LA Woman - Doors (The) > Reviews > Out here in the perimeter, there are no stars....

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Groundbreaking
Lyrics	Sublime
Quality and consistency of tracks	Flawless
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Outstanding
Value for Money	Good

Advantages:	Not a bad track on the album
Disadvantages:	None

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

This, the last album recorded by The Doors before Jim Morrison's death, remains one of their finest. Even now at thirty six years after its initial release it still sounds fresh. It really could have been recorded yesterday.

The thing that amazes me about The Doors is that they never had a bass guitar player!. The bass lines were played by Ray Manzarek on a keyboard.

By this time, Jim Morrison had grown very fat and hairy but his voice was still gutsy, bluesy and quite unique. His lyrics were unquestionably skilful. A true poet.!

Onto the CD. What do you get for your money? Well, ten tracks.

The Changeling.
A good bluesy track with quite strange lyrics about a wanderer going from town to town leaving nothing but memories behind him. A wonderful keyboard solo for the middle eight.

Love Her Madly.
A love song of sorts. More like a song of an unhealthy obsession. "Don't you love her as she's walkin' out the door?". Good guitar work from Robby Krieger.

Been Down So Long.
A raw blues track. In the great tradition of blues, it deals with feeling like crap! I'm sure we've all been there. Standard structure of a blues song i.e.repeat first line to emphasise how bad life is. the second verse reveals that he is in fact in prison. Morrison's gravelly voice manages to convey the seriousness of his situation.

Cars Hiss by My Window.
A traditional blues in E. Slow 4/4 beat. Another "my girls gone and left me" song. Sitting watching headlights of cars passing in the night. You get the picture.

L A Woman.
The title track. All about L. A.and comparing the city to a woman Great keyboard break in the middle. Tune slows down almost to a stop when Morrison starts chanting "Mr Mojo rising!". He repeats this faster and faster until the song is back to its original tempo.

L'America
Steady rock beat. Song is about early trade between the Spaniards and the native peoples of South America. Before the Conquistadors did the dirty and stole the gold!

Hyacinth House
An altogether quieter and more melodic affair. Driven by keyboards as opposed to guitars. Not entirely sure what the Hyacinth House is. Why do they have lions there?

Crawling King Snake.
John Lee Hooker's blues number. Given the Doors' treatment. Fleshed out with keyboards and guitars, it's far fuller than Hooker's original and Morrison's voice is so suited to the blues.

The WASP (Texas Radio & The Big Beat).
Brilliant rock song. Steady thumping bass line drives the song along. The lyrics are pure poetry. Not sure whether it's about a radio station and the music it plays or what. But who cares? A cracking song with a stunning guitar solo in the middle. Stops as suddenly as it began.

Riders on the Storm.
Starts with the sound of a tropical down pour. The rhythm is built around the cymbals and drums for a few bars before the keyboard riff comes in with a swooping arpeggio down the keys. Then Morrison's voice takes up the song. Again pure poetry.
Brilliant jazzy keyboard break in the middle. Song slows down to a stop and then picks up again with the repeated keyboard arpeggio, one more through the chorus and then slows down again to a fade, leaving the wind and the rain.

I can't believe nobody has reviewed this before, it's such a classic album. Suely everybody owns this already?
I can't recommend this album highly enough.