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Mark Jamieson as Ray Manzarek |
When I first started playing the keyboard, I didn’t have dreams of being a professional keyboard player or even learning anything about proper technique or song structure…until I heard The Doors. I had listened to Doors songs on the radio before, but never really heard what was going on inside of them. Somebody gave me a Doors tape one day and said, you have to hear this. I listened to it, and this time actually heard the songs for the first time. Jim Morrison’s baritone poetry, John Densmore’s jazzy drumming, Robby Kreiger’s liquid guitar and Ray Manzarek’s classically driven keyboard. From that point on I was hooked. Ray Manzarek’s keyboard style was a completely different take on the instrument than anything that I had heard before in rock music. The keyboard was used as a real, melodic instrument, not showy or pretentious, and not just the background chords behind the guitar. Growing up in a world that pointed to the guitar as being the most important, if not the only instrument worth playing, this was a glimmer of hope to a young keyboard player. Then I heard that not only was Manzarek playing those amazing organ parts, but he was also playing all of the bass parts on another keyboard with his left hand. That settled it, if I was really going to be serious about being a keyboard player, I just HAD to be able to play like THAT. I guess I liked a challenge.
From that point on I gathered all of the recordings of The Doors that I could find. I tried to learn every part, every note of every organ passage and bassline. I starting with the studio albums, then the live albums and then the unofficial "import" albums. I wanted to hear it all, and I still do. This quest has lead to a CD collection of The Doors that numbers well over 100. Every show that I listen to adds at least one more idea, or piece to the already huge musical puzzle that was a live Doors show.
The Doors live shows and concert recordings are documents of a time and place in history. To me these rare concert performances are really what The Doors are all about. This is not to take away from The Doors classic and legendary studio albums, but the live show is what concert going fans actually got to see. Rarely did a song sound the same as the night before, let alone the studio version. It wasn’t that they couldn’t play the songs exactly like the record every time, they chose not to. The Doors saw their songs in a constant state of growth, always changing, always evolving. They had the ability to connect with a crowd by expanding and experimenting with songs to entertain those people, that night. Instead of giving the people what they had already heard, they gave them more music, more poetry, more solo’s, more theatrics, more passion. More of everything, and much more than anyone expected. It wasn’t always perfect, and sometimes got pretty dark…But that’s why we’re still talking about The Doors today. |
Stage Gear |
1965 Gold Sparkle Fender Rhodes Piano Bass (V-301J, V-301H)
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Contact • mark@doorstribute.com |
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