L.A. Woman

L.A. Woman is the sixth and last studio album that the American rock & roll band The Doors recorded with lead singer Jim Morrison, who died in July 1971. The album’s style is arguably the most blues rock -oriented of the band’s catalogue. Following the departure of their record producer Paul A. Rothchild (who dismissed the group’s differing style as “cocktail music”) around November 1970, the Doors and engineer Bruce Botnick 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. Session musicians Jerry Scheff and Marc Benno entered the studio in January 1971 to put some finishing touches. It is the only Jim Morrison-era studio album which The Doors did not follow up with a concert tour; Morrison had moved to Paris by the time it was released in May 1971 and died two months later on July 3, 1971.

Botnick produced and mixed a new 5.1 Surround version of the album, which was released on DVD-Audio, December 19, 2000. It was produced from the original 8 track analog 1” master tapes.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 362 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

A new version of the album, titled L.A. Woman (40th Anniversary Mixes) was released on March 27, 2007 on Rhino records. It contains two bonus tracks: “Orange County Suite” and the Willie Dixon-authored “(You Need Meat) Don’t Go No Further”. The latter track features Manzarek on vocals. The track “Orange County Suite” was not recorded with the other tracks on the album, the song is originally a Morrison solo vocal and piano recording with music later overdubbed by the surviving Doors.