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L.A. Woman (song)
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Wikipedia article
"'L.A. Woman'" is a song by the American rock band the Doors. The song is the title track of their 1971 album 'L.A. Woman', the final album to feature Jim Morrison before his death on July 3, 1971.
'LA Weekly' named it on their list of "the 20 best songs about the city of Los Angeles".
In 1985, fourteen years after Morrison's death, Ray Manzarek directed, and Rick Schmidlin produced a music video for the song. It was aired on MTV and included in the Doors film 'Dance on Fire'.
Band guitarist Robby Krieger has numerous times cited "L.A. Woman" as the "quintessential Doors song". It was labelled the 40th best classic-rock song by the New York radio station Q104,3.
Lyrics
"L.A. Woman" has been viewed as Morrison's "final goodbye" to Los Angeles, before his transportation to Paris, France. The song's lyrics draw inspiration from John Rechy's transgressive novel 'City of Night', published in 1963, while its title is expressed as a metaphor, personifying L.A. (Los Angeles) as a woman. In author Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith's description, it is also used to describe the city's topography and atmosphere.
In the bridge, Morrison repeats the phrase "Mr. Mojo Risin'," which is an anagram of his name "Jim Morrison". Doors drummer John Densmore later explained the story of the line:
A yellow sheet of lined A4 paper with the lyrics of the track, handwritten by Morrison, was auctioned in Berkshire, UK for 13,000 on August 4, 2009.
Personnel
'The Doors'
*Jim Morrisonvocals
*Ray ManzarekWurlitzer piano, Fender Rhodes piano
*Robby Kriegerlead guitar
*John Densmoredrums
'Additional musicians'
*Jerry Scheffbass guitar
*Marc Bennorhythm guitar
Billy Idol version
English singer Billy Idol recorded a version of "L.A. Woman" for his fourth studio album 'Charmed Life' (1990). As the album's second single, Idol's version reached number 52 on the 'Billboard' Hot 100 in October 1990. The song's music video was directed by David Fincher and received heavy rotation on MTV.
The Doors and Jim Morrison were an influence on Idol during his early years in the music industry. In a 1990 interview with the Associated Press, Idol commented on his interpretation of the song in comparison to the Doors' original, "Jim Morrison was singing about America or L.A. as a microcosm of an America he was very jaded with, really, to the extent that he left it go to Europe, whereas I'm the other way around. I'm still having a bit of a love affair with America and so it's exciting to be the 'lost angel'."
Charts
References
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