Monday, August 29, 2011

L.SHANKAR / Touch me there




Touch me there


Bit rate: 256 kps


LINK: touchmethere



1. Dead girls of London
2. Little stinker
3. Touch me there
4. No more Mr. nice girl
5. Love gone away
6. Darlene
7. Windy morning
8. Knee-deep in heaters

L. Shankar



L Shankar

Shankar in One Truth Band, Jazz Bilzen 1978 performing with John McLaughlin
Background information
Genres Carnatic, classical, electronica, progressive rock, soft rock, folk, fusion, jazz, occidental, pop, hard rock
Occupations Musician, composer, conductor, photographer, arranger, producer, engineer, pedagogue
Instruments Vocals, double violin, viola, electric violin, kanjira, tablas, dholak, drums, percussion, sarod, tamboura, keyboard
Years active 1972–present
Labels Axiom/Island/PolyGram
ECM
/Universal
Notable instruments
Custom-built double violin
Lakshminarayanan Shankar, also known as L. Shankar and Shenkar, is an Indian-born American violinist, singer and composer.


Early life

Shankar was born in Madras, Tamil Nadu. Growing up in Jaffna, Ceylon, where his father V. Lakshminarayan was a professor at the Jaffna College of Music, Shankar was exposed to Carnatic music and other styles from an early age. His father was an esteemed violinist, his mother L. Seethalakshmi played the veena and all his five older siblings were also proficient in music. The most well known of his brothers is another acclaimed and renowned violinist - L. Subramaniam, who has recorded a number of records himself; another brother, L. Vaidyanathan was a music composer for Indian films. Shankar cites his family and Tyāgarāja as early inspirations.
Shankar began singing at the age of two, playing violin at the age of five, and learning to play drums at seven. At the age of seven L. Shankar gave his first public concert, at the Nallur Kandaswamy temple. He gained considerable reputation in his early youth as an accompanist to some of the most eminent names in Carnatic music such as Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, Chembai Vaithyanatha Baghavatar, Palghat Mani Iyer and Alathur Srinivasa Iyer. Following the ethnic riots in Sri Lanka in the 1950s his family escaped to India.

 Career

After obtaining a Bachelor's degree in Physics in India, Shankar moved to America in 1969 and earned a doctorate in ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University. Here he met jazz musicians Ornette Coleman, Jimmy Garrison, and John McLaughlin while working as a teaching assistant and concert master of the University Chamber Orchestra. In 1975 Shankar and McLaughlin founded Shakti, a pioneering, groundbreaking and highly influential east-meets-west collaboration, with a fluid sound that managed to successfully combine seemingly incompatible traditions. His first solo album, Touch Me There, was produced by Frank Zappa in 1979. Shankar founded his own band - The Epidemics, in 1982, with the composer Caroline. He released three albums with the band.
During the 1980s, Shankar recorded periodically as a leader, doing both jazz-based material and Indian classical music. His 1980 release of the album Who's To Know on ECM introduced the unique sound of his own invention, the ten-string, stereophonic double violin. This instrument, designed by Shankar and built by noted guitar maker Ken Parker, covers the entire orchestral range, including double bass, cello, viola and violin. He has recently developed a newer version of his instrument which is much lighter than the original.
1990 saw Shankar co-producing a one hour film directed by H. O. Nazareth, which went on to be nominated for Best Documentary film at the Cannes film festival. Shankar worked on the score of the film The Last Temptation of Christ (1988),composed by Peter Gabriel, with his music ending up on both albums of the score - Passion: Music for The Last Temptation of Christ and Passion - Sources. He won a Grammy for his work on the latter in 1994. 1996 saw a Grammy nomination for the album Raga Aberi.[1] Shankar has performed on several of Peter Gabriel's records such as So and Us. Since 1996, Shankar has toured internationally with fellow-violinist (and his niece) Gingger as "Shankar & Gingger", garnering critical acclaim and popularity. The two performed at events including the Concert for Global Harmony and Nelson Mandela's 80th birthday celebrations. Shankar & Gingger released their first DVD One in a Million in 2001. After a critically successful tour of North America, the DVD went to number 1 on the Neilsen Soundscan DVD charts and stayed there for four weeks. In 2004, Shankar composed additional music with Gingger Shankar for John Debney and performed on the score for the film The Passion of the Christ (2004).
Shankar has played with some of the greatest musical contemporaries of his time, including Lou Reed, Echo & the Bunnymen, Talking Heads, Frank Zappa, Peter Gabriel, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Charly García, Jonathan Davis, Bruce Springsteen, Van Morrison, Stewart Copeland, Yoko Ono, A. R. Rahman, John Waite, Steve Vai, Ginger Baker, Toto, Nils Lofgren, Mark O'Connor, and Sting. Shankar has been praised for his ability to mix Eastern and Western influences, assimilating Carnatic music with pop, rock, jazz and contemporary world music. He admits "Ultimately, I would like to bring the East and West together. That, I think, is my role," he says.
More recently, Shankar has used a new stage name, Shenkar, and has created recordings under this name. In 2006–2007, Shenkar provided the vocals for the opening credit music and other themes for all episodes of the hit TV series Heroes. He has been lately working in Jonathan Davis', Stephen Day and Ana Maria Lombo's next records.

Discography




Filmography




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Saturday, August 27, 2011

SWEET SMOKE / Just a poke




Just a poke


Bit rate: 128 kps


LINK: just a poke

Please write a comment.Let say what you feel about Sweet smoke.


I still enjoy this LP even now after 40 +++ years.Listen to it when you have time in a quiet moment.Listen all the instruments and the change of rhythm.Wonderful. 
Willy



From Amazon
This has to be one of the most awesome albums I have ever heard, and I've been listening to rock music for more than 40 years! Excellent solos throughout, and even a cover of the Doors "Soft Parade" hidden in there. I guarantee you'll love it !!  




Sweet Smoke is often thrown in the Krautrock bunch, when in reality, they were American. The band came from New York City, but they moved to Germany. The band consisted of lead guitarist/vocalist Marvin Kaminowitz, rhythm guitarist/vocalist Steve Rosenstein, bassist Andy Dershin, drummer Jay Dorfman, and saxist/flutist Michael Paris. These guys were Jewish, just like the J. Geils Band (minus J. Geils himself), the Blues Project, about half of KISS (Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley), the Shulman brothers of Gentle Giant, and so on. This group was basically a psychedelic group with jazzy overtones, influenced by the West Coast scene, but there are some touches that makes them not just another American band. Just a Poke, originally released in 1970 on EMI/Columbia (if I'm not mistakened, the album also received a French and Dutch release), is their first album. The album only consisted of two side-length cuts. The track listenings are a bit messed up, as it's commonly believed the album starts with "Baby Night" and ends with "Silly Sally", when in fact, it's the other way around. I own the original LP, which the back cover states that side one was "Silly Sally" and "Baby Night" was side two, although to confuse matters, the record label states the opposite. The back cover of the LP is correct. "Silly Sally" starts off almost medieval-sounding, complete with recorder. It starts off pretty mellow, with vocals, from Marvin Kaminowitz. Eventually the music picks up, and goes in to an extended guitar jam, before going in to an uncredited cover of the Doors' "Soft Parade", before going back to a variation of the opening theme. "Silly Sally" has a bit of a more bluesy feel, where they put a bit more emphasis on rhythm. The band then turns to an In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida like drum solo, then they go in to percussion overdrive. So, while Sweet Smoke is often thrown in the Krautrock bunch, there is really nothing musically in common to say Can, Ash Ra Tempel, Amon Düül II, early Tangerine Dream, Neu, Faust, etc. But this is still a nice gem of jazzy psychedelia worth having! 


Sweet Smoke


Sweet Smoke
were a 1960's and 70's psychedelic jazz-rock band. They incorporated many different influences, such as jazz, funk and island rhythms. They were originally formed in Brooklyn, New York in 1967, although the band moved to live as a commune in Germany before the decade was out. They have a fan presence on the internet to this day.


Personnel

Line-up 1970 (Just A Poke)


  • Andrew Dershin – bass guitar
  • Michael Paris – tenor saxophone, alto recorder, vocals, percussion
  • Jay Dorfman – percussion and drums
  • Marvin Kaminovitz – lead guitar, vocals
  • Steve Rosenstein – rhythm guitar, vocals

Line-up 1973 (Darkness to Light)


  • Andrew Dershin – bass guitar
  • Jay Dorfman – percussion and drums
  • Marvin Kaminovitz – lead guitar, vocals
  • Michael Paris – tenor saxophone, alto recorder, vocals, percussion
  • Jeffrey Dershin - piano, percussion, vocals
  • Rochus Kuhn - violin, cello

Line-up 1974 (Live)


  • Andrew Dershin – bass guitar
  • Jay Dorfman – percussion and drums
  • Marvin Kaminovitz – lead guitar, vocals
  • Rick Greenberg - rhythm guitar, sitar
  • John Classi - percussion, sound effects
  • Martin Rosenberg - tambourra, percussion

Albums






Sweet Smoke


American prog-rock band
who played in Europe in the early 70s


Sweet Smoke

Photo from back cover of 'Just A Poke' album.


Introduction

My name is Brian Currin and I live in Cape Town, South Africa. I first heard the album 'Just A Poke' sometime in the late 70s and fell in love with its progressive, well-produced and experimental sound. After years of fruitless search for the CD or any more info on this obscure band, I eventually found both (and much, much more) thanks to the Internet and the band members themselves!

Since putting up this page in October 1997, I have received e-mail from Andy Dershin, Mike Paris, Jay Dorfman and Rick Greenburg, all ex-members, who have been very generous in supplying more information and answering my questions.

I have also received many e-mails from Sweet Smoke fans around the world, who have helped with info for this webpage.


Bulgarian fan: Sweet Smoke is totally unfamiliar in Bulgaria. Year after year I tried to gather some news about the group but my efforts were fruitless. I didn't even know that the members of the band are still alive, because once a friend of mine told me they had died in a helicopter crash in the early 70s...
Thanks God this is not true!
So, perhaps, you could imagine my great joy and excitement which I am trying to share with you...
For a first time I heard the album "Just a Poke" in 1986 when I was 17 - in a cold winter morning I found a lost old record dropped by someone in the street ... I took it home and played it at my record-player - I found the music really great and magical and up to now this album is one of my favourite!!!
-- Zornitza "Ronny" Harizanova, Bulgaria, July 2001

Hi Brian, I found your Sweet Smoke site when doing a search for the band. I lived with them in late '69 and early '70 in Emmerich - actually the village of Huthum. Steve Rosenstein was a good friend of mine at college and he gave me the address of the band when I went to Europe. Steve wasn't in the band yet - Victor Sacco was the lead guitar - very fast, chilly style - excellent musician though. Steve had a brilliant, very warm musical sense - been trained in classical violin, could turn anything into a beautiful, melodic piece. He played fiddle with some very good Irish bands in the mid-70s in Boston. The crew was very much like the main web pages say they were - we had a lot of fun, everyone was very close and supportive, and the music - which I had nothing to do with other than as a listener - was great. I remember that winter the Rhine was in the basement of the house a lot, and every morning we ate oatmeal with cinnamon and delicious fresh milk we'd get from the manor house a few hundred yards up the path. The Kuhn family - the father, who was a fairly renowned sculptor, mother, and a number of kids included Rochus and his brother and two girls, one of whom married Jay later on - I don't think they're still together. But the relationship with the Kuhns was very close and it was a great family - they had Afghans, one of which, Rita I believe, was the only dog to ever bite me - she was nursing at the time.


They all were great musicians - Mike's solos, of course, would drive the crowd wild - fantastic on the recorder. When I went back to NY, I brought Steve the message that they wanted him in and Victor out - he was astonished and left that summer, I believe, or perhaps sooner, to join the band. It's strange to read that none of them made a profession of music because there was a lot of experimental energy and imagination coursing through the instruments. With all their Brooklyn accents, they thought my Bronx accent hysterical and thought no one else could speak that way till my sister visited them in the summer of 1970. Last I saw of them was in the mid-70s - ran into Marvin when he was at Berklee, Mike came up to visit, Steve was around Boston, etc., but haven't seen any of them since. However, a friend of mine about 6 years younger than me had a childhood friend visiting her last year, and both of them remembered Sweet Smoke quite well. So as you can see, your web site has stirred up some memories and it is much appreciated, because you are keeping a bit of history alive.


Best wishes, Barton Kunstler, November 2002
For more detailed info on the band and their history and reviews of the albums, visit Thibault Ducray's excellent Unofficial Sweet Smoke Web page which is half in French and half in English. Well worth a visit.

Where are they now?


Rick Greenberg: My name has changed a few times since 1974 when 'Sweet Smoke Live' was released. I was Rick Greenberg then. I just wanted to let you know I've enjoyed seeing your web-tribute to the band. I played some gigs with Sweet Smoke in early 1970, a few years before I joined the group full-time. I was studying music in London and traveled to Holland and Germany for concerts. My first exposure to a Sweet Smoke stage forever transformed my take on music - driving rhythms with sweet exciting solos soaring, and all with a trademark chaotic mix of humor and heart.

Throughout all the years the band lived in Europe, Sweet Smoke was a loving family of musicians and friends on a spiritual search for a state of musical expression where the ego lets go and the imagination plays with joy and spontaneity. That energy erupted on and off the stage (" . . . a vision of heaven in our hearts and the devil at our feet . . .” - Just a Poke). We had many names for it, "Light,” "Baba Nam Kevalam," even "Baloo," but the names were only passing thoughts, like sweet smoke itself, you take it all in, you let it all out and in a moment of creation the music gives you freedom and ecstacy.

Sweet Smoke lives on. At the reunion last summer, the same energy from the early Seventies immediately manifested and kept us joking, storytelling, laughing and playing music, and like smoke from a wizard's fire, the atmosphere was filled with magic.
-- Rick Rasa, April 2000

Jay Dorfman: I was the founding member and drummer of the band through all three recordings, this weekend we had a 30 year reunion where all members of the band regrouped, I have lots of rare orginal photos available and would like to make them available for the site... and yes feel free to post my e-mail on your site...
-- Jay Dorfman, Unherd Of Productions, 9th August 1999

Andy Dershin: I left Europe in '73 and returned to the US and I went to Berklee college of music in Boston. There I studied jazz and improvisation. I continued playing music up till 1980. At that point I got tired of not being able to play the creative style of music I had been accustomed to. In reality I also found it hard to earn a living. So I went into the crazy world of business. I still play but just for enjoyment of it. In the States if your not playing what's hot and popular, it's very hard to earn any money. But I have done OK in business and life is great. The other guys in the band have mostly done the same.
Jay is in the video production field.
Mike is a heavy computer programmer.
Steve is now a lawyer and lives in Los Angeles, but I'd hate to be one of his clients.
Marvin still plays but mostly just for weddings and such. He also sells advertising for cable TV.
Marty is a programmer and works with Mike.
John is a manager of a retail store.

So as life has gone on we still miss each other and the great music we created.
-- Andy Dershin, February 1998
Discography
Just A Poke
Darkness To Light
Live






Just A Poke



CD cover Italy LP

(Click on image for full cover scan)

  1. Baby Night (Sweet Smoke) (16:24)
  2. Silly Sally (Sweet Smoke) (16:22)
Released:
1970 (LP) Germany
1970 (LP) Italy
1996 (CD) Holland
2000 (CD) Germany
2000 (CD) Germany (with 'Darkness To Light')

Label: EMI Electrola
Catalogue numbers:
1C 064-28 886 (LP)
1C 244-28 886 (MC)
V.5001 (Italian LP)
CDP 538-7 48871 2 (CD)
7243 5 22641 2 4 (CD with 'Darkness To Light')

Musicians:
Andrew Dershin: Bass
Jay Dorfman: Drums and percussion
Marvin Kaminowitz: Solo guitar, Vocals
Michael Paris: Tenor sax, alto recorder, vocals, percussion
Steve Rosenstein: Rhythm guitar, vocals

Sweet Smoke responsible for all manner of percussion


Rosie Schmitz and Winfred Ebert: Producers

Conrad Plank and Klaus Lohmer: Engineers

Cover art: Jan Fijnheer
Sweet Smoke - 2 albums on 1 disc CD re-issue 2000 Italy LP back cover - click for bigger picture Italian album cover scans supplied by Gigi from Italy, June 2005.
Reviews:
Taken off the German Amazon website.

Sweet, sweet, sweet: First bought this as an album in 73-74 while in Germany as a GI. We all loved it then and now since I've turned-on my friends here in the States they all love it. I know of 2 others that have ordered it through Amazon since I got it on disc a couple months ago through Amazon. This album will bring you up when down, mellow you when needed and thoroughly blow your mind. Full of surprises and fantastic solos. Sweet, sweet, sweet; thank you for making this available Amazon!
-- Richard M Huff from Iowa, USA

Awesome: This has to be one of the most awesome albums I have ever heard, and I've been listening to rock music for more than 40 years! Excellent solos throughout, and even a cover of the Doors 'Soft Parade' hidden in there. I guarantee you'll love it!! --
A Music Fan from USA



Darkness To Light



Darkness to Light

(Click on image for full fold-out cover scan)

  1. Just An Empty Dream (4:20)
  2. I'd Rather Burn Than Disappear (4:15)
  3. Kundalini (13:25)
  4. Believe Me My Friends (4:29)
  5. Show Me The Way To The War (5:30)
  6. Darkness To Light (12:51)
Released:
1973 (LP) Germany
1997 (CD) Germany
2000 (CD) Germany
2000 (CD) Germany (with 'Just A Poke')

Labels: EMI Electrola (Harvest) (LP, MC & CD) / OSA (CD)
Catalogue numbers:
1C 062-29 471 (LP)
1C 244-29 471 (MC)
941041 TSP (OSA - CD)
8326802 (EMI Harvest Rarities - CD)
7243 5 22641 2 4 (CD with 'Just A Poke')

Musicians:
Michael Paris: Sax, Flute, Vocal
Marvin Kaminowitz: Guitar, Vocal
Steve Rosenstein: Guitar, Vocals
Rochus Kuhn: Violin, Cello
Jeffrey Dershin: Piano, Percussion, Vocals
Andrew Dershin: Bass
Jay Dorfman: Drums



Inside cover
Inside of CD cover

Live



Sweet Smoke Live album cover Live Live
1974 original album
1997 CD re-issue
2000 CD re-issue

  1. First Jam (Sweet Smoke) (19:15)
  2. Shadout Mapes (Rick Greenberg) /
    Ocean Of Fears (Marvin Kaminowitz) (18:02)
  3. Bonus tracks on 2000 CD re-issue:
  4. People Are Hard
  5. Schyler's Song
  6. Final Jam
Released:
1974 (LP) Germany
1997 (CD) Holland
2000 (CD) Germany with bonus tracks

Labels: EMI Electrola (Harvest) (LP & MC) / Disky (CD)
Catalogue numbers:
1C 038 15755701 (LP)
1C 244-29 513 (MC)
DC 869952 (CD)
7243 5 22683 2 0 (CD with bonus tracks)

Musicians:
Rick Greenberg: Rhythm guitar, Sitar
Marvin Kaminowitz: Lead guitar, vocals, percussion
John Classi: Percussion, sound effects
Andrew Dershin: Bass guitar, percussion
Jay Dorfman: Drums, percussion
Martin Rosenberg: Tamboura, percussion

John Möring: Producer
Wolfgang Thierbach: Engineer
Heidi Janik: Cover photo

Recorded live in Berlin, Musikhochschule, 1974, for the benefit of Ananda Marga Yoga Society.
Shadout Mapes was a character in Frank Herbert's classic sci-fi novel "Dune".

1974

Sweet Smoke in Southern Germany, 1974.
Photo supplied by Rick Rasa, September 2000.



Buy CDs


29 April 2000:
My name is Valérie and I'm very fond of Sweet Smoke music. I have great news for you (if you don't already know it!). The live album contained only three pieces of music of the Berlin concert in 1974. But now the complete version has just been released and it has been available in Europe since March. The background of the cover is the cover of the original live album, and there is a caricature of the musicians.
-- Valérie de Clerck

18 April 2000:
My contacts at EMI tell me that a new release of 'Sweet Smoke Live' with previously unreleased cuts will soon be available on CD.
-- Rick Rasa (Greenburg)

February 2000:
All CDs of Sweet Smoke are available again via
Amazon Germany.
Search for "Sweet Smoke" and you will find all you need.
-- Rudolf Techert







Links

The Unofficial Sweet Smoke Web page
Thibault Ducray's excellent website which is half in French and half in English. Well worth a visit.

ProgRock Archives This extensive website includes some cool Sweet Smoke album reviews.
Vagabond's World
My general rock music trivia site

Send any comments to: Brian Currin
Graphics from Diana's Free Graphics website which seems to have disappeared.
This website is part of the
South African Rock Encyclopedia
.

The South African Rock Encyclopedia






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Friday, August 26, 2011

RAY MANZAREK & ROY ROGERS / Translucent blues







Translucent blues


Bit rate: 320 kps


LINK: translucent



1. Hurriacne
2. River of madness
3. Game of skill
4. Fives and ones
5. Kick
6. Tension
7. Blues in my shoes
8. New dodge city blues
9. Greenhouse blues
10.Those hits just keep on comin'
11.As you leave
12.An organ, a guitar and a chicken wing

Ray Manzarek


Ray Manzarek

Ray Manzarek
Background information
Birth name Raymond Daniel Manzarek, Jr.
Born February 12, 1939 (age 72)
Origin Chicago, Illinois, USA
Genres Psychedelic rock, acid rock, blues rock, hard rock, blues, jazz fusion, funk
Occupations Musician, Songwriter, Keyboardist, Filmmaker
Instruments Keyboards, Vocals, Piano, Organ, Keyboard bass, Marxophone
Years active 1961–present
Labels Elektra
Associated acts The Doors, Nite City
Manzarek-Krieger

Rick & the Ravens
Website TheDoors.com
The Official Site of Ray Manzarek
Notable instruments
Vox Continental
Gibson G-101

Rhodes
Keyboard bass RMI Electra Piano
Raymond Daniel Manzarek, Jr., better known as Ray Manzarek (born February 12, 1939), is an American musician, singer, producer, film director, writer, co-founder and keyboardist of The Doors from 1965 to 1973, Nite City from 1977–1978 and Manzarek-Krieger since 2001.
Manzarek is listed #4 on Digital Dreamdoor's "100 Greatest Rock Keyboardists of All Time".

Contents


Early life and career

Manzarek is of Polish descent, born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, as were his parents. Growing up, he took private piano lessons from Bruno Michelotti and others. He originally wanted to play basketball, but he only wanted to play power forward or center. When he was sixteen his coach insisted either he play guard, or not at all, and he quit the team. Manzarek said later if it was not for that ultimatum, he might never have been in The Doors. He went to Everett Elementary School on S. Bell St. and attended St. Rita High School in Chicago.
In 1962–1965, he studied in the Department of Cinematography at UCLA, where he met a film student named Jim Morrison. Forty days after finishing film school, thinking they had gone their separate ways, they met by chance on Venice Beach in California. Morrison said he had written some songs, and Manzarek expressed an interest in hearing them, whereupon Morrison sang a rough version of "Moonlight Drive." Manzarek liked the songs and co-founded the Doors with Morrison right there and then.
Manzarek met drummer John Densmore and guitarist Robby Krieger at a Transcendental Meditation lecture. Densmore says, "There wouldn't be any Doors without Maharishi."
In January 1966, The Doors became the house band at a club on the Sunset Strip called The London Fog. According to Manzarek, "Nobody ever came in the place...an occasional sailor or two on leave, a few drunks. All in all it was a very depressing experience, but it gave us time to really get the music together." The same day The Doors were fired from The London Fog, they were hired to be the house band of the Whisky a Go Go. Their first performance at the Whisky was with the group Them.
The Doors' first recording contract was with Columbia Records. After a few months of inactivity, they learned they were on Columbia's drop list. At that point, they asked to be released from their contract. After a few months of live gigs, Jac Holzman "rediscovered" the Doors and signed them to Elektra Records.
The Doors lacked a bassist, so Manzarek usually played the bass parts on a Fender Rhodes piano Bass. His signature sound is that of the Vox Continental organ, an instrument used by many other psychedelic rock bands of the era. He later used a Gibson G-101 Kalamazoo (which looks like a Farfisa) because the Continental's plastic keys frequently broke according to Manzarek.
Manzarek occasionally sang for The Doors, including the live recordings of "Close To You." He also sang on the last two Doors albums, recorded after Morrison's death, Other Voices and Full Circle.

Later career and influence


Ray Manzarek.JPG
Manzarek has been in several groups since the Doors, including Nite City. He recorded a rock adaptation of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana with Philip Glass, produced and backed Echo & the Bunnymen and Los Angeles band X, played with Iggy Pop, backed San Francisco poet Michael McClure's poetry readings and he has done improvisational composition with poet Michael C. Ford. Ray also worked extensively with "Hearts of Fire" screenwriter and former SRC front man Scott Richardson on a series of spoken word and blues recordings entitled "Tornado Souvenirs".
His memoir, Light My Fire: My Life with The Doors, was published in 1998. The Poet in Exile (2001) is a novel exploring the urban legend that Jim Morrison may have faked his death. Manzarek's second novel, Snake Moon, released in April 2006, is a Civil War ghost story.
In 2000, a collaboration poetry album titled: Freshly Dug was released with British singer, poet/actor and pioneer Punk rocker Darryl Read. Read had previously worked with Ray on the Beat Existentialist album in 1994, and their latest poetical/musical collaboration was in 2007 with the album: Bleeding Paradise.
On August 4, 2007, Manzarek hosted a program on BBC Radio 2 about the 40th anniversary of the recording of "Light My Fire" and the group's musical and spiritual influences.
In April 2009, Manzarek and Robby Krieger appeared as special guests for Daryl Hall's monthly concert webcast Live From Daryl's House. They performed several Doors tunes ("People Are Strange", "The Crystal Ship", "Roadhouse Blues" and "Break on Through (To the Other Side)") with Hall providing lead vocals.
After living many years in Hollywood, Manzarek now resides in Napa County, California in a house he remodeled extensively. He also plays with local bands in the Napa area.
In 2009, Manzarek collaborated with "Weird Al" Yankovic, playing keyboards on the single "Craigslist" which is a style parody of the Doors.
Manzarek was a co-producer on a few tracks for Universal Recording artist, Michael Barber. A track recently hit the internet titled, "Be Ok", on Michael's Universal Records Debut.
In May 2010, Manzarek was recording with slide guitarist Roy Rogers in Studio D in Sausalito. The release was scheduled for the fall.[citation needed]

Discography


The Doors



Solo



Nite City



Trivia



  • His birth name was Raymond Daniel Manczarek. The c was dropped in 1966 when he, Jim Morrison, Robby Krieger, and John Densmore signed with Elektra as The Doors.
  • Ray wore (and still wears) glasses that are typical of the 1960s.
  • In Oliver Stone's biopic The Doors, Manzarek was played by Kyle MacLachlan. Ray has gone on record as saying he enjoyed the performance although he despised the movie, calling it "insidious" in his book.
  • The first Doors album included a cover of "Alabama Song," from a 1930s German opera called The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill. This cover resulted from Manzarek's playing a record of that opera, sung by Lotte Lenya, to Jim Morrison, and suggesting that The Doors do a rock version of the song.
  • The solos in "Light My Fire" are based on John Coltrane's "My Favorite Things." Other examples: a Thelonious Monk line from "Straight, No Chaser" appears in "We Could Be So Good Together", the opening organ passage of "When The Music's Over" is inspired by Herbie Hancock's "Canteloupe Island," and finally the organ solo in "Take It As It Comes" is inspired by Bach. During a May 2006 public performance, Manzarek named Erik Satie as an influence.
  • He is known for playing the keyboard while shaking his head and not looking at the keys.
  • In a televised interview, Manzarek advised listeners to "open the doors of consciousness... but stay away from white powder!"
  • He played "some Psychedelic Guy from the Sixties" in Body or Brain's music video Be What You Can Be



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Wednesday, August 24, 2011

JAMES REYNE / the best of 1992




The best of 1992

Bit rate: 320 kps


1. Fall of Rome
2. Hammerhead
3. Rip it up
4. Motor's to fast
5. Outback woman
6. One more river
7. Stood up
8. Slave
9. Any day above ground
10.Some people
11.Wake up deadman
12.Way out west
13.Reckless
14.Heaven on a stick
15.Always the way

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