Ray Manzarek, the keyboard player of the Doors, died this week of cancer. He was 74. I was emailed that info as I sat watching Ray on a documentary on Youtube about the LP record. I'm very sad to hear that. Ray Manzarek was the last of the Hipsters and I'm not talking about the new trend of people called Hipsters that are most often followed by the term douchebag but someone who was influenced enough by the Beat generation of the Fifties to still use the term "cat" to describe someone he admires.
Ray Manzarek was a colorful character who was perhaps overshadowed as a colorful character by his bandmate Jim Morrison but was a unique and very likable personality in his own right. I saw Ray Manzarek a few years ago when he, drummer John Densmore and guitarist Robbie Krieger attended the ceremony of The Doors getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
One of the reasons I always wanted to achieve rock stardom was so that I could meet my idols and Ray Manzarek was one of those I thought I would be perfectly comfortable being around. Not so much with Jim Morrison, but Ray seemed like an easy guy to be around. Now I'll never know.
I hate hearing about rock stars dying of cancer, or anyone for that matter. Ray's was bile duct cancer. I've never heard of that before but I guess you can get cancer anywhere and it's called after where it first developed. Even though George Harrison and Beach Boy Carl Wilson both died of brain cancer George's was called throat cancer and Carl's was lung cancer. Ray's news comes just two days before I'm scheduled to have a scope shoved up as a regular cancer screening. I hope I pass the audition.
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