The Doors
 

Ray Manzarek, the keyboardist and founding member of The Doors who had a dramatic impact on rock 'n' roll, has died. He was 74.

A big loss. One of the most famous keyboard players in Rock history

His opening keyboards to light my fire is iconic! A huge influence on others. RIP Ray!

He got more out of a small keyboard than most did out of a B-3. Fabulous musician. RIP and say Hi to Jim for us.

If theres a rock n oll heaven you know he'll be playing in the band. One of the best ever.

Absolutely - and what a band it is !!!!

A few nights back I watched an interview with John Densmore and his book ‘The Doors Unhinged’. Sad that Ray Manzarek passed along with Jim Morrison and equally sad that the legal battle as divided the remaining members of the band. Commercialism is the issue and what is surprising is the Morrison estate which includes Morrison’s parents and his widow joined Densmore in the suit.

One thing I heard on tv some time back when they were interviewing one of the then surviving members was that you will NEVER hear any of The Doors music used as background material for commercials or programming.

VG

Too bad, "I woke up this morning and got myself a beer" would sound great on a Bud commercial.

I saw John Densmore on a morning show about a month ago talking about 'Unhinged'. I went to Barnes & Nobles at LSL to buy the book, they said we would have to order it, they don't stock it.

If anyone wants to read a good book about the bands' heyday, about 30 years ago I read 'No One Here Gets Out Alive' by Danny Sugarman. He was a gopher for the band, a young kid who did everything from answer fan mail to eventually becoming manager. He unfortunately died a few years ago of cancer.

That's what 2-Crazy was making reference to in his earlier post. Jim was against the band's songs ever being used for commercial purposes. Later Ray and Robbie wanted to make money from the songs but John wanted them to go along with Jim's wishes, and never sell their songs. In fact when they regrouped about ten years ago with Ian Astbury of the Cult on vocals, they called themselves 'The Doors of the 21st Century'. John sued and they had to drop the Doors from the group's name.