Post by darkstar3 on Aug 4, 2011 12:39:09 GMT
Calgary Herald
By Mike Bell, Calgary Herald August 3, 2011
Doors’ Ray Manzarek Still Breaking On Through
1960s holdout opens up about his famous former band, current projects
A conversation with Ray Manzarek is everything it should be, everything you would want it to be and more.He is the unrepentant ‘60s holdout, one of the few who didn’t turn his back on the Summer of Love ideals or his art, for that matter, despite being in a position to do so thanks to a catalogue of hits that inhabit radio playlists and record collections the world over.
So, instead of portfolios and tax brackets, during a lively 30-minute phone call from his home in northern California, the co-founder of seminal American rock act The Doors talks about everything including: the 40th anniversary of the death of his friend and Doors frontman Jim Morrison; recent musical collaborations including guesting on a “Weird Al” Yankovic record (the two are pals); the ideas of perception, the power of psychedelics, reincarnation, chakras and Chinese horoscopes; the passing of Amy Winehouse (she died, like Morrison and other musical greats, at the age of 27); and the abundance of amanita muscaria in Russia (he recently made his first trip there) — all with a healthy sprinkling of “man”s punctuating the conversation.
At the age of 72 Ray Manzarek is a free man, man, and he’s loving the hell out of it.
“I get to do whatever I want,” he agrees with a generous laugh. “The Doors allowed me the freedom to pick and choose and, as an artist, what could be better? You can pick and choose and do whatever you want, invent whatever you want, and if it makes money, great, if not, so what. The ongoing legacy of the Doors — the one thing that people don’t like to talk about — we do continue to get paid. . . . You do like to have something to fall back on for that rainy day, and there has been no rainy days ever since Light My Fire.”
“So I’m having a grand time.”
Manzarek will share his good times with Calgarians, as the keyboardist returns to the city tonight for the blues festival with his project with slide guitarist Roy Rogers. The pair were hooked up with one another five years ago through the agent they share, with he seeing in the two accomplished artists a possible musical kinship.
The two veteran players clicked immediately and, since then, the collaboration has yielded a pair of albums — including the latest release Translucent Blues — featuring what Manzarek calls “21st Century blues.”
For him, it’s an opportunity to return to his childhood growing up on the southside of Chicago, where he first cut his musical chops.
It also allows him to use with the compositions lyrics by poet friends such as beat poet Michael McClure, as well as the late Jim Carroll and Warren Zevon.
Of course, Manzarek’s history of working with wordsmiths who left the world before their time is a huge part of his legacy, considering he will forever be inextricably linked with the man considered rock ’n’ roll’s pre-eminent poet, Jim Morrison. Thanks to the Doors frontman’s untimely death in a Paris on July 3, 1971 at that ripe young age, the band, the music it made in its brief eight-year career, and Morrison, himself, remain one of that era’s most enduring and iconic rock acts.
It’s an odd position to be in — being a witness and survivor to a pop culture touchstone which is still the subject of so much legend and lore — but Manzarek, who’s had his say with his Light My Fire autobiography, handles it the only way he knows how.
“I don’t pay any attention to it — I’m on the inside of it,” he says. “I made music with a band called the Doors. And now I’m making music with Roy Rogers. That’s all we do, we make music. And the myths that develop are from viewing the band from the outside ... I have to debunk a lot of insane things but it gives me a laugh some of the bizarre tales.”
The most outlandish story he’s heard about the Doors is a variation on the infamous incident surrounding the Lizard King, which alleges that he exposed himself onstage in Miami. As related to him by a pair of drunk surfer guys, not only did Morrison apparently drop trou, he then proceeded to defecate in front of the crowd.
“I get a laugh out of things like that are so gross.” Manzarek’s past is always something that’s difficult to ignore, for both the musician and his audience, but it’s always made even more so when a significant milestone passes, as it did last month when the world marked the 40th anniversary of Morrison’s death. Manzarek and fellow Doors alum, guitarist Robbie Krieger, made the pilgrimage to Paris, including the Pere Lachaise Cemetery, and also performed some of their older material although, thanks to a legal spat with drummer John Densmore, not under their old moniker.
“It’s always a celebration,” Manzarek says of any get-together, although he’s quick to point out that it’s merely a number connotating the passage of time, such as it is. “It’s only my wife and I, our anniversary is important, and my son’s birthday is important, and the grandkids’ birthdays are important but that’s it ...
“Once you open the doors of perception you live in a different world. LSD opens the doors, hallucinogenics open the doors of perception, and you live in a different time and a different world.”
Still, he admits there’s always a good thing that transpires from marking a Morrison anniversary. “I like the fact that people are once again re-evaluating the Doors. I’ve been through, f--k I don’t know, I’ve been through at least a half-dozen re-evaluations of the Doors. And it always comes out the same: ‘Hey, they were pretty good. They’re actually good.’ ”
Ray Manzarek plays with the Manzarek-Rogers Band Thursday as part of the Calgary International Blues Festival at Shaw Millennium Park. The festival runs until Sunday. Visit calgarybluesfest.com for more information.
www.calgaryherald.com/entertainment/Manzarek+still+breaking+through/5201536/story.html
By Mike Bell, Calgary Herald August 3, 2011
Doors’ Ray Manzarek Still Breaking On Through
1960s holdout opens up about his famous former band, current projects
A conversation with Ray Manzarek is everything it should be, everything you would want it to be and more.He is the unrepentant ‘60s holdout, one of the few who didn’t turn his back on the Summer of Love ideals or his art, for that matter, despite being in a position to do so thanks to a catalogue of hits that inhabit radio playlists and record collections the world over.
So, instead of portfolios and tax brackets, during a lively 30-minute phone call from his home in northern California, the co-founder of seminal American rock act The Doors talks about everything including: the 40th anniversary of the death of his friend and Doors frontman Jim Morrison; recent musical collaborations including guesting on a “Weird Al” Yankovic record (the two are pals); the ideas of perception, the power of psychedelics, reincarnation, chakras and Chinese horoscopes; the passing of Amy Winehouse (she died, like Morrison and other musical greats, at the age of 27); and the abundance of amanita muscaria in Russia (he recently made his first trip there) — all with a healthy sprinkling of “man”s punctuating the conversation.
At the age of 72 Ray Manzarek is a free man, man, and he’s loving the hell out of it.
“I get to do whatever I want,” he agrees with a generous laugh. “The Doors allowed me the freedom to pick and choose and, as an artist, what could be better? You can pick and choose and do whatever you want, invent whatever you want, and if it makes money, great, if not, so what. The ongoing legacy of the Doors — the one thing that people don’t like to talk about — we do continue to get paid. . . . You do like to have something to fall back on for that rainy day, and there has been no rainy days ever since Light My Fire.”
“So I’m having a grand time.”
Manzarek will share his good times with Calgarians, as the keyboardist returns to the city tonight for the blues festival with his project with slide guitarist Roy Rogers. The pair were hooked up with one another five years ago through the agent they share, with he seeing in the two accomplished artists a possible musical kinship.
The two veteran players clicked immediately and, since then, the collaboration has yielded a pair of albums — including the latest release Translucent Blues — featuring what Manzarek calls “21st Century blues.”
For him, it’s an opportunity to return to his childhood growing up on the southside of Chicago, where he first cut his musical chops.
It also allows him to use with the compositions lyrics by poet friends such as beat poet Michael McClure, as well as the late Jim Carroll and Warren Zevon.
Of course, Manzarek’s history of working with wordsmiths who left the world before their time is a huge part of his legacy, considering he will forever be inextricably linked with the man considered rock ’n’ roll’s pre-eminent poet, Jim Morrison. Thanks to the Doors frontman’s untimely death in a Paris on July 3, 1971 at that ripe young age, the band, the music it made in its brief eight-year career, and Morrison, himself, remain one of that era’s most enduring and iconic rock acts.
It’s an odd position to be in — being a witness and survivor to a pop culture touchstone which is still the subject of so much legend and lore — but Manzarek, who’s had his say with his Light My Fire autobiography, handles it the only way he knows how.
“I don’t pay any attention to it — I’m on the inside of it,” he says. “I made music with a band called the Doors. And now I’m making music with Roy Rogers. That’s all we do, we make music. And the myths that develop are from viewing the band from the outside ... I have to debunk a lot of insane things but it gives me a laugh some of the bizarre tales.”
The most outlandish story he’s heard about the Doors is a variation on the infamous incident surrounding the Lizard King, which alleges that he exposed himself onstage in Miami. As related to him by a pair of drunk surfer guys, not only did Morrison apparently drop trou, he then proceeded to defecate in front of the crowd.
“I get a laugh out of things like that are so gross.” Manzarek’s past is always something that’s difficult to ignore, for both the musician and his audience, but it’s always made even more so when a significant milestone passes, as it did last month when the world marked the 40th anniversary of Morrison’s death. Manzarek and fellow Doors alum, guitarist Robbie Krieger, made the pilgrimage to Paris, including the Pere Lachaise Cemetery, and also performed some of their older material although, thanks to a legal spat with drummer John Densmore, not under their old moniker.
“It’s always a celebration,” Manzarek says of any get-together, although he’s quick to point out that it’s merely a number connotating the passage of time, such as it is. “It’s only my wife and I, our anniversary is important, and my son’s birthday is important, and the grandkids’ birthdays are important but that’s it ...
“Once you open the doors of perception you live in a different world. LSD opens the doors, hallucinogenics open the doors of perception, and you live in a different time and a different world.”
Still, he admits there’s always a good thing that transpires from marking a Morrison anniversary. “I like the fact that people are once again re-evaluating the Doors. I’ve been through, f--k I don’t know, I’ve been through at least a half-dozen re-evaluations of the Doors. And it always comes out the same: ‘Hey, they were pretty good. They’re actually good.’ ”
Ray Manzarek plays with the Manzarek-Rogers Band Thursday as part of the Calgary International Blues Festival at Shaw Millennium Park. The festival runs until Sunday. Visit calgarybluesfest.com for more information.
www.calgaryherald.com/entertainment/Manzarek+still+breaking+through/5201536/story.html