The Doors‘ final studio album, L.A. Woman is getting the reissue treatment in celebration of its 50th anniversary. Rhino will release L.A. Woman: 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition as a 3CD/1LP set on December 3 featuring a slew of previously unissued material including the preview track: the original “Riders On The Storm” demo.
L.A. Woman was The Doors’ sixth album and final to feature the original lineup of Jim Morrison, John Densmore, Robby Krieger and Ray Manzarek. The four members recorded the LP over the course of six days at their Workshop rehearsal space on Santa Monica Boulevard in November 1970. Guitarist Marc Benno (Leon Russell) and bassist Jerry Scheff (Elvis Presley) also worked with the quartet.
Paul A. Rothchild was originally tapped to produce the album and recorded the original “Riders On The Storm” demo, but left the project after telling the band he thought the song was “cocktail music.” Instead, The Doors co-produced L.A. Woman was longtime engineer and mixer Bruce Botnick.
Botnick remastered the LP for L.A. Woman: 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition, which includes two bonus discs chock full of unreleased studio outtakes and will arrive on digital services as well on December 3. “The previously unreleased reels here – serial takes of ‘The Changeling,’ ‘Love Her Madly,’ ‘Riders On The Storm,’ and ‘L.A. Woman’ – depict a band obsessed with groove while executing turns and flourishes with the precision of a well-drilled soul combo…The idea was to go from song to song, to let it flow,” Botnick said in a press release.
Outtakes include covers of blues tunes such as Big Joe Williams’ “Baby Please Don’t Go,” John Lee Hooker’s “Crawling King Snake,” the Allen Toussaint-penned “Get Out Of My Life Woman” and Junior Parker’s “Mystery Train.” David Fricke wrote extensive liner notes for the set.
Check out The Doors’ “Riders On The Storm” demo below:
L.A. Woman: 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition Tracklist
CD Track Listing
Disc One: Original Stereo Mix Remastered
- The Changeling
- Love Her Madly
- Been Down So Long
- Cars Hiss By My Window
- L.A. Woman
- L’America
- Hyacinth House
- Crawling King Snake
- The WASP (Texas Radio And The Big Beat)
- Riders On The Storm
- Hyacinth House – Demo
- Riders On The Storm – Sunset Sound Version – Original Demo
Bonus Tracks
Disc Two: L.A. Woman Sessions, Part 1
- The Changeling
- Love Her Madly
- Riders On The Storm
- L.A. Woman (Part 1)
Disc Three: L.A. Woman Sessions, Part 2
- L.A. Woman” (Part 2)
- She Smells So Nice
- Rock Me Baby
- Mr. Mojo Risin’
- Baby Please Don’t Go
- L.A. Woman” (Part 3)
- Been Down So Long
- Get Out Of My Life Woman
- Crawling King Snake
- The Bastard Son Of Jimmy & Mama Reed (Cars Hiss By My Window)
- Been Down So Long
- Mystery Train
- The WASP (Texas Radio And The Big Beat)
