Track Listing

1. The Changeling
2. Love Her Madly
3. Been Down So Long
4. Cars Hiss By My Window
5. L.A Woman
6. L'America
7. Hyacinth House
8. Crawling King Snake
9. The WASP
10. Riders on the Storm

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #150998 in Music
• Released on: 2002-08-26
• Rating: Exempt
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced
• Original language: English

Amazon.co.uk Review
The last official Doors studio album, LA Woman was still high on the charts when, like the "actor out on loan" of its closing track, "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. It also holds another entry in the band's ever-adventurous tone poems in the ever-underrated mythical tale of American music and culture, "WASP (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)". --Billy Altman

From Amazon.com
This is the Doors' blues album, their best since their 1967 self-titled debut and their last before singer Jim Morrison died in 1971. The band sounds very inspired here, particular after lackluster efforts like Waiting for the Sun and The Soft Parade. This inspiration is demonstrated in the awesome boogie of "The Changeling" and "L.A. Woman," the lazy blues of "Cars Hiss by My Window," and the very pretty "Hyacinth House" (featuring the great line "I see the bathroom is clear"). Although Morrison not surprisingly takes himself too seriously at times, as in his spoken-word ranting in "The Wasp (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)," Ray Manzarek's keyboards and Robby Krieger's bottleneck guitar both shine, helping to make L.A. Woman a minor rock & roll classic. --Andy Boynton

CD Description
The final Doors album to feature vocalist Jim Morrison reaffirmed the quartet's grasp of earthy blues-rock. Beset by personal and professional problems, they retreated to a rehearsal room, cast such pressures aside, and recorded several oftheir most memorable compositions. The musicianship is uniformly excellent, the interplay between guitarist Robbie Krieger and keyboardist Ray Manzarek exudes confidence and empathy, while the strength and nuances of Morrison's voice add an unmistakable resonance. The singer's death within weeks ofthe album's completion inevitably casts a pall over its content, especially the eerie, doom-laden "Riders On The Storm".

Customer Reviews

Swansong
The Doors' last album before Jim Morrison's death stands apart from their earlier releases. Grittier and bluesier, it isn't representative of what made them successful, but has its own aura. The cover shot shows a grizzlier, chunkier Morrison, no longer the budding sex god, and his vocal delivery is that of a more mature hell raiser. Two additional musicians on rhythm and bass guitars are also featured, so that Ray Manzarek's keyboards, though still prominent, are less dominant. The result is that the band sounds less different from other bands than before, but they also sound more fluid.

Blues forms the main thread to the album. There are three straight examples of the form, but there are, as usual, surprises. 'L'America' is the most uncomfortable listening and reveals that Morrison still possessed plenty of menace. 'Love Her Madly' is deliciously light and melodic, Manzarek's piano skipping along, as is 'Hyacinth House'. 'Changeling' provides an earthy opening, while the title track fairly bombs along, allowing each member to stretch out. This is one of the album's trump cards, but two more are left until the end. 'Texas Radio and The Big Beat' sees Morrison on mischievous form and it does indeed feature a big beat. The crowning achievement is of course 'Riders On The Storm,' a soundtrack for psychopaths everywhere, full of beautiful sounds and dark dramas. Possibly not to every fan's liking, 'LA Woman' is nevertheless a superb performance.

The Doors for DVD Audio!!
Hopefully this will open the door for the other albums to be released in glorious 5.1 surround. LA Woman has never sounded better and being surrounded by a thunder storm during Riders on the Storm made it worth the money for me. If you haven't got it on cd buy it on dvd audio, if you've got it on cd buy it on dvd audio!

The Doors last effort (and what a way to go!)
LA Woman, the last gasp of a group that was running out of ideas, such that their long erstwhile producer Paul Rothschild threw the towel in and refused to prdouce having declared to the group they were merely playing "cocktail lounge music"?

Well on the evidence of the remastered CD that was not at all what the final product turned out like. Morrison may have been on his last legs physically as proven by his subsequent early death and emotionally low given the Miami obscenity trial bearing down on him, but the Lizard King went out with all cylinders firing. The recordings were made in a nearby basement the group having vacated the Elektra studios by mutual consent, but being the professionals they were the recordings retain all that was great about the Doors - well played instrumentation by three great musicians with the right hard or light touch as the recordings required and Morrison contributing some great songs notably the title track and Riders on the Storm, though overall there are no fillers.

The album was certainly more bluesy that any prior offerings (even including John Lee Hooker's "Crawling King Snake") but as a band that had always been open to many varied influences that adaptation did not cause any energy level loss. What hits one most on relistening now several decades later is that while a lot of the songs were longer workouts than the prior rocking "Morrison Hotel" LP they still have a quality that leaves standing the earlier recordings by the group - "LA Woman" versus "The End"? - no contest with the later Doors winning hands down in my book!