L.A. Woman is the sixth studio album by The Doors, and the last
recorded with lead singer Jim Morrison, who died in July 1971, less than 3
months after the album’s release. Its style is arguably the most blues
rock-oriented of the band's catalog.
Following the departure of their record producer Paul A.
Rothchild (who, contrary to popular myth, loved "Riders on the Storm"
but dismissed the group's differing style on "Love Her Madly" as
"cocktail music") around November 1970, the band fell in to a state
of depression and Jim Morrison was obviously bored with Sunset Sound, the
studio in which their first two albums were recorded. Bruce Botnick, their
engineer, suggested they record at the Doors' workshop. He and the band began
production on the album at The Doors Workshop in Los Angeles. Most of the
tracks were recorded live, except for a few overdubbed keyboard parts by Ray
Manzarek. Morrison recorded his singing in the studio's bathroom to get a
fuller sound. Elvis Presley's bass player Jerry Scheff was brought in to play
bass on the album, and rhythm guitarist Marc Benno was brought in so that
Robbie Krieger could focus on playing lead guitar during live takes.
Botnick later produced and mixed a new 5.1 Surround version
of the album, which was released on DVD-Audio on December 19, 2000. It was
produced from the original eight-track analog 1" master tapes.
Early LP editions of the album were uniquely packaged: the
album's cover was die-cut to remove a near-rectangular piece of it, with a
sheet of transparent plastic on which the cover photo of the Doors was printed,
glued in place in its stead. Later pressings featured a conventional cover
without the die-cut hole and plastic window, and with the group photo printed
on the cover itself.
No comments:
Post a Comment