CoronaVinyl Day 457 (D): L.A. Woman by The Doors

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Today's CoronaVinyl category is "D," and I have a few more Doors albums left in the mix, so I went with their sixth studio album, 1971's L.A. Woman.

I'll just start by saying I love The Doors.  I listened to a lot of their music when I was in high school, and it got me through some strange days (Doors pun intended!).  I have a vivid memory of listening to this album one summer day in high school in my room, just before dusk.  I fell asleep when it was light out, and when I woke up to the last song on the album, "Riders on the Storm," it was not only dark, but also raining, complementing the rain sound effects in the song.  Very eerie.

Anywho, L.A. Woman was the last Doors album to feature Jim Morrison.  (Yes, they put out two more albums after he died, with Ray Manzarek handling vocals.)  After recording the album, Morrison moved to Paris, and then less than three months after the album was released in April 1971, Morrison had died in a Paris bathtub -- or at least that's what he wanted you to think.

The album is more bluesy than much of their previous work, but the band was still on the top of its game on this album.  I like to think of it as Jim Morrison's wave goodbye to the world.  His ethereal songwriting permeates the album, and his fantastic signature voice -- that can go from baritone to controlled chaos in a matter of seconds -- is spot on, despite his outwardly declining health.

L.A. Woman reached #9 on the Billboard album chart, which was the band's sixth Top 10 studio album in a row (though their lowest-charting).  It eventually went triple platinum in the U.S.  The two singles from the album both reached the Top 15 of the Billboard Hot 100, and they would be the band's last two Top 40 hits.  "Love Her Madly" went to #11, and "Riders on the Storm" reached #14.

My version of the album is from the first pressing, with curved corners and a cellophane insert with the band's faces embossed in front of a yellow background.

Favorite Song on Side 1:  "L.A. Woman"
One of the all-time great driving songs, this is the song that ends the Oliver Stone 1991 biopic about the band, and there's not a more fitting song for that purpose.  This was Morrison's last homage to the city where the band formed and lived.  At nearly eight minutes, it's an epic, starting off with an engine churning and a frantic beat, before Manzarek and Robby Krieger's jaunty little keyboard and guitar riff comes in, and then Morrison busts in with "Well I just got into town about an hour ago." John Densmore has some delicious little fills throughout the song and Krieger's guitar work is predictably great, as Morrison declares his love for L.A.  And, of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the bridge near the end of the song where Morrison repeats "Mr. Mojo Risin'," which is an acronym for Jim Morrison, crescendoing into the frenetic, orgasmic end to the song.

Favorite Song on Side 2:  "Crawling King Snake"
As I mentioned, the album is blues heavy, and one of those blues songs is a cover of John Lee Hooker's "Crawling King Snake."  Morrison was the Lizard King, so the reptile theme fits.  This is just a snarling blues cover, and it's one of those songs I imagine Morrison showing up shitfaced to record and then just blowing it out of the water on the first take.  That probably wasn't how it went, though the band recorded the album in only six days, and this was one of the last songs the band recorded for the album on the last day, along with "L.A. Woman" and "Cars Hiss By My Window."