Rating: 
Summary: Great Book!
Review: "We don't know what happened to Jim Morrison in Paris," Ray Manzarek insists in his autobiographical memoir of Morrison and the Doors, titled, perhaps inevitably, "Light My Fire." "To be honest, I don't think we're ever going to know. Rumors, innuendoes, self-serving lies, psychic projections to justify inner needs and maladies, and just plain goofiness cloud the truth." Manzarek was "musical leader" and keyboard player for The Doors, but his book, as it must be, is overwhelmingly about crazed, quixotic, muddle-headed Jim. "It really doesn't matter how an artist exits on the planet," Manzarek thinks. "It's the ART ... that matters. It's only the art that matters ... For me, that's what making music is all about. Plucking the notes out of the void. And for Jim it was about plucking the words out of the ether ... Images. Deep and penetrating. Confessional. Sometimes mundane, often profound. Never without meaning." Manzarek and Morrison met at the UCLA Film School in 1963, and much if not all of "Light My Fire" concerns the powerful, quasi-mystic bond the two men formed as students. Morrison came to California from swampy Florida and Manzarek from Chicago, but both had read the same books, seen the same movies and dreamed the same dreams. Morrison was "in love with the possibility that he could be an artist," Manzarek says. "In love with the idea of freedom! Freedom of expression, freedom of thought." Although Manzarek has written a conventional narrative that includes his own childhood and the multiple peregrinations of the four Doors up until Morrison's death in 1971, it is to Jim the Artist, Jim the Poet, Jim the Prophet that he always returns, writing in a tone so elegiac and in prose so thick with wonder it begins to fog your brain -- appropriately enough, when you think about the Doors. The band's life was short, and the mystique that still attaches to its name is in the nature of an urban legend. The bulk of the Doors' work seems badly dated, and the cultlike following they still enjoy says more about nostalgia than about music. "We were inside the song," Manzarek writes of the Doors' first musical session in Santa Monica. "And we were inside each other. We had given ourselves over to the rhythm, the chord changes, and the words. We had let go of our individual egos and surrendered to one another in the music ... There was only the music. The diamond was formed and it was clear and hard and luminous." Almost any page of "Light My Fire" contains similarly high-flown riffs: "We'll never make art again. We'll never make love on stage again. Jim and I will never do our Dionysius-and-Apollo dichotomy thing again." Manzarek writes of Morrison as an almost diagnosable split personality -- good boy/bad boy, "Jim" and "Jimbo" -- and attributes Morrison's drug-soaked demise plain and simple to "that rotter, Jimbo. The Doppelgänger." It's as convincing a description of a whacked-out artist as any other. And when he isn't eulogizing, or lambasting Oliver Stone, or lamenting the triumph of materialism in America, Manzarek provides a reliable inside account of the Doors and their era. We may not ever find out what happened in Paris, but there's enough rock history here to keep Manzarek on the shelves. All in All, This was a wonderful book to read.
Rating: 
Summary: disappointing
Review: Manzarak impresses me as the dork who thinks he's hip if he "talks cool." I'm a Doors freak, but all the hippy-dippy language is silly. And he slams John Densmore again and again. Apparently Densmore slammed Manzarek in HIS book RIDERS ON THE STORM, and Manzarek got his revenge with this one. But I read RIDERS ON THE STORM and I only recall one dig about Densmore rolling his eyes at Manzerak treating the Doors like a religion. But this book has dig after dig after dig against Densmore. Apparently the Doors have considered touring with stand in singers, but the one thing interfering is Densmore's upset at this book. So Manzerak may have sabatoged that tour and can only blame himself. I actually saw Ray Manzerak play piano and tell stories at Muldoon's Irish Pub last year in Newport Beach, and he told interesting stories and only complimented the other Doors. I was bracing myself for him to slam Densmore as in this book. But he was very nice, and it was a great afternoon, and I really regret that the tone he took that afternoon, was not the tone he took in this book.
Rating:
Summary: Call me hypercritical, but...
Review: it seems like Manzarek was a bit dried up on ideas for this book. You encouter the name "Dionysus" in one form or another twice per page minimum, along with various other coy references to deities and mythos. Manzareks' obssession with the whole 60s drug culture comes through loud and clear in his frequent rants (once about ever five pages) about legalization and the "Doors of Perception" according to Houxsley and his pills. The book could be more adequately titled "Jim Morrison and My General Thoughts on Society." Though the book has no lack of interesting stories and excellent photos, it lacks any sort of distinction from every other Jim Morrison story. Ray details the excesses in a fashion similar to most everyone else who's ever written about Jim. The relaxed pace and style are fine until you get to "I HOPE THE LOVERS WIN THE WAR" twice per page, along with "THEY DONT WANT YOU TO KNOW" and "FASCIST PIGS." ... If you are looking for a good read, this isn't it. I found myself skimming after his second drug rant began, and I most always passed over paragraphs of neo-hippie artsy mumbo jumbo where Manzarek inserts random quotations and philosophical excerpts one after the other, along with a few references to Bacchus and Sattires, in an attempt to convince you he is intelligent. And let us not forget his boyhood recollections... and 20 pages detailing the names, not the works, of the blues artists he enjoyed; or his overbearing interest in erotic film noire, and of course the endless rambling about his gorgeous wife... Though I now know many random facts about film noire in the 60s that I care nothing about, and I can now correctly spell Manzarek, I feel that this book was a distinct waste of time... both mine and the authors.
Rating:
Summary: kundalini?
Review: maybe you need to read some prehistoric art based transgressional novels and manuscripts watch a lot of art house films and catch up on your transcendental studies, because this guy is definately going off on one and you wont understand what the he[ck] he is on about, but all of his references are in reaction to his own mythmaking in sugermans book, the film was about money except ray (kyle mcglaghlan) looked clueless staring gormlessly at the actor playing krieger, this book is a way of getting back the reigns from the major corporations who have splattered the pretty rocker face everywhere. this limp attempt at making densmore and stone look bad is in fact a money making scheme that slaps the "sun child image" in the face.
firstly Stones a film maker he is not out to tell truths about brotherly love between a chicago organ player and a flabby excentric poetry freak, he was out to show a throat full of muscles in leather pants stomping all over the stage driving women crazy and going out in a cheap hollywood attempt at poetic death.
Densmore, alright gotta give it to him is the outsider when it came to the reading habits of morrison but he could definately lay a superb drum beat and i bet he could see a lot more from his high riser, oh and since he was not out living like some naeive overblown Coppolla wannabe, i bet he could really observe the effects of "breaking on through" his book details the mental promiscuity of Manzarek, and Morrisons decay humanistically and even tries to carry the blame honestly.
Rays books a joke he was trying to play dad with the bands decisions but steps out the back door when it came to sorting morrison out, he endlessly blames negative energy and a mythological jimbo character a southern drunk that eventually kills morrison. firstly theres the basic problem that morrison was always on a death trip from day one, and the endless touring and repetitive songs and lyrics can easily be heard on the bright midnight album listen to morrison when he is not off his face, he does not wanna be in that place, theres no enthusiasm hes just filling up the time, this guy was human like the rest of us, a trickster, a drunk and a punk, if you want to really look into truly interesting minds look into morrisons endless reading habits.
as for our old friend ray, he is the epitome of the hippie as dictated by the punk rock movement conservatism dressed in a guatemalan sweater" he is a salesman with a peace button. and you thought they all got drowned in the mud at woodstock 69 rays the one that got away.
Rating: 
Summary: some false cheer that is mighty suspicious, but still great
Review: you get the sense in "light my fire" that manzarek is trying to put a little bit of a false happy spin on the brief stay of the doors in rock's ivory tower, but there is also a lot here that seems genuinely sincere and interesting. this is obviously happier and less dark than densmore's truly depressing "riders on the storm", but methinks that perhaps manzarek wanted to do his deceased friend jim morrison a favor by not completely spilling the unpleasant beans as densmore did. from both books we get the sense of morrison as a truly unhappy and tortured soul who had serious trouble relating to people and had an almost pathological urge toward self destruction. the tragic thing is that no one, however much they wanted to help morrison or save him from himself, ever seemed to really connect with him or get to the root of his self hatred and utter despair. one can only imagine what happened in morrison's shadowy past before he burst into the spotlight that would cause him to behave the way he did. with most people who eagerly destroy themselves in this way it usually turns out that things such as sexual abuse, parental rejection, or perhaps a chemical imbalance fuel their decadence, shuts them off from others and put the nails in their proverbial self made coffins. some people simply write off morrison's drug/alcohol abuse and hostility toward any kind of limits as a product of his genius and individual temperament, but this is too easy and far too romantic. like so many of the enigmatic legends of pop culture, morrison's motivations and the driving force behind his bizarre lifestyle and character is and will probably always remain a mystery. at the end of "light my fire" we are as in the dark about things as we are before we started it, but it is entertaining and at times informative and vivid. i would certainly recommend this book over oliver stone's horrendous film and the truly hoky "no one here gets out alive", both of which are sensationlistic, money grubbing examples of dishonor to the memory of this fascinating figure. read it.
Rating:
Summary: Some Good Stories
Review: I enjoy reading stories about Rock N Roll Stars. And Ray Manazarek's account of The Doors is certainly captivating. He is a bit harsh on John Densmore but sometimes life in a rock n roll band can bring about adversity. I enjoyed the story about the real happenings on the Ed Sullivan Show. Also it was nice hearing how surprised Ray was when he received his royalty check for Light My Fire. What about the night Jim Morrison was too stoned to play. The guys went on without him and Ray and Robbie somewhat covered for Jimbo on vocals. Also John was in the spotlight and seemed quite happy. The Buick advertisement stories were quite compelling as well. Ray definitely has a vivid writing style. There are times when he appears creative and other moments(like the beginning fo the book)when Ray sounds like he's tripping on something. Would have also liked to learn more about some of the songs outside of some Dionysan ravings. None the less, Light My Fire is an very good book that most Doors fans will appreciate.
Rating:
Summary: "Light My Fire" will light your fire!
Review: Ray Manzarek, the author of Light My Fire, used literary devices in his book effectively to tell the story of the crazy life of the Doors. The dialect, flashbacks, and the characters in the story all give a genuine feel for what life was like living in the sixties and forming one of the first psychedelic rock bands.
The dialect of the novel is one of the predominate devices to show the language of the 1960's when the book took place. Words like man, groovy, brother, love and anti-establishment are seen throughout the book. For example When describing their new tape recorder Robby Krieger exclaims "'Wow, eight tracks. That's groovy,(p. 254)'" And again when Ray tells Jim Morrison " This music, our music, is called...psychedelic.(p. 102)"
In addition the characters also represent the time well. The members of the Doors lived the life of rock stars. Ray Manzarek, Jim Morrison, Robby Krieger, and John Densmore were all dynamic characters. Each of these characters live the average life of a kid, but with the band they made many changes. Along with playing their music they would drink, smoke joints, occasionally trip acid, and Jim would even take trips to the desert to smoke peyote. Along with the drugs, the band also had many women. Groupies were always following the band trying to meet the members. (The changes they made in their liberated lifestyles allowed them to create songs listened to by generations, and also to create a new type of music the nation had never heard, psychedelic.)
While telling the story Manzarek used the flashback style. He began by describing the death of Jim Morrison and wrote " We would always have a piece of us missing. For the rest of our lives.(p.18)" Then he began to describe his life and how e came to be part of the Doors. "I didn't even know that piece was going to be missing back on the corner of bell and 34th avenue in Chicago Illinois, the city of my birth-on February 12, 1939-and the corner of my home and my grammar school. All I knew was that I was alive and the adventure began at that intersection.(p. 19)"
Another device Manzarek used is when telling his story is he adds a couple of lines from different songs. These lyrics coincide with the specific event happening at that point in his life. For example he hoped that someday everyone would live together in harmony. He then has this quote from a song:
Let's reinvent the gods.
All the myths of the ages.
Celebrate symbols from deep, elder forests.
Light Fire My is definitely worth reading. The reading is enjoyable and it is very interesting. I liked the book a lot. The literary devices used add greatly to the reality factor of the novel. Manzarek presents the time and the life of the band very accurately, and being such a wild group of musicians it was intriguing. Not only is a lot learned about the Doors but it also depicts the era of the sixties historically.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: I read this book after watching Oliver Stone's movie. I love the fact that Manzarak clears up events and how they happened. I reccomend this book. It is a mixture of great poetry and great writting. Bye it today!
Rating:
Summary: Thanks Ray
Review: Ray is a good writer. he has a style that speaks to you..he's passionate and opinionated. Most things that us fans know about the Doors have already been said, but Ray Manzarek brings new, personal memories to life in his book. It is a good read, and for Doors fans, we'll never get tired of hearing the story of how these guys got together and became one of the greatest bands in history. The book deals with Ray's life from childhood, and to his credit, he really shares everything with his readers. He comes across as very intelligent and likeable, while reading this book you might feel a certain affection for Ray, as if he is some ' far out ' uncle you never had. Mr. Manzarek has an angry side, too. Just read his thoughts on Oliver Stone whenever the subject of the Doors movie comes up. I wish the book had been a little longer, though. The author seems to to be in a hurry to get past the actual musical career of the Doors. The making of each album and what went down between albums is given a quick run-through. Instead, Ray chooses to concentrate on his upbringing ( I found it to be interesting and candid ),and his younger days in So Cal with his girlfriend and Jim. I felt an emptiness after I finished this book, and I wished it had kept going. I felt an emptiness for a time and place I'll never know, and I missed Jim, the man that Ray so lovingly brings to life. Jim Morrison died when I was six months old, but with Ray's book, I was transported to a magical time in the '60's. I can hear the intro to ' Break on Through ' right now...
Rating:
Summary: Priceless insight from a principal member of the band.
Review: Ray provides priceless insight into how his musical influences combined with Morrison's poetry to create the music of the Doors. I was particularly interested in how significant the jazz influences were on their music, and Ray confirms this as no one else can. I've had the experience of playing with musicians who are Door's fans that love rock and blues, but are close-minded regarding jazz. Ray's testimony should convince them that they've been playing, listening to, and enjoying music richly informed by jazz approaches for years whether they've realized it or not. I first heard Monk through Manzarek's clever musical quotes in Door's songs, giving me that sense of deja vu when I first listened to Monk himself. Thanks for all the great music, Ray, and thanks for the good reading. The struggle to expand human consciousness must go on!
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