2017 - September 19 - Riders On The Storm

I think I will stay in 1971 for a little bit. The Doors released their final album with Jim Morrison in April that year, only months before he died in Paris. The album was LA Woman, and both side A and side B of the LP ends with an extended song. Side A has the title track, which is a rollicking romp about the city of lights. However, for me, the true gem is the final track, Riders On The Storm. The driving bass riff played by Jerry Scheff (this is one of the time Ray Manzarek didn't play the bass on his keyboard), and laid back drumming by John Densmore with almost a jazz sensitivity holds the center of the mix and starts us off. Ray Manzarek's electric piano is placed to the left in the mix with cascading notes over the backdrop of a rainstorm. Jim Morrison performs one of his most haunted lyrics, placed centrally in the mix, with Robbie Krieger joining in the right channel just after Morrison starts singing - and his singing voice is double tracked with a whisper of the lyrics, creating a haunting effect. It is glued together better than the extreme left/right mixing The Beatles did at the same period - but much of the reason for that is that the keys and the guitar play similar figures when they are backing the vocals, while they help accentuate and augment one another as they solo. This is just about as jazz as The Doors ever got with Jim Morrison - and I absolutely love it!