First question that pops to mind is How did Manzarek come to play the keyboard and keyboard bass developing an iconic sound? The Animales, " The House of the Rising Sun " hits number 1 hit in 1964, a year before The Doors form and you see Alan Price on a Vox Continental, did this influence Manzarek ? The first mass produced transistor appears in 1959 -- Vox uses the transistor to develop the Continental for touring and to replacing tone wheel organs. Coincidentally, in 1960 Fender Rhodes introduces the earliest keyboard bass. The keyboard bass amplifies vibrating metal tines like a guitar, and can be altered like an electric guitar, for example wah-wah effects -- this allowed Manazark to play the bass part with his left hand. Was The Doors psychadelic sound more of a function of technology, as much as the psychedelic rock movement?
I find Manzarek's 1961 - 1962 tour in the Army Security Agency (ASA) interesting and lots of questions come to mind. The ASA reported directly to the National Security Agency (NSA) and strives to maintain an edge in new electronic technology. Did this open Manzarek up to using the Vox keyboard ? Mazarek's deployment to Laos in 1961, opens even more questions for me. The US was trying to prevent a civil war in Laos. Was he helping with Air America, or assigned to Special Forces as an analyst ? In the Army with Ray, Britt Leach paints a picture of Manzarek as a rebel by not agreeing to sign documents related to his security clearance, with the idea that he would never be allowed to travel to Poland, under USSR control at the time. Why would the Army send him to Laos, on a even more potentially sensitive mission. Was he recruited and this was part of Mazarek's training ? I know, total conspiracy theory. Yet, Morrison, the son of a decorated Navy admiral meet ...
Manzarek returns to film school in 1962 and finishes in 1965. He was a good film maker. Why jump into music ?
Stephen and I cover this ground and more in the YouTube video "10 Questions for Ray Manzarek ", also available via podcast at podcast.chocolaad.com.