(May 20, 2013) -- LBREPORT.com is saddened to report the passing of Ray Manzarek, keyboardist (and co-founder) of The Doors, whose riffs on Light My Fire remain L.A. musical landmarks.
Ray Manzarek, keyboardist and founding member of The Doors, passed away today at 12:31PM PT at the RoMed Clinic in Rosenheim, Germany after a lengthy battle with bile duct cancer. He was 74. At the time of his passing, he was surrounded by his wife Dorothy Manzarek, and his brothers Rick and James Manczarek. The Doors was the house band at the Whiskey A Go Go on L.A.'s Sunset Strip but played many other local venues, including CSULB and the Long Beach Arena at various times. Break on Through was the group's first "hit" in late 1966-early 1967 although every track on the album is memorable ("20th Century Fox" and "Soul Kitchen" among them). A Long Beach FM outlet back in the day (KNAC, 105.5) played "beautiful music" much of the time but circa fall 1969 shifted at 9 p.m. to what it called "Underground," several hours of album oriented rock hosted by Gary ("The Wagman") Wagner (then calling himself Gary Martin). This was years before KNAC adopted a 24 hour headbanger heavy metal format. Today, 105.5 FM is all Spanish but in fall 1969, at 9 p.m., Mantovani would fade out and "Underground" would open with the appropriate anthem for the hours of rock to follow: Light My Fire. With keyboards by Mr. Manzarek, one more time, below:
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