AUTHOR: CHRIS M. JUNIOR
PUBLISHED: 4 JUNE 2012
AVAILABLE: Goldmine
Through the years, Krieger would selectively and tastefully play slide on The Doors’ albums, including 1971’s “L.A. Woman,” the band’s last studio album with Morrison.
Rhino has released a belated 40th-anniversary edition of “L.A. Woman,” and, like past Doors reissues, this one comes with bonus material. There’s a second disc with previously unreleased alternate versions of “Love Her Madly,” “Riders on the Storm” and other songs from the original “L.A. Woman” album, plus two recordings recently discovered by engineer and co-producer Bruce Botnick: the original song “She Smells So Nice” and a cover of the Muddy Waters-penned “Rock Me.”
In conjunction with the two-disc reissue, Eagle Rock Entertainment released the documentary “Mr. Mojo Risin’: The Story of L.A. Woman” on DVD and Blu-ray.
With a busy 2012 ahead — including plans to tour Europe and Mexico with Manzarek — Krieger found time to reflect on the late 1970-early 1971 sessions that resulted in “L.A. Woman” and provide an update on his autobiography.
Goldmine: The blues surfaced from time to time throughout the history of The Doors, and it culminated with the “L.A. Woman” album. Growing up, what was your interest and exposure to the blues as a music fan and then as a guitarist?
Robby Krieger: Well, when I was a teenager, some of my buddies were into blues, and this is when I first started playing guitar. I really got into it quite heavily — Blind Willie McTell, Robert Johnson, a lot of slide players and guys like Blind Lemon Jefferson. I just loved all that stuff, and I continued to be enamored with it in The Doors.
