Ray Manzarek

Original keyboardist and collaborator with Jim Morrison in the musical group The Doors. He met Jim while they were both students at UCLA's film school.

Both big poetry, literature and music fans, together they came up with the idea of forming a music group to play music whose melody was written by Ray, more or less around Jim's poetry. The rest is music history...

Editors Note:

Ray Manzareck died on May 20, 2013 from cancer, he was 74 years old.

Manzarek's keyboard style was quite phenomenal. Unlike many before, and since, who play chords, Manzarek's was detailed, almost Bachian in the way he led the listener through the rises and falls of the music.

To watch Manzarek in the films and documentaries, is to watch a master's keyboard style. And the machine he played on--so big, bulky, and primitive by today's standards. Just goes to show, that it is not technology, but artistry that determines!

Editors Note:

Ray Manzarek died in France on May 20, 2013 of bile-duct cancer. He was 74 years old.