Exit Door

MANY words will be devoted to the life and career of The Doors' Ray Manzarek, who was carried off by cancer of the bile duct this morning at the age of 72. Few, however, will note his finest quality, which was finding the patience to put up with Jim Morrison, who must have been an extraordinarily annoying co-worker. Indeed, you could argue that much of what is distasteful and unpleasant in the conduct of today's youngsters first crystalised in the antics of the amateur pharmacologist and alleged poet. Loud, abrasive, rude and habitually intemperate, Morrison marked that sad transition from the days of responsible substance abuse, when getting bent was done quietly and in private, to the era when deficiencies of character are paraded as transgressive virtues.

All the same, and despite his enduring admiration for a man who extended his adolescence to the age of 28, Manzarek  was an interesting fellow. In the video below he describes the genesis of Riders on the Storm. Who knew it started as a cowboy song?