Archivist Notes

When people ask me what it was like to talk to Ray Manzarek, I tell them to find a copy of “Myth and Reality”, put on some high quality headphones, turn out the lights, close your eyes, and listen. With the quality and production value of this recording, you will literally feel like Ray is in the room with you. This is two hours of Ray Manzarek at his storytelling best, starting with his roots in the south side of Chicago, through joining the army, and ending with his time with The Doors. Included are all the Doors stories you’d expect, plus personal stories that are not available anywhere else. Also included toward the end of disc two is a new piano composition called “All Men Are Created Equal”.

This was one of the releases that I, and the Manzarek family, really wanted to get out to the fans since it had been out of print for over 20 years. In 2017, we finally got it back out there via the Ray Manzarek Archives label. Listen on your favorite streaming platform or YouTube.

Original 1996 Producer’s Note

With Ray Manzarek’s “The Doors, Myth and Reality: The Spoken Word History,” it’s a chance to hear and explore fresh and exciting new discoveries about the often ignored root structures of the foundations that have made the music of The Doors stand up for so long. Because Ray Manzarek is an active artist with an honest memory, and by piercing the surface of the conception, not the media deceptions or the common misconceptions of the band he was/is in, I want the audience to question and, ultimately to challenge the vision of ourselves. Come, enter the magic circle with us.
– Harvey R. Kubernik, Los Angeles, California, June 1996