Rock Chronicles: Aquarius Ray Manzarek, Keyboardist for The Doors

Source: About .com, http://classicrock.about.com/od/a1/ig/The-Doors/05-29njwf.htm

Happy Birthday, Ray! I’d like to take a moment to reflect on a chance encounter I had with the legendary keyboardist of The Doors, back on Jan 23, 2002 when I took a trip up to The Bottom Line in NYC.

Ray was doing a tour to promote his book The Poet in Exile and on this particular night he was appearing with Jim Carroll. I found a link of someone who recorded the evening, here.

Anyhow, I managed to take a bus up there and I brought my copies of Ray’s books: Light My Fire and The Poet in Exile. As soon as I walked into the club, I spotted Ray sitting at a table with a few people. My heart jumped and I waited to see if anyone else had noticed he was JUST SITTING THERE LIKE HE WAS A NORMAL GUY AND NOT A ROCK-N-ROLL LEGEND!!!

I finally mustered up the nerve to walk over to his table and ask if I could just shake his magic hands. He smiled at me and let me shake them. YAY! Then, I asked if he could sign my books which he did as well.

Books Autographed by Ray Manzarek on Jan 23, 2002.

As if that wasn’t enough to make my heart fill with extreme joy at the chance to connect with the man who fingered the keys for Light My Fire, Crystal Ship, When the Music’s Over, etc, etc, for the band that began my journey into poetry and rock—during Ray’s piano and storytelling he asked to read an excerpt from MY COPY of The Poet in Exile. Yes. He looked down at me and said, “this young lady has a copy, would you mind if I read from it?”

So, that’s my story. I also saw Ray later that year when he came to the Keswick Theatre, along with Jefferson Starship. Unfortunately, I wasn’t lucky enough to get backstage to meet him again but, hey, I’m not complaining.