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Doors continue to open for Riders on the Storm
By: Ken Kolasinski - Staff Writer
05/09/2007
For Ray Manzarek it comes down to one simple thing.
And even before you can get the full question out about the continuing, almost mystical appeal and allure of The Doors 40 years after they exploded on the Los Angeles music scene, he's already providing an answer.
It's not that Manzarek has got pat answers locked, loaded and ready to fire for questions he's surely heard before. You get the overwhelming feeling he can't wait to share what it was - and still is - all about.
"It's the freedom," said Manzarek with certainty via telephone before a show in Edmonton.
At 68, Manzarek's booming voice is both animated and commanding. He's got to be considered rock "royalty," but hardly plays the part. He's friendly, funny and eager to share his thoughts on both the past and future of his legendary band.
"I think The Doors represent these guys trying to be free, trying to break free of the restrictions of society, restrictions of the various religions, restrictions of politics, and restrictions of your schooling."
"To be a free person on the planet, which is of course what Morrison advocated and represented. You don't hurt anybody, but you are free. You don't have to follow the dictates of others; you have the dictate of the light in your heart.
"And it's from that place where we made our music."
Fans of the band will get a chance to relive some of that magic when Manzarek, along with Doors' co-founding member and legendary guitarist Robby Krieger, bring their Riders on the Storm to the Keswick Theatre on May 16. Despite whatever the name might be - considering the well-documented legal battle over use of the Doors' name with drummer John Densmore - there's no mistake whose music you'll hear.
"This is a chance to celebrate the music we created with Jim Morrison as The Doors and we celebrate the heck out of it," Manzarek said. "This is one good band right now. It is hard, steamy and rocking.
"When we first started this thing back up in 2002, it was really a simple thing for me - it was playing with Robby Krieger. I get to play 'Light My Fire' with Robby Krieger! I get to play 'Riders on the Storm' with Robby Krieger, just the way we used to. I can play 'Back Door Man' and 'Five to One' and all that good stuff with Robby.
"Or 'Touch Me' - my God, we didn't even get to play 'Touch Me' before [Morrison's death on July 3, 1971]. We didn't get to play anything from 'L.A. Woman' live. Now I get to play all that.
"For me it's just the sheer joy of playing those songs again. What a lot of fun."
While Manzarek and Krieger might be able to settle in and enjoy the music they create on stage, the daunting task of providing a voice to the icon that is Morrison falls on the shoulders of ex-Fuel lead singer Brett Scallions. The weight of that Herculean assignment set in during rehearsals for the current tour.
"He came to me at one point and said, 'I can't possibly replace Jim Morrison!' I told him 'Don't replace Morrison. Do Brett Scallions singing the words of Jim Morrison,'" Manzarek said, with almost a paternal tone. "That's what he said he'd do."
"Brett's got a great big voice. He's tall and thin and wears black leather like it's licorice and prowls the stage like a cat with this big, ballsy voice. He's a worthy addition to The Doors' front man seat."
Even without Morrison's commanding presence on stage, there have been moments in the band's resurrection that brought back flashes and memories of some of the dizzyingly high peaks they reached onstage in their prime. One specific show occurred on Dec. 8, 2003 in Paris, the city where Morrison died, when The Cult's Ian Astbury was in charge of the vocals.
"Jim would have been 60 that night. We had sort of a 60th birthday party," Manzarek remembered. "But, oh man, that show ... it was like he was onstage with us."
When Morrison was onstage with the band, he was a front man who didn't just command attention; he demanded it. He was like no one before or since. For a period of time in the late 1960s, no live act could achieve the sort of music, drama, energy or passion that The Doors could generate.
Although he was dead center in the proverbial "eye of the hurricane" that was Jim Morrison onstage, Manzarek was fully engaged in helping create musical magic instead of taking in the historical implications of what he was seeing.
"I don't think you think about history. History only exists in retrospect," he said. "When you're creating history, you're creating a Zen moment in time. That's what we did. We just locked into the energy. We locked into that existential Zen, LSD, psychedelic moment in time in which you're at once here and now in the present, but also in a universal space.
"That's the object of making music. And if your music is pretty good, it might become historical."
To coincide with The Doors' 40th anniversary, the band has remastered and re-released all of its studio albums, complete with bonus tracks, in truly stunning quality. There's also a box set and a sanctioned biography that received the cooperation of all the living band members.
On top of his involvement with all the new Doors' products and the Riders on the Storm tour, Manzarek has also released a Civil War novel, "Snake Moon," and a new CD with multi-talented Darryl Read.
It's the schedule of someone who shows no signs of slowing down.
"What's the point of that," laughed Manzarek. "I could sit down and vegetate, I guess. Vegetation is no fun for the human animal. The human animal wants to create and do things and be kind.
"I mean it's like Bob Dylan 'I got a head full of ideas that are driving me insane.' I got a million things I want to do. I'll never get around to all of them. Being creative is so much fun.
"Once you get it together and can realize your vision in various little forms, there's nothing more fun."
Riders on the Storm
takes the stage
of the Keswick Theatre,
Easton Rd. & Keswick Ave.,
Glenside, PA 19038,
Wednesday, May 16, 8:30 p.m.
Tickets: $48 & $38
Info: 215-572-7650 or
www.keswicktheatre.com.
©Montgomery Newspapers 2007
