The Doors' 1971 classic L.A. Woman turned 50 this year, and to celebrate, a big 50th anniversary deluxe reissue will come out on December 3 via Rhino (pre-order). The 3-CD/1-LP set was remastered by The Doors’ longtime engineer and mixer Bruce Botnick, and it includes over two hours of previously unreleased recordings, including demos, outtakes, covers, and more. It also features liner notes by Rolling Stone's David Fricke.
Along with the announcement comes the original demo of "Riders on the Storm," a rawer, loungier, bass-less take than the one you've heard on a million times on classic rock radio. Listen and check out the full tracklist below. Rolling Stone proves more context on the demo:
The original demo moves a little faster than the studio version, and keyboardist Ray Manzarek played piano bass (as opposed to bassist Jerry Scheff’s performance on the studio version), giving it a rougher, almost electronic feel. Although it features the same power as the L.A. Woman version, it didn’t move Rothchild. “Paul put his head in his hands and said, ‘This is cocktail jazz, I can’t do this anymore,'” engineer Bruce Botnick recalls. Rothchild, who had just come off of producing Pearl for Janis Joplin, backed out of L.A. Woman, and the band ended up co-producing the album with Botnick. “With Bruce and us producing, we had more control,” Densmore says. “It was a joy. It only took a few weeks to make.”
While overseeing the reissue, Botnick recently discovered the long-forgotten demo on what he called a hub, the aluminum center of a reel that the tapes wound around. That one take was all that was on the unlabeled hub. “We came upon that and went, ‘Oh, my God,'” the producer says. “And the funny thing is, when it got transferred, it got transferred backwards. So I had to flip it electronically, and when I heard it, I went, ‘Holy tamales, look what we’ve got.’ We had no idea there was even any aural record of the sessions.”
Read more here and pre-order a copy here.
Disc One: Original Stereo Mix Remastered
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”
Bonus Tracks
11. “Hyacinth House” – Demo
12. “Riders On The Storm” – Sunset Sound Version – Original Demo*
Disc Two: L.A. Woman Sessions, Part 1
1. “The Changeling” *
2. “Love Her Madly” *
3. “Riders On The Storm” *
4. “L.A. Woman” (Part 1) *
Disc Three: L.A. Woman Sessions, Part 2
1. “L.A. Woman” (Part 2) *
2. “She Smells So Nice” *
3. “Rock Me Baby” *
4. “Mr. Mojo Risin'” *
5. “Baby Please Don’t Go” *
6. “L.A. Woman” (Part 3) *
7. “Been Down So Long” *
8. “Get Out Of My Life Woman” *
9. “Crawling King Snake” *
10. “The Bastard Son Of Jimmy & Mama Reed (Cars Hiss By My Window)” *
11. “Been Down So Long” *
12. “Mystery Train” *
13. “The WASP (Texas Radio And The Big Beat)” *
