Talk:Ray Manzarek

Influence

added a tidbit about his influence on keyboardists, in almost all music circles he is highly regarded as one of the best keyboardists of all time. To leave the majority of this article about his post doors work i felt would be to diminish his contribution to what remains one of the greatest bands of all time. --Cptbuck 22:30, 1 September 2005 (UTC)

• While I do not doubt the veracity of the above commentator; from a musician's point of view Manzarek is definitely not a very good keyboard player. To crown Manzarek a virtuoso(!) -- a title to which he has slim to no merit -- is something that belongs in a hagiography, not an encyclopedic article. A fine musician? Sure. A virtuoso? Nope. "Highly regarded as one of the best keyboardists of all time"? Not a chance. Tirolion (talk) 19:32, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

No photo?

Is it just me or has wikipedia totally gone down the tubes? Somebody should get a photo of this legend a.s.a.p.

Bruno Michelotti

The text says he studied with Bruno Michelotti. Who is that? It's a fairly obscure name so there should be something in the text that explains who he is. I don't know anything about him except that he was a piano and theory teacher who taught Ray Manazarek as well as jazz great Jim McNeely. Could we have a sentence or two to say who he is or people will think he's a famous person they don't happen to recognize. You run into this sort of problem on Wikipedia all the time. 75.48.22.62 (talk) 21:29, 27 November 2010 (UTC)

Where does he live?

Article says he relocated to "San Francisco" after remodeling a house in "Napa" (which is 50 miles from SF). Now its possible that he does live in SF and has a house in Napa as well, but the article is very unclear about it.

Date of birth

According to various interviews, Manzarek was born either in 1935, 1939, or 1941. The Rock'n'roll Hall of Fame gives 1935 as the year when "Ray Manzarek was born", and Ray's photos with The Doors show a man in his thirties. All of this may mean that Manzarek was uncomfortable about his age and tried to conceal it. --AlexMyltsev 19:09, 30 October 2005 (UTC)

I wonder whether it will finally be revealed that his year of birth was actually 1935. Nothing so far has seemingly come to light, but I suspect it will within the next few days. Bless him anyway.

Derek R Bullamore (talk) 23:29, 20 May 2013 (UTC)

Bass pedals

"Many falsely percieved that he played bass pedals, but the bass lines that aren't bass guitar that you hear on songs by The Doors, are much too diffucult for bass pedals."

I don't think there should be a comma after "The Doors." Commas are used to break-up clauses in sentences. The reader should be able to remove the section that reads "but the basslines that aren't bass guitar that you hear on the songs by The Doors" without creating a nonsensical sentence. That is not the case. Also, "diffucult" is misspelt.

ya know, if you see a brief sentence that could be rewritten, it's probably not necessary to stick it on the talk page. Joeyramoney 23:31, 14 May 2006 (UTC)

Trivia: Cassandra Michael

Hi. I'm going to remove the trivia bit that claims that Ray Manzarek is dating someone called Cassandra Michael. Ray is a happily married man of 40 years standing (married to Dorothy). Such gossip - shocking! lol. Seriously, until sourced, such malicious rumours are just plain libelous! If someone else can source it, then please put it back in with sourcing of course. Thanks!

--Daniel-James 20:39, 18 December 2006 (GMT)

Manzarek's movie

I don't see a mention of Manzarek's debut as film director and co-screenwriter, fulfilling a lifelong ambition of his since his film school days when he met Jim Morrison: "Love Her Madly" (2000). From Manzarek's web site: "directed by and mated to a soundtrack scored by Doors keyboard wizard, Ray Manzarek, Love Her Madly christens a new millennial genre; hip-hop Hitchcock." (http://www.raymanzarek.us/madly2.html) According to IMDB: 1.9 stars, "Truly awful." As the title at least came from a Doors song, I wonder if this movie should be mentioned on the Doors band article as well. From Manzarek's site: "In fact, Love Her Madly brings together Manzarek's musical and movie dreams. It's somewhat of a Morrison tribute, given that it's based on one of his short stories and offers new insight into the meaning of the Doors' hit by the same title." On Amazon.com: a pair of 1 star reviews, one starts: "This movie is simply a vehicle for Ray Manazarik to yet again exploit his association with The Doors. It was painful to watch and if it weren't for the 34B's that were shown abundantly throughout the movie I don't think that I would have made it to the end credits. This is softporn masked as a serious independant film from a man who should know better." There's also a single five star review: "This film is a great piece of work by Ray. It was well written, screen cast was great and needless to say, the music was well played. I won't tell anything of the movie except that it is well worth watching." Not enough reviews for a RottenTomatoes.com rating. VisitorTalk 18:19, 3 September 2007 (UTC)

use of quotes in describing his organ

I think the use of quotes is redundant when talking about his organ--sticked and down. Those terms are common words for what was occurring. If someone feels a need to use a quote for the article's integrity, it would make more sense to use a full quote with a citation rather than using single quoted words. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.201.152.216 (talk) 22:29, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

instruments

ray also can play guitar, or he wouldn't do so for six minutes on a track of this album:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_in_Boston_(Doors_album)

he also played lead on a reprise of carol in another concert, don#t remember which at the moment.

so guitar should be added. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.196.240.184 (talk) 08:56, 4 June 2009 (UTC)

Basketball

"... but he only wanted to play power forward or center." Maybe that means something, but since I know nothing about the game, I find it only confusing and slightly annoying. Can we have those terms hypertexted so the millions upon millions of people who do not know basketball can be informed. There's a certain provincialism in this sort of mistake that rankles me. 75.48.22.62 (talk) 21:34, 27 November 2010 (UTC)

Trivia section

This has been highlighted as Trivia since 2009, so I have removed it. Parked here until further notice.

• His birth name was Raymond Daniel Manczarek. The c was dropped in 1966 when he, Jim Morrison, Robby Krieger, and John Densmore signed with Elektra as The Doors.
• Ray wore (and still wears) glasses that are typical of the 1960s.
• In Oliver Stone's biopic The Doors, Manzarek was played by Kyle MacLachlan. Ray has gone on record as saying he enjoyed the performance although he despised the movie, calling it "insidious" in his book.
• The first Doors album included a cover of "Alabama Song," from a 1930s German opera called The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill. This cover resulted from Manzarek's playing a record of that opera, sung by Lotte Lenya, to Jim Morrison, and suggesting that The Doors do a rock version of the song.
• The solos in "Light My Fire" are based on John Coltrane's "My Favorite Things." Other examples: a Thelonious Monk line from "Straight, No Chaser" appears in "We Could Be So Good Together", the opening organ passage of "When The Music's Over" is inspired by Herbie Hancock's "Canteloupe Island," and finally the organ solo in "Take It As It Comes" is inspired by Bach. During a May 2006 public performance, Manzarek named Erik Satie as an influence.
• He is known for playing the keyboard while shaking his head and not looking at the keys.
• In a televised interview, Manzarek advised listeners to "open the doors of consciousness... but stay away from white powder!"
• He played "some Psychedelic Guy from the Sixties" in Body or Brain's music video Be What You Can Be" --BweeB (talk) 20:05, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

Death of Ray Manzarek

Confirmed on TheDoors.com, their official site Source. Lilduff90 (talk) 21:28, 20 May 2013 (UTC)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/publicist-ray-manzarek-founding-member-of-the-doors-dies-at-74-from-cancer/2013/05/20/2dec0d86-c193-11e2-9aa6-fc21ae807a8a_story.html — Preceding unsigned comment added by Le dragon (talk • contribs) 21:29, 20 May 2013 (UTC)

Are you sure? Death hoax. Esowteric+Talk 21:40, 20 May 2013 (UTC)

While the Washington Post may fall for the occasional hoax, I find it incredibly unlikely that the Doors' website would have. Whatever Mediamass is, it isn't as reliable as either the Doors' website or the Washington Post. I hope it turns out to be a hoax, but it's being reported by major news outlets now. Evanh2008 ^{(talk|contribs)} 21:45, 20 May 2013 (UTC)

It appears that the Mediamass report is itself a hoax, and is linked to several other Manzarek-related hoaxes on the same site. DoctorJoeE ^{review transgressions}/_{talk to me!} 21:49, 20 May 2013 (UTC)

Jeez. Thanks. Esowteric+Talk 21:53, 20 May 2013 (UTC)

Um... the Doors site has retracted the death notice. Can't find it. Link is down, nothing on news page. Could be the webmaster is just a fan or employee who trusted WAPost? Richard 50.47.233.203 (talk) 22:18, 20 May 2013 (UTC)

Looks like their website has crashed, not a retraction. Evanh2008 ^{(talk|contribs)} 22:20, 20 May 2013 (UTC)

Yeah, you get the same error message no matter what page on the site you try to visit. Too much traffic too quickly. Evanh2008 ^{(talk|contribs)} 22:22, 20 May 2013 (UTC)

It's definitely not a hoax: this is his official website [1]. Very sad day for Doors fans. :( Doc talk 22:35, 20 May 2013 (UTC)

For anybody, really. I interviewed him once, many years ago, in California. A very nice man, and very gracious, even to nobodies like me. DoctorJoeE ^{review transgressions}/_{talk to me!} 22:45, 20 May 2013 (UTC)

I saw him in a backstage tent in 2001 at the Gathering Of the Vibes. I was drunk, yelling "Hey, Rayman!" for some reason. He smiled and waved at me. My friend got to talk to him and said the same thing: he was a really nice guy to a nobody like him. Doc talk 22:59, 20 May 2013 (UTC)

"Find-A-Grave"

I have removed an attempt to include this external link for a second time. It is fairly easy to prove that this site falls under the first point of WP:ELNEVER. The images of Manzarek (particularly the older one) are not owned by the uploader at "Find-A-Grave", and they have absolutely no authority to proclaim the following: "Once photos have been posted, feel free to use them as you wish - photo credit isn't necessary." This site hosts copyrighted material that they have no right to, and consequently no article on Wikipedia should have this site as an external link. Doc talk 22:49, 6 June 2013 (UTC)

I'm not opining if the link belongs or not, but Template:Find a Grave addresses the issue to determine if it is appropriate or not (it appears to be on a case by case basis.) Links to copyvios are definitely not allowed, which may be the case with this article. Bahooka (talk) 22:58, 6 June 2013 (UTC)

Not only is it a copyvio, the clown who uploaded is is illegally making it "free to use". Atrocious, and a perfect example of why this site is garbage: they allow it to happen. Linking to them reflects poorly on us, IMHO. Doc talk 23:04, 6 June 2013 (UTC)

Riders on the Storm

I think Ray's fluid and inspired keyboard artistry in this song is just superb. Hestiabhn (talk) 16:41, 24 March 2017 (UTC)

Densmore

The article has the sentence "During that time he reconciled with John Densmore, ... ", but I don't see anything in the article that says they were mad at each other, or anything like that. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 03:36, 27 February 2020 (UTC)

I caught this, too. I'm wondering if it's related to Densmore suing Manzarek and Krieger for using the Doors name. See, for example Manzarek–Krieger. DaveDixon (talk) 23:03, 28 November 2020 (UTC)

I also just caught this. There is no reference anywhere in the article to any kind of rift or rupture between Manzarek and Densmore. This is atrocious. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jonball52 (talk • contribs) 04:10, 16 August 2022 (UTC)

Ray Manzarek had a net worth of $25 million dollars at the time of his death.

Last spotted playing his heart out in a downtown pub located in Mobile Alabama Feb 4th 2001."He seemed down on his luck having succumbed to playing for pennies"

The Doors were a "democratic" band and split the money four ways. I'm sure the sale of Doors records kept him well off. Maybe Ray just liked playing. 74.12.78.254 (talk) 15:01, 9 March 2021 (UTC)

Pronunciation

Where does the stress fall in his surname? Thanks. Martinevans123 (talk) 17:31, 1 November 2021 (UTC)