Dave never played the intro right and though it was a relatively simple harmonic progression, it was Manzareks jazzy feel and sense of fluidity that made the keyboard riff so difficult to emulate. We listened to that first Doors album over and over and over but to no avail. We practiced in my parents garage where I had set up a little record player. Which isnt to imply that I didnt totally butcher Robby Kriegers guitar parts and that my solo was so bad that it deserved to be condemned - but were talking about keyboard players here so thats where the focus will remain. We had a keyboardist≺dams had either a Roland Juno 106 or Yamaha DX7and consequently we tried to learn Light My Fire. Dave was not a good musician and he tried but try as he might, he could simply never cop the feel, notes or phrasing of the Ray Manzarek riff that opened the song. It was a group Id formed with some friends - Eric Sinclair on bass and vocals, Steve Doctrow on drums and Dave Adams on keyboards - and we played at various school functions and at some church socials. I was playing guitar in a band called Headwaters back in 1969. However, if you had a keyboard player in your bandthat was a rarity because there werent many electric keyboards around and virtually no high school kid could afford onethere was one song you really had to include in your repertoire: the Doors Light My Fire. If you played at a party or a school dance, you were expected to play it and if you didnt people asked for it and if you didnt know it you were screwed. Besides that, they were relatively easy songs to get down and even if you were still a struggling guitar player or drummer, you were able to come up with versions that sounded relatively decent. These were songs that had been played on the radio thousands of times and every band huddled in a neighborhood garage somewhere had to learn them. You had to play Creams Sunshine Of Your Love and ∻orn on the Bayou or Proud Mary by Creedence Clearwater Revival. Dude, if you didnt play these, your band sucked. If you were playing in a rock band doing covers anytime between 19, there were certain songs you had to play. It’s within that context, as well as the 50th anniversary of the band’s legendary 1976 debut album, that we present Steve Rosen’s recollections of Ray Manzarek below. Januwas christened The Day of the Doors in Venice, California - and surviving members John Densmore and Robby Krieger were on-hand for a fun event streamed live on the band’s Facebook page.
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