Ray Manzarek
Raymond Daniel Manzarek Jr. (né Manczarek; February 12, 1939 – May 20, 2013) was an American keyboardist. He is best known as a member of the rock band the Doors, co-founding the group in 1965 with fellow UCLA Film School student Jim Morrison. Manzarek is credited for his innovative playing and abilities on organ-style keyboard instruments.
Ray Manzarek
May 20, 2013 (aged 74)
- Musician
- songwriter
1959–2013
1
- Keyboards
- vocals
Manzarek was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993 as a Doors member. He was a co-founding member of Nite City from 1977 to 1978 and of Manzarek–Krieger from 2001 until he died in 2013. USA Today described him as "one of the best keyboardists ever".[3]
Biography[edit]
Early life[edit]
Raymond Daniel Manczarek Jr. was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois. He was born to parents of Polish descent,[4] Helena Kolenda[5] (1918–2012) and Raymond Manczarek Sr. (1914–1986).[6][7] His grandparents emigrated from Poland in the 1890s.[8]
Upon graduating from St. Rita of Cascia High School in 1956,[9] Manzarek matriculated at DePaul University, where he played piano in his fraternity's jazz band (the Beta Pi Mu Combo), participated in intramural football, served as treasurer of the Speech Club, and organized a charity concert with Sonny Rollins and Dave Brubeck.[10] He graduated from the University's College of Commerce with a degree in economics in 1960.[10]
In late 1961, Manzarek briefly enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law. Unable to acclimate to the curriculum, he transferred to the Department of Motion Pictures, Television and Radio as a graduate student before dropping out after breaking up with a girlfriend.[11] Although he attempted to enlist in the Army Signal Corps as a camera operator, he was instead assigned to the highly selective Army Security Agency as a prospective intelligence analyst.[12]
The Doors[edit]
Manzarak re-enrolled in UCLA's graduate film program in 1962, receiving a Master of Fine Arts degree in cinematography in 1965.[13][14] During this period, he met future wife Dorothy Fujikawa and undergraduate film student Jim Morrison. At the time, Manzarek was in a band called Rick & the Ravens with his brothers Rick and Jim.[15] Forty days after finishing film school, thinking they had gone their separate ways, Manzarek and Morrison met by chance on Venice Beach in California. Morrison said he had written some songs, and Manzarek expressed an interest in hearing them, whereupon Morrison sang rough versions of "Moonlight Drive", "My Eyes Have Seen You," and "Summer's Almost Gone".[16] During this time, Manzarek also met teenage guitarist Robby Krieger and drummer John Densmore at a Transcendental Meditation lecture and recruited them for the incipient band. Densmore said, "There wouldn't be any Doors without Maharishi."[17]
Details are taken from AllMusic.[34]
The Doors
Solo
Nite City
With X
With Piotr Bal
With Echo & the Bunnymen
With Michael McClure
With Darryl Read
With Roy Rogers
Spoken word
With "Weird Al" Yankovic
With poet Michael C. Ford