Rick and The Ravens 1961-1965

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

Rick & The Ravens featuring the voice of Ray Daniels

Ray Manczarek joined his brothers band in 1962 and became the bands leader shortly after that.
He had already had some experience leading a band the year before with his UCLA jazz trio.
'Rick & The Ravens' played at weddings, parties, bar mitzvahs 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.
After signing a contract with Aura Records the band produce three singles and Ray's alter ego 'Screamin' Ray Daniels' was always at the fore.


















Signing for membership of the American TV & Radio Artists. Similar to our Musicians Union.


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."


The photo is interesting as it seems to show only 2 of the three Manczarek's.
Rick in the light, suit guitar & Ray or Jim Manczarek piano?

The rest are Vince Thomas drums, Patrick Stonier saxophone and Roland Biscaluz bass guitar.

Unless of course Jim is at the piano and Ray was yet to join in 1962.
This publicity photo could have been from 1961 when the band began. The lack of Screaming Ray Daniels possibly points to 1961.
If it is Jim he looks remarkably like his brother.

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.

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 Ravens recorded 3 singles and a total of 6 songs. (not 8)
They were promotional only singles probably for radio stations or venues.
Two were covers and four were written by Ray Manczarek. Which begs the question how many more songs did he have?
And did he put any forward for consideration with the band?
They are actually not bad at all.
He was likely overawed by Jim's stuff which is a pity as it would have been interesting to hear any as a B Side or spot for Ray in concert.



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!.


Soul Train/Geraldine


Henrietta/Just For You


Big Bucket T/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.

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

On Thursday September 2nd Rick and the Ravens cut a demo in Los Angeles World Pacific Jazz Studios.

Ray's brothers band "Rick and the Ravens" have some free studio time coming from a trade off on an Aura Records deal. As a result The Doors (without Robby Krieger) cut a demo which sounds very little like The Doors with a very young sounding Jim Morrison. The six songs on the demo are all Morrison originals. The band immediately begins to tout the demos locally around LA.
After the three hour session. Jim is reportedly delighted after hearing his voice on a record for the first time.

Line up:-
Ray: piano (Ray had not gotten the 'Doors' organ yet!)
Jim: vocals
John: drums
Rick Manczarek: guitar
Jim Manczarek: harp
Patricia Sullivan: bass guitar


"Moonlight Drive"
"Hello I Love You"
"Summers Almost Gone"
"My Eyes Have Seen You"
"End of The Night"
"Go Insane (A Little Game)"

The 6 track one sided Doors Demo 1965







A couple of days later Jim writes his parents, who are in London, disclosing his plans to sing with the band.
Jim's father, an admiral in the navy, vehemently disagrees with Jim's choice and is very upset with his son.
He writes Jim back conveying his objection while mentioning paying for four years of college, Jim abandoning his piano lessons as a child, never caroling with the family, and most importantly mentioning the band will never amount to anything.
Jim isn't good at taking criticism and never writes his family again!


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.

Before The Doors was ever contemplated Ray Manczarek's brothers band Rick & The Ravens, which featured Ray as Screamin' Ray Daniels, appear on several TV shows during 1965.

9th Street West KHJ-TV Studios LA 15th January 1965

Rick And The Ravens appear on KHJ-TV's 9th Street West television show in mid-January 1965.
Hosted by Sam Riddle, this one hour 'Prime-Time Dance Show' was broadcast live in black and white on channel 9 in Los Angeles, weeknights at 6pm.

Bash KCOP-TV Studios LA 25th March 1965

Rick And The Ravens appear on this one and a half hour television special hosted by KRLA DJ Charlie O'Donnell in early 1965.
The show is recorded and broadcast the next day on channel 13.

Shindig KABC Studios June 1965
In June of 1965, Rick And The Ravens appear on ABC's Shindig! with host Jimmy O'Neill.
This one hour twice-a-week pop program is produced by KABC and features bands such as The Rolling Stones and later The Doors.

[zaval80]

Saw the date "May 6th, 1965" on a Google search. Probably from some bootleg cover. No idea if it amounts to anything, could be somebody's wishful thinking.

[zaval80]

It's interesting that Harry Klusmeyer's name is next to "manager" and not to "agent" which was crossed out. Ray remembered him by name as an agent in his "Myth & Reality" CD. The singles which are considered first are on Aura, while the third one is on "Posae", or was it "Posea" as on some other release, and the producer is a certain Ken Jenkins (not "Jenksons" as on the label, so it looks like some cover-up). Whatever the relationship between Rick's band and Klusmeyer was, they did get some TV work and the recording contract with his involvement, and one could say the music was somewhere on the level with his management, for that band transforming into The Doors they needed to get to another level, which they achieved with the Columbia deal, but the great mystery lies in the details, why Ray's bros blew it, was it their purpose or were they ousted somehow.