playing in bar bands for 40 years and it is unbelievably true to life. There are dozens of lines in the movie I can quote to almost any musician I know and they immediately know where it’s from, and can usually spout off a few more lines in response.
The one scene in the movie that did not quite ring true was the “square” military club. I played an enlisted men’s club in the ’70s and we were inundated with an endless barrage of requests for “Stairway to Heaven”, “Free Bird” and Black Sabbath. Though there may be a subtle distinction in that the Spinal Tap scene was in an officer’s club.
}}} I didn’t like Blazing Saddles that much, perhaps because I never liked Westerns that much.
What does that have to do with loving a SPOOF of westerns…? If it does anything, that should make you appreciate it even more, making fun of the cliches you loathe…
.
.
About Manzarek — I preferred the stuff he did with Roxy Music more than The Doors, but he was one of the main talents in both.
Manzarek? Who? Oh, one of the Doors, whom I never voluntarily listened to.
US popular music is temporally associated with the broader decline in US social standards, starting in the 1960s, an association that is not accidental. Groupies, cheap sex, drugs, musician self-aggrandisment (Rolling Stones come to mind), lots of empty lyrics by illiterates, screaming mobs of ‘concert’ attendees who cannot hear the performers, and progressive decay into today’s pop crap from which one’s ears literally cannot escape. And we are shocked, surprised we got Obama?
Who mourns the death of Janos Starker? Janos Who?
I doubt my grumpy old man comment will gain me any support here, but so it goes….
Well, I know who Janos Starker is/was, anyway.
Re “creepy” as applied to Manzarek’s organ lead in “Light My Fire”: I wouldn’t go as far as “creepy,” but it definitely has a dark quality to my ear. Possibly that’s colored by the darkness of the whole song, and the whole album, because that’s the context in which I first heard it, before it was a radio hit. Maybe if I had heard that opening few bars in isolation it wouldn’t strike me that way. But it ain’t no sweet love song. Hardly a love song at all, really–more of a death song. Morrison had quite a death wish.
Anyway, as I’m a guitar freak, the guitar solo in that song was always my favorite part. But Manzarek was indeed a very gifted guy.
I had to revisit this old thread, because I just found this last night. If I had to pick a single best Doors song, it would probably be this one.
Riders On the Storm
An excellent remastered version.