Ray Manzarek and Jim Morrison

I’ll really miss Ray Manzarek, a founding member of The Doors whose versatile and often haunting keyboards complimented Jim Morrison’s gloomy vocals, helped set the mood for some of rock’s most enduring songs.

I had no idea he had been ill, although the more recent pictures of him did not seem to indicate that he was aging all that well.

Manzarek died Monday in Rosenheim, Germany, surrounded by his family.

The Doors have sold more than 100 million records and songs such as “Light My Fire” and “Riders On the Storm” are still “classic” rock standards. For Doors admirers, the band symbolized the darker side of the Los Angeles lifestyle, what happened in the city after the sun went down. For me, I admired their poetic style, offering so much more than the usual boring top 40s list of songs that played on AM radio all day. I think The Doors help me discover the world of FM  radio before I almost went out of my mind from AM.

Next to Morrison, I think Manzarek was the most distinctive looking band member, his glasses and wavy blond hair making him resemble a young English professor more than a rock star, a contrast to Morrison’s black leather glamour — his sensuous mouth and long, dark hair. Sometimes, he resembled John Sabastian. Musically, Manzarek’s mysterious organ on “Light My Fire” is one of the most instantly recognizable sounds in rock history.

Sometimes Ray would do some of the vocals, like, “Close To You”. He had a very distinct voice. I think Ray had mostly a Blues background, and I always liked how The Doors would sometimes do some old Willie Dixon (Back Door Man) tunes in their own original style. The Doors always considered themselves “more” than a rock band and Manzarek, Densmore and Krieger often managed a flowing rapport that blended rock, blues and jazz behind Morrison’s self-consciously poetic lyrics.

Manzarek continued to remain active in music well after Morrison’s death and briefly tried to hold the band together by serving as vocalist (Other Voices). He played in other bands over the years, produced other acts, became an author and worked on films.

Morrison and Manzarek met at UCLA film school and ran into each other a few months after graduation, Manzarek recounted in a 1967 interview with Billboard. Morrison read him the lyrics for a song called “Moonlight Drive.”

The rest is rock history.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhqQlmtrLyA