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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on May 3, 2006 9:46:24 GMT
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on May 3, 2006 10:08:34 GMT
LA Woman DVD Thread newdoorstalk.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=bv&action=display&thread=2280LA Woman Out-takes Thread newdoorstalk.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=concert&action=display&thread=2323The Doors - L.A. Woman - DVD audio version newdoorstalk.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=concert&action=display&thread=579LA Woman & Other Voices 40 years on? newdoorstalk.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=concert&action=display&thread=1647Love Her Madly....... Doors Icon? newdoorstalk.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=concert&action=display&thread=1401Riders On The Storm.......Doors Icon? newdoorstalk.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=concert&action=display&thread=571The Doors - L.A. Woman 7" Single Box Set newdoorstalk.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=concert&action=display&thread=2230The Doors: L.A. Woman Besides being heavy in their early days the Doors were funny too. Funnier than a fish. Who can ever forget those great Morrison ad libs like the one he once did during a lull in "Gloria" ("Little girl how old are you. little girl what school do you go to, little girl suck my cock")? He was an earnest drinker, which of course helped. Now he's drinking more than ever, hence there's some material basis for all the laughs. And since heaviness has been kicked in the ass of late all the kickers owe it to themselves to sit down with this one. There isn't one serious cut on the entire album.
Just consider the extent to which Jimbo's snake and lizard obsessions contributed to the wanton slaughter of zillions of members of the earth's reptile population for the sake of boots and belts. His influence on that and other fashion trends has to be considerable, an absurd fact considering how the man himself has been literally abandoned by the hippos of rock fandom during his darkest hours. Well now he's taking no chances about being taken seriously or with universal import. In fact he's not even writing his own snake lyrics anymore. Instead there's John Lee Hooker's "Crawling King Snake." a whopper of a readymade and proof positive that he and his boy, are still listening to the roots, even after the death of Al Wilson (don't forget that Canned Heat was once L.A.'s number one comedy band. On it Morrison demonstrates his final grasp of all the vocal chicanery only hinted at in flashes on "Love Street." Which means he's finally found complete security in caution-to-the-winds Hollywood lemonade singing, the mid-point between bubble gum and a good chance at being invited to sing an Oscar nomination at the 1972 Academy Awards.
And he's even a fair-to-middlin' blues gomper because for the first time he honestly doesn't give a donut about how authentic or any of that the whole thing sounds. He was never actually Fric Burdon but his trans-racial bravado at least hinted at some intent in that direction. Now all the cards are on the table. Just check out "Cars Hiss by My Window" and compare it to the halfassed blues attempts of fellow Southern Californian Captain Beefheart and see who's got the greater vestige of potentially galling pretentiously indulgent self-esteem. (If you don't admit it's the noble Captain then you can't have much of a sense of either humor or fair play.)
And what's more Jim's backup band has finally reduced its approach to one of ping-ponging the essential free-as-air spirit the man's been toying with ever since be abandoned Howlin' Wolf for Mel Torme. In other words the Doors have never been more together, more like the Beach Boys, more like Love (the band they originally played second fiddle to at the Whiskey or the troubadour or wherever it was). So when it's Morrison setting the tone with lines like "Why did you throw the jack of hearts away?" on "Hyacinth House," it's Manzarck, Robbie and Densmore keeping the second-to-second ridiculousness going on and on with merrygoround tirades of utter mere pleasantness straight out of Derek and the Dominoes with even some Kokomo-classical fancy stepping thrown in for good measure. In terms of what they're after here the Doors as a band never falter and there isn't one bummer cut on the entire album obviously a first for them.
It's also the first time since "The End" and "When the Music's Over" that they've been able to pull off anything interesting in the way of long cuts. And there are two of them here, "L.A. Woman" (with maybe the best Chuck Berry riffs since the Stones and a hell of a lot more Sixties Seventies American flavor) and "Riders on the Storm" (signaling the return to Del Shannon from whence the Doors' mysterioso-hood was largely derived to begin with), both of them minor monsters. And I'll be a monkey's uncle if "The WASP (Texas Radio & The Big Beat)" doesn't showcase Morrison's finest command of spoken jive to date, far superior to "Horse Latitudes" and a demonstration of lyric-supporting timing at least the equal of George Burns in his prime.
You can kick me in the ass for saying this (I don't mind): this is the Doors' greatest album and (including their first) the best album so far this year. A landmark worthy of dancing in the streets. (RS 83) R. MELTZER from Rolling Stone 1971
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on May 3, 2006 10:34:39 GMT
From the start LA Woman seemed a hopeless venture. With sessions beginning less than two months after the Miami trial the mood at The Doors Workshop studio was bleak at best. Paul Rothchild who’d been with the band from the start Chose not to produce the set.
“We were bummed” remembers Doors guitarist Robby Krieger, because he had done all the other ones and….it was sort of like he didn’t like the music. ‘It sounds like cocktail music’ he said of ‘Riders On The Storm’. We were going. ‘Oh Shit’, what do we do now? We’d never been in this position before” Instead the album would be co-produced by Bruce Botnick their engineer for all the previous albums.
“We got excited like kids in a candy store” says Krieger, “because as great producer Paul was he tended to overproduce, a bit like Hitler in the studio. Jim might have needed that but on the other hand if it had been a little more fun in the studio it might have gotten a little better. With Paul everything just took so long that it would make Jim bored and want to go and drink. By the time it was his turn to sing he was all messed up.”
Botnick witness to all the Doors recordings may have the most interesting perspective regarding the singers behaviour around Rothchild. When he was being bad did he know he was being bad? “Absolutely” recalls Botnick “the man did not like authority. Which goes back to his father. And Paul over the years had become the General-because of Jim being out of control- God and Master. After a while Jim rebelled against that because it wasn’t a group effort it was Paul’s show”. From “Dead Cat Bounce” Mojo magazine September 2001.
“I had just finished the Janis Joplin album, completed after she died, a labour of love. I was very proud of it and here I’m confronted with The Doors and they’re turning out shit. Two good songs ‘LA Woman’ and 'Riders on the Storm’ and the rest was lounge music. Two weeks into production I quit. I quit because I was tired of dragging The Doors from one album to another. Especially dragging an unwilling Jim through being a performer. He had virtually dried up and it was getting harder and harder, and more expensive and less fun. Purely because of Jim. Two out of three times Jim would either not want to work or go into the studio drunk. He would intentionally disrupt things. Most of the energy was spent trying to get Jim coordinated with the group.” Paul Rothchild from ‘Follow The Music'
"The band itself was never less than solidly consistent. The variable was Jim. Poor Paul tore his hair, what was left of it, and did a hundred takes until finally he just couldn’t go to the well anymore. He was exhausted and so were The Doors” Jac Holzman from ‘Follow The Music”.
“We went off to a restaurant down the street and in the meantime Paul called Jac and told him he couldn’t do it. When we went back to the studio Paul had gone and I know what he felt like. He was a free man” Bruce Botnick from ‘Follow The Music”
“I wasn’t a bit worried about Bruce. He had contributed brilliantly to every note The Doors ever recorded. Robby made the point that they were free to make their own choices. They had more than earned the right” Jac Holzman from ‘Follow The Music”.
“It was back to basics. we brought recording equipment right into the rehearsal room. We said ‘lets have a spontaneous live kinda feel’. We brought in Jerry Scheff AND marc Benno. We’d never used a rhythm player before. We had six musicians all going at it at the same time. ‘LA Woman’ is a live take Jim sang as we played it. There were very few overdubs. I think I overdubbed a tack piano on LA Woman and that’s about it. Everything else was an actual live recording as if done on stage. That’s why it sounds so fresh.” Ray Manzarek 1972.
“LA Woman was so much fun to do. I don’t think we do long numbers just to make them long they just come out to what they are. Maybe recording in our own little studio loosened us up and we felt like playing longer” John Densmore 1972.
The resultant sense of freedom produced an album that was loose and more bluesy than they’d ever recorded. While a few of the tunes had been worked out in earlier live performances the bulk of them including the title track, ‘Riders on the Storm’ and The WASP were whipped into shape in the studio. Guesting on the sessions were Marc Benno and Bassist Jerry Scheff.
“It was definitely special because we all played live.” Recalls Manzarek, “Marc played rhythm and Robby played lead which was fun, no overdubs. We were going for a much rawer spontaneous sound. The Zen moment. Two weeks man! The songs were all together. LA Woman just fucking exploded in the recording studio, with Jerry and Marc, God did we capture it. We smoked a joint and locked in. ‘Riders on the Storm’ we had a bit of a problem figuring out the bass part. I sang it to Jerry Scheff and he said ‘that’s really hard to play’ and I said. ‘No, no, no…..look it’s easy, a little easy triad.’ He said ‘yeah that’s the way it lays out on the keyboard but watch what I have to do on the bass’. And when he started to play that bass line, man, it was just spooky. That song became itself in the recording studio. Those two songs were born there.” Recorded in The Doors Workshop, directly across the street from Elektra records LA office, LA Woman boasts its unique live-in-the-studio sound largely from practical necessity. No album had been recorded there previously and the soundboard had to be carted across the street. That the studio had no echo chamber was easily remedied by a simple matter of structural acoustics. Morrison did most of his singing in the studio bathroom. Bill Siddons once remarked that he’d seen Jim sink 36 beers in one day during an LA Woman recording session. “that was a new record for him and needless to say that was a day when the bathroom got a lot of use”. From ‘Dead Cat Bounce’ Mojo Magazine September 2001.
“ I purposely stayed away from the sessions except for one evening. I walked across to The Doors Office and rehearsal space and saw a desk pushed of to the side, heavy mover quilts nailed to the wall and the windows covered. Bruce was a floor above in Bill Siddons office with console speaker and tape recorder the bare minimum of everything. There was a lot of running up and down because Bruce was out of sight of the band, which probably was a plus. There were no visual clues. It was so Spartan and so right!” Jac Holzman from ‘Follow The Music.’
“At last I’m doing a blues album” Jim Morrison 1970
“It felt great to have success with’Love Her Madly’ which was a big AM hit and ‘LA Woman’ and ‘Riders On The Storm’ which were big FM hits. And it seemed appropriate because recording the album was terrific. We had Jerry Scheff on bass and Marc Benno on guitar which freed up Robby and really cut back on the overdubs. Two thirds of the album is recorded live with Jim singing along in his vocal booth- the bathroom with it’s great echo” Ray Manzarek from Revolver Spring 2000.
Bruce Botnick recalls that “half of LA Woman was ready when The Doors came into the studio”. The Changeling dated from 1968 and so did The WASP formerly a poem called ‘Texas Radio and The Big Beat’. Morrison liked to integrate this creeping rock n roll voyage of discovery into the live set as a prelude to ‘Peace Frog’ or part of bizarre medleys during ‘Celebration of the Lizard’, ‘The End’ or ‘When The Music’s Over’. It also appears as part of ‘Love Me Two Times’ on the Alive She Cried LP. ‘Cars Hiss By My Window’ is older still rescued from a notebook Morrison threw off Dennis Jakobs rooftop into a garbage pail and L’America was originally recorded to open Antonioni’s movie Zabriske Point. ‘Crawling King Snake’ was already a concert favourite from 1966 and ‘Riders on the Storm’ was partially adopted from Jim’s spoof phone conversation to Mike McClure during HWY and other influences such as ‘Graveyard Poem’. 8512 Santa Monica Boulevard was transformed with an 8 track mixing board behind which the genial bearded figure of Bruce Botnick oversaw production. Wilfully perhaps Jim was actually fairly straight by his standards. ‘he was punctual and professional and all those boring things’ remembers Botnick.The Doors were making the album they wanted to make. Although everyone at Elektra loved LA Woman they didn’t get to hear it until it was finished for a change. It was important to Jim it reflect their growth as a blues band and not as a pop group. From Max Bell’s article for the specially commissioned HMV ‘Classic Collection’ LA Woman booklet 1990.
“LA Woman was completely live and I think that could be the quintessential Doors song. The way we came up with it was amazing. We just started playing and it came together as if by magic. Jim made a lot of it up as he went alongand I think it is one of his most poetic songs.” Robby Krieger from Revolver Spring 2000.
“Making LA Woman was a very, very nice experience. As soon as Paul was gone Jim was totally different. On time everyday, not drinking and having a lot of fun because the ‘Father’ figure wasn’t there. With Paul removed none of the demons that had taken him over during the other recordings were present.” Bruce Botnick from Revolver Spring 2000.
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on May 3, 2006 10:35:24 GMT
“Ray says Jim was going to Paris to chill out but I wasn’t convinced. They drink vino for breakfast for Gods sake. Ray wrote in his book that I called Jim up and begged him to come back and he told me to ‘fuck off’. Absolutely false! What happened was Jim called me from Paris and asked about LA Woman. I told him it was doing great and he said ‘Great, we can do another record’ and I was thinking ‘I don’t know man you still sound a little fucked up’. He was slurring his words and was clearly a little loaded. He just was not in good shape so I wasn’t counting my chickens.” John Densmore from Revolver Spring 2000.
"At the time of LA Woman The Doors were looking a doomed thing and I felt Paul Rothchild was a rat deserting a sinking ship. We couldn’t play anywhere, ‘Morrison Hotel’ didn’t do that well and Jim looked bad and was getting fat. I think we came up with something so loose because there was no pressure we figured we were already screwed so we were having fun again. All things considered I thought it was pretty cool LA Woman did so well.” Robby Krieger from Revolver Spring 2000.
According to Botnick “The rehearsal room was a home from home. There was a pinball table and paintings on the wall. One was a nude with a head sized hole cut out of the torso though not in a controversial place. I hung packing blankets on the walls and wired up the remote. I’ve often wondered whether LA Woman could have been improved upon technically. I don’t think it could be. Paul Rothchild and I recently remastered all The Doors studio albums because some tapes had deteriorated. We discussed remixing certain cuts like they did for the Beatles. But we decided against it. When you make these decisions you are messing with a memory and a moment in time when you were a certain age and acted a certain way. You can’t recapture those moments. They’d never feel as good.” Influences abound on LA Woman like Robby Kriegers admiration for Jimmy Reed or a piano motif from Chopin adapted by Ray Manzarek for ‘Hyacinth House’. It is harder to do any of the music justice as you cannot hear a review and John Densmore never got his just reward in print. But did any drummer working in his idiom ever make smarter use of the brushes and cymbals or snap down so tight a roll with such economy? No Lynn drums, no synths invented could match the rich trap vibration he achieves on ‘The WASP’.Lyrically we get the quote on ‘Been Down So Long’ from Richard Farina’s ‘City Of Night’. Bruce Botnick points out that ‘Morrison had an overlooked sense of humour. He wrote some funny songs. ‘Hyacinth House’ was intended to be taken with a large wink. It’s a silly song.The stuff about the cards, a game of cards was all it was. The line about the bathroom…he sang it in the bathroom.’
It was Botnicks idea to play a rain track across ‘Riders On The Storm’ probably the corniest and most effective sound effect ever used in a rock song. ‘I also wanted to have horses riding across a bridge but that didn’t work out. And what you hear is what you get. There were no out-takes. The Doors always arrived in the studio with all the news fit to print.’
Guitarist Robby Krieger explains Morrison’s fascination with car imagery as ‘something that symbolised an American way of life. In the old days you got fucked in a barn. Now you get in the car and escape. Jim always said ‘I’m an American first and foremost. And I’m from LA….’ On the original cover artwork Morrison deliberately hunched down in the cover shot appearing smaller than the rest. Through the front covers clear window you can see a figure crucified to a telegraph pole. The three Doors if pushed will say LA Woman is their favourite album. The WASP is the touchstone for Krieger ‘it is about the new music Jim heard when his family moved around the South West. He’d got this vision of a huge radio tower spewing out noise…this was when XERB was broadcasting and Wolfman Jack was on the air. You could hear it from Tijuana to Tallahassee up to Chicago where Ray lived. That started rock n roll for our generation. It was black polished chrome. There would be no laws down there about how loud a radio station could be.’
John Densmore was the last of The Doors to speak to Morrison. He called me from Paris and said he’d be six months and then come back. There was no reason to split the band. I read him some reviews. He was very pleased. He said he’d be back. A week later we learned he died….’ From Max Bell’s article for the specially commissioned HMV ‘Classic Collection’ LA Woman booklet 1990.
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on May 3, 2006 10:36:23 GMT
“You got a title Jim” John asked. Jim pondered bobbing his head laconically. “Yeah …I think so” he spoke thoughtfully. “I think ….maybe..LA Woman”. “Cool” John said “I like it” I said. “Kind of an ode to Los Angeles …and a woman at the same time” Jim said. “And Los Angeles as a woman” Robby added “wait till you hear it we just started fooling around with it”. “Shit let’s try it now” John enthused. “Hey anybody got someplace they need to be” I asked. Everybody shook their heads. “Well lets get busy” I said. “Yeah we got an album to make” said Jim smiling “Let’s not stand around jawing idly. Hell time’s a wasting”. Ray Manzarek from his book ‘Light My Fire’.
“I don’t know if you saw the set up we have at the office or not. We have a board upstairs and we record right there. It’s not that we don’t like Elektra’s studio but we felt that we do a lot better when we are rehearsing. We leave a tape running and it’s a lot cheaper and faster that way. This will be the first record we do without a producer. We’re using the same engineer Bruce Botnick I don’t know if he’ll be called Producer or not. Probably co-Producer with The Doors. In the past the Producer… it’s not that he was a bad influence or anything but this will be a lot different without the fifth person there. So anyway we’ll be ourselves for better or worse.”Jim Morrison to Bob Chorush of The LA Free Press, Spring 1971.
In an interview to promote LA Woman Jim said “the first album we did in about 10 days and then each succeeding album took longer and longer until the last one (Morrison Hotel) which took about nine months. This one we went in and got a song a day. It was amazing. Partly because we went back to the original instrumentation, just the four of us and a bass player.” John Densmore from his book ‘Riders On The Storm’.
“Jac listened to the whole album and then said ‘Love Her Madly’ was a Top 5 record and ‘Riders On The Storm’ will get more FM play than any Doors LP cut and song by song he ran down exactly what happened. The Doors said ‘wait a minute we think ‘The Changeling’ is the single. ‘That’s what we want out because that’s the most credible musically’. Jac looked at them as if they were nuts and said ‘it’s not a hit. “Love Her Madly” is a hit’. And they said ‘No’ and the meeting ended without him swaying them at all. It took about two weeks to get them to go with the obvious hit.” Bill Siddons Doors manager from ‘Follow The Music’.
“I think LA Woman is kind of the first ‘punk’ album. It’s really raw and there are mistakes but the concept was to just go for it….try to get in tune but if the passion is there and you hit a few wrong notes that’s alright. Garages are where this music started you know so let’s not get too pristine.” John Densmore from ‘Follow The Music’.
What was the final Doors tour like for you? “It was great and it was terrible. One night was great the next terrible- the worst. It was great because we played ‘Riders On The Storm’ for the first time- I don’t think it was out yet- and the audience loved it. Next night! Jim was drunk as hell and telling bad jokes. It was pathetic” Did you think at that point this was the end for the band? “No because LA Woman was such fun to make. After Jim went to Paris he called me and we talked about how great LA Woman was. I think we would have made another album in that direction”. John Densmore from The Creem 10 Year Special Edition. 1981.
“Watch this Bruce. Did you ever see anybody walk away from a quarter of a million dollars before!” Rothchild said to Botnick as he headed from the control room into the recording room. “I’m not into it anymore guys. That one song about the killer on the road sounds like cocktail jazz to me. You should produce yourself. You’ll do fine” Looking back now I don’t think Paul had the enormous amont of energy required to pull– which was what he would have had to do- the vocals out of Jim. The fifth Door was resigning and we were bummed. John Densmore from his book ‘Riders On The Storm’.
“I went to some of the rehearsals I was a little hippie at that point wearing a headband. Jim was nice to me, he’d say ‘Hi, how are you doing?’ One day he showed up late and he gave each of the guys in the band a dollar because he was late.” Adam Holzman son of Jac, Head of Elektra Records.
“As soon as we could we went back on the road which I didn’t really want to do. I begged them to get off the road for a year due to Jim’s deterioration which I think unfortunately weighed heaviest on me. Robby who loved to play music tried not to look at Jim’s collapse and Ray wouldn’t look at it at all. We played Dallas and it was really good so I thought ‘Wow maybe we could be more mature and a little jazzier. Maybe we could have a career live again.’ But it was an illusion Jim couldn’t stop. He was past that at this point, the next night we played New Orleans and it was just pathetic. We went home and never played live with Jim again.” John Densmore from Revolver Spring 2000.
“We recorded the entire album and mixed it in ten days and I remember the day we were supposed to start mixing was the LA quake. I finished the album and took it to play for Jac at Elektra with The Doors-without Morrison who would never appear- and Jac sat there and wept.” Bruce Botnick from ‘Follow The Music’.
“I have the same feeling today as I had when I walked out of the studio. There are two songs on that album and the rest is dog meat. I had just finished Janis Joplin’s Pearl a true labour of love and here I was stuck in the studio with a singer who didn’t want to sing and a band at the nether end of their career who were hanging around coming up with terrible ideas. There was no heart in it, the arrangements sucked and they weren’t listening to any of the ideas I was putting forward so the best thing I could do was get out of there” Paul Rothchild. Musician Magazine, Doors Special, August 1981.
“I was worried about the album because of Paul’s negative comments but the album knocked me out song after song” Jac Holzman from ‘Follow The Music’.
On a recording break one afternoon Jim & Robby went across the street to get some beers. “Do you know what ‘Hyacinth House’ means Ray” I asked while Jim was gone. “Nope” he quipped “ but I see the bathroom is clear”. John Densmore from his book ‘Riders On The Storm’.
“I’ve allowed myself to fantasise at times but I’m sure that if Jim weren’t dead he would have gotten hold of us by now. I still think about him quite a lot. I always have dreams that he’s still alive and we’re playing together again. Wishful thinking.” Robby Krieger from Revolver Spring 2000.
"L.A. Woman. to me is perhaps the quintessential Doors song. The way it came about was fantastic. We started playing, Jim began coming up with those words, and it just poured forth. I don't know how he created that whole concept on the spot like that, but he did. You would think that that would have been a poem or something that he had written before, but it's not. That was just written on the spot. I remember Jim sitting in the bathroom singing, and all of us playing together and just having a great time. That song is magical to me." Robby Krieger 2000
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on May 3, 2006 10:41:37 GMT
L.A. Woman "This is a sad album! Not because it was released just before Jim died or because it was the final offering from The Doors but because of the songs. Jim's lyrics did not fool the fans who cared about him. He had had enough and yet produced some of the most passionate lyrics of the bands career. This is the blues album he always craved but which his image denied him. His voice is deep, throaty and just about surviving but this only serves to enhance the bluesy feel. Opening with 'The Changeling' combining a rock solid beat with a harsh vocal, which is shocking after the mellow tones of Morrison Hotel, confirming what we all knew, that Jim was many people under one roof and didn't care who knew. 'Love Her Madly' is the carnivalesque Doors with Jim's double-track voice booming jauntily against a jazz piano doing justice to Robby's lovelorn lyric. 'Been Down So Long' seems to sum up the last few months of Jim's time on earth and features his harsh bluesy voice bemoaning his lonely predicament in a totally tuneless tone. Sanity is restored with 'Cars Hiss By My Window' which seems to be a rather personal reflection of an actual incident in that troubled life. Its blues orientated arrangement and softly subdued guitar against a lovely squashy drumbeat finishing with an astonishing howl at the end imitating a bottleneck guitar through a dish-cloth. 'LA Woman' is a tour-de-force for other Doors. Although the lyrics are typically clever and personal it's the instrumental Which governs this song with Ray's keyboard dominating a cracking overall sound leaving the listener breathless in the wake of its ingenuity. 'L'America' is an earlier recorded song written for the movie but failing to make the final 'Zabriske Point' soundtrack. Jim is in great voice complimented by a quirky backing and some terrific off beat drumming which doesn't grab immediately but gets there in the end. 'Hyacinth House' is a gem comprising a guitar riff that most bands would kill for. A hauntingly beautiful organ and such painful personal lyrics which scream for questions on Jim's state of mind. This was a cry for help and is such an obvious statement of sadness it positively bellows 'HELP!' and nobody realised until it was too late. Or so John would have us believe but scepticism is rife in hindsight. For me this is the best track on the album. 'Crawling King Snake' is a song they had been performing live since the early days and Jim's voice is really strong against Robby's searing guitar licks doing total justice to this classic blues that would seem to have been written with our boy in mind. 'The WASP (Texas Radio & The Big Beat)' is a Jim poem to a terrific blues backing dominated by John's superb drumming. This is the up-beat version as opposed to the slow whispering version so beloved of the moody bluesy Jim. He is in fine voice belying the ravages his vocal chords had taken over the previous months. The same can be said of 'Riders On The Storm', dismissed by former producer Paul Rothchild as 'cocktail muzak', a lovely tinkling piano runs through the song which contains some of Jim's darkest lyrics. A booming bass-line heightens the downbeat atmosphere prevalent on this final vinyl offering. Jim controls his voice almost to a point of lethargy which only strengthens the mod of menace hidden in the seemingly innocuous lyric. This was the bands most critically acclaimed album and a fitting epitaph to a frustrated blues artist who only realised his ambition when it was too late to be recognised it is a pity that critics didn't pay more attention to the music earlier instead of trying to provoke hysteria of the wrong sort from an ever gullible public. Although Jim always gave the impression that he didn't pay any attention to criticism wouldn't it have been nice to think that earlier in the bands career he could have read something favourable? Success isn't always the criteria by which favourable reviews are measured unfortunately. Rest in Peace babe!" From the sadly now defunct UK Doors Fanzine 'The Soft Parade' By Sue Jeffries Even if the image of Jim Morrison as a brooding Byronic genius manqué is wearing a little thin with you, the Doors' latest album L.A. Woman, is worth a listen. Morrison is still hung up on snakes and blood and other things symbolically creepy, but the usual irritating pretensiousness that's part of any Doors album is kept to a minimum here, as bassist Jerry Scheff and rhythm guitar Marc Benno are added to the group. The eight-minute title track is one of their best hard pieces of poetic sociology yet; and it, along with "Riders on the Storm" -- featuring a tasty flutelike electric piano -- proves that the Doors can handle long songs if they want to. They also dip into tough soul on "The Changeling" and into low-down blues on "Cars Hiss by My Window" -- which the band manages to save in spite of some silly lyrics. If there's one clunker, it's "L'America," an unsuccessful apocalyptic mélange of Thirties German mock opera, Fifties rock and Seventies doom -- but then, Jim has to keep up his image. Playboy September 1971.
The tip-off is when in the middle of a lyric about needing someone who doesn't need ect. etc. Jim intones the line "I see the bathroom is clear." That's how you know the "raaght awn's" in "Cars Hiss by My Window" (hiss, huh?) and the jungle talk in "The WASP (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)" (wasps, huh?) and even the cover of John Lee Hooker's "Crawling King Snake" (take that, lizard-haters) are jokes. Which is nice, because the band has never sounded better -- the blues licks are sharp, the organ fills are hypnotic, and they've even hired a bass player. But if "Been Down So Long" is also a takeoff, I prefer Randy Newman's. And Newman has better ideas about "L'America," too. A- Robert Christgau, Christgau's Record Guide, 1981.
L.A. Woman, the Doors' last studio album with lead singer Jim Morrison, was highly regarded by critics. Its favorable reception surprised Morrison, who had already left for Paris. By the time "Riders on the Storm" became a hit in July 1971 he was dead. He was only 27. "Love Her Madly" was the band's first and biggest hit in the States, but in Britain "Riders" became a standard, even returning to the hit parade five years after its initial release. Devotees of this sinister jazz-rock piece should note that L.A. Woman contains the full-length version, lasting over seven minutes. In 1987, L.A. Woman was chosen by a panel of rock critics and music broadcasters as the #92 rock album of all time. Paul Gambaccini, The Top 100 Rock 'n' Roll Albums of All Time, Harmony Books, 1987.
Blues-based, often tongue-in-cheek, this was the group's last joint effort; prior to its release, Morrison, literate poet and pretender that he was, left for Paris. He never returned, dying of a heart attack there on July 3, 1971, at the age of twenty-seven. About half of this recording works; in part because the band seemed satisfied with simpler approaches, and Jim had apparently exhausted his overreaching stage persona (or maybe just his liver). Some cuts continue to hold up, "Love Her Madly," "L.A. Woman," "Hyacinth House," and "Riders on the Storm" among them. Remastered in 1988-89 from the original master tapes, the sonic improvement is striking -- it now has strong dynamics and excellent clarity. A- Bill Shapiro, Rock & Roll Review: A Guide to Good Rock on CD, 1991.
Morrison's final testament shows him at the height of his ability to bring striking images to the lyrics of rock music, and the group produces some of its most trancelike music. * * * * William Ruhlmann, The All-Music Guide to Rock, 1995.
The Doors' swan song, L.A. Woman is also a masterpiece, all the more poignant for the fact that Jim Morrison sounds distinctly tired throughout -- in a good way. It's looser, bluesier and more bare-bones than anything that preceded it. * * * * Alan Paul, Musichound Rock: The Essential Album Guide, 1996.
Summing up the City of Angels as well as Didion, Chandler or Nathaniel West ever did, the title track screams out the pain of the times slathered with the excitement of LA -- there's nothing better for zooming up the 405 freeway. Bluesy and manic, the arrangements and singing fit together like some puzzle never completed in previous releases while revealing the Lizard King as a lyrical god. Released after Jimbo's flameout in Paris, the final chapter leaves us wanting more. * * * * Zagat Survey Music Guide - 1,000 Top Albums of All Time, 2003.
Jim Morrison said that the Doors wanted to "get back to what we did originally: just be very primitive in our approach, very relaxed." Recorded in their rehearsal room with Morrison's mike set up in the bathroom, this was a bluesier, confident Doors, including "Love Her Madly" and "Riders on the Storm." Morrison died soon after. L.A. Woman was chosen as the 362nd greatest album of all time by the editors of Rolling Stone magazine in Dec. 2003. Rolling Stone, 12/11/03.
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on May 3, 2006 10:43:02 GMT
LA Woman in Jim's own hand possibly from the very sessions
Classic Rock Revisited presents.......Classic Trax Stories behind classic albums by the stars that made them!
This month's feature is The Doors 'LA Woman' by founding member Robby Krieger!
When the Doors went into the studio to record LA Woman they had no idea that they were on the verge of creating a masterpiece that would influence and change the face of music. The sessions did not start out smoothly as the band's longtime producer actually left the recording sessions. Guitarist Robby Krieger remembers, "Up until then we had Paul Rothchild produce all of our records. He kind of finked out on that album. He was busy with Janis Joplin so we decided to do it ourselves. We took all of our recording gear and brought it down to our little rehearsal studio. It was kind of relaxed and nice. It was like jamming."
The Doors were always a musical dichotomy. Morrison would bring his tortured soul poetry to the band and they would create music guided by Morrison's lyrical imagery. The album opens with "The Changeling." While one can recognize this as Doors music in a moments notice, the track introduces a new more sophisticated Doors sound. The songwriting was more complex and each song took on its own independent personality. From Morrison's wailing, "I've Been Down So Long" to his wah-wah soaked vocal ‘guitar’ solo on "Cars Hiss By My Window" LA Woman took the band to a new level.
Morrison had never had his vocals properly captured in the studio. Until LA Woman his studio vocals were never as strong as his live performance. This was largely due to Rothchild's production style clashing with Jim's penchant for psychedelic drugs and alcohol. When asked how the Doors were able to capture Morrison's vocals in the studio where the old producer failed, Krieger simply states, "We had our engineer Bruce Botnick, who worked on all our albums, so getting the sound was no problem. Jim was just into it. When Paul was getting the vocals out of him it was hell. He was a perfectionist. We would sit in the studio for three days straight trying to get a drum sound and Jim would get bored and get drunk. By the time he was ready for the vocal he would be in lather. We were just more relaxed and we had no problems."
"Crawling Kingsnake" and "Wasp" were classic Morrison rants coupled with the hypnotic psychedelic blues of Krieger, Densmore and Manzarek. It was, however, another type of song that really separates LA Woman from the rest of the band’s back catalog. The title track, "LA Woman" showed the attitude the Doors were beginning to take as the 60's faded into the 70's. The changing times were reflected in Morrison's poetry. "LA Woman" showed how the innocence of the hippie generation was being eroded away and the Me Generation of the 70’s was beginning to take over. The group recorded the song live in the studio resulting in a true snapshot of how the Doors had matured as a band. Krieger states, "I would say "LA Woman" is the most natural Doors song because we were all playing together. There are hardly any overdubs on that one. We had a rhythm guitar player named Mark Benno on the whole album. That let me play lead and I didn't have to overdub it. That led to a more natural sound."
Perhaps the Crème da la crème of LA Woman is the haunting and hypnotic "Riders On The Storm." It seems as if every musical experience the Doors and Morrison had lived through led up to the creation of this song. It is perhaps the pinnacle of their career. "Riders" has elements of "The End", "When The Music's Over" and "Break On Through" each wrapped inside a new spooky and lyrically clever thesis. The song was actually the result of the band jamming on an old cowboy song. Krieger remembers, "We were just jamming one day and we were playing "Ghost Riders In The Sky." You know that one? Da dum da dum da dum da dum da dum dum dum dum dum -- kind of aDuane Eddie guitar sound. All of the sudden Jim started singing, ‘Ghost riders in the sky/Riders on the storm.’ It kind of evolved from that. It is kind of the same thing with ghost riders and riders on the storm." When asked if the Doors actually stole the song, Krieger simply smiles and says, "I don't know about that but it was the inspiration!"
The bands record company knew the album was special and released a limited edition cover. "I suppose it was Elektra who thought of the album cover. "Krieger continues, "It was a neat idea with the laminated thing. Unfortunately, they didn't do to many that way. They started printing them with just the picture on them. If you have one of the original ones it could be worth something."
The world would not get to see the magic of LA Woman continue as before the Doors could release another studio album the bands charismatic front man died. The death of Morrison, whether contrived or not, was the end to the bands creative force. It is awe inspiring to imagine what creative avenue he might have guided his band mates to next. How ever tragic his death may have been Krieger and the rest of the group knew that working with a creative, volatile genius was short term. "It was difficult but we sort of expected it. We knew that he wanted it. He would always talk about it. He was just so interested in death. It took a long time to deal with it. We could have still been playing today if he hadn't blown his wad. In a way you are pissed at him and in another way you miss him. There was always something exciting when Jim was around. I miss him a lot." Classic Rock Revisited
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on May 4, 2006 15:26:14 GMT
The final album with Jim Morrison in the lineup is by far their most blues-oriented, and the singer's poetic ardor is undiminished, though his voice sounds increasingly worn and craggy on some numbers. Actually, some of the straight blues items sound kind of turgid, but that's more than made up for by several cuts that rate among their finest and most disturbing work. The seven-minute title track was a car-cruising classic that celebrated both the glamour and seediness of Los Angeles; the other long cut, the brooding, jazzy "Riders on the Storm," was the group at its most melodic and ominous. It and the far bouncier "Love Her Madly" were hit singles, and "The Changeling" and "L'America" count as some of their better little-heeded album tracks. An uneven but worthy finale from the original quartet. ****1/2
Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide
Late December: The Doors Workshop During this time The Doors preview some of the songs to be on LA Woman at Elektra Sound Studios with producer Paul Rothchild. Paul is not really into it all after losing Janis Joplin while working on her last album Pearl and sees Jim heading down the same path. He tells The Doors there is little he can do that they can't do for themselves at this point and tell them they should produce the album alone at The Doors Workshop. The Doors agree and turn the workshop into a studio with the help of Bruce Botnick and some borrowed recording devices from Elektra. This give the band a much more relaxed and flexible place to make their album the way they want without the tight schedules and pressures of a studio. The Doors hire Jerry Scheff on bass and Marc Benno on rhythm guitar for the sessions. Doors Interactive History
"Paul Rothchild is an absolute ruler when it comes to producing. Once a group does five or six albums, they don't really need that kind of producer because an act that has been into it that long will instinctively know how to produce their own albums. He felt like he wasn't being useful, so together we decided it would be better to go it alone." Robby Krieger L.A. Woman ( 1971 ) 9 The Changeling / Love Her Madly / Been Down So Long / Cars Hiss By My Window / L.A. Woman / L'America / Hyacinth House / Crawling King Snake / The WASP / Riders On The Storm Following 'an incident' where it was alledged Jim indecently exposed himself on stage, The Doors found themselves banned from almost every major concert venue in the states. The result of this was actually they had a lot more time to focus on the recording of a new album. Its a record that continues from 'Morrison Hotel' in the sense of The Doors being aware of the blues. They had help on bass guitar from Jerry Scheff. He did such a fine job, they wanted him to go out on tour with them to promote 'L.A. Woman'. Around the same time, Jim announced he was leaving, and he didn't know when he was coming back. At the same time 'L.A.Woman' was being released to critical acclaim Jim was in Paris trying to rediscover himself. He would never return. All this is by the by when it comes to actually listening to the record! Does it matter? Not really - here is the album. Do you like it? Well, it is relevant, the time they had to prepare new songs, the great bass player. Jims voice may well have been the worse for wear but he certainly gave it a go. His new gruffer voice suited the material, actually.
The way this record begins.....THE WAY THIS RECORD BEGINS!!!!!!! Well, we have 'The Changeling' and 'Love Her Madly'. 'The Changeling' is prime Doors, no question. The guitar, the great keyboards all over the place. Great bass and vocals. What can you say, its groovy! Its rocking! It makes you want to scream with joy. Well. You know, it's pretty good. 'Love Her Madly' is a great Doors pop song. Perfectly done, great little break in the middle. You can really hear Jerry Scheff here especially - he did a fantastic job and fitted into The Doors perfectly from a musical point of view. Both these opening songs are classics. 'Been Down So Long' isn't a classic, just a blues number. Its well done though, and here Jims voice especially suits the material. Its a voice thats lived, shall we say 'Cars Hiss By My Window' is pure blues which benefits from wonderful guitar work from Robbie.
The title song, placed in the middle of the album, is almost an album by itself. Almost eight minutes long, never dull or repetitive or boring for a single second. It cooks! I don't drive, don't like cars - but this song is a great driving song! That's the image it presents in the mind of a guy like me almost opposed to cars! Almost. That's how good it is! 'City of night, whoa!'. Fantastic stuff. Wonderful playing from everyone, again. Musically The Doors were probably at the top of their game at this stage. 'L'America' is slightly quirky in its melodies but does open atmospherically with strange sounding guitar. It sounds pretty intense, builds up as it goes along - ray does a great job on keyboards. 'Hyacinth House' is simple and fun, 'Crawling King Snake' a classic blues tune converted to The Doors style. Done very well, actually. We are nearly at the end. 'The Wasp' is the only thing here which probably should have been thought about a bit more. Its one of the more silly things i've heard in my entire life. Why is it so much fun? The melodies are simple, quirky. Jims poetry borders on the ridiculous. The whole thing is done with such concentration.....that its funny! The guitar solo that appears in the middle is great though.
We have 'Riders On The Storm' to end. Like 'LA Woman' - this is almost an album in itself. Jim sounds in fine voice, the music is stupendous, everything came together. All Doors together. It matches anything they ever did. Anything. We have an utterly hypnotic keyboard solo - its just beautiful. We have doses of brilliant guitar work. The keyboards continue, the bass continues. Jim soars above it all, in the clouds, in the heavens. 'Riders On The Storm'. I dreamt the melody. It appeared to me in my sleep. I probably shouldn't be saying that should I? I dream of music. This 'Riders On The Storm' though is one of the most dreamlike pieces ever created. Its a sheer work of genuis. I can't help myself, I can't explain. The Doors reborn. This was called their 'comeback' album by some. I can understand why. Although the high points of the record do overshadow the rest, it works as a whole nonetheless. Jim would never return. This is some way for the original Doors to go out. Going out on a high. 'Riders On The Storm'.
Adrian's Album Reviews
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on May 5, 2006 22:47:00 GMT
L.A. Woman
Hey, where's Jim Morrison gone? Instead of the coolest rock'n'roll frontman ever the band seem to have replaced him with some lardy, bearded bear of a man who just growls his way through all the songs. Well, clearly Morrison is still in the band but, unfortunately, he looks and sounds like he's aged ten years in the space of a year. I really don't know why rock stars grow beards as it just makes them look ten years older than they actually are (c.f. Pete Townsend, Jimmy Page and every Beatle bar Paul) and on top of which Morrison has clearly been tucking into a few pies. To complement his new "mature" look he has also dropped his exuberant whooping and even his big band croon for a growling blues voice meaning he sounds as old as he now looks. Obviously the end was nigh for him but I don't know whether he realised it. I imagine the rest of the band probably did, though. Anyhow, he quite clearly can't be arsed singing silly little pop songs (with one bizarre exception) so most of the album is straightforward blues mixed in with more distinctive rock songs. There are three out and out blues songs on here which is round about the first time they've recorded one since "Back Door Man" on their debut. Despite this apparent conservatism this still stands up as one of the Doors' best albums. I guess the so-laid-back-its-horizontal "Cars Hiss by my Window" brings little to the album (although Morrison's imitation guitar solo at the end is intriguing; like a role reversal of the end of Hendrix's "Rainy Day") and the cover of "Crawling King Snake" hardly matches Morrison Hotel for pounding blues but there are some serious classics on this album. The most classic is probably the finale, "Riders on the Storm", which would have made a pertinent-sounding last-word from Morrison if it weren't for An American Prayer. Personally I find the whispered double-tracked vocals a little too unnerving although I'm sure the band would argue that that's the point. Either way it is an unsettling and atmospheric end to the album. One of the Doors' best songs. The other two greatest hits are the pop song "Love Her Madly" and the rollicking epic "L.A. Woman". "Love Her Madly" could almost sound like one of the piano-based pop songs from early in their career if it weren't for Morrison's earthly vocals. "L.A. Woman", on the other hand, basically continues where "Roadhouse Blues" left off but without quite the same panache. Regardless it seems a natural choice as one of the best songs from the album. Also a natural choice but surprisingly not on Greatest Hits compilations is the album opener "The Changeling". A great rock song with brilliant wah-wah lead guitar from Krieger and one of the few tracks on here that could be considered cool. Certainly, despite the gruff vocals, the spirit of Morrison Hotel has been continued. The more observant among you may have noticed that I referred to a "bizarre exception" above. That is the silly pop song "Hyacinth House" which still features Morrison's old man voice but with banal lyrics about a "brand new friend". Despite being perhaps a little banal it still has some charm. It certainly represents an odd change of mood on the album. Like I said in my Morrison Hotel review I have actually owned An American Prayer longer than any other Doors' album so it might not surprise you to learn that I was already familiar with "The Wasp" long before buying this. In any case it is another excellent song with Morrison's sublime poetry imitating a radio announcer. The section in the middle where Morrison cries "no eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn" and Krieger lets rip with an almighty guitar solo is a truly magical moment. I think Morrison might have died before this album was even released but either way this represents the closing chapter of the original Doors. (I guess you might count An American Prayer and the Doors-sans-Morrison albums as appendixes.) And it's a great chapter to boot. 9/10
Jack Feeny Review Pages. The Doors: L.A. Woman
Year Of Release: 1971 Record rating = 9 Overall rating = 13
A hardcore blues album - at last. Very mature and with a hu-u-uge identity, too. Best song: RIDERS ON THE STORM
Track listing: 1) The Changeling; 2) Love Her Madly; 3) Been Down So Long; 4) Cars Hiss By My Window; 5) L. A. Woman; 6) L'America; 7) Hyacinth House; 8) Crawling King Snake; 9) The Wasp (Texas Radio And The Big Beat); 10) Riders On The Storm.
If Strange Days was the Doors' 'Magical Album' and Waiting For The Sun was their 'Pop Album', then this one is certainly their 'Blues Album'. The number of generic blues tracks - and I mean generic, with a standard three-line-verse blues pattern, not "blues variations" a la 'Maggie May' or 'The Spy' - astonishes: it's three (let me remind you that on the previous albums even one was already a lot), and most of the other tracks have a certain bluesy feel to them as well. The seeds sown on Morrison Hotel have obviously sprouted, and the Doors decided to temporarily reinvent themselves as a strict blues band. Still, all of these three numbers are splendidly performed, in a way that only the Doors could manage - after all, their take on the blues had always been absolutely unlike anybody else's; I personally would take one Doors' blues number over the entire Fleetwood Mac catalog of 1968. 'Been Down So Long' features breathtaking double-tracked guitar solos over a beat that's frighteningly simplistic, but leaves an unforgettable imprint in one's memory, not to mention a particularly impressive vocal delivery by Jim who gives it his all, like he used to do four years earlier on 'Back Door Man'. The way he roars out 'well I've been down so goddamn long that it looks like up to me' is deeply personal, and somehow one begins to feel that at this point Jim had really suffered long enough to earn the right to sound completely authentic in his newly-found role of an old bluesman ('I've been singing the blues ever since the world began...'). On 'Cars Hiss By My Window' the band, however, employs a different approach: the song just kinda drags on, slowly, moodily and quietly, with a very humble and subdued guitar background, until suddenly we witness Jim wailing and imitating a wah-wah guitar solo with his voice so splendidly that it's hard to tell whether it's a human voice or a wah-wah (hey, I've even had debates with my friends over that issue...). Out of all the three songs, only 'Crawling King Snake' can be, to a certain extent, called a generic bore: it seems to me that this old blues cover was included on the album exclusively in order to have at least something to support Morrison's fading necrophilian / chthonic mythological image. But the vocal delivery is monotonous and pro forma, and the arrangement is nowhere near as menacing as the one on 'Been Down So Long'. Still, even in its function of the weakest number on the record, the song is pretty good. Elsewhere, the "minor" numbers are surprisingly diverse, drawing on most of the styles the Doors had exploited on their previous records and succeeding almost all over the place. At least one number is an absolute classic: the fast pop rocker 'Love Her Madly', with a stunning steady beat and a driving electric piano part from Ray; Jim's lyrics, this time apparently dedicated to lamenting an unshared love, are again as personal and hard-hitting as can be, but the best moment for me is Robbie's minimalistic guitar solo towards the end of the song - these brief note sequences as he emulates Jim's vocal melody always bring tears to my eyes, and this is unquestionably the second best moment on the whole album after Ray's electric piano solo on 'Riders On The Storm'. The 'mystic ravings' side is this time represented by 'The Wasp (Texas Radio And The Big Beat)', an older outtake this time, already performed several times live in concert; while it can't hope to rank alongside with the album-closing epics of yore, it's still done with a lot of energy and set to a good set of organ riffs, too. The 'soft balladeering' side is represented by 'Hyacinth House' - Jim complaining about his loneliness, but you know, 'tis nobody's fault but his, in any case, the song is quite pleasant and moving and could have been a real highlight on Waiting For The Sun, to be placed in the place of crap like 'Wintertime Love'. The 'hey there let's rock the house down' side is represented by the opening 'Changeling', which is the album's second weakest track - with its repetitive riff and pounding arena-rock beat it tries to emulate 'Roadhouse Blues' but is nowhere near as epic or melodically successful; sure enough, you can't help tapping your foot to it, but you regret this right after the track's end. And, finally, the 'gloomy evil number' side is represented by 'L'America' - a very strange song which in part sounds like the soundtrack to some King's Quest, due to Manzarek's cavernous-sounding organ and Robbie Krieger's 'evil sorcerer' guitar tone. The two great 'epic' hits here, however, are the title track and 'Riders On The Storm'. 'L. A. Woman' can be seen as the Doors' equivalent to the Stones' 'Midnight Rambler' - an inventive, explorative kind of fast-paced song that goes from a general cheerful mood to becoming downright creepy in the middle and then climbs out into the light once again. If I understand the accompanying video correctly, it seems to be about a serial killer just like 'Midnight Rambler' was, only far better disguised, and with a strange 'optimistic' ending. But nothing in the entire Doors catalog ever chills me out as much as the closing 'Riders On The Storm' - a song symbolic for the whole career of The Doors. A song that functions excellently as a Morrison swan song and his musical testament, and it's oh so wonderful that he left us with 'Riders' as his testament and not, say, 'Five To One' or the pleasant, but - on a larger scale - throwaway 'Maggie M'gill'. Its perfect arrangement - the steady soft drumming, the sound of crashing waves, the modest organ humming - only adds to the solemnity and humble grandeur of the whole experience; and when Ray hits the keyboards for the quiet jazzy piano solo in the middle, it seems the world is stopping for a couple of minutes. Pure magic: why can't all those jazz masters actually play like this? Perhaps it's 'musically shallow' from a technical viewpoint, like John Alroy sez, but it's totally emotionally devastating. It might be my favourite moment among the whole Doors catalog. Hate to say that, but perhaps Jim mounting a moonlight drive shortly after the release of the album was only too good for the band - ending their career on such a high note, at their peak. This certainly contributed a lot to the band's legend (especially considering that nobody ever heard about the two albums that the band released without Jim), and every rock hero that dies shortly after recording a song like 'Riders On The Storm' is bound to become a legend. One can only guess what the band's next move with Jim could have been. Becoming a hardcore blues outfit? Sticking to the same 'mix' formula? Going up? Going down? Let us not speculate, anyway; just be sure to buy this excellent record, if only to honour the memory of the old Lizard King.
George Starostin from Only Solitaire.com
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Post by othercircles on May 7, 2006 23:00:41 GMT
I really don't know why rock stars grow beards as it just makes them look ten years older than they actually are (c.f. Pete Townsend, Jimmy Page and every Beatle bar Paul)
Actually Paul had one before any of the others did.
I think it was just a hippy thing that everyone was doing. Robbie and Jim both grew and shaved off beards several times. I think Jim had one 3 times but Elektra prolly didnt want it to tarnish his image. He had one Late 68 - early 69.. then he shaved it for the soft parade cover i guess.. late 69 into early 70.. then he shaved it again before morrison hotel cover shoot..... absolutely live they just used a picture from the middle of 68.. looks like hollywood bowl prolly... then LA Woman he didnt bother.. but shaved it in paris shortly before he died.
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Jul 9, 2006 7:45:44 GMT
[glow=red,2,300] July 9th 1971 [/glow] The Doors album LA Woman is released in the UK the day after it is finally announced officially that Morrison is dead. The single Love Her Madly has already received a reasonable amount of airplay here but has not sold well and makes no impression on the UK singles chart........... LAW will eventually crawl into the top 20 album charts and Riders On The Storm will equal that feat singles wise but there is no great out pouring of grief at Morrison's passing in the way there was here with Jimi Hendrix. Spookily Riders On The Storm is released in America on July 3rd 1971................. The Doors never did break the UK and are more an underground phenomenon rather than a mainstream one.............they will always sell a healthy amount of albums but never seem to get the credit they deserve from us Brits..... Sounds had already carried the rumour of Morrison's death on the front page of it's July 8th issue and Radio One confirms it on the Saturday 10th July. The Doors story seems over but Riders On The Storm will not go away and comes back to haunt rock fans several times throughout the 70s earning itself a place on pub juke boxes all over the land....... Even today The Doors never emulated the successes of many other American imports but still they sell a healthy number of albums here in the UK year in year out.........Jim Morrison now a T Shirt God adorns our walls and our Psyche in a way that few can equal........ Jim Morrison simply refused to 'go away' and the UK Doors fan base grows year by year. Something many of us thought would not happen back in 1971.
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Post by strangenightvstone on Jul 11, 2006 1:01:42 GMT
Is Jack Feeny, the reviewer, saying that Morrison is putting on a voice? As if the voice is not authentic? What does old man mean, does that mean Morrison's voice could not change anymore( get any older)? Blues is from God, I do not think Jim faked it.
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Post by cobriaclord on Aug 2, 2006 13:38:03 GMT
Is Jack Feeny, the reviewer, saying that Morrison is putting on a voice? As if the voice is not authentic? What does old man mean, does that mean Morrison's voice could not change anymore( get any older)? Blues is from God, I do not think Jim faked it. Morrison faked his voice and his death
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Oct 9, 2007 8:14:50 GMT
THE DOORS In The Studio - The story of LA Woman US 6-track Album Network radio show CD hosted by Ray Manzarek, for broadcast April 1991, includes interviews with Ray, plus The Changeling and Riders On The Storm, with full cues. THE DOORS In The Studio - LA Woman 25th Anniversary US 6-track radio show CD hosted by Ray Manzarek, features interviews and comments from Ray, plus the hits LA Woman & Riders On The Storm, first aired April 1996, with full cues.
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Jul 24, 2008 12:19:34 GMT
Promo poster for the LP.The Doors: Album Guide - LA Woman (1971)
The last and – for many fans – greatest Doors album, strange to relate now but long-time producer Paul Rothschild was so disillusioned with the initial sessions – a drunk, raving Morrison either failing to show up or collapsing in an incoherent heap when he did – that he quit halfway through, to be replaced by engineer Bruce Botnick. The end result remains gripping, though. Yes, in places you can hear just how badly shot Morrison’s voice now was, but the commitment and poetic vigour are more evident than at any point since the band’s previously thought unsurpassable debut four years before. If nothing else, the sheer quality of the songs elevates this to the very top of the pile. From its rip-roaring, beer-and-blues opener, ‘The Changeling’ to the haunting, rain swept epic which closes it, ‘Riders On The Storm’, via the ultimate Morrison-Doors moment in the neon-pulsing, palms-swaying, car-cruising title track, LA Woman was for the Doors what Exile On Main Street would later be for the Stones or Physical Graffiti for Led Zeppelin – the moment where they gilded the lily in their hallucinating, drug-flecked spittle and came up with a crazy shine unlike anything else they had ever managed before – or would ever again. A true classic, there was even room for one last pop hit in the bouncy ‘Love Her Madly’, while tracks like ‘L’America’ once again showed what a poetic soul Morrison possessed, beneath the unkempt beard, beer belly and leery growl. It should have been a new beginning. Instead, with Morrison’s death the same year, it was the end. What a way to go, though.
Tracklist: The Changeling / Love Her Madly / Been Down So Long / Cars Hiss By My Window / L.A. Woman / L'america / Hyacinth House / Crawling King Snake / The Wasp (Texas Radio And The Big Beat) / Riders On The Storm
Mick Wall 2008A rare newspaper advert for LA Woman. I used to have a full page one from Sounds which I used to have on my wall.
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Feb 16, 2011 7:42:07 GMT
It is around this point 40 years ago that The Doors completed the recording process for LA Woman.The majority was recorded in an intense two weeks in January using thier live recording method of playing in the studio as a unit. Early February sees sound effects and some polishing of the material but it is around 40 years ago today that the album is completed.
So happy Birthday LAW and what if anything have you guys got when it comes to discussing arguably one of the best albums of the 70s?
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adam
Door Half Open
Posts: 100
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Post by adam on Feb 16, 2011 13:27:49 GMT
well i doubt i'll be buying the re-(re-re-re-re-re-re)release....
it's a fine album for sure, although i still tend to reach for the 1st 2 albums when in a doors mood
law (the track) is still one of the finest driving tunes for accompanying some spiritited driving!!
if wikipedia is to be believed (& generally it is - don't confuse it with quora) then the doors 1st album commenced recording on 24 aug 66 (8 yrs to the day of my birth)
it always makes me laugh when ppl point at the matrix tapes & say that jim wasn't a confident singer yet... seeing as the band had already recorded the 1st album at this point !!!!!!
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Feb 16, 2011 17:38:41 GMT
I have enough copies of LAW thanks I even have the DVD version that came out 8 or 9 years back.
I was thinking about the album today and I think I have come up with something nobody has (as far as I have seen) touched upon.....
I wonder if Jim Morrison KNEW this would be his last Doors album and wanted to leave something special as a legacy for himself with the band.
After all he worked on this album really seriously once Rothchild bowed out. It seemed to be like the early days for them all once they got settled in the office. Far from the indolent Morrison that idiot DiCillo paints a picture of who needed Elvis' bass player to 'keep him interested' he seem filled with his old fire as if he knew that this was the bookend to his career with The Doors and wanted a good one.
The band began in December 1970 presumably after the disaster weekend in New Orleans and Dallas and worked up some early takes of LA Woman and Riders On The Storm at Sunset Sound Recorders and previewed them for Rothchild along with whatever else they had a few days later at Elektra Sound Studios. This is where Rothchild issued his cocktail music judgement and disappeared into the sunset.
The band seemed to not be too hurt by this as they galvanised into action and moved the whole show over to their office where they were obviously most comfortable and set to work. They have that spurt of creativity in January which pretty much nails the album and then February to add the polish and 40 years ago around about today they completed their masterpiece.
IF Morrison knew he was done after this perhaps he made a deliberate attempt to leave something that would last for a long time. He said that about the first album as after recording The End he said he realised that they were not making music for the next few weeks but for sometime longer. 40 years on and still going strong Jim.
Also if the other Doors knew this as well then perhaps they all forgot their differences and played the hell out of this material to produce arguably one of the finest albums ever made. Of course I am biased but then who isn't
The contract with Elektra was up after LAW and Jim was home free to do whatever he wanted so perhaps this liberation made him feel that freedom and help him to do a better job than he did under Rothchild on the 3rd and 4th album.
LAW has a similar feel to the debut in that it is a fusion of poetry, jazz, film, drama and the blues. Let's not forget that The Doors were born out of the blues as well as all the rest of it. Screaming Ray Daniels was a blues man and Robby said he was attracted to Elektra because they had Paul Butterfield's Blues Band on the label. Jim certainly was a blues man. So Jim knowing he was going to be making his swansong with this album stepped up to the plate and delivered a job of work unlike anything he had done for years.
He seemed in good humour during the sessions and was drinking beer rather than getting piss drunk on spirits. Adam Holzman remembered Jim being late for a session and giving each member of the band a shiny dollar as an apology.
So if Jim already by this time knew he was going to leave The Doors and the band aware that this was the case these guys showed their individual brilliance in getting together one more time to leave the world a legacy that eclipses all the rest considering how long they had to do it.
Obviously he intended to enjoy that legacy and maybe thats why he phoned John to ask about the album. Not because he had plans to return to The Doors but of his hope that the album would strike a chord with his audience. It's funny as when he was alive LAW was not striking that chord and even after his death it took a while to see it appreciated. It was the first Doors album I was ever able to actually buy and I remember playing it on an old white stereo I had in our sitting room and can still remember the sense of wonder I had as I got past side two and ROTS finished. I was blown away although I did not use terms like that back then. From the blues of Been Down So Long to the poetry of Texas Radio, the energy of LA Woman, the utter ethereal strangeness of L'America and Hyacinth House and finally the sense of impending doom of ROTS left me stunned after that first listen. One of the most amazing albums I have ever heard and lets face it folks at my age I have heard a few. It's also interesting that about this time the idea to premiere LA Woman at the Whisky A Go Go cropped up but unfortunately comes to nothing and Jim leaves for Europe.
Jim told Bob Chorush that a few years back he wanted to do free surprise spots at the Whisky but no one wanted to do it. Now the others were keen to play but he was no longer that interested.
There had been an idea to record the band in the intimate venue for a live album but instead Absolutely Live became the album Elektra favoured.
We can only imagine what the shows would have been like if everybody could have gotten up for them but sadly by the end of 1970 beginning of 1971 it had gone to far to ever come back to what the band had back in 1966 and 1967 so this amazing opportunity was allowed to pass by unnurtured. Shame!
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Feb 18, 2011 7:29:56 GMT
Late February 1971. The Doors and Bruce Botnick complete the mixing process for the LA Woman album. Their masterpiece is now complete and ready to be released into the wild[/font] In 1987, L.A. Woman was chosen by a panel of rock critics and music broadcasters as the #92 rock album of all time. Paul Gambaccini, The Top 100 Rock 'n' Roll Albums of All Time, Harmony Books, 1987.
As of 2004, L.A. Woman was the #100 best-selling album of the 70s. Hamish Champ, The 100 Best-Selling Albums of the 70s, 2004. KSHE St. Louis Album Rock music Survey 16th August 1971 LA Woman #11It will be interesting to track the albums progression in the US from this time period.
Just when everyone thought the Doors were going to disappear up the dark, claustrophobic tunnel of their own pretension, along came L.A. Woman.
Suddenly, their brooding, lysergic pomp morphed into garrulous comedy and low-key cool, Rolling Stone stated: "The Doors have never been more together, more like the Beach Boys, more like Love." Augmented by bassist Jerry Scheff and Marc Benno on rhythm guitar, their sound became fuller and tighter.
Jim Morrison had transformed from rake-thin acid rock shaman to a figure of boozy, boorish charisma. When he shouts the defiant chorus of "The Changeling," you sense that he has crossed a personal meridian and become a freer, less studied performer.
There is a new playfulness, too. "Love Her Madly," a salute to infatuation, capers with a cops-and-robbers energy, courtesy of Ray Manzarek's spirited keyboard work, while "Hyacinth House" is imbued with silent-movie melodrama. Crowning the album is the burning exuberance of the title track, a supercharged cruise through the City of Angels. Morrison cries triumphantly at the top of the climactic "mojo rising" section, the band's wheels leave the runway, and they really fly.
Contrasting with the boiler-room temperatures of "L.A. Woman" and "Crawling King Snake" are two iced-out downers. "Cars Hiss By My Window" is all cheap-motel langour, while "Riders On The Storm" takes us back to classic Doors territory -- a canyon landscape populated by ghosts and peyote visions. Jamie Dickson, 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, 2005.
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Mar 19, 2011 16:39:49 GMT
Following 'an incident' where it was alledged Jim indecently exposed himself on stage, The Doors found themselves banned from almost every major concert venue in the states. The result of this was actually they had a lot more time to focus on the recording of a new album. Its a record that continues from 'Morrison Hotel' in the sense of The Doors being aware of the blues. They had help on bass guitar from Jerry Scheff. He did such a fine job, they wanted him to go out on tour with them to promote 'L.A. Woman'. Around the same time, Jim announced he was leaving, and he didn't know when he was coming back. At the same time 'L.A.Woman' was being released to critical acclaim Jim was in Paris trying to rediscover himself. He would never return. All this is by the by when it comes to actually listening to the record! Does it matter? Not really - here is the album. Do you like it? Well, it is relevant, the time they had to prepare new songs, the great bass player. Jims voice may well have been the worse for wear but he certainly gave it a go. His new gruffer voice suited the material, actually. The way this record begins.....THE WAY THIS RECORD BEGINS!!!!!!! Well, we have 'The Changeling' and 'Love Her Madly'. 'The Changeling' is prime Doors, no question. The guitar, the great keyboards all over the place. Great bass and vocals. What can you say, its groovy! Its rocking! It makes you want to scream with joy. Well. You know, it's pretty good. 'Love Her Madly' is a great Doors pop song. Perfectly done, great little break in the middle. You can really hear Jerry Scheff here especially - he did a fantastic job and fitted into The Doors perfectly from a musical point of view. Both these opening songs are classics. 'Been Down So Long' isn't a classic, just a blues number. Its well done though, and here Jims voice especially suits the material. Its a voice thats lived, shall we say 'Cars Hiss By My Window' is pure blues which benefits from wonderful guitar work from Robbie. The title song, placed in the middle of the album, is almost an album by itself. Almost eight minutes long, never dull or repetitive or boring for a single second. It cooks! I don't drive, don't like cars - but this song is a great driving song! That's the image it presents in the mind of a guy like me almost opposed to cars! Almost. That's how good it is! 'City of night, whoa!'. Fantastic stuff. Wonderful playing from everyone, again. Musically The Doors were probably at the top of their game at this stage. 'L'America' is slightly quirky in its melodies but does open atmospherically with strange sounding guitar. It sounds pretty intense, builds up as it goes along - ray does a great job on keyboards. 'Hyacinth House' is simple and fun, 'Crawling King Snake' a classic blues tune converted to The Doors style. Done very well, actually. We are nearly at the end. 'The Wasp' is the only thing here which probably should have been thought about a bit more. Its one of the more silly things i've heard in my entire life. Why is it so much fun? The melodies are simple, quirky. Jims poetry borders on the ridiculous. The whole thing is done with such concentration.....that its funny! The guitar solo that appears in the middle is great though. We have 'Riders On The Storm' to end. Like 'LA Woman' - this is almost an album in itself. Jim sounds in fine voice, the music is stupendous, everything came together. All Doors together. It matches anything they ever did. Anything. We have an utterly hypnotic keyboard solo - its just beautiful. We have doses of brilliant guitar work. The keyboards continue, the bass continues. Jim soars above it all, in the clouds, in the heavens. 'Riders On The Storm'. I dreamt the melody. It appeared to me in my sleep. I probably shouldn't be saying that should I? I dream of music. This 'Riders On The Storm' though is one of the most dreamlike pieces ever created. Its a sheer work of genuis. I can't help myself, I can't explain. The Doors reborn. This was called their 'comeback' album by some. I can understand why. Although the high points of the record do overshadow the rest, it works as a whole nonetheless. Jim would never return. This is some way for the original Doors to go out. Going out on a high. 'Riders On The Storm'. L.A. Woman 9/10 ( 1971 ) The Changeling / Love Her Madly / Been Down So Long / Cars Hiss By My Window / L.A. Woman / L'America / Hyacinth House / Crawling King Snake / The WASP / Riders On The Storm Adrian Denning
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