Ray Manzarek’s Keyboard Part On The Doors', Love Her Madly

I love when you can focus on the musicianship of a song you know very well by hearing it in a completely new way.

The following audio isolates The Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek’s playing on Love Her Madly from the 1971 album L.A. Woman.

Hidden by the final mix are Manzarek’s deft touches which can be fully appreciated when heard like this.

One surprise that I had never previously picked up was discovered at the 2:03 mark.

The syncopated arrangement and honky-tonk style piano was achieved through some manipulation.

The “tack piano” sound comes about with metal thumbtacks placed into the felt hammers on the piano, so that the metal tacks strike the strings instead of the softer felt, giving it a bright metallic attack, but retaining the piano’s underlying resonance.

As far as the organ, Manzarek said, “I put in the Mendocino organ for my solos. We called it the Mendocino organ because of the song ‘Mendocino featured the Vox continental. I heard the sound and said, ‘I’ve got to use that.’ That organ blew my mind. It had a good hard chugging rhythm.”

Guitarist Robby Krieger wrote the music and lyrics for Love Her Madly. On writing the song Krieger said, “Lyrically I fixed on the idea of a guy whose girlfriend is his obsession but she keeps on walking out and giving him the runaround. That was me and my girlfriend (future wife) Lynn that I was talking about. How she used to slam the door when she walked out after we had an argument ‘don’t you love her as she’s walking out the door.'”