The Doors – L.A. Woman

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.”

Analogue Productions and Quality Record Pressings are proud to announce that six studio LP titles — The Doors, Strange Days, Waiting For The Sun, Soft Parade, Morrison Hotel and L.A. Woman — are featured on 180-gram vinyl, pressed at 45 rpm. All six are also available on Multichannel SACD! All were cut from the original analog masters by Doug Sax, with the exception of The Doors, which was made from the best analog tape copy.

“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

Click here to read a 1997 interview in The Tracking Angle with Doors producer/engineer Bruce Botnick

As soon as I held Analogue Productions’ new pressing of L.A. Woman, I knew this LP was something truly special. The quality of the gatefold cover is astonishing, the colors pop and the weight of the materials are top-notch, it really is a beauty to behold. Upfront, I had some concerns of owning a 45 RPM LP (the shorter playing time per side, and the resulting record flips) but I found this was a short-lived issue. At 45 RPM the needle is reading more information than 33 RPM, so ideally this is the speed you want your vinyl to spin to achieve the absolute best sound quality. The two LPs are housed in high quality QRP inner sleeves, nearly identical to the MFSL sleeves – another firm statement of quality control. These are also great looking records with the classic Electra ‘butterfly’ labels and heavy-weight 180-gram vinyl. As soon as the needle dropped, real time stopped and the music flowed effortlessly from a deep blackness filled with vast dynamic contrasts and rich glowing tones. I read this album was remastered from the original analog tapes using an all-tube system – I just know the sound is awesome, with seemingly limitless analog resolution. Much of L.A. Woman is also deeply steeped in the Blues; hard-edged and often gritty performances exemplified by the Doors vicious cover of John Lee Hooker’s ‘Crawling King Snake’. On L.A. Woman, The Doors abandon the dated West Coast psychedelic flourishes of earlier albums for the more mature pop sensibility of ‘Love Her Madly’. Outside of the prime songs, deep album cuts like ‘The Wasp’ illustrate Jim’s often surreal poetic creativity. Sadly, this would be The Doors final album with Jim just before the darkness would envelop him in Paris. Significantly, L.A. Woman contains The Doors most mature and developed compositions and some of Jim’s most ominous lyrics. A more cynical view of America and Los Angeles are vividly revealed by the famous title track – the blistering Hollywood noir ‘L.A. Woman’. Their epic song ‘Riders on the Storm’ has the power to evoke spine-chilling emotions – this is cinematic music presented in full panoramic widescreen; the jazzy tempo, understated melody and poignant lyrics underscore the power and clarity of this stunning Analogue Productions pressing. I’m very happy to finally have the definitive audiophile vinyl edition of The Doors L.A. Woman in my growing vinyl LP collection. If you are a Classic Rock fan and/or a Doors fan spinning vinyl, or if you just want to be blown away by the sonic possibilities of audiophile vinyl, the Analogue Productions’ edition of L.A. Woman is essential listening. – Paul Powell Jr, Acoustic Sounds Customer