To celebrate the 40th anniversary of its release, the classic album by The Doors – L.A. Woman is being re-released. As well as the original album, a bunch of extras have been unearthed from the vaults for inclusion in this 2 disc package. The original album contains some of the best known songs by the band including title track ”L.A. Woman”, ”Riders on the storm”, and ”Love her madly”.
If you have never listened to the album then firstly – where have you been for the last 40 years?, and secondly, you’ve been missing out.
L.A. Woman was the last album recorded by The Doors with singer Jim Morrison, and was released just three months before his death due to a suspected drug overdose in Paris at the age of just 27. On this album the band went back to their bluesy roots, and the result was their most blues-rock album, and one that is still regarded by many people as an all time classic album.
The songs on the main part of the album are so well known to all fans of the band that I wont go into them here. The main question here is this – if you already have the original album, is this version worth buying? Well lets take a look at whats included.
Firstly we have alternate versions of seven of the songs, and then we have two previously unreleased songs. The alternate versions are generally longer versions with some studio conversation included, and are only likely to be of serious interest to devoted fans, but even for casual fans they’re certainly interesting to listen to.
”She smells so nice” and ”Rock me” are both blues rock tracks that don’t really stand out – its easy to see why they weren’t included in the albums original release. Despite this, they are certainly something that many Doors fans will enjoy.
If you haven’t got a copy of the original album then this 40th anniversary edition is definitely worth buying. If you have the original then its really a question of how much of a fan you are, or how keen you are to hear different versions of some classic songs and a couple of ”new” songs.
Track listing (album):
1. The Changeling
2. Love her madly
3. Been down so long
4. Cars hiss by my window
5. L.A. Woman
6. L’America
7. Hyacinth house
8. Crawling king snake
9. The WASP (Texas radio and the big beat)
10. Riders on the storm
The outtakes:
1. The changeling (alternate version)
2. Love her madly (alternate version)
3. Cars hiss by my window (alternate version)
4. L.A. Woman (alternate version)
5. The Wasp (alternate version)
6. Been down so long (alternate version)
7. Riders on the storm (alternate version)
8. She smells so nice
9. Rock me
