It was greatest gift to rock music when that person called Raymond Daniel Manzarek was born Feb 12 1939 in Chigago, He´s unique playing style and bass handling at same time, gives goosebumps to me everytime i listen His soloing.

Peace

not only that but he was the one to push Jim to share his lyrics on that fateful day on the California beach. Ray kinda started it all

yep Jimbo

Agreed.

I always find myself attempting to copy Ray's left hand bass and right hand organ playing and I just end up fouling it up. I can't even get it started! So, I just stick w/ one hand at a time.

I've been practicing that technique for about 20 years. I still make a lot of mistakes. After a while it is easy to get your left hand to go into "auto pilot" for a lot of songs; ones without a lot of changes. Light My Fire is pretty easy once you get into the solos, but ones like The Soft Parade I still can't do it without stopping and thinking. I just put a link to some of my recent stuff in my profile. It's all heavily influenced by Ray.
Dave

maybe Ray is just so talented guy, i can only wonder hes two hand technique. Hes hands works separately it doesnt matter what other hand do, he just keep bass on and great soloing, and only time when ive heard mistake was HB ´68 in WTMO bass section, couple notes were wrong.

That was pretty good.

ok i love jim, robbie, and ray with all my heart (i am not a flower child but i am 16 so i dont count ) i used to sream with all my might out my car window "I AM THE LIZARD KING! I CAN DO ANYTHING!!!! " untill we got pulled over for it LOL

i have an interview with ray and i think vh1 and it talk about if deal with the doors and how he got john and robbie to join them and how hee felt about jims death and all that wonderfull mojo ( mojo risen)

Truer words have not been spoken

Don't forget the left foot tap and the head shake.
Watching Ray's left foot keep the 1234 on the HB show always make me laugh...........but I do that when playing the bass........but not in cool white shoes.

I wonder if Ray blushes when he reads this stuff? (Though it is well deserved)

If nothing else, I'm sure its good for a laugh if he's having a bad day...

Nah, he dont. Hes impressed about that how intense fans he have

I saw a windchime made of wire of a guy playing a keyboard, in Atlantic City last Saturday at the Tropicana Havana Mall. I thought of buying it as a "Gift" to Ray. It was a very cool piece. I'm goin back over there next week and I might go back and get it.

P.S. I returned to the venue at Taj Mahal where they play the now infamous August 5th show. It was empty and I go to go up to where the stage was. It was pretty weird being in that place completely empty, it seems like yesterday it was a packed house.

Fingers are crossed for a Pittsburgh "Riders" show!!!!!!

That new mall is nice there. That night, August 5th was something else. Hopefully one day we will see it as it was intended to be seen.

The lead singer of Jefferson Airplane remarked of Ray as a musical genius because of his remarkable keyboard playing but also on some nights when Ray would also have to sing because Jim was a little out of it.

I certainly hope so....that was such a magical concert and to have them play from 9:00pm-2:45am...unbelievable! They have to show it someday...from what I've heard through the grape vine...it's an absoutely wondeful concert and the sound was perfect!!!! All of us who managed to attend were certainly treated to a spectacular night! I would love to keep repeating it somehow!!!
Peace & Happiness to All,
Mary-Beth

we should thank God for giving a wonderful gift

not just one but three more

Good views to you all and in this time of the gift giving we must never forget that which we have been given.
Mobility, longevity, mental capability, the love of family, generations, so much to be proud of, so much to be thankful for and the possibility of doing it all again.

You all will play until you can play no more and the last song you hear is Soul Kitchen and then you will float away.

To the next adventure.

H

Very nicly put.....john D.
Peace,
M-B

awww...

A hope.

July 17, 2006 troops are returning from Iraq in masse, Brazil has fifteen countries as sponsors to maintain the rain forest for the needs of man, children of the world have been given the right and not the priviledge to be educated for the future.

Not so hard if the right word reaches the proper ear.

Happy new year, this is the year of the wizard.

J

I love the Doors Music and I also am a keyboard player and singer but I simply love Ray Manzarek and his great stage presence, playing and for him founding the Doors as we know them when he met Jim Morrison on the beach and asked him to put his poetry to music and the rest was HISTORY.

I love the Doors music so much that I just wrote my first Doors sounding called "I Love When You're Here"
It was fun to make and I took 6 tracks to emulate the Doors sound and make the keys and organ dominant, while the guitar and drums are lower....I Had a Blast with it!

I also recently made an entire Doors Karaoke CD I really would love to sing for the Doors as I think I sound Alot like Jim, but he is a tough act to follow as he and the rest of the band John Densmore and Robby Krieger were Outstanding Musicians. I really feel that besides Ray being really good at what he does that Robby is a very very underrated guitarist as he and Ray are both AMAZING Players that could probably do most any project in a studio! I would love to hear the band cut loose on some Jazz and fusion as well as country and other Genre's....

Ray is the glue that kept the band together and I admire him doing bass lines and playing lead and incredible and clean and very tasteful but simple leads! It is not very easy at all to do both things and do it well but Ray made it look easy!

Ray I Love you and the Doors and I hope I get to see you all play before you "Break On Through To the Other Side".

Keep Rockin' and I can't wait to see the new Doors Movie. Oliver Stone's version was excellent, but I think one that has more input from the band will simply be amazing!

Keep up the great work!

LoveMe2Times

Welcome to the forums LoveMe2Times

I second that welcome...and it is nice to hae you here we enjoyed your post and look forward to many more!
Peace,
M-B

ray was really into jim as a friend and he really knew great talent when he seen it so thats how it started,
ray and jim loved music and ray is a wonderfull keybordest and singer and jim wrote poetry. so it all worked
out , robbie fixed the songs to give them a good sound and john was john...
they were good friends forever and if it wasnt for ray they would proubly just be normal all american people
with talent and families that never really used it.

thanks ray for all of you 50 yrs as a musican
you really rock
love kim

Ray is a visionary,he saw in Jim what nobody else saw at the time.
Without Ray there would have been no Doors.

Without Jim there would not have been any Doors...or Robby...or John....it was the 4...of them that made the Doors...the synchronicity..of them ALL. No one was more important then the other......they were all part of the pie that made the whole that brought everything together......and it made the magic. Everything is relative.
Peace,
M-B

Mary-Beth, you are so right, it did take the 4 of them, perhaps Ray was the catalist, since there is some doubt that the creation of the Doors would have hapened without his key vision.

Love to all

Willie

Hi Willie..........so very nice to hear from you ...........perhaps Ray was
Peace and Love to my fellow fans.........
Enjoy Life!
M-B

I concur!!

I believe that I heard "somewhere" that that is what Jim said. Can someone shed a light on the exact quote? It was something like "Ray is the Doors" - or "Without Ray there wouldn't have been the Doors". I think it's a nice tribute to Ray coming directly from Jim.