'Rick & The Ravens'

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

Rick & The Ravens featuring the voice of Ray Daniels


Better known is Ray's band with his brothers 'Rick & The Ravens' who played at weddings, parties, barmitzvahs as well as other clubs such as the Turkey Joint West in Santa Monica, Los Angeles and at the Port O Call in San Pedro, Los Angeles where they once were the support act for Sonny & Cher.
The line up consisted of Ray Manczarek on vocals and piano, Jim Manczarek on organ and harmonica, Rick Manczarek on guitar, Vince Thomas on drums, Roland Biscaluz on bass, and Pat Stonner on saxophone.
They cut several singles with Aura Records



Soul Train/Geraldine
Henrietta/Just For You
as well as one with Posae Records
Big Bucket "T"/Rampage
Ray used Ravens music for the backing to one of his student films and with one single remaining on their deal with Aura financed The Doors debut demo disc.
Four of the six songs Rick & The Ravens recorded were original compositions written by Ray and all were sung by him under his 'Screaming Ray Daniels' persona that proved so popular with Doors fans in concert!.





"Rampage"
This single was recorded "live" somewhere, by a band that evolved into the Doors. It's pre-Morrison, and sounds nothing like the later incarnation. The A-side "Big Bucket T" is a Ronnie and the Daytonas style hot rod vocal.

Both sides were penned by Ray Manczarek. Great stuff.

"Rampage" is an unusual song, significantly off the beaten path, infectious, danceable, and way fun. Calls of "let's move," "let's groove," and "rampage!" are shouted as appropriate. You can just picture the audience doing the surfers stomp at some teen dance in old LA. This track goes really well played loud with the top down (or windows open for the convertibly challenged) on surf route 101. It is one of those magical moments when just a few notes combined with a backtrack such that its very simplicity is its power. The song is written by Ray Manczarek. Magnificent.
Surf Instrumental Mono
Phil Dirt - Reverb Central


Rick and Ray Manczarek Turkey Joint West santa Monica 1965.

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

Rockmine: Going back,were you screaming Ray Daniels?
Ray: I was. With Rick and The Ravens for a while. It was Rick And The Ravens with Screaming Ray Daniels.
Rockmine: What sort of following did you have?
Ray: Oh,a cult of about five. I think they were assorted girlfriends and one or two male groupies and that was about it.



"Rick & The Ravens (Single)" - World Pacific Jazz Studios
Los Angeles, California - May, 1965.

Prior to the formation of The Doors, Ray Manzarek was in a band called "Rick & The Ravens" who played at weddings, parties, barmitzvahs as well as other clubs such as the Turkey Joint West in Santa Monica, Los Angeles and at the Port O Call in San Pedro, Los Angeles where they once were the support act for Sonny & Cher. The group line up consisted of Ray Manzarek on vocals and piano, Jim Manzarek on organ and harmonica, Rick Manzarek on guitar, Vince Thomas on drums, Roland Biscaluz on bass, and Pat Stonner on saxophone. Six songs were released as 7" singles, four on Aura Records (Tracks 1-4) and two on Posae Records Tracks (5-6). Four of the six songs were original
compositions written by Ray and all were sung by him.

Song Time
1 Soul Train 3:10
2 Geraldine 2:46
3 Henrietta 2:04
4 Just For You 2:15
5 Big Bucket "T" 3:08
6 Rampage 2:55



Rick & The Ravens Calling Card!
Featuring the voice of Ray Daniels!

The band initially consisted of Rick Manczarek on guitar, Jim Manczarek on organ and harmonica, Patrick Stonier on saxophone, Roland Biscaluz on bass and Vince Thomas on drums. The drummer and bass player were initially not permanent members, but asked to join whenever a gig was upcoming. The moniker "Rick" in the band name was Ray Manczarek's brother Rick Manczarek.

In 1962 Ray Manczarek, having moved to Los Angeles from Chicago, joined on vocals and occasional piano. At the time the Manczareks wrote their name Manczarek, with the letter "c", as did Ray. He changed the spelling upon joining The Doors.

Because of his voice, with a timbre closer to the traditional blues delivery than rock and roll, Manzarek was also known as "Screamin' Ray Daniels" (Manzarek's middle name is Daniel), "Screamin' Ray", "the Bearded Blues Shouter", or simply "the Screamer".



The band used to perform on weekends for college crowds, mostly from UCLA Film School, at a bar on 2nd Street and Santa Monica Blvd. in Santa Monica, California, called the Turkey Joint West, a British pub operated by the Santa Monica Soccer and Social Club, since 1974 known as Ye Olde King's Head.
Their setlist consisted of their own originals, padded with standards such as "I'm Your Doctor, I Know What You Need," "Louie, Louie," Smokey Robinson's "Money" and Willie Dixon's "Hoochie Coochie Man."

In an interview conducted by Rainer Moddemann, Manzarek stated the first song Jim Morrison performed with Rick & the Ravens was Richard Berry's "Louie Louie." Morrison was not officially part of the band at that time; Manzarek simply invited his former college colleague on stage, much to everyone's surprise. Morrison was reportedly not prepared for this—his first public performance—and sang himself hoarse.
Morrison and Manzarek had met previously and found each other sharing a lot of musical and artistic interests. Later Manzarek asked Morrison to join the band; Morrison accepted.

'Rick & The Ravens' singles schedule
1965 Soul Train / Geraldine Aura Records 4511
1965 Henrietta / Just For You Aura Records 4506
1965 Big Bucket "T" / Rampage Posae Records 101

Please note the singles were meant as promotional material
only. They were never in wide circulation, nor were they even meant to be published outside the promotional circuits. On the "Soul Train / Geraldine" single, the artist is labeled "Ray Daniels feat. Rick & the Ravens", with "Ray Daniels" double billed. The last singles were initially meant as vehicles to promote Ray Manczarek (billed as "Ray Daniels") as lead artist, with the Ravens merely a backing band.
Promotional material presented the artist as "Rick & the Ravens featuring the Voice of Ray Daniels". These plans were discarded when Morrison joined the line-up.

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

The 1965 World Pacific Demo

On September 2, 1965 the band entered World Pacific Studios and recorded six songs that would eventually become Doors songs; "Moonlight Drive", "My Eyes Have Seen You", "Hello, I Love You", "Go Insane" (the early title of "A Little Game" from the "Celebration of the Lizard" suite, known simply as "Insane" on the acetate), "End of the Night", and "Summer's Almost Gone".
The recording session was a relatively quick affair, only lasting three hours in total. Singer Morrison was reportedly delighted to hear his voice on a record for the first time. The demo was released in its entirety on The Doors' box set in 1997. The tracks on the box set were mastered from what was originally Rick Manzarek's acetate – now in the possession of Ray Manzarek—which was one of only five made.

Transformation to The Doors
The band that recorded the demo was not the Doors, however, but Rick & the Ravens.
The 1965 demo features Jim Morrison on vocals, Ray Manzarek on piano and background vocals, John Densmore on drums, Rick Manzarek on guitar, Jim Manzarek on harmonica and Patricia "Pat" Hansen (née Sullivan) from Patty and the Esquires – the band she had with Chuck Hansen, whom she later married – on bass guitar.
After the demo was recorded, the band tried to pass it around. Both Jim and Rick Manzarek were disappointed in the response to the demo – additionally both of the Manzareks, along with Sullivan, were not impressed by the new Morrison songs– and subsequently the Manzarek brothers, sans Ray, quit the band, stating they felt the band was "going nowhere fast".

In other words, the songs were cut before both of Ray's brothers left the band and Robby Krieger joined from the Psychedelic Rangers in October 1965.
Psychedelic Rangers drummer John Densmore had joined Rick & the Ravens earlier the same year, in August.
Krieger never played in Rick & the Ravens, though. At Morrison's suggestion the band changed its name to The Doors a month after they had recorded the demo, shortly prior to Krieger joining the line-up.
The Doors was thus initially a quintet, but when Manzarek decided to handle the bass duties with the newly introduced Fender Rhodes PianoBass, Pat Sullivan was dropped from the line-up in December 1965, ultimately ending up with the "classic" quartet.

From Wikipedia section on 'Rick & The Ravens'

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

Ray Manzarek/Robby Krieger Interview Blake's Hotel in London on the afternoon of November lst,1983.



Before The Doors, I was in a band called Rick And The Ravens and we worked at The Turkey Joint west in Santa Monica,California.

Rockmine: Okay, the big question, who was the "unknown" female bassist you had?

Manzarek: Well, that's the unknown question. That's a big question but she's unknown. We were talking about that the other day. I to this day have no idea what that girl's name was. No-one knows. I don't think she knows that she did what she did and I certainly don't. I have no idea who this person was.

Rockmine: Of the tracks on that (Rick and The Ravens demo tape) there's one which seems to go under two names, "Little Game" and "Let's Go Insane".

Manzarek: Um, Yes ... "Go Insane" ... I think it was "Go Insane" to begin with and then it became "A Little Game". I think it started off as "Go Insane".

Krieger: Do you have a copy of that by the way?

Rockmine: Yeah.

Krieger: See, he has a copy.

Manzarek: That's amazing, there are very few people that have copies of that.

Krieger: No, there's not. Millions of people have that.

Manzarek: Millions of people have copies of that? How do they get did they get it? Where did it come from?

Krieger: Your brother.

Manzarek: My brother's bootlegging it. Is that it? He's bootlegging them out of Lake Isabella.

Rockmine: What's Rick Manzarek doing now?

Manzarek: He's up in Lake Isabella, California and my parents have a store; a liquor store overlooking the lake and they sell booze and bait. (laughter) You can either fish with the bait or if you're too drunk you can eat the bait and it's sort of like a mountain resort area where people do a lot of trout fishing. They've dammed up the Kern River and made a watershed behind it and it's called Lake Isabella; gorgeous area. So that's where Rick is and my brother Jim is living in El Secundo, California on the beach and works for the City Of Los Angeles as a judicial person. He's a judge's assistant and that's what they're up to.

Rockmine: So, at first you were all working under the name of Rick and The Ravens before you became The Doors?

Manzarek: No.

Rockmine: But there's a recorded version of "Moonlight Drive" on the demo tape that Rick and The Ravens did.

Manzarek: Yes ... Yes ... Yes.