Ray Manzarek; another rider on the storm

Rainfall, thunder, and an impossible bass line to accomplish on the bass guitar —E Minor followed by an A Major, achievable only on Ray Manzarek’s keyboard—, with John Densmore’s jazzy backbeat tagging along, are the inaugural notes of the melody. And again, Manzarek; this time imitating nature with the aqueous sounds coming out of his instrument.

     “Riders on the storm, riders on the storm,” sings the cavernous voice, “into this house we’re born, into this world we’re thrown…” And thus we start our midnight journey through the stormy desert, on a horse named destiny; at least in Jim Morrison's Blakean mind. 

   Well, Ray Manzarek has joined now Morrison in something far more transcendental than music: death. After succumbing to some kind of liver cancer, in a battle that he fought without many of us, who once loved him, knowing about it.

     Ray Manzarek, the man who seemed to be reading mysteries in the keyboard of his Vox Continental organ, and the one who had that personal way of playing the jazzy chords that gave The Doors its distinctive sound and a different vibe to rock music —and also the man who was, apparently, more tolerant than anyone else towards Morrison’s antics and erratic behavior—, has left this world.   

      Who's going to forget that killer staccato strut that opens for the Lizard King on “When the Music’s Over,” where Manzarek’s musical swagger has us trembling with anticipation, making us feel like we're about to take part in a scene out of a Michael Antonioni’s movie. Then, Densmore’s drum roll ushers the pandemonic riff of Robbie Krieger’s guitar, in unison with Morrison’s “otherworldly howl.”

     Those are just two examples of the musical marriage of Jim Morrison’s voice and poetry, and Ray Manzarek’s music; with the other two acting as best men. Not to mention the haunting piano solo on "Crystal Ship" that follows Jim’s —also haunting— vocals, after he sings: “The days are bright and filled with pain, enclose me in your gentle rain. The time you ran was too insane, we’ll meet again, we’ll meet again…”

     Indeed, the days were bright and filled with pain in the sixties. And the youth had to seek refuge in the “gentle” rain of hallucinogens and all the mind altering substances they could get their hands on; to escape from the reality of the times: Vietnam, women’s liberation, sexual freedom, etcetera. The slogan: “We want the world and we want it now.” And to prepare for that, the counterculture generation kept turning on, tuning in, and dropping out left and right. 

     Ray Manzarek and Jim Morrison were a product of their time. As contemporaries they were two comrades who shared some of the most precious days of their youth together. They both had intellectual aspirations, they both had a penchant for the representative world of images and theatrics, and they also — together— were the first ones to contemplate the possibility of forming a band that would exploit Jim’s Nietzsche-Blake influenced poetry, which made them millions of dollars in the process. The rest is history.

     Unfortunately, Manzarek’s musical legacy was overshadowed by the —musically— erratic behavior of his last years, when he and Robby Krieger went on the road with The Doors of the 21st Century, a band that featured The Cure’s Ian Astbury as replacement for Jim Morrison —in full regalia—; which puts them “up there” with the Queen of Paul Rodgers. In his new book, "Doors Unhinged," John Densmore claims that on one occasion Morrison accused Manzarek of being, “only in it for the money.” And it kind of gets you thinking when you see him onstage, in his older years, indulging on some sort of acrobatics that he wouldn’t even dare to think about in his years with the original Doors; you know, when music seemed to matter the most, and there was only one front man.

     Manzarek stated in an interview that "Riders on the Storm" was the very last song that Jim Morrison, “recorded on this planet.” Actually, I think it was also the last real song that Ray Manzarek himself recorded on this planet. After his demise, it feels like they have entered together the dark, pitch-black, night; and they’re out there together as two riders on the storm…