In Remembrance of Ray Manzarek

Ray Manzarek passed away Monday morning. Ray is the second member of the psychedelic-blues band, The Doors, to pass after lead singer, Jim Morrison, died in 1971. Manzarek gave The Doors its unique sound with his grandiose keyboard playing. Morrison may be the face of the band, but Ray was essential in forming the group and his mind was behind some of their biggest hits.

You may be wondering,"Why are you writing about a musician on your film review site"? The reason I felt the need to express my thoughts on Manzarek and The Doors. First, The Doors are, without a doubt, my favorite band of all time. The reason why is because their music is so theatrical. Ray and Jim were film students at UCLA together and every one of their songs is dramatic on a scale usually reserved for film. I was hooked the first time I ever heard Jim's voice or Ray dancing on the ivory. They didn't make music for music people, they made music for people who love film.

Second, some of the most memorable scenes in film use The Doors. Who could forget the first time they saw  the opening scene from "Apocalypse Now"? The whir of the helicopter rotors as napalm dropped on the jungles of Vietnam as Jim crooned the lyrics to 'The End' is chilling every time. The Doors montage during Forrest's tour in Vietnam is as memorable now as it was in 1994. Even Oliver Stone's Doors biopic, which was released to lukewarm reception, had great scenes set to Doors songs, such as the Riders on the Storm intro.

Ray Manzarek was a rock-n-roll legend. One of, if not the, greatest keyboardists in music history. It is a tragedy that he was taken by such a terrible disease such as cancer. At the end of this post there is a link to donate to the American Cancer Society. Thank you, Ray, for opening the Doors of Perception.

https://www.cancer.org/involved/donate/donateonlinenow/index