I was travelling on May 20th when he apparently passed at age 74. All the tributes are in, I guess.
Perhaps no one needs to hear The Doors Light My Fire again - I sure don't. But it's worth remembering the urbane, polite, erudite keyboardist who noodled up maybe the most memorable notes of the rock era. Manzarek was a shockingly old 32 years in 1966 - 67 when he surrounded himself with the very young talents of Jim Morrison, Robbie Krieger (19 years old), and John Densmore. It's hard to describe what kind of band they were. Perhaps a very loud jazz trio with a flamenco guitarist and an incredibly charismatic singer.
The story goes they were in rehearsal stumbling through Krieger's folksy Light My Fire when Manzarek told everyone to take a break and began fiddling with some Bach on his organ.
What came out was this...
...a shortened version from the Ed Sullivan show.
On most of their albums The Doors didn't bother with a bassist. Far as I know they never used one in their live shows. Manzarek just casually played a keyboard bass with his foot, or sometimes with his right hand - all while he was playing what sounded to this non-musician like incredibly complicated left hand parts (or vice versa, I forget).
Below is just amazing. No fancy editing. Live brass, live strings, Manzarek playing almost three instruments, guitarist Krieger with a black eye, etc. Morrison blows the beginning of the second verse, but you can still see why he was a huge star.
Below Manzarek gives an interview with music about their desert piano bar murder fantasy Riders On The Storm. He mentions Elvis's bassist Jerry Scheff trying to play the piano line. Manzarek was just so....magnetic and obviously intelligent.
The monumental Mark Steyn briefly tributes Manzarek here.
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