Post by Rob Durkee on May 20, 2013 21:07:06 GMT -5
By ROCKIN' ROBIN
Ray Manzarek, the keyboardist and founding member of the rock group the Doors, died today (May 20, 2013) at a hospital in Rosenheim, Germany. He was also a producer, film director and writer. According to a posting on his Facebook page, Manzarek was 74 and had been battling bile duct cancer. Manzarek may have been as old as 78. Wikipedia has reported his date of birth as February 12, 1939 while Joel Whitburn's Record Research claims Manzarek was born February 12, 1935.
There's no question, though, about the Doors' profound popularity in the late 1960's and early 1970's. From 1967 to 1972, the Doors had 16 hits on the Cash box pop chart with a dozen top 40's, five top 10's and three #1's. The group's chart-toppers were their 1967 breakthrough hit, "Light My Fire," "Hello I Love You" (1968) and "Touch Me" (1969). The group entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993 and earned a Lifetime Grammy Award in 2007. The Doors sold over 100 million albums and earned 19 gold, 14 platinum and five multi-platinum LP's.
Jim Morrison (lead vocals), Manzarek (keyboards), Robby Krieger (guitar) and John Densmore (drums) formed as the Doors in 1965 in Los Angeles. Their name was inspired by a book by Aldous Huxley, "The Doors Of Perception."
"Light My Fire" was originally an LP cut that lasted 7:14. The Doors' reluctantly agreed to have a much shorter (2:52) version released as a single. Ironically, after the song became a hit, many stations played the longer version of the song anyway.
There was another aspect of the song that the group was reluctant over. According to The Official Ed Sullivan Site, the group was told they had to change one word of the lyrics in their performance of "Light My Fire" on the TV show on Sullivan's show on September 17, 1967. The one word was "higher." A producer for the show explained that "higher" was considered an inappropriate word for a family TV show. The group agreed to change the one word. But after the producer left the room, Morrison muttered, "We're not changing a word." And they didn't. In fact, Morrison boldly sang "Girl we couldn't get much HIGHER."
The beginning of the Doors' end came with the sudden death of Morrison either on July 2, 1971 or July 3, 1971 in Paris. He was only 27. According to writer Fred Bronson, Manzarek was baffled over the passing. In 1973, Manzarek said "I don't know to this day how the man died. And, in fact, I don't even know if he's dead."
The last Top 40 hit for the Doors, "Riders On The Storm," contained two bits of irony. First, the song entered the Cash Box pop chart the weekend of Morrison's death. Secondly, for a while, one prominent Los Angeles Radio station suddenly stopped playing the song. Why? Because one of its DJ's was wanted for allegedly murdering his wife. You see, the song "Riders On The Storm" contained the lyric line, "There's a killer on the loose."
Krieger, when informed of Manzarek's passing, said, "I was deeply saddened to hear of the passing of my friend and bandmate Ray Manzarek today. I'm just glad to have been able to have played Doors songs with him for the last decade. Ray was a huge part of my life and I will always miss him."
For more on Ray Manzarek....
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Manzarek
Ray Manzarek, the keyboardist and founding member of the rock group the Doors, died today (May 20, 2013) at a hospital in Rosenheim, Germany. He was also a producer, film director and writer. According to a posting on his Facebook page, Manzarek was 74 and had been battling bile duct cancer. Manzarek may have been as old as 78. Wikipedia has reported his date of birth as February 12, 1939 while Joel Whitburn's Record Research claims Manzarek was born February 12, 1935.
There's no question, though, about the Doors' profound popularity in the late 1960's and early 1970's. From 1967 to 1972, the Doors had 16 hits on the Cash box pop chart with a dozen top 40's, five top 10's and three #1's. The group's chart-toppers were their 1967 breakthrough hit, "Light My Fire," "Hello I Love You" (1968) and "Touch Me" (1969). The group entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993 and earned a Lifetime Grammy Award in 2007. The Doors sold over 100 million albums and earned 19 gold, 14 platinum and five multi-platinum LP's.
Jim Morrison (lead vocals), Manzarek (keyboards), Robby Krieger (guitar) and John Densmore (drums) formed as the Doors in 1965 in Los Angeles. Their name was inspired by a book by Aldous Huxley, "The Doors Of Perception."
"Light My Fire" was originally an LP cut that lasted 7:14. The Doors' reluctantly agreed to have a much shorter (2:52) version released as a single. Ironically, after the song became a hit, many stations played the longer version of the song anyway.
There was another aspect of the song that the group was reluctant over. According to The Official Ed Sullivan Site, the group was told they had to change one word of the lyrics in their performance of "Light My Fire" on the TV show on Sullivan's show on September 17, 1967. The one word was "higher." A producer for the show explained that "higher" was considered an inappropriate word for a family TV show. The group agreed to change the one word. But after the producer left the room, Morrison muttered, "We're not changing a word." And they didn't. In fact, Morrison boldly sang "Girl we couldn't get much HIGHER."
The beginning of the Doors' end came with the sudden death of Morrison either on July 2, 1971 or July 3, 1971 in Paris. He was only 27. According to writer Fred Bronson, Manzarek was baffled over the passing. In 1973, Manzarek said "I don't know to this day how the man died. And, in fact, I don't even know if he's dead."
The last Top 40 hit for the Doors, "Riders On The Storm," contained two bits of irony. First, the song entered the Cash Box pop chart the weekend of Morrison's death. Secondly, for a while, one prominent Los Angeles Radio station suddenly stopped playing the song. Why? Because one of its DJ's was wanted for allegedly murdering his wife. You see, the song "Riders On The Storm" contained the lyric line, "There's a killer on the loose."
Krieger, when informed of Manzarek's passing, said, "I was deeply saddened to hear of the passing of my friend and bandmate Ray Manzarek today. I'm just glad to have been able to have played Doors songs with him for the last decade. Ray was a huge part of my life and I will always miss him."
For more on Ray Manzarek....
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Manzarek
