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 (Texas Radio And The Big Beat)
10. Riders On The Storm
11. Orange County Suite
12. (You Need Meat) Don't Go
13. No Further

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3148 in Music
• Released on: 2007-03-26
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds

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 blues-rock. Beset by personal and professional problems, they retreated to a rehearsal room, cast pressures aside, and recorded a handful of their most memorable compositions. The overall sound of the record isrelatively stripped down, but the musicianship is uniformlyexcellent, with empathetic interplay between guitarist Robbie Krieger and keyboard player Ray Manzarek. Jim Morrison's voice, though somewhat ragged and weather-worn, adds its fiercely unmistakable resonance. The spooky, low-key "Cars HissBy My Window" and an edgy cover of John Lee Hooker's "Crawling King Snake" are straight, no-nonsense blues, but the album's highlights, including the jangling radio hit "Love Her Madly" and the breezy, chugging title track, which rides on a thrumming bass line and Krieger's fluid licks, mix bluesy bluster with the Doors' swirling, poetic magic. Morrison's death within weeks of the album's completion cast a pall overits content, especially the eerie rain and the funereal electric piano of "Riders On The Storm," the album's indisputable standout, and one of the most compelling, evocative songsin the band's catalogue. Though not the Doors' finest record, L.A. WOMAN was a fitting swan song for one of the most unique and important bands of the '60s.

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 final Doors album proves they were not rock sellouts
"L.A. Woman" is the final album put together by the Doors before the death of Jim Morrison and what is so striking about it for me is how the two best tracks, the title one and "Riders of the Storm," are so different from the rest of what is on the album. Contrasting the start of those tracks with the opening song on the album, "The Changeling," and they are like night and day. Most of the rest of this 1971 album is really blues oriented, with "Love Her Madly" clearly being the best of the bunch, and some of the rest being instantly forgettable. I think it is obvious that the band was trying to get back their credibility after veering too far in the direction of pop for a couple of albums, with "Morrison Hotel" and this one righting those wrongs. But since a few of these songs are pretty forgettable, "L.A. Woman" is an album that is caught between a 4 and a 5 but you have to round up given how good its two best songs end up being.

My two favorite parts of Oliver North's movie "The Doors" is when we hear Ray Manzarek in the background fooling around on the organ until he gets the bit for "Light My Fire" right and the end credits with the tracking shot showing the record of "L.A. Woman," with Val Kilmer's Morrison taking advantage of the great acoustics in the bathroom. For years when I was driving back from the Twin Cities and coming up the final hills before being able to see the lights of home, to wit the "city of lights," "L.A. Woman" was the song I would play in the car because it perfectly suited the moment.

Since the track opens with the sound of an accelerating car engine it is easy to see why the songs is associated with driving. Robbie Krieger simulates that sound on his guitar, but with a hint of eeriness that leads into first Manzarek's keyboards and then John Densmore's cymbal tapping and session player Jerry Scheff's throbbing bass. From that intriguing beginning the song generates its compelling rhythm and allows Morrison to wax lyrical. The bridge represents one of the most creative changes in rock history, using a tango tempo while Morrison sings about burning hair before getting to the final section where the anagrammatic "Mr. Mojo Risin'" makes his appearance. On a lot of these tracks Morrison's voice sounds about shot, but there are no complaints about "L.A. Woman," which qualifies as his last great vocal performance.

"Riders of the Storm" is one of the moodiest Doors' songs and the lyrics create a sense of foreboding (e.g., "Into this house were born/Into this world we're thrown") representing the questionable side of human existence. Musically Manzarek captures the sound of the storm, with actual thunderstorm sound effects dubbed on to the track, while Densmore again works the cymbals and Scheff provides a simple bass line, reflecting a minimalist approach that is quite effective. The song made it to #14 on the Billboard charts after Morrison's death in Paris ("Love Her Madly" had made it to #11 while the title track was just too long for AM radio). The "L.A. Woman" album only made it to #9, which, believe it or not, makes it the worst performance by a Doors album. Of course, a decade later Morrison and the Doors were bigger than ever and "L.A. Woman" was a frequent mention as the group's best track.