The Doors, “Riders on the Storm”

Ray Manzarek, keyboard player for The Doors, died today at 74.

I caught the second wave of The Doors.  I’d been too young to see them on anything other than maybe The Ed Sullivan Show during their first flowering.  So, at the dawn of what has become the Classic Rock movement, my college floormates and I used to listen to The Doors, mainly the 2-LP compilation Weird Scenes Inside the Gold Mine but sometimes L.A. Woman or their eponymous debut or Morrison Hotel, all sitting on the floor, a red lightbulb over the sink, drinking beer and half-laughing, half-marveling at the lyrics, attitude and strangeness of the band and its frontman.

And Manzarek’s keyboards sometimes provided the cushion for the attitude and strangeness and sometimes drove it.  I don’t know much about the man besides what I’ve seen in a few interviews.  He struck me as a well-spoken sort who saw no benefit in tearing down or diminishing the band that made his name a household word.  At least in some households.

aav.