L.A. Woman: Последний альбом с Джимом Моррисоном

1971 studio album by the Doors

L. A. Woman is the sixth studio album by the American rock band the Doors, released on April 19, 1971 by Elektra Records. It is the last to feature lead singer Jim Morrison during his lifetime, due to his death exactly two months and two weeks following the album's release, though he would posthumously appear on the 1978 album An American Prayer. Even more so than its predecessors, the album is heavily influenced by blues. It was recorded without producer Paul A. Rothchild after he quit the band over the perceived lack of quality in their studio performances. Subsequently, the band co produced the album with longtime sound engineer Bruce Botnick. "Love Her Madly" was released as a single in March 1971, preceding the album's release, and reached the Top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100. Upon release, the album peaked at number nine on the Billboard 200 and reached number 28 on the UK Albums Chart. The track "Riders on the Storm" also achieved chart success. Critics including Richie Unterberger and David Quantick have called L. A. Woman one of the Doors' best albums, citing Morrison's vocal performance and the band's stripped down return to their blues rock roots.

The Doors had achieved commercial and critical success by 1969, but for much of that year they were blacklisted from radio playlists and their concert bookings dwindled after singer Jim Morrison had been charged with profanity and indecent exposure at a concert in Miami, Florida. Morrison had mentioned leaving the group at the end of 1968, only to be convinced by keyboardist Ray Manzarek to stay on another six months. On September 20, 1970, Morrison was convicted for the Miami incident. In November 1970, shortly after Morrison's trial ended, the Doors entered Sunset Sound Recorders in Los Angeles to record early versions of the songs "L. A. Woman", "Riders on the Storm" and "Love Her Madly". The simplified and straightforward style, progressing from Morrison Hotel, was well received, noted by Jazz & Pop magazine as "a return to the tight fury of early Doors' music". The band conflicted with their record company, Elektra Records, who released the Doors' first compilation album, 13, to have a product for the Christmas market. It was released without the band's input, and featured a large image of a younger Morrison, upsetting him enough to threaten signing with another label. As their contract required one more album, the group were unable to follow through with the threat, so they continued rehearsing the new material. Record producer Paul A. Rothchild, who worked with the band on their first five albums, attended the early sessions but quit following friction with the band. This included his dissatisfaction with the song "Love Her Madly", which "drove [him] out of the studio." He felt that recording the composition was a step backwards artistically, calling it "cocktail music." Rothchild was frustrated that the group was slow in developing new material, especially as the band contained three songwriters. He was unable to persuade Morrison to consistently attend rehearsals. As Bruce Botnick revealed in the book Love Becomes a Funeral Pyre, another issue that led to Rothchild's leaving was the emotional devastation he felt at the death of Janis Joplin, having worked with her on Pearl. Rothchild left before any master takes were complete, recommending that the Doors co produce L. A. Woman with Botnick, the sound engineer who had worked with Rothchild on the band's previous recordings.

The group and Botnick organized a makeshift recording studio at their private rehearsal space, the Doors' Workshop, a two story building at 8512 Santa Monica Boulevard. They could then record in a more comfortable and relaxed setting while avoiding the expenses of a professional studio. A mixing console previously owned by Elektra was installed upstairs in the Workshop, while studio monitors, microphones, and keyboards were set up downstairs. To compensate for the lack of an isolated vocal booth, Morrison recorded in the bathroom doorway, singing into the same microphone used on the Doors' final tour. According to Botnick, Morrison was easy to work with and spent long hours in the studio with little consumption of alcohol. For recording, Elvis Presley's bassist Jerry Scheff and rhythm guitarist Marc Benno were brought in to provide additional backing. By all accounts, Morrison – a huge Presley fan – was excited by Scheff's participation. In addition, Benno was asked to participate as a result of his recent notoriety from working with Leon Russell. The songs were completed in a few takes on a professional quality 8 track recorder, and the album was finished in six days. Mixing was completed at Poppi studios in West Hollywood,

The band began recording without much material and needed to compose songs on the spot, either by jamming or talking through ideas. In a 1994 interview, guitarist Robby Krieger stated, "Rothchild was gone, which is one reason why we had so much fun. The warden was gone." Despite its troubled beginnings, L. A. Woman contains some of the Doors' most critically acclaimed songs, as well as some of their most blues oriented. Lyrically, the album deals with contemporary topics such as love, life in Los Angeles, and complex aspects of the human experience. Manzarek explained the band did not "approach the album with one vision, but after we started working on the songs, we realized that they're talking about L. A. They're about men, women, boys, girls, love, loss, lovers lost, and lovers found in Los Angeles". with some elements of psychedelic and jazz rock of their early career.

L. A. Woman opens with the Morrison penned track "The Changeling", which the Doors wanted to be the album's first single. He wrote the song, at his house, to alleviate his boredom during Morrison's trial. L. A. Woman closes its first side with the title track, the lengthiest song on the album. Thought of as Morrison's final goodbye to Los Angeles, it communicated his mixed feelings of passion and disdain for "the city of night". The lyrics feature an anagram for Jim Morrison: "Mr. Mojo Risin. Krieger's electric guitar effect at the introduction impersonates the sound of an accelerated automobile engine.

In addition to "The Changeling", the Doors chose to incorporate three other compositions written before 1971: "L' America", "Crawling King Snake", and "The WASP (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)". "L'America" was intended for the soundtrack of director Michelangelo Antonioni's 1970 counterculture film Zabriskie Point, but ultimately rejected. Manzarek recalled, "Antonioni was interested in using it in Zabriskie Point. So we played it for him, and it was so loud, it pinned him up against the wall. When it was over, he thanked us and fled. So he turned to Pink Floyd, as European filmmakers tend to do when they want rock & roll." Previously titled "Latin America", it was originally written and recorded during the sessions for Morrison Hotel, and the only work during the L. A. Woman sessions with a few drum overdubs. The Doors' arrangement of the traditional "Crawling King Snake" dates back to their early tours, and was sometimes coupled with Morrison's poem "Celebration of the Lizard". "The WASP (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)" is a reworking of Morrison's sample of poetry first appearing on the group's souvenir books in 1968. L. A. Woman also features "Hyacinth House", with lyrics written by Morrison and music by Manzarek. The song shows Manzarek being influenced by the Polish composer Frédéric Chopin's Polonaise in A flat major, Op. 53, during its organ solo. The final track was "Riders on the Storm", a collective effort by the Doors. Based on the arrangement "Ghost Riders in the Sky" and the line "delicate riders of the storm", taken from Hart Crane's poem "Praise for an Urn", the track melded Morrison's hitchhiker imagery from his own poetry projects. The faint, ghostly backdrop heard throughout the song was the last recording of Morrison as a member of the Doors.

In 1988, L. A. Woman was digitally remastered by Botnick and Paul A. Rothchild at Digital Magnetics, using the original master tapes. DCC Compact Classics reissued the album on 24kt gold CD in 1993 and on 180g vinyl in 1998, both versions were mastered by Steve Hoffman. It was remastered again in 1999 for The Complete Studio Recordings box set by Bernie Grundman and Botnick at Bernie Grundman Mastering, using 96khz/24bit technology; it was also released as a standalone CD release. This was followed by a 5.1 surround version of the album, released on DVD Audio on December 19, 2000; the surround mix was created by Botnick from the original eight track analog 1" master tapes. In 2006, all six of the Doors' albums with Morrison were remixed in stereo and 5.1 for the Perception box set. This edition of L. A. Woman includes two bonus tracks ("Orange County Suite" and "(You Need Meat) Don't Go No Further") and was made available with or without an accompanying DVD that features the 5.1 surround sound version of the album along with Doors' rehearsal footage. This remix series has been criticized because "the band chose to remix and tinker with [the albums], adding and cutting from a few tracks and including unused instrumental parts." In 2012, L. A. Woman was digitally remastered again as a part of "The Years of the Doors" series to commemorate its 40th Anniversary release. This edition was reissued in an expanded format on January 24, 2012, by Elektra and Rhino Records in CD and digital formats, and it includes the 2006 stereo remix done and mastered by Botnick at Uniteye. It also features seven alternate versions of songs, and two previously unreleased tracks, "She Smells So Nice" and "Rock Me". This remaster has been praised for leaving the original album "untouched". Analogue Productions also reissued the album on hybrid SACD (2013) and double 45 RPM vinyl (2012), both editions were mastered by Doug Sax and Sangwook Nam at The Mastering Lab; the CD layer of the Super Audio CD contains the original stereo mix while the SACD layer contains Botnick's 2006 5.1 surround mix. To commemorate the album’s 50th anniversary, Rhino released a three CD/one LP set on December 3, 2021. It was remastered by Botnick including the original stereo mix and two bonus discs of unreleased studio outtakes.

Rhino released on April 23, 2022 (as a RSD exclusive) the studio outtakes from the 50th Anniversary three CD/one LP set as a special edition quadruple vinyl entitled L. A. Woman Sessions.

All songs written by the Doors, except where noted. Details are taken from the 1971 Elektra Records album and may differ from other sources.