Ray Manzarek, who along with his college friend Jim Morrison, founded the seminal 1960s group, The Doors, has died of bile duct cancer at the age of 74.

courtesy of mildequator.com

If you grew up in Las Vegas back in the 1960s, it certainly felt like a magical time. While our parents were enjoying The Rat Pack, Tony Bennett, Broadway shows, Harry Belafonte, Lena Horne and more, we, the younger generation, were able to see The Beatles, Iron Butterfly, Led Zepplin and The Doors (and more) in the Rotunda of the old Convention Center.

The Doors played there on August 25, 1967 opening the 8:00 show with Soul Kitchen.

"I was deeply saddened to hear about the passing of my friend and bandmate Ray Manzarek today," Doors guitarist Robby Krieger said in a statement. "I'm just glad to have been able to have played Doors songs with him for the last decade. Ray was a huge part of my life and I will always miss him."

Manzarek grew up in Chicago, then moved to Los Angeles in 1962 to study film at UCLA. It was there he first met Doors singer Jim Morrison, though they didn't talk about forming a band until they bumped into each other on a beach in Venice, California, in the summer of 1965 and Morrison told Manzarek that he had been working on some music. "And there it was!" Manzarek wrote in his 1998 biography, Light My Fire. "It dropped quite simply, quite innocently from his lips, but it changed our collective destinies."