The Doors: This Is The End

     I had planned on writing a post about The Doors at some point, but with the recent passing of Ray Manzarek I decided to do it today. In honor of Mr. Manzarek, I will have lists of my favorite rock and jazz keyboardists at the end of this post. Obviously, the first person people think of when you mention The Doors is Jim Morrison. It's understandable on many levels. He was charismatic. He died young. He was controversial. He was a mystical, shaman poet in leather pants. Unfortunately, his act overshadowed the rest of the band. It could be argued that Ray Manzarek was the key to The Doors sound. His playing was central to The Doors fusion of rock and jazz and poetry. Besides being an iconic keyboardist, he also held down the bass lines since The Doors didn't have a bassist. What made The Doors sound unique was that Manzarek, Kreiger and Densmore were like a jazz trio who thrived in the song structure of rock music.
     Having said all this, I haven't always been the biggest fan of The Doors. When I was younger, I thought "Riders On The Storm" was the creepiest song ever. "Light My Fire" was played to death. "Touch Me" had horn players. And I still can't stand "L.A. Woman". Oddly enough, it was Oliver Stone's movie, The Doors, that brought me around. I found myself pulling for them. I went out and bought their first album and the Very Best Of The Doors on cd. That's probably all I need and what I recommend to my kids. And they did write some amazing songs. Break On Through. The End. Love Me Two Times. Hello, I Love You. Soul Kitchen. The WASP. Roadhouse Blues. Waiting For The Sun. People Are Strange. Even Light My Fire. Here are some of my favorite lines from The Doors.

* Gate is straight, deep and wide. Break on through to the other side.
* We have constructed pyramids in honor of our escaping.
* Out here on the perimeter there are no stars. Out here we is stoned-immaculate.
* No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn.
* You men eat your dinner, eat your pork and beans. I eat more chicken than any man ever seen.
* Lost in a Roman wilderness of pain and all the children are insane.
* The snake is long, seven miles.
* The end of laughter and soft lies.
* He took a face from the ancient gallery and he walked on down the hall.
* I'll never look into your eyes again...the end.

     Over the past few posts, I've been struggling with my feelings about keyboards. As I said before, I know what I like and I know what I don't like. I guess what it boils down to is I like them in the proper context. Ray Manzarek's  organ is integral to the sound of The Doors. To use Rush as an example, keyboards on proggy songs like Xanadu are fine. Using keyboards in the mid-80's and crowding out Alex Lifeson's guitar genius, bad. Anyhow, here are my favorite keyboardists. Peace.

JAZZ

1) Bill Evans
2) Thelonius Monk
3) Herbie Hancock
4) Dave Brubeck
5) Oscar Peterson

ROCK

1) Ray Manzarek
2) Tony Banks
3) Billy Preston
4) Rick Wakeman
5) Keith Emerson
6) Rod Argent
7) Elton John (piano counts)
8) Benmont Tench (greatest name ever)
9) Stevie Wonder
10) Jerry Lee Lewis