Dusty's Record Review - June '07

I am reasonably certain that most of us who have lived through Seventies have worn out more than one copy of The Doors LA Woman. Produced in late 1970 and early 1971 on the Elektra label, the album, arguably considered to be the bands finest turned out to be their last. It was an album that was a marked departure from their roots as a California psychedelic-acid flash band to a more urban, blues based rock and roll outfit, which was something that the band had wanted to experiment with for some time.

The album produced four staples of classic rock radio; Love Her Madly, Riders On The Storm, WASP-Texas Radio and The Big Beat and the title track, LA Woman. Love Her Madly was the one track from this album that could have been considered a pop entry for the band and the first single released from the disc. Riders On The Storm, a surreal, savage cautionary tale of murder and mayhem on the highway set to music. It’s hard to get the line ‘There’s a killer on the road’ out of your head even after the song has long ended. Texas Radio and The Big Beat evoke images of Texas hard-pack, oppressive heat and the heavy angst of an unrealized revolution. From that song, a phrase entered the American lexicon ; ‘stoned immaculate’. Something that still describes that teen nether land between the years when you float between freedom and responsibility. Between who you are and who you are yet to become. The title track, LA Woman, is one of the finest examples of late sixties – early seventies rock and roll that you’ll find on record anywhere. From the opening strains of a revving engine, the build up of Densmore’s back beat and Manzareks’ organ fill, the song creates a huge feel of speeding along an LA freeway. Krieger drops in his chording to push the song into over-drive. What started as a tribute to a stripper turned out to be a vignette into an LA summers day.

What is really surprising about this album is some of the other lesser-known tracks on the album that really summed up what was happening to The Doors at the time. The Changeling was Morrison’s nod to what was to come for him and the band. He had hinted in interviews near the time of the creation of the album that this was it for the band. He was done. I think in ways, he knew that the end was near for him as well. Been Down So Long (a tribute to a novel of the same name by Richard Farina), Cars Hiss By My Window and Crawling King Snake were hard-core blues based music, which was music that had always fascinated every member of the band. Hyacinth House and L’America were the only two tracks that seemed out of place on the album but yet when listened to in it’s entirety, they were included to fill the album out and tie this album to the rest of their catalogue.

There are a number of stories surrounding the creation of this album and that it’s edgier, grittier sound had as much to do with The Doors parting ways with their long time producer Paul Rothchild during the rehearsals for the album as any creative decision on the part of the band. Rothchild was quoted as saying that it sounded like ‘cocktail’ music to him and refused to be a part of it. After he left (Rothchild claims he quit, The Doors say that they fired him), production on the album fell to their engineer, Bruce Botnick.

The band fell right into step once inside the studio and caught most of the tracks on the album in one take.

LA Woman is a brief, unintended history lesson. A chance to see the jump from a generation of hard-core idealists, worn thin from carrying their agenda for a social change to an age of cynics littering the landscape of crushed expectations. It was a glimpse towards a land devoid of heroes. It serves as a dark view towards the weird wasteland that was to become the seventies.

If you’ve never listened to this album, I urge you to do so. If you haven’t listened to it a long while, give it a quick turn. If you’ve burned your copy out, get another. You’ll be glad you did.

LA Woman is still one of my least favourite Doors albums (second only to The Soft Parade), but that doesn't mean I don't like it. It is a classic, and everyone should listen to it.

Good review, hunter. High-five.