~TUNES ROULETTE~
Gary Morris~Lasso The Moon
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”Light My Fire,” the Doors’ first and most successful single, was an intoxicating sonic cocktail blending Ray’s Bach organ fugues with Robby’s Flamenco-style guitar while Jim, the psychedelic Sinatra, crooned and bellowed such provocative lyrics as “You know that I would be a liar.”
Over seven minutes long, the original track not only contained one of the Door’s most memorable lyric hooks but was the perfect vehicle for Ray Manzarek’s swirling climactic organ work, which gave way to Robby Kreiger’s slinky midnight Arabic tent dance.
“The first thing that impressed me about Ray was that he played organ and bass at the same time, which is no mean feat!” exclaimed legendary organist Al Kooper. “He was unique in that he didn’t play a Hammond organ, which nearly everybody used at the time. But he had played my lick from ‘House in the Country’ in one of their songs (‘L.A. Woman’). Once we were on a plane, he came down the aisle and I said, ‘Hey, you stole my lick!’ He said, ‘I was paying tribute to you!’ I said, ‘I wish you were paying money!’ Ray was a nice guy. I thought he was very good and appropriate for what the band was doing. Other than stealing my lick he was pretty original.”
The Doors’ seemingly unique instrumentation actually mirrored that of the Rascals, comprised of a lead singer who occasionally jangled a tambourine, organ/keyboard player, guitarist and drums. While both bands hired bassists to beef up their recordings, they performed live without them, relying on their keyboardists (Felix Cavaliere in the Rascals’ case) to provide the bottom end.
[Publius note: When my mother first heard this song, she said, “Ew-w-w, I don’t like it! It’s evil!”]
Tune in tomorrow night for more of the Doors’ first album.