‘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. In 2014, LA Weekly named it the all-time best song written about the city of Los Angeles. Keyboardist Ray Manzarek explained the song's meaning to Uncut magazine September 2011: "A song about driving madly down the LA freeway - either heading into LA or going out on the 405 up to San Francisco. You're a beatnik on the road, like Kerouac and Neal Cassady, barrelling down the freeway as fast as you can go."
Morrison recorded his vocals in the studio bathroom to get a fuller sound. He spent a lot of time in there anyway because of all the beer he drank during the sessions. 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. 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.
The first line, "Well, I did a little down about an hour ago," is a reference to a barbituate, specifically Rorer 714. Doors drummer John Densmore said in the The Story of L.A. Woman documentary: "The metaphor for the city as a woman is brilliant: cops in cars, never saw a woman so alone - great stuff. It's metaphoric, the physicality of the town and thinking of her and how we need to take care of her, it's my hometown."
‘L.A. Woman’ has been viewed as Morrison's "final goodbye" to Los Angeles, before his move 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: “After we recorded the song, he wrote "Mr. Mojo Rising" on a board and said, "Look at this." He moves the letters around and it was an anagram for his name. I knew that mojo was a sexual term from the blues, and that gave me the idea to go slow and dark with the tempo. It also gave me the idea to slowly speed it up like an orgasm.” They put this together in the studio and recorded it live with no overdubs. It came together surprisingly well. Guitarist Robby Krieger has called it "the quintessential Doors song."
The Doors performed this live only once, in Dallas at the State Fair Music Hall on December 11, 1970. The only live recording of this is on the bootleg If It Ain't One Thing, It's Another. The band wanted to bring more musicians along to simulate the studio sound, but Morrison died before they could launch the tour.
Label – Elektra
Songwriters – The Doors
Producers – The Doors, Bruce Botnick
SONG LYRICS
[Verse: Jim Morrison]Well, I just got into town about an hour ago
Took a look around, see which way the wind blow
Where the little girls in their Hollywood bungalows
Are you a lucky little lady in the City of Light?
Or just another lost angel?
City of Night, City of Night
City of Night, City of Night
L.A. woman, L.A. woman
L.A. woman, Sunday afternoon
L.A. woman, Sunday afternoon
L.A. woman, Sunday afternoon
Drive through your suburbs
Into your blues, into your blues, yeah
Into your blues, into your blues!
I see your hair is burning
Hills are filled with fire
If they say I never loved you
You know they are a liar
Driving down your freeways
Midnight alleys roam
Cops in cars, the topless bars
Never saw a woman so alone
So alone, so alone, so alone
Motel money murder-madness
Let's change the mood from glad to sadness
[Outro]
Mr. Mojo Risin', Mr. Mojo Risin'
Mr. Mojo Risin', Mr. Mojo Risin'
Got to keep on risin'
Mr. Mojo Risin', Mr. Mojo Risin'
Mojo Risin', gotta Mojo Risin'
Mr. Mojo Risin', gotta keep on risin'
Risin', risin'
Gone risin', risin'
I'm gone risin', risin'
I gotta risin', risin'
Well, risin', risin'
I gotta, wooo, yeah, risin'
Whoa, oh yeah
Well, I just got into town about an hour ago
Took a look around, see which way the wind blow
Where the little girls in their Hollywood bungalows
Are you a lucky little lady in The City of Lights?
Or just another lost angel?
City of Night, City of Night
City of Night, City of Night, whoa, c'mon
L.A. Woman, L.A. Woman
L.A. Woman, you're my woman
Little L.A. Woman, Little L.A. Woman
L.A. L.A. Woman Woman
L.A. Woman c'mon