While attending Bowling Green University, my buddy Ron and I were lucky enough to see Ray Manzarek perform live at the Agora Theater in Cleveland, OH. We got there very early, parked my 1962 Thunderbird right out front, and got a table in the front row!
Ray started the show with “I Wake Up Screaming.” Along with his incense burning on the keyboard, bubbles came drifting up. His fingers crooked at an odd angle as he exaggerated his up and down hand movements on the clavichord keys. I can’t remember what songs came next, but he soon strolled over to the grand piano on stage and started the introduction to “The Whole Thing Started with Rock and Roll….” Musically, that always seemed like a tough intro, and I could see the concentration on his face, but he glided right through the song and all of its complexities, including hitting all the right notes going up and down the scale at the end of the song.
Past the middle of the concert, Ray talked with the audience a bit, saying that he had spent the afternoon at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Educating the audience, he said, “Did you know that the Cleveland Museum has one of the best Asian Collections of Art in the world?” But to counter his Apollonian side, he then said, “We are being recorded tonight by WMMS. The concert will be broadcast next week.” In a slightly louder voice, he added, “Hey Cleveland, Fuck-Fuck-Fuck. Fuck-Fuck-Fuck.” And he laughed, asking out loud, “I wonder if they will play that?”
The Sales Brothers (Hunt and Tony) provided solid drums and guitar. And Nigel Harrison provided a strong bass. Ray was THE show, but they also took some of the spotlight and deserved it. I especially remember Hunt replicating exactly the drumming that started “Wake up Screaming.” And Nigel’s shoulders moving up and down with the beat, keying in on the drums and Ray’s playing. I saw these actions with Nigel a few years later watching the video “Heart of Glass.” I do recollect “The Gambler” being played a bit later in the set.
Near the end of the concert, the band played a song with Ray singing the refrain, “Heroin killed my best friend…” Right away, my friend and I looked at each other, and we knew precisely who Ray was singing about.
I don’t remember any Doors songs played, except perhaps for Riders on the Storm. I cannot recall anything played from The Golden Scarab. We did hear Bicentennial Blues with the “Light My Fire” type organ solo, followed by the famous intro, before going back to Bicentennial Blues (just like on the album). The special effects – the smoke – occurred during this song and the Light My Fire segment. This may have been the last tune, perhaps as the encore (and were my last set of photos from the actual performance). But to hear the Light My Fire part from Ray was good enough that night. I had a small paper pad and wrote down the setlist as they were played, but alas, that was lost decades ago.
~Dave Nea
Setlist (incomplete): I Wake Up Screaming, The Whole Thing Started with Rock and Roll Now It’s Out of Control, The Gambler, Bicentennial Blues
Photo copyright Dave Neal