Say what you want about the guy, I love this. Too Close To The Sun.I was blown away by this. I bought
the mp3 ....amazing!

also ordered a Tribal Jazz CD. Looking forward to getting that, but I can't seem to find a link to
Robby's Singularity and it's not on amazon.

Sojo, is "Too Close to the Sun" on an album?

Yeah. I would have to go back to amazon and look. I just bought the mp3 for now. I found it looking for Singularity.

Someone as well really recommended Ray's instrumental stuff.

Other than Too Close To the Sun,
I'm not sure what theme or motif he is after.
I sketched out some words,
thinking of the legend of Icarus.

As fast as light across the sky
As fast as summer left behind
The music takes & shakes the ground
In this erotic night of colored sound

We were born too close to the sun
We were lost even before we begun
& we never did understand anyone
that didn't speak w/ a fork for a tongue

Icarus falls into night
like the moon from the sky
& it's so quiet
you can hear a raindrop cry
a blanket of stars
then on our midnight ride
just like Paul Revere
but w/ no place to hide.

Has anybody heard Ray's album of piano-bar music with Roy Rogers? Came out the end of last year, I think, or maybe a little earlier?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0789ClOMXt4

Jesus Joe,they give you and inch and you take a mile man,come on,you can't expect us Doors fans to live through your own fantasy,what for,Jim is dead and your not him by any stretch of the word,when i was in college in 1981 I visited Camarillo institute for the insane and met a guy that looked just like you and claimed he was Jim Morrison,get it,he thought he was Jim.We are all individuals,start a sound alike band and I'll pay to see,but this shit is crap and you know I support you as a fan and brother in the love of The Doors.Tim

Ray has numerous times while watching CNN with Arab boy's he knew in the past dancing.

Well, apart from that - anyone else?

No Mew's,it's not exactly POP music.

You're going to have to grow yur hair and produce some original music...get a bongo

Well, we can have a listen here. I thought it sounded like a good idea. One reviewer nn Amazon says:

"This release by Manzarek and Rogers - in essence - would best be classified as "mature, romantic blues-inspired music which is ideally enjoyed accompanied by a bottle of vintage wine". HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!"

So don't drop acid while listening to this!

http://www.amazon.com/Ballads-Before-Rain-...6089&sr=1-2

Very pretty.

But in his day, my dad could play circles around Ray, which is saying a lot!

Run of the mill music you hear from street musicians from NYC to the Algiers except this has no monkey growls. Mr.Krieger's singularity is very cool if you get a chance to hear that.

Mojo, you crack me up!

It's good to laugh!

Not available yet. Where did you hear it?

Hi Mews,I heard Robbys samples on his site,I especially enjoyed a song called "Let It Slide" it should still be up as I posted a thread 2 months ago in everything else.
Best
TS

ray should try doing a movie soundtrack...ballads before the rain ain't bad

I have a feeling that Ray needs to do some Synclavier work.

Holy shit, I had to look that one up.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synclavier

You would pay to see a look-alike band. Don't you know that is one of my biggest issues. I look like Jim and am a Doors fan, and the only way you'll respect me is if I start a cover band? Well, that may please you but it won't please me. Every guy that looks like Jim starts a cover band. Like I said before the reason I don't start a cover band is for the same reason John Densmore won't sell out Jim. Nobody gives me credit for NOT starting a cover band. Don't you think I've thought he I could rip off Jim and make a living playing music, but no I'm sitting here unemployed, broke, lonely, downright suicidal in the middle of every night when I wake up and can't sleep, worrying about how I am going to provide for my three kids, without taking a demeaning job.

Yeah, I want to be Jim Morrison that's why I'm raising my kids just like he did. That's why I play lead guitar just like he did. Listen to Sex with An Angel, or Love Her Like The Rain. Listen I hit all the same lead notes he would. How about that!

You know I have plenty of original works and NO I DON'T THINK I'M JIM MORRISON. I like his music, it's a huge influence, and so excuse me for expressing myself. Excuse me for being born with someone else's face and voice. If you think I even TRY, I got news for you. Writing decent poetry, decent songs, decent books, that's all I do. And yes I'm an arrogant jerk, but you have to be to put your stuff out there for the world to see. Do you think Bob Dylan has no ego?

There is no such thing as a demeaning job if you have 3 kids to raise.

lyrical intepretation of Ray Manzarek's instrumental song "Too Close To The Sun" from his CD for Love Her Madly. This song took me all of one day to really put it together. I think I bought the MP3 on Monday or Tuesday.

The opening and closing tags, which I think nicely mirror The End or When the Music's Over, is something I wrote years and years ago, probably early 80s, that I've been carrying along ever since, dropping it in here or there. I think I found its home.

The idea there is that our lives are but a flash of light in the eye of eternity, that our lives are over fast, just like when you're a kid and it's summertime, you think you have all this time, and suddenly it's Fall, and you're back in school.

The middle two stanzas spin the story of Icarus in my own version, and after the fall into the sea all is quiet. But there's more, his fall has plunged him into an endless journey though night with blankets of stars guiding his way, but no place to hide. In the second stanza, he admits he was warned about flying too close to the sun and admits the warning from Daedalus did no good, and like the serpent in the tree whispering to Eve, he ignores the wisdom of his elder, gets some bad advice and suffers the consequences.

I intentionally left the thing sparse, with only 4 stanzas, plus the playful allusion to "The End" which Ray evokes here. And I really didn't want to weave to the music during the instrumentals so I leave, in order for the music to speak for itself.

As fast as light across the sky
As fast as summer left behind
The music takes & shakes the ground
In this erotic night of colored sound ...

Icarus falls like the moon from the sky
& it's so quiet you can hear a raindrop cry
a blanket of stars on our midnight ride
like Paul Revere but we got no place to hide

We were warned not to get too close to the sun
But we were lost even before we begun
& I never really did listen to no one
that did not speak with a fork for a tongue.

As fast as light across the sky
As fast as summer left behind
The music takes & shakes the ground
In this erotic night of colored sound ...

*The few quotes from and remarks concerning "The End"and criticisms thereof are a tongue-in-check nod to the heavy "End" feel of the song.

Lastly, I really dig all you folks here. There's really just a handful of you here, and like anywhere else I go, I have my critics and my fans.
I have more than 60,000 friends, readers and subscribers on YouTube and MySpace. Worrying about a few dissenters does me no good. I have too much support from those that like it.

It seems the closer I get to Jim's generation, the more resistance there is to me from those that were there, and well, since I'm only 46, and while I wish all of you long lives and that you may live long and prosper, years after you're gone I'll probably still be singing Doors songs and Doors-like songs to a younger generation of Doors fans, and you won't have to be bothered by it one bit.



Have a beautiful day.

I was about to say the same thing! Especially in these financial times.

What?!

We'll have no disparaging remarks about the Cowsills!

Yeah, and Bread too. I've spent many a tear in my red wine listening to Bread.

Bread: Hey, have you ever tried really reaching out for the other side?

Doors: Break on through to the other side!

I see a parallel.

Both on Elektra, too. All very nice guys.

I'm really sick of people who work the pity factor as hard as you do,I offered you an idea about making money as a tribute band of The doors,I offered hope to a person who is constantly perplexed at how to make it in life.If your not out there and performing as a musician no one's going to discover you,if you think you look like Jim Morrison your mistaken. I'm in between jobs but don't use this forum to sell my product or beg like a dog for something I can't put my finger on. You got kids dude and your no spring chicken,yeah the economy stinks but suck it up,you play guitar get a job teaching. My opinion on Ray Manzarek is my opinion and I don't care how many quotes you get from internet nuts,don't even let me start in on the music, I've procured and put music in movies that have gone on to make 250 million dollars domestic,I like music and I call bullshit on Rays last attempt at selling more crap to a built in audience that's getting weirder by the day,you included. Hip Hip.

great post tim. i wish there was an applause smiley

Im not going to say anything about your work-life situation except that Diane pretty much said all there is to say.


Listen Joe you don't seem to understand why people think you're ripping Jim off, you have some fundamental differences from Jim its true you have a family, you write some original songs and play guitar but still that doesn't mean you aren't coping Jim's style hard. By your own admission you claim that your main source of inspiration is Jim's muse what you call "The Indian". Right off that means that everything you create is coming at you through a "Jim filter". In my opinion thats no recipe for success, the muse has to be yours your own individual interpretation of it, not another persons. Come on.

"Don't cheat the Muse. You can't fake quality any more than you can fake a good meal" -- William S. Burroughs

I'm not trying to make personal digs at you Joe but this is how I feel.

You say that you're paying Jim tribute here are a few others doing the same w/ out "The Indian":

Another thing,Jim played guitar so stop that nonsense,he was seen in washington dc in his beatnik days with one strung over his back,he strummed it while he first started reciting poetry. If you have talent it gets recognized,if you don't you move on.If you really think you look like JDM get dressed in black leather and stand on the corner of Santa Monica blvd and Las Palmas,you'll make plenty of money.

Unfortunately half of them passed on to the other side in the case of Bread. These boys are getting old....ummm....wait....that means I'm getting old.

You guys are jumping to conclusions here about Sojo.

He's not hurting anyone here with his music. It's music. It's art. There is nothing wrong with paying tribute to or imitating your heroes. He's not making MONEY off an imitation. He is merely expressing the "Jim Morrison" within himself. We all have a little Jim in us. It's a mini-Jim. Like Elvis, we all do Elvis impressions. We try to sing like him. Admit it! Or Sinatra.

Many famous comedians have been saying for years, "When I perform, I'm doing Groucho" Walter Matthau, and Bill Cosby have said this in interviews.

When I sing, I don't "do" Jim, but I do think of him when I sing. He's the best singer out there. Learn from the best! Or Sinatra. When I sing Sinatra covers, well, I give it "ol blue eyed" try. And it works. I get more compliments for my Sinatra these days because I learned how to use "The Voice". My voice. But I'm Sinatra. I'm Jim Morrison. However, I am BIG BEATLES FAN. Bigger Beatle fan than the Doors!

Here's my tribute to John Lennon - I am the Walrus.
I am the Walrus

And here is my Sinatra
The Summer Wind


HAVE FUN WITH MUSIC.

Sojo, if you need some backing tracks, or material, let me know. Be glad to help you with your incredible music.

POST #32 is killing my browser.

Read this Naildead as a door,then comment,donka.I think you'll reconsider

61 isn't old. Old is an attitude, not the passing of time! Experience is what counts.

Jimmy and Mike died of cancer, sorry to say, in the same year at the same age. Jimmy was doing very well in Nashville at the time of his death.

David is still very much alive.

Everything I Own was a song that David wrote when his father died. Not many people knew that - mistaking it for a standard love song. This was taped not longer after http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pfTfMoR8sg - now the song is generally recognized for what it is.

Me and Jimmy, after a very successful Bread concert at the Santa Monica Civic. They were very talented, individually, and as a band.

Geez Mew's,Look at you,thats fantastic,so beautiful with a great sparkle in the eye.

In Ny as a kid we loved Bread and also Traffic,but the Doors ruled all including the Stones. Congrats I'll never have a picture that looks that good of me,You a Star Baby...

Then my job here is done.

I can only say F.F.Coppola did more for the Doors post Jim Morrison's death than any other living person,he was a true friend to Morrison and a lot of Jim's friends who were shunned by other parties,Frank took them in.Soon I think we'll see Tom Di Cillo joins that club.

Danny Sugerman was of course the most important and loving of Morrison's legacy, 2nd we got F.F.Coppola. Not bad Danny boy.Thanks

DiCillo has made a fine movie and I hope it get the respect it deserves. Like anything w/ The Doors...everybody is quick to chew whatever comes out of the gate...but I think time will show it was a worthy effort.

Great picture, Mews!

(Yeah, NP, I got your clapping smiley right here) -->

Sojo, I don't know why you don't get a band together. You live in a great town for live music.
I wouldn't try to do a Doors thing, though, you'd limit your audience to Doors fans. Let Jim
continue to inspire you, but listen to other bands, too, and put together some cool arrangements
for your songs. You may find some like-minded bandmates, hopefully some lifelong friendships
among them and/or the people who come to hear you play. And when they're older, your kids
may want to join the fun!

I was thinking of that the other day, that Sojo should put together a band, play his songs (which I think are really good) and start gigging, &/or go to open mic nights play a couple of your songs & sell your CD's.

Sojo on the Storm

Sojo,

OK. I wonder is it a compliment to say you are the best worst Jim tribute singer in a Ed Wood kinda way?? You sing with a microphone but I can hardly hear the words. But, that's what I like about your work. It's bizarre, lethargic and strangely entertaining in your seeming apathetic way of singing, some of it out of tune, cue etc. I like it.

Reminds me of that famous line

"Huck, whom you’ll see on Times Square, somnolent and alert, sad, sweet, dark, holy. Just out of jail. Martyred. Tortured by sidewalks, starved for sex and companionship, open to anything, ready to introduce a new world with a shrug.

-Jack Kerouac (Desolation Angels)

Dead,I don't know if the Sojo could take a compliment,but well written and I agree.I was in a restaurant in Vegas where the waiters and waitresses were star look alikes and they made good money,Sojo could recite poetry,deliver the food and then puke on the customers laps.What ya think? Doing shots and taking pictures and falling down.Come on people ,this is a great vocation.

Ever visit The Doors Are Open Pot Cafe in Amsterdam??? OMG! I wish I had a camcorder back in those days. American Prayer played over the loud speaker. A purple hippie chick in deadpan monotone recited right along side Jim's spoken voice. A busboy dressed like Christopher Marlowe served us beers and it's Jim Morrison with shaved-off eyebrows and that cockeyed Jim-look in his eyes. No smile. No disrespect to Jim, but you know what I mean. Happens to me sometimes when I drink a little too much.
But me and girlfriend were amused and spooked at the same time. It seemed every guy working the bar looked like Jim. And they looked like they took their Jim seriously. We'd laugh and he'd looked fumed. Or dazed. They even had the American flag with the crucified Jim face hanging outside the entrance.

So then we high tailed over to Popeye's Coffee Shop smoked and watched a bunch of cartoons and laughed at all the crazies in the red light district.

I had a roommate who thought he was Jim Morrison from Connecticut. And he sang in a band and all he did was eat sleep shower shit and shave Jim Morrison. At one time, before I knew him, I learned he had gone into a woman's hair salon and had the girl give him a perm (like Jim?). So with the haircut and the glasses, and the collar-less poet-shirt, at 5'2 in boots, he thought was Jim Morrison.

And "Fred" did stupid things like drink too much, and jump air shafts and such. I didn't miss him after college ended. Not one bit. He wasted more time play acting and doing dangerous stuff to somehow become closer to Jim Morrison.

Back then, all a Doors fan had was No One Here Gets Out Alive which, in my opinion, influenced many young people who became obsessed with Jim Morrison's life, however accurate, to kill themselves through misadventure because the legend of Jim Morrison seems to be very powerful to weak minded fans.

But we love them just the same because Jim also died because he emulated his tragic heroes. But the ones who survive... become....

Anyway I like to believe I side with Life.

You know Sojo...if you really want to be compared to the lizard king, just start a Tea Party tribute band...

The Tea Party...Heavens coming down

JIM MORRISON IS DEAD AND IT WOULD TAKE A DAMN GOOD COVER BAND TO OVERCOME "WILDCHILD" SOJO STOP JERKING THE CHAIN,MOVE ON TO SANTA MONICA BLVD,LEAVE MORRISON ALONE.THE POOR GUY IS DEAD,MOCK HIS SKELETAL FACE NOW.