Post by darkstar3 on Jan 5, 2011 22:19:43 GMT
San Francisco Gate
Q & A With Ray Manzarek
July 19, 1998
By Aidin Vaziri
Ray Manzarek had just arrived in San Francisco, but the former keyboard player for the Doors did not need to unwind before getting to work. He was in town for three days earlier this month to promote his memoir, "Light My Fire," with a series of book signings and a few interviews. So after rifling through his hotel room's mini bar for some designer water, Manzarek, 63, kicked his feet up on the desk and talked candidly about his latest project and the legacy of Jim Morrison and the Doors.
Q: Why did you wait so long to tell your version of the Doors story?
A: I was actually going to wait for the 21st century. I thought we'd be in a much more receptive state. But there have been so many god-awful books by people who weren't there and that Oliver Stone movie, I couldn't take it anymore. I had to clear the air and tell the story of the Doors and Jim Morrison -- psychedelic, spiritual-seeking young mystics in an unknown psychic realm.
Q: Is this the definitive account of what happened?
A: To be absolutely definitive I would have to write another book or two. I've got a thousand stories I can tell. This is a definitive overview up to this point. I'll tell you what actually happened in Miami (in 1969 when Morrison was charged with lewd and lascivious behavior), how the Doors got together, what happened on "The Ed Sullivan Show" (in 1967 when the group was asked to censor lyrics of "Light My Fire"). I tell how psychedelic substances entered into the Doors' music. I tell what I know of Paris (where Morrison moved four months before he died in 1971) and the mysterious circumstances surrounding Jim's death.
Q: You mean Jim Morrison is actually dead?
A: When people ask me that, I tell them, "Even if he's not, do you think I'm going to tell you?" If he's been gone for 27 years now, I would think he wants to keep it private.
Q: But there is talk of exhuming his remains.
A: That's right, on July 6, 2001. The day he went into the ground, or rather the day a sealed coffin went into the ground supposedly containing the remains of James Douglas Morrison, was July 6, 1971.
Pam (Courson), his common-law wife (who died in 1974), got only a 30-year lease (at Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris). I don't know exactly how it works there, but I don't think you're buried forever in that graveyard. You have to keep renewing your lease. They're not going to renew Jim Morrison's lease because of all the trouble and excitement and laughing and dancing and singing. People are not conducting themselves as old fogies think they should be conducting themselves at a cemetery.
Q: So Morrison is still causing controversy from beyond the grave?
A: Jim's got the power to inspire Dionysian revelry and excitement. (At his grave), there's not a lot of quiet weeping going on. Kids are singing Doors songs, writing poems (on headstones), drinking. I mean, if they could, they would be having sex on the grave. (The cemetery management) wants to throw Jim out of the cemetery because (fans) are not behaving themselves, and thank God they're not. I love it that kids are having a good time around Jim's grave.
Q: What's going to happen to the remains once they're unearthed?
A: It's utterly beyond me that they're going to actually dig him up and take the casket out of the ground. They'll have to do it at night. If they do it in the daytime, there will be thousands of people there. I would want to be there. People will be demanding, "Open the coffin! Open the coffin!" It's just going to be insane.
Q: Do you want the coffin opened?
A: It doesn't matter what I want. Can you imagine the fans? Let's see if Jim's in there, and if he is in there, how about an autopsy or DNA or something? Let's find out how he died. Was it a drug overdose? Did his heart stop? Let's find out once and for all -- did his heart stop or not? God, it could be like "The Omen," when they get the tomb of the little boy open and there's a skeleton of a baby horse in there. Maybe it's not Jim. Maybe there's nothing in there. Maybe it is 150 pounds of sand. Maybe they'll turn the coffin over and all this sand will come out. It's spooky.
Q: Do you have any doubts that he's in there?
A: I think he's in there. I haven't heard from him in 27 years. If he has escaped his fame and notoriety, he hasn't called me. But I sure encourage the fans to be there and raise a little ruckus.
Q: Assuming those are his remains, do you know where they will bury him next?
A: Interestingly, the president of the Czech Republic has offered Jim a spot in the Czech National Cemetery in Prague next to Franz Kafka, who is one of Jim's favorite authors. It's really up to Jim's parents where he goes. But, I'll tell you this: Jim doesn't care. The last thing in the world he cares about is where the powder goes.
Q: Does it surprise you that people are still interested in the Doors?
A: I love how the young people of today can understand and get excited by the Doors' music. I love that. I think it's a tribute to their intellect that they're not intimidated by our jazz and poetry stance.
Q: What was the last obvious Doors knockoff you heard?
A: "Walking on the Sun" by Smash Mouth. I had to stop to think whether that was me playing on it or somebody else playing me. What I like now is a lot of electronica. That whole school is the wave of the future -- Tricky, Future Sound of London, the Orb, Talvin Singh, all that stuff. I'm really intrigued by that stuff. It's like the new improvisation.
articles.sfgate.com/1998-07-19/en....son-doors-music
Q & A With Ray Manzarek
July 19, 1998
By Aidin Vaziri
Ray Manzarek had just arrived in San Francisco, but the former keyboard player for the Doors did not need to unwind before getting to work. He was in town for three days earlier this month to promote his memoir, "Light My Fire," with a series of book signings and a few interviews. So after rifling through his hotel room's mini bar for some designer water, Manzarek, 63, kicked his feet up on the desk and talked candidly about his latest project and the legacy of Jim Morrison and the Doors.
Q: Why did you wait so long to tell your version of the Doors story?
A: I was actually going to wait for the 21st century. I thought we'd be in a much more receptive state. But there have been so many god-awful books by people who weren't there and that Oliver Stone movie, I couldn't take it anymore. I had to clear the air and tell the story of the Doors and Jim Morrison -- psychedelic, spiritual-seeking young mystics in an unknown psychic realm.
Q: Is this the definitive account of what happened?
A: To be absolutely definitive I would have to write another book or two. I've got a thousand stories I can tell. This is a definitive overview up to this point. I'll tell you what actually happened in Miami (in 1969 when Morrison was charged with lewd and lascivious behavior), how the Doors got together, what happened on "The Ed Sullivan Show" (in 1967 when the group was asked to censor lyrics of "Light My Fire"). I tell how psychedelic substances entered into the Doors' music. I tell what I know of Paris (where Morrison moved four months before he died in 1971) and the mysterious circumstances surrounding Jim's death.
Q: You mean Jim Morrison is actually dead?
A: When people ask me that, I tell them, "Even if he's not, do you think I'm going to tell you?" If he's been gone for 27 years now, I would think he wants to keep it private.
Q: But there is talk of exhuming his remains.
A: That's right, on July 6, 2001. The day he went into the ground, or rather the day a sealed coffin went into the ground supposedly containing the remains of James Douglas Morrison, was July 6, 1971.
Pam (Courson), his common-law wife (who died in 1974), got only a 30-year lease (at Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris). I don't know exactly how it works there, but I don't think you're buried forever in that graveyard. You have to keep renewing your lease. They're not going to renew Jim Morrison's lease because of all the trouble and excitement and laughing and dancing and singing. People are not conducting themselves as old fogies think they should be conducting themselves at a cemetery.
Q: So Morrison is still causing controversy from beyond the grave?
A: Jim's got the power to inspire Dionysian revelry and excitement. (At his grave), there's not a lot of quiet weeping going on. Kids are singing Doors songs, writing poems (on headstones), drinking. I mean, if they could, they would be having sex on the grave. (The cemetery management) wants to throw Jim out of the cemetery because (fans) are not behaving themselves, and thank God they're not. I love it that kids are having a good time around Jim's grave.
Q: What's going to happen to the remains once they're unearthed?
A: It's utterly beyond me that they're going to actually dig him up and take the casket out of the ground. They'll have to do it at night. If they do it in the daytime, there will be thousands of people there. I would want to be there. People will be demanding, "Open the coffin! Open the coffin!" It's just going to be insane.
Q: Do you want the coffin opened?
A: It doesn't matter what I want. Can you imagine the fans? Let's see if Jim's in there, and if he is in there, how about an autopsy or DNA or something? Let's find out how he died. Was it a drug overdose? Did his heart stop? Let's find out once and for all -- did his heart stop or not? God, it could be like "The Omen," when they get the tomb of the little boy open and there's a skeleton of a baby horse in there. Maybe it's not Jim. Maybe there's nothing in there. Maybe it is 150 pounds of sand. Maybe they'll turn the coffin over and all this sand will come out. It's spooky.
Q: Do you have any doubts that he's in there?
A: I think he's in there. I haven't heard from him in 27 years. If he has escaped his fame and notoriety, he hasn't called me. But I sure encourage the fans to be there and raise a little ruckus.
Q: Assuming those are his remains, do you know where they will bury him next?
A: Interestingly, the president of the Czech Republic has offered Jim a spot in the Czech National Cemetery in Prague next to Franz Kafka, who is one of Jim's favorite authors. It's really up to Jim's parents where he goes. But, I'll tell you this: Jim doesn't care. The last thing in the world he cares about is where the powder goes.
Q: Does it surprise you that people are still interested in the Doors?
A: I love how the young people of today can understand and get excited by the Doors' music. I love that. I think it's a tribute to their intellect that they're not intimidated by our jazz and poetry stance.
Q: What was the last obvious Doors knockoff you heard?
A: "Walking on the Sun" by Smash Mouth. I had to stop to think whether that was me playing on it or somebody else playing me. What I like now is a lot of electronica. That whole school is the wave of the future -- Tricky, Future Sound of London, the Orb, Talvin Singh, all that stuff. I'm really intrigued by that stuff. It's like the new improvisation.
articles.sfgate.com/1998-07-19/en....son-doors-music
