His Keyboard Delayed My Flight

While I was eating lunch in the company cafeteria, an auditor walked by and said, "Ray Manzarek has died."

The name did not ring a bell with me.  Was Ray Manzarek a company auditor?  Or was he a salesman?  Did he work in the mail room?

Seeing the puzzled look on my face, the auditor explained: "Ray Manzarek was the keyboardist for The Doors."

The Doors!  A flash of anger came over me, as I remembered sitting on an airplane many years ago at LaGuardia Airport in New York.  All the passengers were on the plane, but the plane wasn't leaving.  I was anxious to be on my way to Cleveland to see my brother and his family.  

I looked out the airplane window and saw a baggage wagon pull up with musical instruments on board.  As the instruments were being loaded onto the plane, the two guys sitting next to me (who were wearing Nehru jackets) pointed and said: "Those are the instruments for The Doors".

I was about to say that I didn't care whose instruments they were.  They could have easily been put on the next flight to Cleveland and not delayed my flight.

Then the two guys bragged that they had seen The Doors’ concert last night at Flushing Meadows, they were going to see The Doors in Cleveland, and they had tickets to see the Doors in Indianapolis and Chicago as well.

I had read about groupies, and here I was sitting next to two Doors groupies.  

I itched to ask them why they would ever want to see more than one concert by the same band.  Yes, “Light My Fire” is a wonderful song, but why burn up money on plane tickets to hear it played in different cities?  However, since these guys were fanatics, I decided that I better not ask those questions.

The groupies told me, in reverent tones, that The Doors were on the same plane as we were.  The delayed plane was the Holy of Holies.

But it was still a delayed plane.  I was angry.

A few years later I signed a three-year teaching contract and moved to Africa.  I took a tape player with me, one that would work on 220 volt current.  I knew it would be impossible to buy contemporary American pop music in Africa, so I also took 10 cassette tapes with me: Carole King, The Moody Blues, Joe Cocker, and The Doors. 

These tapes were wise choices; the artists were top-notch and there wasn't a single bad song on any of the 10 cassettes.  I listened to the tapes daily and never grew tired of them.

With Ray Manzarek’s death, I guess it is time to forgive his keyboard for delaying my flight to Cleveland, and it is now time to publically thank Ray Manzarek and his fellow Doormates for their artistry and their music and their cassette tapes, which sustained me for three straight years.

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Here is an HD video of "Light My Fire", live at the Hollywood Bowl in 1968.  You can easily hear how Ray Manzarek's keyboard wizardry is the driving force of the 9-minute song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhqQlmtrLyA

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NOTE: Doug's best stories have been collected into a book: Puppy Out Of Breath.  Price = $11.  You can purchase a copy at  http://www.puppyoutofbreath.com