NICEST HAIR RUNNER UP

Ray Manzerek died today. Now, before you go saying that he wasn't that big of a deal, that Jim Morrison was the Doors and the rest of the band were but bit players, or that he grabbed onto the coattails of X in the late seventies to try to reclaim some sort of L.A. counter culture coolness, or that he shamelessly slogged on tours some years back in some sort of ersatz Doors with the guy from the Cult singing in the place of Morrison, before you say the guy hadn't been relevant in years, you have to take a step back, silence the skeptic, and look at what he did do. He played keyboards for one of the most original bands to ever come out of L.A., a band that had a sound all their own, a sound that relied heavily on keyboards, and still managed to sound badass. An argument could be made that without him, the Doors would have sounded like a hundred other bands, albeit one with a good looking waste case William Blake fetishist of a lead singer. But I'm not some stoned hippie chick on the Sunset Strip, and this is not 1967. I like the Doors as a package, and Manzarek was an indispensable part of it.

Here's just some oddballs; mostly covers, but they're good ones. The live one, with Albert King guesting on slide, is really good, sloppy good. I trust most of you already have some Doors you can revisit. If not, for craps sake, don't start with a greatest hits package. Just start with the first LP and get to know it as an entire album. Then continue with some of their others. You should listen to them as they were intended to be heard. Don't be a stupid ass spring chicken.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
The Doors - Break On Through mp3 at Happy Blue Mondays
The Doors - Soul Kitchen mp3 at Happy Blue Mondays
The Doors - Moonlight Drive (Demo) mp3 at Music For Humans
The Doors with Albert King - Money (Live) streaming at Hellhound on My Trail
Covers:
Shirley Bassey - Light My Fire mp3 at Cover Me 
X - Soul Kitchen mp3 at Cover Me
Patti Smith - Soul Kitchen mp3 at Happy Blue Mondays
The Ramones - Take It As It Comes mp3 at Cover Me
The Fuzztones - I Looked At You mp3 at Cover Me
Nico - The End mp3 at Cover Me