Going further down my foray into The Doors’ members solo projects/careers, I figured I’d check out Ray Manzarek’s 1983 album, “Carmina Burana”. Those organs in The Doors is part of their unmistakeable sound, and they were played by Manzarek, so I’m interested in hearing what his solo career was like. This edition of “Carmina Burana” is Manzarek’s version of German composer Carl Orff’s original 1937 cantata of the same name, and it features some really interesting album artwork to top it off.
Right away, the first track, “Destiny: Ruler of the World – The Wheel of Fortune, I”, is immediately recognizable (I didn’t know I knew “Carmina Burana” honestly), with a super interesting Manzarek twist. Manzarek adds his own personal touches on piano to this piece that doesn’t distract from the original feeling, meanwhile there’s there’s some really interesting staccato piano of a different type (sounds like a harpsichord maybe) action going at the same time. Totally epic composition, and looking forward to the rest of the album.
“Destiny: Ruler of the World – The Wounds of Fate” is now up, and the piano has that almost devilish feeling that a lot of The Doors’ songs used to have. That breakdown in the song really shines, especially when that Moog synthesizer comes into play. The drums have that quintessential soft echoey backbeat to them, and it really adds a nice time-period touch to the composition.
“Springtime: The Face of Spring” starts out like a prog rock opera type of song. I can’t understand what the lyrics mean exactly, but the piano played by Manzarek, coupled with the slow bop-y bass in the background along with the chorus of vocals makes the piece extremely evocative. The drum and piano fills are really sweet too, just giving that rolling feeling to keep the piece progressing forward.
“Springtime: Sunrise” really slows things down a bit and gets you lost in a certain ethereal bliss of a certain hopeful nature. “Springtime: Welcome” really picks things back up in pace with a really rollicking piano part played by Manzarek. The piece goes from potentially rock and roll tune to an art pop hit and ends up sounding something like The Doors meets classical meets 80s pop – super interesting.
“Springtime: The Dance” is up to bat now, and I can’t place the time signature necessarily but it’s definitely cool to listen to. This art-y pop-y rock type tune really gets a classical sounding groove going and it’s so interesting to hear. It’s almost unlike anything I’ve ever listened to. It almost sounds a bit like polka music honestly.
“Springtime: Sweetest Boy” slows the album back down again and displays Manzarek’s ability to caress the music and the listener through his piano before immediately jumping into a joyous tune in “Springtime: If the Whole World Was Mine” for a short bit.
“In the Tavern: Boiling Rage” has a certain tone that sounds a lot if the 80s Grateful Dead tried to play polka music. I’m not sure why it sounds like polka to me, that could be a wholly wrong comparison, but that’s the sort of feel I’m getting from it – 80s rock polka with a sort of rock opera inflection.
“In the Tavern: The Roasted Swan” slows things down once again with some soft, and at times, discordant, piano playing by Manzarek as he dances around the string (might be a saxophone) instrument arrangement, until finally the vocals drop with some super tasty guitar licks here and there.
“In the Tavern: In the Tavern” sounds straight out of The Doors’ playbook, if its lyrics were sung in Italian and by a chorus of upwards of 8 people. Really awesome track with a super awesome outro.
“The Court of Love: Love Flies Everywhere”, slows things down a bit again, but this time there’s some electric guitar that really adds a new flavor to this track. The piano by Manzarek is super interesting to listen to, he really has a nice flavor to his playing.
Oh wow, “The Court of Love: A Young Girl” could easily have been on a Doors’ album. There’s almost a psychedelic-ness to the drum, like knocking on a door of sorts, and there’s much more noticeable interplay between the instruments. This one sounds less composed necessarily and more jammed out with that strangeness The Doors would almost always provide.
“The Court of Love: Come My Beauty” sounds like a get-up-and-go rock track with a super interesting set of chorus vocals to go with it. The guitar solo is strange, and that go me even more hooked into the track than I was already. Manzarek has certainly added his own touch to this original composition by Orff.
“The Court of Love: The Lovers” is up now, and I must say so far the album has flown by. It’s truly unlike anything I’ve ever heard. And this song really brings things to a culmination and wow, the final track “Destiny: Ruler of the World – The Wheel of Fortune, II” just came on and resolved a bunch of tension that built up that I wasn’t even aware of. The drums in this track really drives home its epicness, meanwhile Manzarek plays around with the listener with piano dancing around the sides. I feel like I’m in a spin trying to follow it all and it happened without me realizing before it was too late. Absolutely awesome track.
Absolutely amazing album – the way the last track resolves everything makes the near 40 minute long album gives almost a feeling of accomplishment and gratitude, because that was freakin’ awesome. Music listeners and lovers looking for something more avant-garde might appreciate this one a lot.
-A