Light My Fire by Ray Manzarek Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Light My Fire
Book Review: A Sorely Missed Opportunity
Summary: 2 Stars
I can still remember when I first came across the hard covered version of this book back in early 1999, and thinking how relieving it is, to finally get the version of events of Jim Morrison the The Doors from the man who co-founded the band, in Ray Manzarek. Ray has always come off as a pretty cool and really nice guy. Someone you'd love to meet and have dinner with and a beer, or two and discuss music, poetry, art, film, and as he himself would often say, man, God, and Existence. But I have to be honest in saying that this book was very, very disappointing. For one, it is way, way too repetitive. How many times could he drone on and on about the Sun, the water, the Ether, the Chi, ect. After a while you really get the feeling that maybe Ray either did one too many hits of Lightening Bold Acid back in the day, or is simply stuck, trapped, and wallowing in the past.
Even more troubling is the length Ray goes, as to create an alter ego for Jim Morrison..."Jimbo". Ray seems to believe that Morrison's dark side is the southern, alcoholic who hangs around with his "hanger-on's", ect. Where the good side of Jim is the poet, artist, and pot head from the early days while they were all hanging out on Venice Beach, and first forming the band. The fact is, is Jim was Jim in all his forms. That's what made the man so complex and that is why even a near four decades after his death he still remains one of the most enticing figures in pop culture. To simply explain his dark demons away as to call him "Jimbo" and make it out to be an alter ego, is pretty shallow for Mr. Manzarek.
Most upsetting to me about this book, is the bitterness showed by Ray. He seems to be a very bitter and angry man. He scorns Oliver Stone repeatedly throughout this book and calls him a fascist. Could it be just a tad case of jealousy there Ray? Because you couldn't make your version into a star-studded major motion picture. Oh yeah, that would've been a really entertaining movie, to watch a man playing Jim Morrison, what? Just sitting there writing poetry at a desk? Come on Ray?
As a matter of a fact, Ray seems to use the term "fascist" quite a bit excessively in my humble opinion. It seems like anyone who may disagree with Rays worldly point of view gets labeled that. Oliver Stone, John Wayne, Ronald Reagan, Corporate CEO's. Funny, I don't recall Oliver Stone, John Wayne, or President Reagan ever lining up people and throwing them into gas chambers, or ever forcing anyone against their will to do something. Or is this just a part of Ray like so many of the people of his generation, trying to tap into that youthful feeling once again. Some may say it's simply a bad case of being stuck in the 60's. Kind of ironic for a man who seems to do very well for himself...while still living off of the fruits of wealth from four decades ago. Let's be frank here...as Ray actually did anything worth while musically since the dis-banding of The Doors in 1973? I think we all know the painful answer to that one. How about it Ray? What...can we expect another greatest hit's cd out? Or another...boxed set?
No, this was a very limited and very scornful view of events passed. And no Ray, I do not believe that the 21st Century is going to be Century of the lovers. Yes, believe it or not, many of us would love for it to turn out that way. But the simple fact is there will always be greed, tyrants, despots, dictators, and other forms of tyranny and disease that consume the planet and have to be dealt with from time to time. And yes, there will always by tycoons, and captains of industry who make their evil profits off of the backs of us benevolent poor souls. For we are "Man" Ray. And as "Man, we are "Human", and as "Human's" we all have to potential and temptation to be duplicitous by our very own nature.
For a good book an The Doors, it is best to stick with the original, "No One Here Get's Out Alive". Also James Riordon's biography of Jim Morrison, "Break On Through" is a great read. And most recently, "Angels Dance and Angels Die" is even more revealing with a lot more insight and a lot more new revelations into the enigma and phenomena of one James Douglas Morrison.
Book Review: A guide through the doors, but not a doorman
Summary: 5 Stars
Ray Manzarek's perspective of The Doors is one that offers us a glimpse into a room that many of us have up til this point watched through the hallway. In his book he gives us the real Jim Morrison, a man who struggled with an internal duality of timeless poet, and madman named "Jimbo." If there is anyone that knew Jim Morrison, it was Ray Manzarek, and to many of us who were not around, he is the one who can lead us to the real Jim Morrison. The anecdotes of the book are amazing, and give us the development of the band and of the times. I'm just waiting for the film graduate to make the movie from the book so that he can dethrone the one made by Oliver Stone a few years ago, which was a sensationalized , and otherwise hollow movie.Book Review: A passionate, proselytizing, polemic
Summary: 3 Stars
This book is a passionate, proselytizing, polemic - a jolt of energy shedding light on this fascinating period of rock history. In his reminiscences of the glory days of the '60s, Ray Manzarek, The Doors' keyboardist, is rightly convinced that he and his band played a pivotal role in shaping the soundscape of those special and turbulent times.
The trade-off for sharing Manzarek's enthusiasm for the zeitgeist is his slightly gauche style - obviously there are no ghost writers tidying things up here! The repeated references to chakras and kundalini coils can be bewildering if not distracting, but Manzarek's ability to cut to the chase makes the book an easy and rewarding read. An added bonus is the many musical references: Manzarek doesn't talk down to his readers in describing the musical process of the Doors' songs, so we get discourses, for example, on the use of a major seventh chord in the minor-keyed "Crystal Ship" (indeed, nearly every Doors song was in a minor key, hence the brooding undercurrent that marked their sound as something more complex and sinister than the other "summer-of-love" rocksters).
Manzarek comes across as a sensible older brother to Jim Morrison (there was a 4-year age difference), and he and the other band members tried to get Morrison off booze but the singer seemed to believe it was his fate to live a bright, short life. It was heroin that eventually killed him in Paris at the age of 27.
Light My Fire is essential reading for Doors fans and required reading for anyone interested in the ferment that was the '60s. Above all it is a loving portrait of the friendship and artistic collaboration of two essentially opposite personae.
Manzarek believes in the '60s - that it was a watershed decade and that people of his and subsequent generations still have the ability to rekindle the fire of all that was great about that era.
Book Review: A tale of two Morrisons: Jim and Jimbo
Summary: 3 Stars
After reading this book I was left with the impression that Manzarek has a very narrow definition of what a poet should be. Thus he attempts to recreate Morrison to fit into this definition. Any of Morrison's personality traits which don't fit into Manzarek's image of a poetic genius (There seems to have been many in Morrison's case) he lamely dismisses as the bufoonish behavior of an alter ego he creates and calls 'Jimbo.'
Manzarek often refers to Morrison's associates, who do not share his own passions in life, as 'losers' and 'degenerates.' He describes a friendship Morrison had with two such individuals whom he shared an interest with in horseback riding and target shooting. Obviously, in Manzarek's view, such all-American activities should not be pursued by poets. Thus he forcefully confronts these men and tells them "Jim does not f***ing ride horses."...Only 'Jimbo' would ride horses.
He also describes Morrison as a nonviolent advocate of peace. Thus when he relays such incidents of Morrison getting into a brawl with Chicano low-riders or whacking a woman with a board, he dismisses this as the actions of 'Jimbo.'...Jim would never do such things.
I also get the feeling that Manzarek was not supportive of any artistic ventures that Morrison undertook independently of the Doors. He makes very brief mention of Morrison's poetry publication and, oddly I feel, offers no personal insight into this collection of works. When Morrison collaborates with several friends in the filming of a Doors documentary, Manzarek is skeptical of this artistic endeavor because only 'Jimbo' would lend his creative vision to a group of 'degenerates' who were unimpressive in film school. Manzarek also quickly dismisses Morrison's independent film project called "Highway" as a silly attempt at art... Only something 'Jimbo' would do.
I give this book 3 stars because I feel that Manzarek, unkowingly, provided deep insight into what was a very complex and often combustible relationship between himself and Morrison. It is obvious that Manzarek had great respect for Morrison as a creative genius and lots of love for him as a person. But reading between the lines I get the feeling that this relationship was not unlike that of a responsible individual and his rebellious and wayward kid brother. I also get the feeling, that like most relationships of this sort, along with the mutual love there is also a strong hint of mutual resentment.
Morrison was obviously a very complex person with many facets to his personality. One of which was a two-fisted Celtic boozer with a bit of 'good old boy' American South in his blood. And obviously those aspects of Morrison were (and still are) very difficult for Manzarek to accept. Thus he picks and chooses the traits of Morrison that he himself feels an artist should convey and attributes those to a man he loves and respects called 'Jim.' But any Morrison traits that do not neatly fit into Manzarek's own ideals of who a poet should be, he easily dismisses and attributes these to a man whom he resented and could not understand, called 'Jimbo.'
Book Review: Almost unreadable but...
Summary: 5 Stars
I've never read a book like this before. This book is almost unreadable but it's insightful. It's also very, very heavy in the metaphysical so be ready! This is the best account of the inner-workings of The Doors: how the songs were formed, etc. and Jim's personality. And who better to recount it than Ray? I had always figured Jim was absent-minded or scatter-brained but Jim actually connected with people well, especially Ray (at least in the early days). And he made perfect sense when he wasn't smashed. Ray does gloss over a lot of things like how he hooked Dorothy (wife) and he hardly mentions Pamela Courson or Patricia Kenneally. He details the day he met his wife then the next mention of the two is when they're living together in Venice Beach. He doesn't mention his child. I figured this was a Ray Manzarek autobiography so I'm going to get to read what kind of family man Ray is. He doesn't spend a lot of time talking about travel and concert playing except for the concerts that went wrong. Ray doesn't chronicle anything in the book extremely too heavy, not the way Patricia Kenneally did in her book. She almost had a day-to-day, blow-by-blow account of things. This isn't really like that. He does go into the intervention he tried with Jim which was interesting.
There is way, way, way too much attempt at description, metaphor, analogy, imagery. Overuse of adjectives. Ray is deeper than a whole monastery of Tibetan monks put together. Ray doesn't stop with one description. He goes on and on, two times over, five times over, ten. He does this with everything in the book! Every few sentences! Tangents, tangents, tangents! The reader is completely drowned (like the Bismark) in the English language and Eastern words/phrases. I thought "oh my god, stop!". (But as Jim wrote "Take it as it comes!"). In passing, Ray said he would drop in on Jim where he lived near school and there was a cafe nearby where everyone hung out. He then proceeds to spend half a page describing this cafe: the entire menu, the ingredients of the tacos, the smells, the drinks, the cook, the decor, etc. He also does this when he describes his LSD trips. Halfway thru the book Ray says that Jim and an old buddy who was a soldier were moving in with him and Dorothy. Then all of a sudden he goes "oh yeah, I spent two years in the military and I did this and that, and went here and there" and on and on. He is all over the place. I felt like Ray was trying to make me trip without ever having me swallow a pill. For every sentence I read in the first half of the book I had to skip at least fifty more. Putnam must have pulled a hell of an all-nighter to edit this book (they must have called up the entire payroll for this).
The only reason I finished this book was because of the great stories and to understand how Jim truly was around people. Patricia Kenneally made him out to be a complete sex and booze fiend and I knew there had to be more to him than that. I mean those songs didn't write themselves. It was also exciting that Ray remembered all of the conversations he had, almost verbatum. The funniest part of the book is when they were peddling their demo and they went to Capitol Records and saw the secretary there and she asked them their name and they said "The Doors". She's like "what do you mean?" and they tried to describe the "doors within your mind" but she couldn't catch on to save her life. Jim was dumbfounded. I wish this book was longer but in the end I'm very glad I ran across it. The Doors were truly unbelievable. Ray/Robby's devotion to the music of the Doors today is a testament to that. The Rolling Stones don't nearly have the joy in their music today like the Doors do. The Stones worship something different called "Fame".