ray manzarek - jim's bitch or annoying genius?

You calling Jim a dead horse? Well, he's dead and he was on horse...

I have interviewed RM twice. Despite the fact that I always considered him to be a bullshit spouter of epic proportions, and a truly irritating '60s and Jimbo advocate, once you get him onto other subjects, he's okay. still a bit pompous, but nowhere near as intolerable as when he goes on and on and on about how Jimbo was a shaman…

would the Doors be okay if they had a) a bass player, and b.) someone other than the wimpiest drummer in a major band in the history of the world? perhaps.

Can't both be true?

I've often wondered if Ray was/is in love with Jim, or the "concept of" Jim.

Can anybody cite specific songs where Ray did this?

Hmmm, I've been unsuccessful with Google Edward. Perhaps my recollection of Manzarek filling in for a whacked-out Morrison is wrong? Anyone else?

Perhaps it was mostly in the live setting, similar to various people filling in for Ian Curtis occasionally.

on the double live cd, ray sings 'close to you', its a pretty uninteresting blues but he sings okay (better than morrison, mostly).

i love the keyboards on 'riders on the storm'. i was a teenage doors freak, but seriously outgrew them in my twenties, though 'summer's almost gone' is pretty killer.

he's a total loon!

based on my limited exposure of only hearing heaven up here, [echo & the bunnymen] seem like a respectable band

my head spins at this. i guess because it means that the 60s have such a grip on culture that someone (probably) in their teens feels that The Doors are that much more relevant than EATB. I mean, not to get into a T/S pissing match, but...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h54LB-I7Q8&search=beat%20club

*Besides maybe Richard Meltzer

No way, Jose (I mean Josefina).

Arrgh... For me, Densmore is the most consistently interesting guy in the band.

http://eil.com/newgallery/Ray-Manzarek-Carmina-Burana-322210.jpg

-- veronica moser (rp...), June 22nd, 2006. (later)

What'r'ya kiddin' me? Oh you mean other than Barry Altschul, Shelley manne, Paul Motian, Jon Hiseman, Han Bennink, Joey Baron, Jaki Liebezeit. Right. Too bad Jim Black isn't of Charlie's generation--and I know that Joey Baron is stretching it too. But I left out Gerry Hemmingway and Bill Bruford, too.

Ray Manzarek's 1974 follow-up to his excellent The Golden Scarab (A Rhythm Myth) from the same year finds producer Bob Brown stepping into Bruce Botnick's shoes. Over 40 minutes of music from the Doors' keyboard player expands the excellent concepts initiated by the Doors' Other Voices and Full Circle albums, with the thread continuing on the aforementioned The Golden Scarab. The title track was composed by Manzarek, manager Danny Sugarman, and journeyman guitarist Dick Wagner, fresh from his stint in the Lou Reed's Rock & Roll Animal Band and right before he would co-author hits by Alice Cooper. Flo & Eddie provide backing vocals on the two-minute-and-33-second title song, the shortest on the disc. "I Wake up Screaming" resembles music from An American Prayer, and indeed, it's a poem by James Douglas Morrison featuring an early performance by poetess Patti Smith. With so much depth and intrigue here, Polygram Records deciding to take three tracks from this album and tag them on the end of a 1994 re-release of The Golden Scarab deprived Manzarek and Doors fans of the full scope of this work. The complete sessions from both projects in one package would be appropriate. "Bicentennial Blues" could be an outtake from Other Voices and features Manzarek at his most Doorsy, especially when the long keyboard solo in this nearly eight-minute track gets the tonal quality and riffs from "Light My Fire." Had the three Doors continued their musical journey together, this important music may have found a wider audience -- it definitely grooves. Where Larry Carlton performs on The Golden Scarab (A Rhythm Myth), Eagles/James Gang guitarist Joe Walsh shows up here, as do Steve Forman -- percussion player with Marty Balin among many others -- and Paul Davis. It's an interesting musical mix, with Manzarek indulging in all sorts of keyboard instruments and synthesizers. He's flanked by enough equipment on the back cover to stock a music store, but refrains from drenching the disc in those sounds, as Gary Wright would with 1976's Dream Weaver. Rock meets jazz here on "Perfumed Garden" and other tracks, providing a unique glimpse of one of rock & roll's most enduring characters. "The Gambler" moves with authority, while the quirky instrumental "Whirling Dervish," co-written with Paul Davis, keeps the momentum and is chock-full of the creative sparks Manzarek always provides. "Begin the World Again" is thought-provoking and entertaining, as is this entire disc.

Tim has officially lost his mind.

-- veronica moser (rp...), June 22nd, 2006. (later)

and ordinarily, I would have cut Watts a break, if only he didn't try to promote hisself as a Jass drummer. As far as rock drummers, I guess he's ok but every time I pick something up on Watts he's talking about his jazz band. And as a jazz drummer, he's strictly from dullsville.

Happy birthday, Ray! 72 years old today! (O_O)

This dude is fuckin lmao's

DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE SOLAR BOAT!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4PBoAedWVA

some of the worst lyrics ever in this crapfest.

his lame-o keyboard parts are 1/3 of why the doors suck, the other 2/3 being jim morrison and shitty drumming.

Also worst guitarist hair.

Who the hell cares if RM is the biggest d-bag around, try to name a bigger band who suffered such a loss.

lame-o keyboard parts! i dunno, he's got some cool hooks.

dudes, can we all just agree to get aboard the solar boat?

guess not.

some of the worst lyrics ever in this crapfest.

Try listening to 'An American Prayer'.

i kind of like this song tbh

manzarek comes off as a musical fraud imo. he reminds me of my friend's aspergerish dad who would always take out his casio and start semi-competently tapping out/singing jewish folk songs for no apparent reason.

I've encountered both Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger during my traveling days and was amazed at how staggeringly uncool they were.

I dig Manzarek's keyboards on World's A Mess It's In My Kiss, but that's about as deep into the guy's career as I get.

yeah manzarek comes off as a massive dork in the interviews I've heard

huh, so the source of the Nile is in Tibet

the personnel on that Manzarek album is, unfortunately for how bad it is, really amazing. Flo & Eddie! Tony Williams! Larry Carlton!

denial is a "river" -- in to bet?

I'm gonna listen to this whole thing now

He definitely is a dork, but it's hard to hold it against him. He's silly, not evil. I saw him once with whatever the zombie Doors were called at the time, and he kept monologuing about golf and scotch whisky; nobody wants or needs to hear that.

Robbie Krieger outuncools him though - I saw a youtube once of them being inducted into the hall of fame, or something, and seeing him haltingly duckwalk around a six-inch high stage was eyepopping. I can't remember who was singing - I want to say Eddie Vedder, but that'd lend the event a dignity that it definitely did not possess.

y'know this album wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for Ray's horrible vocals/lyrics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6B_nuMYGns

a little fart

In the eye of the sun before the world had begun
Takin' it easy, I was havin' some fun
Loafin' anda jokin' it was all energy
No such thing as you and or me

His left hand was a great bass player

dork, intolerable, but great keyboardist...I can't fathom the doors without his keyboard playing

Hero for all time for doing early X justice in a way few US punk bands got through his excellent job of producing Los Angeles

Not a lot of US punk bands really got that chance, to do a bigger, more produced sounding record without neutering their power, more UK bands did like the Pistols, Clash, etc

How about annoying filmmaker? THIS thing:

http://www.mcclure-manzarek.com/lovehermadly.html

It's on Netflix Instant and Jesus H.

Hip Hop Hitchcock!

I feel like one of these days I should get hammered drunk and livetweet that movie.

And by one of these days I mean hold on I'll be back in two hours.

I look forward to the results.

But maybe wait for Eurovision to end.