Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

Tonight at the Crystal Ballroom, in Portland, OR, where the Grateful Dead and Quicksilver Messenger Service played in '68, Ray Manzarek and Robbie Krieger of the DOORS. (That's what it says on the tickets lol)

Oh man, this is gonna be great.

I have severe hearing damage.

I think my right eardrum is broken. Seriously.

And my throat is raw.

I think this might have been the best concert I've ever been to.

Manzanek was the keyboard player and the composer of some of the songs, no? (I´m not too much well versed on the Doors, but I like them! ). And raw garganta: I guess that means you enjoyed it!!

Keyboard player, yes. Composer? I don't know. Jim wrote most of the lyrics, but not all. Robbie wrote Light My Fire, contrary to popular belief.

Ray and Jim went to UCLA together, to the cinematography school there. Francis Ford Coppola - directed Apocalypse Now http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078788/ - was a classmate, graduated a year ahead of them, I think. Afterward, Ray ran into Jim on the beach in Venice, California, so the legend goes. Ray asked Jim what he had been up to since school. Jim said, "writing songs." He sang the first verses of Moonlight Drive to Ray. Ray was blown away. Ray had a group called Rick and the Ravens with his brother. Ray said to Jim, we should form a group and get rich.

The rest is history.

I remember singing Light My Fire to myself while riding my trike when I was four. The second record I ever bought, when I was six, was Riders on the Storm, the 45, before Jim died. I've been a DOORS fan as long as I can remember, just about. Last night was the living of a dream for me.

Yes, to understate, I enjoyed it. SueZen and I both did.

Peace,
Barry
PS: Jim picked the name of the group, from The Doors of Perception, by Aldous Huxley, who also wrote Brave New World. Aldous Huxley died of cancer on November 22nd, 1963, the year I was born, the same day JFK was shot in Dallas, Texas.