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Summary: RAY HAS DONE IT AGAIN!
Review: simpily put:this book is as great as The Doors were themselves
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Summary: Music Transcends the Fog
Review: Retrospective first-person accounts of the late 1960's counterculture tend towards either nostalgia or else an older-and-wiser condescension. Ray Manzarek, however, strikes a different note with this book. As co-founder of the seminal rock band of the era, and as an individual who as much as anybody was an insider to the cultural phenomenon now generally referred to as "The Sixties", Manzarek comes across as a unrepentant time-traveler. Whole pages of this chronicle could be could be lifted out of context and, if set down as stand-alone mini-essays, would defy the ability of any cultural analyst date-stamp them much past 1972. I finished the book in amazement that a man of Manzarek's intelligence could remain in an intellectual time warp for thirty years. A plausible alternative view might be admiration for an value system powerful enough to remain intact and vibrant for so long, but I myself don't feel that generous. If Aquarian-Age philosophy was a pagan cult, what we have here is the saga of a man who may be its sole surviving true-believer. Central to the book is an attempt to portray the charismatic Jim Morrison. Manzarek wants us to see his friend as a genius poet and a free spirit, but he does a poor job of squaring that with the end Morrison brought himself to. The destructive alter-ego "Jimbo" that Manzarek invents to explain the paradox of Morrison's nature comes across as facetious and doesn't explain anything. The combination of naivete and us-against-the-pigs paranoia was the fatal limitation to the otherwise life-affirming world view characteristic of the sixties counterculture, and it is a limitation that pervades this book. Manzarek's passion, however, is music, not philosophy or psychoanalysis. The musical brotherhood that defined the Doors is the real theme of Light My Fire, and this dimension of the book is pure magic. The last time I listened to their stuff was twenty-five years ago in LP-mode, and after finishing this read, I picked some of it up again in CD. The music still works, and reading Manzarek is of value if it does nothing other than help us rediscover it.
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Summary: Ray's philosophical Doors
Review: Ray Manzarek makes it pretty clear in his striking and interesting personal memoir that his main preoccupation is to keep the myth of Jim Morrison alive. Ray was the one who kept it all together in the past, the band, the music, and the genius Morrison. When he noticed the split in Jim Morrison's personality (Jim and Jimbo) which Ray calls Jim's fatal flaw, he didn't give up to pull Jim from the abyss and try to save him and show him where to go. "Jimbo won", Ray sadly commits at the end of the book. This book - not surprising at all - is mainly about Jim Morrison, although he is giving the fans interesting and funny stories of himself growing up in Chicago, his first contacts to music and females. Then all those great stories how The Doors were formed, how the band found and experienced their very own musical style, the frustration carrying the demo around and being thrown out the record companys' offices, the first bookings at the London Fog and those deep psychedelic nights at the Whisky. The heights and lows of success, the boredom and the highpoints of studio work, and everywhere there's Morrison, the bright poet, but also the dark dionysos, as described by Ray in his very typical, mythical and intellectual style - hey didn't we know all that before? Yes, we've heard the same sentences before in countless radio shows, TV interviews and read that in millions of articles. Here in this book it was all packed together in one - Ray's philosophy, Ray's point of view on life, career and the "diamond of The Doors". A very interesting account of what happened inside the inner Doors circle up to Jim's death in 1971- from Ray's view, which is totally different from the one of John Densmore's. Of course it was John who felt himself urged to put a few things right on the official Doors website, packed into very harsh words. Jim Morrison wanted Densmore to leave the band (according to Ray) - this is one of the stories that might interest fans. He surely expresses his anger against Oliver Stone who he calles "Bonehead" and even "fascist". The book is a great source for research. I miss the life and times of The Doors after Morrison, all that getting together for An American Prayer and for those live-albums and the Ghost Song video. How does Ray feel about John and Robby today? Pity, no certain words about that. But as an exciting story-teller of past events and great memoir to read, Ray's book is definitely RECOMMENDED! Rainer from The Doors Quarterly Magazine Online
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Summary: What gives, Ray?
Review: It absolutely blew me away when I realized that this book goes from around 1967 to 1971 in scarcely more than 50 pages!!! The preceding 300 or so are from before 1967, including setting up the Doors, Ray's life, etc, etc. But to blow from Strange Days to the death of Jim Morrison in 50 or 60 pages?! Ray, you have got to be kidding me. It's as if the book was going too long, the author was told to get it done, so he breezed through five albums, tours, Miami, the trial, etc. No talk about the 1970 tour? All the different shows? So many stories? THAT'S what the people wanted to hear. Not eight hundred thousand references to Dionysus and the chi and why LSD is so great. The amount of pro-drug talk in this book should get Ray put away in the clink! I think the last thing the author needs is more acid. I like dealing with whole albums and all of the songs in one chapter, yet from Venice Beach, 1965, when Ray hears Jim sing "Moonlight Drive" to him up until the first album takes FOREVER to get to. (I'm sure Ray can really remember half of it.) I thought this had the potential to be the BEST Doors book out there, but it doesn't even come close. Another lackluster Doors book on the shelf...
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Summary: THE DOORS OF PERCEPTION
Review: THIS BOOK IS THE BEST WRITTEN BOOK ABOUT THE DOORS. I HAD THE HONOR TO MEET MR. MANZAREK HIMSELF AT THE BOOK SIGNING FOR THIS BOOK. HE TOLD US THE REAL STORY ABOUT THE DOORS UNLIKE JOHN DENSMORE AND OLIVER STONE DID IN THE MOVIE. THE ONLY WAY YOU WILL HEAR A BETTER STORY ABOUT THE DOORS IS IF MR. MORRISON WOULD HAVE WRITTEN ONE. WHEN I MEET MR. MANZAREK HE WAS VERY POLITE. MR. MANZAREK HAS DEFINATELY BROKEN ON THROUGH.
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Summary: Well written book on the subjects of The Doors.
Review: Ray Manzarek's well articulated book about The Doors, was a gentle and descriptive look into the chaos and style that surrounded the era of rock n' roll in the 60's. The mystery surrounding his friend's demise (Jim Morrison) was written about non judgmentally and touching, without the bitterness I've read in other books. His sad description of the grief Pamela Courson was going after Jim Morrison's death negated the "Jim is a monster" books that abound. Writing about himself, Ray was able to come across as an intelligent artist without blowing his own horn, so to speak.I'm glad I read this book. It was well worth the wait. According to John Densmore, Ray was responsible for Jim's death. To this I say, grow up John.
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Summary: Dire
Review: This is a dreadful book: a real nasty piece of work. What we have here are the "memoirs" of a smug intellectual snob (everyone is introduced according to his/her IQ) who tries to lay exclusive claim to the Lizard King's friendship, and who never misses a chance to aim a nasty swipe at John Densmore (why?). All this ugliness, couched (appropriately) in an egregiously inelegant style. "Ham hands", indeed.
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Summary: Enough Dionysian tributes, for cri'sakes
Review: I am a Doorsaphile through and through, and I looked forward to some insights to the band which I grew up with and idololized as a youth. This book presented very little information other than the fact that Ray loves his wife (which he tells us over and over in his grade 10 writing metaphors) and the fact that he digs Dionysus (sp?) I just wish I had the gumption to go back and find out how many Dionysian references there actually were. The number must be in the hundreds! Read Danny Sugermans book instead, it was much more entertaining!
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Summary: This book sets it straight
Review: I absolutely loved Light My Fire. It was shockingly truthful, and I loved how it described each member as an individual and not just as "The Doors." I also thought Manzarek was correct in the protrayal that every member contributed some kind of "magic" to the Doors, and it wasn't just one person's working. It really tells it how it is and was. I absolutely love how he disses Oliver Stone's sorry movie (Even though Val Kilmer did portray Morrison EXCELENTLY, I thought Stone was a little to liberal in the free-lance improvisation of some of the events in the movie.) Overall, I thoght it was a must read for any hard-core fan. However, all the comparisons of the Doors and Jim Morrison to Greek mythology and other mystics and what not was utterly pointless.
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Summary: A must read for every Doors fan
Review: Excellent decription on how things came about. Finally we can know just what the REAL Jim Morrison was like. It also sets you straight on just what is and isn't true about the Oliver Stone movie.
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