Customer Reviews

L.A. Woman

5 star:		(136)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

For all reading this review I am referring to the March 2007 re-release of this milestone album. It was remastered and remixed as part of the 4oth anniversary Doors celebration. In the liner notes it is stated that the remaing Doors used the original master tapes, and remixed them to reveal subtleties not revealed in any previous release of this cd (They've done the same for all six studio albums) . The result is astounding. Morrisons voice cuts you like a knife, Manzareks keyboards are front and center, and you can hear the details of Kriegers' very focused playing. Certain songs have extra time on them. For example, the fade on "Love Her Madly" extends a bit more, and you hear a previously unreleased part of the original intro to "LA Woman". The sheer clarity of the recording reveals that "Riders on the storm" is even errier than when we first heard it back in 1971. This release of LA Woman is THE definitive version for anyone who loves the Doors. It's a rock/blues drenched masterpiece that transcends time, and its remix is simply amazing. I wish Jim were here to listen to it ....he'd be smiling for sure.

The Doors final album with Jim Morrison (they would go on to record two more albums as a trio), remains their masterpiece and belongs in every rock collection. From start to finish, the album is brilliant. It was the Doors at their absolute best. The Doors previous albums ranged from very good to classic, but their sixth album "L.A. Woman" was their crown jewel.

It's common for most bands to start out playing the blues and then evolve into a musical style/idenity all their own. In this sense, the Doors sort of evolved backwards. They started out playing crazy, psychedelic music, and then ended their career playing the blues.

"L.A. Woman" is a very bluesy album. It's not pure blues (B.B. King, Leadbelly), but it's rock tinged with blues. The band never sounded better. To be sure, the Doors albums were always terrific, but they sounded most at home with the blues. Playing blues rock brought out the best in all the Doors members. Ray Manzarek (organ) and Robby Krieger's (guitar) solos worked perfectly against a blues backdrop. Drummer John Densmore's jazzy style was also well suited for the blues.

As for Jim Morrison...I think the Jim Morrison of 1967 was best suited to sing psychedelic acid rock. His ultra-cool swagger and showmanship was the ultimate voice for such music. But the Jim Morrison of 1971 was a much different person. In four years, Morrison aged a lifetime. In 1967, he sounded and looked 23. In 1971, he looked and sounded like an old man. It's hard to believe that the same voice that sang "Light My Fire" sang "Riders on the Storm" only four years later. On "L.A. Woman," Morrison sounds worn and tired, but it matched the bluesy-jazzy downbeat music perfectly. Morrison's finest poetry was also in this swan song. Noting too obscure or bizarre to be found. It was his most honest, straightforward work.

"L.A. Woman" is simply The Doors finest collection of songs. There is no filler to be found. Each song is a jewel on The Doors crown creation. From the opening "The Changeling," to the closing "Riders on the Storm," every song is great. Whether is be the hard rocking "Love Her Madly," the downbeat "Cars His By My Window," the bohemian "The Wasp" or the sublime "Riders on the Storm," every song is a masterpiece.

The general theme of the album seems to be the underbelly of L.A. in the early 70s. The album seems to function as a snapshot/soundtrack of that time and place. It's all about living day-to-day, strung-out, alone, not knowing when it will all end. In that sense, I take "LA Woman" to be sort of like a diary in the lives of Jim and (his wife) Pam. When you listen to this album, you can feel the longing, the desperation, the torment, the addictions, of that time and place. These songs sound lived in. When you listen to Morrison's screams in the title track, or soft-spoken baritone in "Cars Hiss By My Window" you get the sense that he knew it was going to end soon. "Riders on the Strom" seems to acknowledge and accept this fate.

The Doors "L.A. Woman" is one of the greatest albums of all-time and it is an album that every rock fan should own.

"L.A. Woman" is the final album put together by the Doors before the death of Jim Morrison and what is so striking about it for me is how the two best tracks, the title one and "Riders of the Storm," are so different from the rest of what is on the album. Contrasting the start of those tracks with the opening song on the album, "The Changeling," and they are like night and day. Most of the rest of this 1971 album is really blues oriented, with "Love Her Madly" clearly being the best of the bunch, and some of the rest being instantly forgettable. I think it is obvious that the band was trying to get back their credibility after veering too far in the direction of pop for a couple of albums, with "Morrison Hotel" and this one righting those wrongs. But since a few of these songs are pretty forgettable, "L.A. Woman" is an album that is caught between a 4 and a 5 but you have to round up given how good its two best songs end up being.

My two favorite parts of Oliver Stone's movie "The Doors" is when we hear Ray Manzarek in the background fooling around on the organ until he gets the bit for "Light My Fire" right and the end credits with the tracking shot showing the record of "L.A. Woman," with Val Kilmer's Morrison taking advantage of the great acoustics in the bathroom. For years when I was driving back from the Twin Cities and coming up the final hills before being able to see the lights of home, to wit the "city of lights," "L.A. Woman" was the song I would play in the car because it perfectly suited the moment.

Since the track opens with the sound of an accelerating car engine it is easy to see why the songs is associated with driving. Robbie Krieger simulates that sound on his guitar, but with a hint of eeriness that leads into first Manzarek's keyboards and then John Densmore's cymbal tapping and session player Jerry Scheff's throbbing bass. From that intriguing beginning the song generates its compelling rhythm and allows Morrison to wax lyrical. The bridge represents one of the most creative changes in rock history, using a tango tempo while Morrison sings about burning hair before getting to the final section where the anagrammatic "Mr. Mojo Risin'" makes his appearance. On a lot of these tracks Morrison's voice sounds about shot, but there are no complaints about "L.A. Woman," which qualifies as his last great vocal performance.

"Riders of the Storm" is one of the moodiest Doors' songs and the lyrics create a sense of foreboding (e.g., "Into this house were born/Into this world we're thrown") representing the questionable side of human existence. Musically Manzarek captures the sound of the storm, with actual thunderstorm sound effects dubbed on to the track, while Densmore again works the cymbals and Scheff provides a simple bass line, reflecting a minimalist approach that is quite effective. The song made it to #14 on the Billboard charts after Morrison's death in Paris ("Love Her Madly" had made it to #11 while the title track was just too long for AM radio). The "L.A. Woman" album only made it to #9, which, believe it or not, makes it the worst performance by a Doors album. Of course, a decade later Morrison and the Doors were bigger than ever and "L.A. Woman" was a frequent mention as the group's best track.

This is so close to a perfect DVD-Audio disc from Warner Music that it is disappointing it isn't. The tracks have been meticulous remastered and the sound is sharp and "new". "Riders on the Storm" has the storm in all the channels and is extremely effective. I played it in a local home theater store that had overhead rear speakers and that was very interesting.

The one track that still needs work is "Love Her Madly". The drum solos fly around all the channels per beat. An interesting effect but somewhat annoying after a while. But, the real disappointing part is the LFE (the .1 low bass channel). The LFE level on "Love Her Madly" is almost non-existent on the DVD-Audio version but powerful on the Dobly Digital version. Unfortunately, this means the Dolby Digital version sounds better than the DVD-Audio version of "Love Her Madly". I find it hard to believe that this was intended.

So, with the exception of the one track, the disc is excellent. Too bad Warner Music can't fix that problem and make this a fully enjoyable disc.

Not as splashy as ELP's Brain Salad Surgery DVD Audio but still a quantum leap over any CD version I've ever heard (including the new remasters). There is no audible hiss; the guitars and drums are crystal clear. The Lizard King sounds like he''s in your room. My only gripe is the underutilization of the subwoofer channel. However, this is a must buy.

Being a doors fan is one thing but after hearing them all over the room in diffrent places, I love d.v.d audio, This is the best d.v.d audio I have herd so far it has better sound then any c.d. you will ever here!!

This is the best doors album and my absolute favorite by them and any other band for that matter. The reason jim sounds (wrongly) tired and bored is that this a blues album, plus with jail time hanging over his head I don't know about you but the fact he put all the emotion he had with little voice he had left to me out distances anything the doors or any other band has done since. The lyrics are awesome, if sad for such a radiant singer who had now burned out from rock stardom. The true fan sees this as a return to their roots of blues and jazz improv and poetry that was the best of Morrison's career. W/ that said I can only hope you see beyond Jim's beard and into the soul of this music. This is the Doors masterpiece.

When I first heard this album, I was absolutely blown away. My previous exposure to The Doors had been limited to a double-CD set with all the hits. I'd heard "LA Woman", but not "The Changeling"! What a revelation! This album is especially poignant to me, because it is the final Doors album and the last piece of work produced by that madman Jim Morrison. Listen to him on "Hyacinth House" singing "I need a brand new friend who doesn't bother me, I need a brand new friend who doesn't trouble me, I need someone, yeah, who doesn't need me".

What was he talking about? A new girl to replace Pamela? A new drug to replace alcohol? A new muse to replace those he had lost on his haphazard journey through rock stardom? It seems to me that Morrison was tired of the whole "rock star" schtick and wanted to finally be the artist he had always dreamed he would be : an old bluesman that we could all understand. He, along with the other band members, found that bluesman for this album and forced him to write some great songs.

The album opens with "The Changeling", and it grabs you by the throat as Jim's howls compete with Ray's dominant keyboards. Robbie's "Don't You Love Her Madly" pulls us back from the brink with a nice little ditty which Morrison makes his own with his deep, bottom-of-the-well bellows.

Next up is a song that's blues on steroids, "Been Down So Long". The addition of an in-studio bass player really gives some balls to this song. "Cars Hiss By My Window" is so mellow it almost puts you to sleep, but it's so spooky, almost as if Morrison's in the room with you, at a cheap motel on a beach, in the early morning darkness. "Side One", as we used to call it, ends with "LA Woman" and it's everything the supposed opuses on previous albums, "The End" and "When The Music's Over", were supposed to be. "LA Woman" succeeds because it's a better song straight up than the other two, but also because the lyrics tell a coherent and believable story. We get to ride with Morrison for a night and what a wild ride it is!

Side two opens with an entirely different feel, "L'America's" military drumbeats marching us along to Jim's vocal cadence. Is he the rainmaker, the widowmaker, or just someone who wants to steal your wife? Who knows?!

"Hyacinth House" is, in my view, the saddest song Morrison ever wrote (just ahead of "Crystal Ship"), with Jim's mournful tone and Robbie's tasteful guitar fills dancing together. "Crawling King Snake" is probably what had been in Jim's head since he was a kid listen' to black radio. It's nice to see him take another legend's material (John Lee Hooker) and make it his own.

"The Wasp" continues the hard-driving blues train and is Jim's own contribution to the genre. His poetic lyrics drive this one straight into your mind's eye. He could be a good poet, when he took the time to polish his raw product, which he seems to have done with the lyrics for this song. The album ends softly with "Riders On The Storm", a eulogy for Morrison if there ever was one. Last words, last words... out!

Nobody knows what Morrison and the Doors would have done if he had not died in Paris in '71. We can only speculate. I am just thankful that he lived as long as he did and contributed so much to my life and the lives of countless others through his musical talents. This album is a big part of that gift, so if you do not have it, buy it today. You will not regret it.

Pros:

The sound is absoultly phenominal. This should be an example of what the standard should be in re-releasing material. It honestly sounds as if you are in the studio with the band. Side by side with the original issue of the cd this blows the older version away. Everything is so crisp and clear. This should be expected with technological advances.

The price. If you're looking to update the original cds without all the fancy packaging it's cheaper to by these new issues rather than the latest boxed set.

I'm a purist at heart and don't think albums should be remixed but I'm indifferent here. The one thing that I didn't expect was the additional lyrics during "Cars Hiss By My Window". Knowing the song the way it was originally released, it threw me for a loop when I first heard it and was totally unexpected.

Cons:

None. Hands down this is my favorite Doors album. Next in line is to upgrade my Morrison Hotel cd (the 2nd best in my opinion).

Listening to the other Doors remixes, I felt like the surviving band members and engineer/producer Bruce Botnick were trying to retrofit the older, more psychedelic albums to sound like the blues-rock punch of "L.A. Woman." It didn't work so well for something like "Waiting For The Sun," but it does provide a welcome sonic update for "L.A. Woman" itself.

The original album sounded just a touch piecemeal as a few of the tracks were from older sessions in the case of "L'America" or in the Doors' older style as in "Love Her Madly." I always felt that this stood in contrast with the live-in-the-studio tracks recorded for the album itself. The wide-open, percussion heavy mixes here make the whole thing sound more of a complete sonic picture. "The Changeling" and the title track have a little more bite, which I dig. In fact, the only track here I prefer from the original are "Riders On The Storm," which is a little less dreamy and delicate sounding here, and "Love Her Madly." As I said, the new mix fits on the album better, but I'd consider the original a damn fine single mix.

If you want to get a positive taste of the new mixes of the Doors albums, I'd head for this one first as it does offer what may actually be an improvement over the original.