Ray Manzarek remembered by Doors bandmates, rockers
The surviving member of The Doors are remembering their bandmate, Ray Manzarek, who died Monday in Rosenheim, Germany. The keyboardist, who was a founding member of The Doors, lost his battle with bile duct cancer. He was 74.
Both drummer John Densmore and guitarist Robby Krieger have spoken up about the loss, and while doing so, remembered Doors frontman Jim Morrison, who died in 1971.
Densmore wrote: "There was no keyboard player on the planet more appropriate to support Jim Morrison's words. Ray, I felt totally in sync with you musically. It was like we were of one mind, holding down the foundation for Robby and Jim to float on top of. I will miss my musical brother."
Krieger posted the following statement: "Ray Manzarek and Jim Morrison were the two most unusual people I have ever known. It didn't take long to realize this about Jim. He was obviously a genius, and he worked hard at being different. Did a good job of it too. Ray on the other hand, was a late bloomer. I guess it took all of his [and our ] energies to keep Jim in line. The real Ray didn't appear until after Jim was gone. He was constantly doing projects with different people, producing, playing with different poets. He always saw the good side of people, and that was his genius. He was the only guy at UCLA that saw something good about Jim. Everyone else thought of Jim as a phony or worse. He saw the genius of Jim's words and the rest is history. Ray sure did influence my life, and I hope yours to. I'll always be grateful to John for introducing me to Ray and Jim, and I'll never forget them."
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