Don't You Love It Madly!!!
For their last studio album as a foursome, the Doors return to their blues roots in 1971 for the excellent album LA Woman. Longtime producer Paul Rothchild refuses to help in this case, saying the tapes sound like "cocktail music," so the band assumes production duties in collaboration with engineer Bruce Botnick. The title track is a great freeway driving song; unfortunately it was one of the few Doors classics overplayed on classic rock radio. "The WASP (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)" was also overplayed, however John Densmore's pounding drum beat and Ray Manzerak's fabulous organ work still make it memorable. Singer Jim Morrison excels on the blues cuts: on "Been Down So Long," his voice is strong and authoritative, on "Cars Hiss By My Window" (a great Jimmy Reed-style slow blues), he does a great wah-wah vocal effect. Nice! "Riders on the Storm" works so well because both Jim and the band underplay the story of a "killer on the road" to brilliant effect. Excellent piano work by Ray and guitar work by Robbie Krieger on this track. There is even a fantastic cover of John Lee Hooker's "Crawling King Snake," which fits Jim's Lizard King persona to perfection. Absolutely mesmerizing (like a cobra!). Unfortunately, "L'America" and "Hyacinth House" are merely good, not great songs and it is obvious the band needed to recharge their batteries before moving on. Sadly, Jim died in Paris in the summer of 1971 and it was not meant to be. Still, the original Doors left us with six high-quality studio albums of their mystical, penetrating music that is still enjoyed by their fans today. Get this album, you will love it madly.
Uneven yet Worthy
L.A. Woman, the last of the Doors releases with Morrison, relied even more on blues than it's predecessor. Morrison's voice occasionally sounds worn, but the lyrical quality is undiminished. The hits on the album were Love Her Madly(#11) and Riders on the Storm(#14). The former was written by Krieger, and was one of the most well arranged short singles the Doors ever made. Some of the straight blues seems common in places, (both tracks 3 and 4 have the same key and progression,) but the simpler lyrics and burning slide guitar make them enjoyable enough. The title track has become something of a car-cruising anthem with its regular classic rock radio airplay, featuring a strong and steady rhythm section led by Densmore. The Changeling was also effective, being in a similar style to Peace Frog, with the lyrics more down to earth and Manzarek's keyboard to the fore. L'America and Hyacinth House were also admirable, with the former, a mysterious rocker with the latter being melodious and melancholy. The Wasp was perhaps a bit pretentious, though the musicians made a creative backdrop for Morrison's poetry. The album ends with the hit Riders on the Storm, which featured impressive jazz improvisation, and occasional, but effective Morrison lines. This writer sees L.A. Woman as the Doors third best album. This and the rest of the Doors first six studio albums are recommended.
This is more like it.
After some lemons The Doors give us a peach. This is probably the album they would've wanted "Strange Days" to be. This is alot more polished than thier first album, but still has a dark haunting sound. "Riders On The Storm" has become one of my favorites as it's got a thunderstorm in the mix( I can listen to them all day, "LAmerica" has a Sabbath riff written all over it one of Morrison's better trances he's been under, The rest of the songs are hit and miss, but after 4 studio albums that didn't follow up from thier debut this is a far cry better. With the maturity on this album it makes me wonder what would've happened had Morrison not have died.
The Lizard King's last hurrah
The Doors' sixth album L.A. Woman was released in April of 1971. The album was the band's last with original frontman Jim Morrison. The album was recorded after the band was banned from touring across much of the country after Jim got arrested for a disputed indecent exposure incident in Miami in 1969. As a result, the band went in the studio with producer Paul Rothchild to record L.A. Woman. However, the band played through the run throughs of each track badly that Paul was bored to tears and walked out. As a result, engineer Bruce Botnick agreed to co-produce with the band and record at The Doors' Workshop. The result, a kick ass album. Songs like the opening The Changeling, the Top 20 hit Love Her Madly, the title cut, The WASP(Texas Radio and the Big Beat), Been Down So Long and the closing Riders on the Storm showed the band at their best. The album was a huge Top 10 hit and monster seller but unfortunately, Jim Morrison passed away in July of 1971 in Paris but there are some reports that he may have faked his death as no one save his wife saw him when he passed, she would pass away in 1974 from a heroin overdose. This album is still a classic, even today. I first got this album on cassette when I was 10 and it still kicks ass today, especially the 2000 reissue from Elektra with the remastered/repackaged sticker on the sleeve. Highly recommended!
Blues as only The Doors can play them; my elegy to Morrison
At last, after turning in an excellent but sadly straightforward album with MORRISON HOTEL (see my review), The Doors delve deeper into the blues and come up with this (unknown at the time) swan song. By this time, Morrison's fast lifestyle was rapidly catching up to him; his voice was deteriorating, he was fat, and he looked much older than his years. Morrison could still conjure up vocals reminiscent of the first two records (mainly "Riders on the Storm"). Overall, this world-weary voice fit in perfectly with the blues outfit The Doors had turned themselves into. While the majority of their previous album sounds like it could have been written and recorded by anybody, LA WOMAN certainly sounds bluesy, but here the songs are written with the idiosyncracies that made the band so endearing in the first place. From the acid trip of "The Wasp (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)" to the seedy, decadent portrait of LA in the title track, The Doors shows us that, no matter how hard they want to be a blues band, they just too undeniably weird and unique to make a true blues album. And, ironically, that's what makes LA WOMAN such a powerful record. It's blues but blues like only The Doors could play, and that's what makes it such a rich, compelling listen.
The hit singles off this effort were "Love Her Madly," "LA Woman," and the radio rock staple "Riders on the Storm." "Love Her Madly" is one of The Doors' catchiest songs. "LA Woman" stands as one of The Doors' very best songs, with its decadent portrait of LA and its paean to some larger-than-life woman who consumes landscape, and could very well be a symbol of the city itself. "Riders on the Storm," the final word from The Doors with Morrison, has that edgy, atmospheric [paranoia] aura that makes so much of their early work so exciting to listen too. One of the essential images of Morrison, that lonely hitchhiker, shows up, and Morrison deals with man's relationship to the world ("Into this house we're born/Into this world we're thrown") and pleads women to love their men so that the human race will never die out. The exact meaning of "Riders on the Storm," like the best poetry, is open to interpretation; however, when The Doors were at the top of their game (as they are here), they create some of the most emotionally evocative music of that generation. "Riders on the Storm," with its panoramic lyrics, its ominous music, and the tonal, chanting way Morrison recites the lyrics, takes us to that other side, into a new realm of consciousness. Very mind altering stuff, and easily one of The Doors' top five songs. Had this been their only major song, The Doors' place in rock history would be forever secure.
The rest fall into some very basic blues variations. "The Changling" is a particular favorite of mine, with some great playing, along with "L'America" and "The Wasp." In the former Morrison sings about some mythical, very mystical, and certainly precolonial form of America. I keep getting visions of conquistadors and European vandals, stealing from the native peoples. "The Wasp (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)," lyrically, stands among Morrison's finest, and is one of The Doors' best album tracks. There are lots of great lines in it ("no eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn!). There's the rather pedestrian "Crawling King Snake," a John Lee Hooker cover, but the Lizard King himself ties it very successfully into his own personal legend. "Been Down So Long," along with the great "Cars Hiss By My Window," shows you The Doors could write blues with the best of them, but very unique blues. "Hyacinth House" is a nice ballad, with Morrison finding himself alone and wanting a friend who doesn't need him. A very good composition.
In the end, The Doors play their own brand of blues in LA WOMAN, turning in some of the most memorable music of their all-to-brief career. I wish MORRISON HOTEL was as Doorsey as this one was, because LA WOMAN shows you The Doors had such a unique vision that they reinvented the subject matter of the blues, turning in a stylistic blues album that no one else could play. One of the Lizard King's finest hours, and unfortunately his last recording* with the band. Afterward, Morrison died, and this proved to be his swan song. We'll always remember you.
For this reviewer, I have a cherished place for The Doors because through them I have discovered so many new forms of artistic expression. Their debut (which is their best album, followed by STRANGE DAYS), was literally a life-changing album for me. Morrison's writing broadened my horizons, and got me into writing poetry and listening to all different styles of music. I owe so much to this band and Morrison in my own artistry and my writing; Morrison should me how mindblowing poetry and music truly can be. They truly did help me break on through to the other side, being the doors into new realms they meant themselves to be. I owe so much to them, and I'll never forget what Morrison did for me in opening up my mind.
* When Morrison died suddenly and mysteriously in Paris, The Doors went on to record two last albums, the appropriately titled OTHER VOICES and FULL CIRCLE. Out of print (you can find them as imports and rarity releases), these two albums aren't as powerful as the best moments with Morrison, but worth seeking out for the fan, especially for the song "Ships Without Sails," a wonderful song that reminds you of "Riders," and the weird (not wholly successful) parable story of "The Peking King and the New York Queen.")
The last official Doors studio album, L.A. Woman was still high on the charts when, like the "actor out on loan" of its closing track, "Riders on the Storm," Jim Morrison died in a Paris bathtub in the summer of 1971. Via such tracks as "The Changeling," "Crawling King Snake," and the frothy, rollicking title track, the collection leaned heavily toward the blues--in particular, Morrison's boastful "Lizard King" brand of it. It also holds another entry in the band's ever-adventurous tone poems in the ever-underrated mythical tale of American music and culture, "WASP (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)." --Billy Altman
2000 reissue of The Doors' last album & best seller. Features 'Riders On The Storm', 'Love Her Madly" and "L.A. Woman'. Each LP jacket is hand crafted to recreate the original groundbreaking see-through artwork. Digitally remastered on a 24 karat gold CD. Standard jewel case.
