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RIP Ray Manzarek
Ray Manzarek, keyboardist and primary sculptor of the creepy sonic soundscapes that made the
The Doors one of the greatest rock bands ever, has died.
I was barely a two years old when Jim Morrison crawled into the big whisky bottle in the sky, but was about 9 when The Doors Greatest Hits changed my life forever. Morrison's lyrics and slithering performances have always gotten top billing in the rock pantheon, but it was the band that rocked my socks off.
Ray Manzarek's complex tapestries of neo-Baroque, avant garde psychedelia laid the foundation for ensemble counterpoint featuring Robbie Krieger's pan-cultural jazzy experiments darting in an out of John Densmore's loose, swinging post-bop drumming. Manzarek was a crazy riff writer, performing steady bass line ostinatos with his left hand on Fender Rhodes Piano Bass, while his right hand ran contrapuntal circles around it on a Vox Continental electric piano.
There was no sound like it, then or since.
From whisper quiet odes of supreme delicacy to roaring elephant stampedes at the turn of a hat, The Doors truly did unlock doors of perception and in turn invited a universe of humans into an entirely new way of experiencing their lives.
I've listened to this song a thousand times and it has never lost its magic.>
Thank you Ray, for providing the soundtrack to so much of my life.

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Comments & Discussion:
Truly another rock icon gone. My local classic rock station played a one hour, commercial-free Doors block as a tribute to Ray. I actually stopped what I was doing and went to the "big" stereo in the basement and put on the Bose headphones. Wow. Ray, RIP and thanks for blowing my mind with your talent and imagination, especially in the pre-piss test days when music and a little weed could be the answer to the world's problems...
My heart sank reading this news today. It was actually Ray and Robby's sounds that first got me into The Doors, not Morrison. RIP Screamin' Ray Daniels.
Was fortunate to see The Doors at Winterland in SF..one of their last concerts and, typical for those SF concerts, a fire started under the stage; The Doors (and Ray) played on. Truly one of the great bands to ever take the stage.
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