Walking home late from work last week I passed a charity shop that had ‘LA Woman’ on CD for £1.99 in the window. The next couple of nights I made sure to pass this shop to see if it had been sold, and when it was still in the window on view, I decided that I would purchase this disc the next time I could drop in while it was open.
LA Woman was the last Doors album with Jim Morrison. After his death the Doors continued and released more albums, but the Doors where just the Doors in name only.
The album was released in April 1971, after single ‘Love Her Madly’ a month earlier. The only other single from the album was ‘Riders On The Storm’ which came in June, a month before Morrison died. This sixth album from the band was the first without Paul Rothchild as producer, he did attend the early sessions but quit after some friction with the band.
LA Woman (1971)
Best 3 songs – 1) LA Woman 2) Riders On The Storm 3) Love Her Madly
Worst – Been Down So Long
I did manage to visit the store when it was open at my first available chance, and can you believe it was gone from the display window? Oh well, I thought it wasn’t to be and didn’t even enter the store.
A couple of days later while on a different shift pattern at work, I walked passed the store while it was open and couldn’t believe what I saw in the window display – ‘Waiting For The Sun’ on CD for £1.99
This 3rd album from the Doors was more difficult than the previous two, as they had now already used up most of Morrison’s lyrics from his original songbook (‘Hello, I Love You’ being one of the last) and producer Rothchild was beginning to become more of a perfectionist, ‘The Unknown Soldier’ taking over 100 takes to complete. They also had months of touring, television and interviews, the pressure to produce new material in time resulted in the title track being left off the album (later included on Morrison Hotel)
Waiting For The Sun (1968)
Best 3 songs – 1) Five To One 2) Not To Touch The Earth 3) The Unknown Soldier
Worst – We Could Be So Good Together
Anyway, I walked into the shop and asked the gent if I could take something from the display, he jokingly replied that I could as long as I was going to pay for it. We got talking, he was a big Doors fan himself and had put the CD’s in the window display, he then rummaged through some stock at the counter and found me … yes… the LA Woman CD!!!! It hadn’t been sold after all. But it got better… he also had Morrison Hotel for £1.99 too!
Morrison Hotel, their 5th album was somewhat a return to form after the previous ‘Soft Parade’ received criticism. It was back to basics and back to the blues as a bearded Jim came to the front, the leather clad lizard king no-more.
Morrison Hotel (1970)
Best 3 songs – 1) Roadhouse Blues 2) Peace Frog 3) Waiting For The Sun
Worst – Queen Of The Highway
The previous album to Morrison Hotel, ‘The Soft Parade’ came after a busy period for the band and material was limited. Morrison wanted to become a full time poet and nearly left the band, Krieger had to step up with the writing. It was the first record to credit the band members separately rather than simply ‘songs by the doors’. Producer, Rothchild also introduced strings into arrangements in order to freshen things up, but it backfired and most people regard this album as the weakest in the Doors catalogue.
The Soft Parade (1969)
Best 3 songs – 1) The Soft Parade 2) Touch Me 3) Wishful Sinful
Worst – Easy Ride
The Doors never had chart success in the UK, with no albums or singles breaking into the top 10 until the re-issue of ‘Light My Fire’ In 1991. Yet they maintain to be one of the most influential artists of all time. Here is my list (as of Nov 19) of their best 11 songs and their top 6 albums –
Albums – 1) The Doors (1967); 2) LA Woman (1971); 3) Strange Days (1967); 4) Waiting For The Sun (1969); 5) Morrison Hotel (1970); 6) The Soft Parade (1969)
Songs – 1) The End; 2) LA Woman; 3) Light My Fire; 4) Riders On The Storm; 5) The Crystal Ship; 6) When The Music’s Over; 7) Love Her Madly; 8) People Are Strange; 9) Break On Thru; 10) Touch Me; 11) The Unknown Soldier
The First two albums. A lot of the songs were recorded around the same time, the follow up was influenced by the recent release of Sgt. Pepper and therefore the studio time was used to try and experiment with sounds. It was a success, only overshadowed by their debut which was still riding high in the charts.
The debut album is arguably the best debut album of all time. Regularly featuring in ‘best albums of all time’ charts, it’s as good as 1960’s Rock gets.
Keyboardist Ray Manzarek – “The first album is basically the Doors live, there are very few overdubs. It’s ‘The Doors: Live from the Whisky a Go Go’ … except in a recording studio.”
It has a bit of everything – blues, psychedelia, cabaret and jazz all fused together to produce what is a rock record.
The Doors (1967)
Best 3 songs – 1) The End 2) Light My Fire 3) Break On Thru
Worst – I Looked At You
Strange Days (1967)
Best 3 songs – 1) When The Music’s Over 2) People Are Strange 3) Love Me Two Times
Worst – Horse Latitudes
So that’s my very brief story on the Doors. I will have to do something more in detail at some point. Anyway I got three CD’s for £5.97 – a bargain. Couldn’t believe the price for these albums from one of the most influential bands of all time.