This may seem an internecine, entirely irrelevant query, but such is my peculiar desire to explore every facet of my musical hero's adolescence....

Did Ray stem from a predominantly Democrat or Republican household?

I last read 'Light My Fire' about a year ago. It mentioned the Catholocism which, in a Northern state, can generally point toward the left, but this is hardly faultless evidence.
His aversion to Reagan and his rightful abuse of Neo-Libertarianism and Lassiez-Faire Capitalism obviously express his true political colors now, but what about his parents?

You'sa be talkin' too smarts fa me!
YEEEEE-HAAAAAAAAAW!
When are da Dukes on?

Thursday, 7:30

Too funny!..brianw

As far as the correct answer to the political question......I really can't help you on that maybe somebody in the know can.... actually I try and stay out of political discussions....but I couldn't help chuckling at Brian's response!
Peace,
M-B

brian i live 5 miles from wvu ( who is going to win the sugar bowl)
and wv is not a hick state nomor

Thanks for letting me know...that will come in handy next time I'm driving towards WV in my orange Challenger.

...With accompianing Confederate flag, of course.

Well, Ray has some strong political feelings...that strangely enough came out at the St. Rita gig here in Chicago. At one point Ray started talking about Bush and said "Hey, all of you voted for Bush...I didn't...but that's okay because we can still be friends and disagree...."

I didn't vote for Bush and everyone was sort of looking at each other like...huh? Let's play some music.

My guess would be that Ray's parents were probably working class Polish-American democrats. That was the era when the Democrats dominated America's political scene largely due to FDR's popularity.

Ray comes across as a cool, peaceful guy as evidenced by the quote mentioned.

If you had the opportunity to catch Ray guesting on the now old taping of the House Of Blues Radio Show with Dan Aykroyd hosting as "Elwood Blues" you'd have enjoyed a really great show. Ray talked about both his and Jim Morrison's influences from blues artists and the tour taking them to Texas and how they enjoyed it.

As usual, I think Huron has got it right.

And like Hyacinth Man mentioned, Ray talked about this at the St Rita's gig. He dedicated Five to One to George Bush and although I was right up front and heard most people cheering at Ray's subtle jab at the current administration, I guess he heard some boos. Ray asked the crowd which side they were on and again, it sounded like the crowd was cheering louder for the democrats, but I guess Ray heard some booing and said "well you see, when I grew up here, all us catholics on the south side of chicago grew up democrats... we got John Kenedy in office... I guess thats changed now. Well, thats alright...too bad for you guys hahaha"

He grew up a catholic democrat and he remains a democrat today. I'm not sure how strong he is into the catholic thing anymore though.

Unless your speaking at a national convention, political opinions will always carry a little backlash. Im glad Ray isn't afraid to express his views because I think too me people these days are.

Amen.

Thought so.

I was just trying to divine whether his political tangents in his autobiography were rebelling against, or reinforcing, what his parents taught him.

I know now it was the latter.

i remember thst - i do recall a little bit of booing at that point, which i found very odd seeing as it was Illinois, a blue state, but eh

really man... Chicago went for Bush? I thought Illinois was blue.