Ray Manzarek Keyboardist of The Doors – Died from Bile Duct Cancer – RIP

Sad to hear of the passing of Ray Manzarek of The Doors yesterday… Just wanted to say a little something on this. The Doors are by far my most favorite band of all time. To hear this news depresses me as much as when George Harrison died. I grew up with posters of the Doors in my room. I own damn near every album they made on vinyl, read all their books (including his: Light My Fire), watched the movie and documentary, and so on. I AM KICKING MYSELF because Ray Manzarek and Robbie Krieger just performed at the Paramount down the block from me last year and I didn’t go and see them…At the time I didn’t feel like spending the 90 bucks on the ticket, which I now sincerely regret. Just figured I’d see them next time…

The music they produced was so different than the rest of it’s time that they had no choice but to become the rock legends that they are. Light My Fire contains one of the most recognizable intros (written by Ray) in music history accompanied by long solos in the middle (cut out from the radio version of course). I’ve listened to this song so many times I could literally hum you the entire solo section in its entirety. Moonlight Drive, perhaps my favorite song of theirs, is literally poetry put to music and also apparently the song that helped form the band when Jim Morrison sang it to Ray Manzarek on the beach.

We owe ALOT of today’s music to what these guys did back then and I thank Ray for being a part of that.

Light My Fire – Live

Moonlight Drive – Live