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Tracklisting & More Information
The title track from this, the last Doors album recorded with Jim Morrison, who died shortly after it was released, has, said one reviewer, "maybe the best Chuck Berry riffs since the Stones." And that's not even mentioning "Love Her Madly," which became one of the highest charting hits for The Doors.
"Love Her Madly," was written by Doors guitarist Robbie Krieger, who is said to have penned the song about the numerous times his girlfriend threatened to leave him. The song peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and reached No. 3 in Canada.
L.A. Woman was still high on the charts when, like in the lyric "actor out on loan" of its closing track - the celebrated "Riders on the Storm," Jim Morrison died in a Paris bathtub in the summer of 1971.
Via such tracks as "The Changeling," "Crawling King Snake," and the frothy, rollicking title track, the collection leaned heavily toward the Blues - in particular, Morrison's boastful "Lizard King" brand of it. All-in-all, Rolling Stone proclaimed L.A. Woman, "The Doors' greatest album, including their first," and "A landmark worthy of dancing in the streets."
Technical notes about the recording process by Doors producer/engineer Bruce Botnick:
"Throughout the record history of the Doors, the goal between Paul Rothchild and myself was to be invisible, as the Doors were the songwriters and performers. Our duty was to capture them in the recorded medium without bringing attention to ourselves. Of course, the Doors were very successful, and Paul and I did receive some acclaim, which we did appreciate.
"If you listen to all the Doors albums, no attempt was made to create sounds that weren't generated by the Doors, except for the Moog Synthesizer on Strange Days, although that was played live in the mix by Jim, but that's another story. The equipment used was very basic, mostly tube consoles and microphones. Telefunken U47, Sony C37A, Shure 56. The echo used was from real acoustic echo chambers and EMT plate reverb units. In those days, we didn't have plug-ins or anything beyond an analogue eight-track machine. All the studios that we used, except for Elektra West, had three Altec Lansing 604E loudspeakers, as that was the standard in the industry, three-track. On EKS-74007, The Doors, we used four-track Ampex recorders and on the subsequent albums, 3M 56 eight-tracks. Dolby noise reduction units were used on two albums, Waiting For The Sun and The Soft Parade. Everything was analogue, digital was just a word. We didn't use fuzz tone or other units like that but created the sounds organically, i.e. the massive dual guitar solo on "When The Music's Over," which was created by feeding the output of one microphone preamp into another and adjusting the level to create the distortion. The tubes were glowing and lit up the control room.
"When mastering for the 45-RPM vinyl release, we were successfully able to bake the original master tapes and play them to cut the lacquer masters."
- Bruce Botnick, July 2012
"I received test pressings today for both Morrison Hotel and L.A. Woman. I have to tell you that these are the very best pressings I've heard in many, many moons. Great plating and your compound is so quiet that I clearly heard every fade out to its conclusion with no problem. Doug (Sax) and company did a lovely job, the tapes sound pretty damn good for being almost 50 years old and his system is clearly the best...You should be very proud of what you and your troops are doing." - Bruce Botnick, The Doors producer/engineer
Side 1
The Changeling
Love Her Madly
Been Down So Long
Side 2
Cars Hiss by My Window
L. A. Woman
Side 3
L'America
Hyacinth House
Crawling King Snake
Side 4
The WASP (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)
Riders On The Storm
DOUBLE LP
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