I do like the Doors music, but not so much the live tracks. When Jim starts rambling on about something, wrecks it for me. Maybe I'm getting old, who knows. I can equate to any other artist, who at some point in the song, usually the chorus, decides the audience needs to sing along, while it may be cool if you are there, that also wrecks the song for me.
I agree that Ray Manzarek was as important to the group. I heard a few interviews with him over the years, a really intelligent guy, worth trying to find those interviews.