Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Feb 9, 2005 20:26:36 GMT
Ray Manzarek - Music is Your Special Friend
In one of the first shows of the New Year, Ray Manzarek, the keyboard player for the legendary band, The Doors, made a post holiday sweep through San Francisco. This included a show at The Great American Music Hall. Special guest, SF poet laureate, Michael McClure, joined him on stage for a bit. These two California Love Children have toured several times recently. "We appear together quarterly," says Ray. Two jazzy piano song/poems came towards the end of show that was half stand-up, half music. The near sell out was all over the map age-wise. Baseball caps, berets, Mohawks and dreadlocks all there to get their fires lit.
The finale was a ten-minute story of the writing and recording of "Light My Fire." This very fun, fly-on-the-wall insight revealed this classic started with a homework assignment and grew into a blending of John Coltrane, J.S. Bach and The Mamas and The Papas. And, of course, furiously ended with the mandatory line, "I got it, I got it, I'll give you the chord changes later." The big finish was the audience singing Jim's part to Ray's piano. Try now, we can only lose. The next day included a shot on the ninth anniversary broadcast of NPR's "West Coast Live." Ray got a chance to talk extensively about his new book, a novel, "A Poet in Exile: A Journey in the Mystic." It's not poetry, it's the story of a rock star that fakes his death and comes back. Hmmmmm. And his name Jordan and the keyboardist is named Roy. Hmmmmmmm, again.
But then again, there have been as many books about The Doors as the Kennedy Assassination. Manzarek loves our city and sees it as center for artistic and spiritual revolution as much as ever. Still very much a Flower Child, some may dismiss Manzarek as a pure nostalgia, but the idealism and freedom that fueled The Doors is very much alive in him today. "I'm the same person I was in 1967," Ray said between signing books and telling Rambling Jack Elliot (the other radio guest) what a big fan he was and he couldn't wait to get back to LA so he could tell Robbie Kreiger (Doors guitarist) that he met Robbie's hero. The film, The Doors, came up a lot and Ray's disgust is on record. He insists that Jim Morrison wasn't the dark, dismal, drugged-out nut portrayed by Oliver Stone. "We were hippies and we laughed a lot. Jim was much more educated and articulate than he appeared in that film.
But I think the music transcends the film." It must. Francis Coppola's "Apocalypse Now Redux" has made a lot of the Best Ten lists and surely the opening shot with The Doors song, "The End" softly exploding in the jungle still stands as one of the most memorable uses of rock music in a movie. "He was brilliant with the use of our music in that film. Yeah, that was great." Ray's next stop was Booksmith on Haight Street for a reading and signing that had to be moved to the local library because of the crowd. "Free Arthur Lee" was shouted from the crowd when Ray went through the list of bands that they opened for at the Whiskey a Go Go that included Love, Buffalo Spingfield and The Byrds. He actually didn't do any reading from his book, instead talked freely, much like his show the night before, relating stories and observations about where we came from and where we are going.
He also gave some insight into the sleazy workings of the record industry "Five percent of ninety is what they (Electra Records) signed us for." "Now they charge the artists twenty-five percent for the packaging." The music business is as brutal as ever. But the good stuff is forever. Listening to Chopin or Cole Porter is not driven by nostalgia. When looking at the paintings of Van Gogh you aren't necessarily pining for the South of France in the 19th Century. Morrison's poetry still stands and Manzarek's keyboard work maintains a soft allure. Listening to his stories and songs is like hearing from Vincent's brother, Theo.
Victoria Jane Joyce
In one of the first shows of the New Year, Ray Manzarek, the keyboard player for the legendary band, The Doors, made a post holiday sweep through San Francisco. This included a show at The Great American Music Hall. Special guest, SF poet laureate, Michael McClure, joined him on stage for a bit. These two California Love Children have toured several times recently. "We appear together quarterly," says Ray. Two jazzy piano song/poems came towards the end of show that was half stand-up, half music. The near sell out was all over the map age-wise. Baseball caps, berets, Mohawks and dreadlocks all there to get their fires lit.
The finale was a ten-minute story of the writing and recording of "Light My Fire." This very fun, fly-on-the-wall insight revealed this classic started with a homework assignment and grew into a blending of John Coltrane, J.S. Bach and The Mamas and The Papas. And, of course, furiously ended with the mandatory line, "I got it, I got it, I'll give you the chord changes later." The big finish was the audience singing Jim's part to Ray's piano. Try now, we can only lose. The next day included a shot on the ninth anniversary broadcast of NPR's "West Coast Live." Ray got a chance to talk extensively about his new book, a novel, "A Poet in Exile: A Journey in the Mystic." It's not poetry, it's the story of a rock star that fakes his death and comes back. Hmmmmm. And his name Jordan and the keyboardist is named Roy. Hmmmmmmm, again.
But then again, there have been as many books about The Doors as the Kennedy Assassination. Manzarek loves our city and sees it as center for artistic and spiritual revolution as much as ever. Still very much a Flower Child, some may dismiss Manzarek as a pure nostalgia, but the idealism and freedom that fueled The Doors is very much alive in him today. "I'm the same person I was in 1967," Ray said between signing books and telling Rambling Jack Elliot (the other radio guest) what a big fan he was and he couldn't wait to get back to LA so he could tell Robbie Kreiger (Doors guitarist) that he met Robbie's hero. The film, The Doors, came up a lot and Ray's disgust is on record. He insists that Jim Morrison wasn't the dark, dismal, drugged-out nut portrayed by Oliver Stone. "We were hippies and we laughed a lot. Jim was much more educated and articulate than he appeared in that film.
But I think the music transcends the film." It must. Francis Coppola's "Apocalypse Now Redux" has made a lot of the Best Ten lists and surely the opening shot with The Doors song, "The End" softly exploding in the jungle still stands as one of the most memorable uses of rock music in a movie. "He was brilliant with the use of our music in that film. Yeah, that was great." Ray's next stop was Booksmith on Haight Street for a reading and signing that had to be moved to the local library because of the crowd. "Free Arthur Lee" was shouted from the crowd when Ray went through the list of bands that they opened for at the Whiskey a Go Go that included Love, Buffalo Spingfield and The Byrds. He actually didn't do any reading from his book, instead talked freely, much like his show the night before, relating stories and observations about where we came from and where we are going.
He also gave some insight into the sleazy workings of the record industry "Five percent of ninety is what they (Electra Records) signed us for." "Now they charge the artists twenty-five percent for the packaging." The music business is as brutal as ever. But the good stuff is forever. Listening to Chopin or Cole Porter is not driven by nostalgia. When looking at the paintings of Van Gogh you aren't necessarily pining for the South of France in the 19th Century. Morrison's poetry still stands and Manzarek's keyboard work maintains a soft allure. Listening to his stories and songs is like hearing from Vincent's brother, Theo.
Victoria Jane Joyce