My #20 all-time favorite album is L.A. WOMAN by The Doors, their sixth and final album, which was released in 1971 around the time of the tragically premature death of their 27-year old lyricist and singer Jim Morrison. Although Morrison captured the public spotlight with his often-drunken antics and provocative comments, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger and drummer John Densmore were to me the musical foundation of the band. Why they quickly withered from the public eye after Morrison's demise will always be a mystery to me: look at what Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl was able to do with the Foo Fighters after Kurt Cobain's death. After all, it was Krieger who composed their biggest singles hits, Light My Fire and Touch Me. Like other kids growing up in the 60s and early 70s, I got to know the Doors mainly through their singles releases...and they were mostly very good, the ones just mentioned being among my favorites of theirs. I didn't get around to listening to their full albums until the mid-nineties, though, when I was in my late thirties. Although I liked them all, I believed that L.A. Woman represented a new, higher level that the band had reached. Three of the tracks, Been Down So Long, Cars Hiss by My Window, and Crawling King Snake are pure blues...sung convincingly by Morrison and likewise accompanied by the other three although I admit that it isn't exactly my preferred musical genre. For the rest of the album, it's a mixture of mood rock, romance, cynicism and high testosterone. The following is my rating of the album's songs...
1 The WASP (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)...I first heard this quirky masterpiece, largely spoken, decades after its release, very mystical in a matter-of-fact way...now an all-time favorite...
2 Love Her Madly...my favorite Doors song for decades after its singles release in early 1971...
3 The Changeling...brash and confident, perfect opening track, striding right out there...
4 L.A. Woman...album rock radio staple epic, Mister Mojo risin' the unforgettable line...
5 Riders on the Storm...dreamy classic with amazing keyboards by Manzarek, reminds me of their first album's epic The End...
6 L'America...blunt and brutal about the good ol' USA, has a dystopian feel to it...
7 Been Down So Long...powerful blues track, one of the best with Krieger strong on guitar...
8 Hyacinth House...sad and cynical about friendship and regret...
9 Cars Hiss by My Window...subdued, lazy blues, yaw-w-w-n...
10 Crawling King Snake...overly long: two blues tracks on an album are enough for me...
So that's my #20 album...#19 is next week...
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