With Morrison Hotel, the Doors regained their groove. It didn't matter that it hadn't generated a hit single. They dug the blues, and they were up for more. Unfortunately, producer Paul Rothchild wasn't. Tired of having to pull songs out of Morrison, and bored by what he heard at rehearsals (he derided one new song as "cocktail lounge music"), he quit. The band regrouped around engineer Bruce Botnick, who took on a co-producer role with the musicians and suggested that they make the album in the cozy confines of their own rehearsal studio.

The Doors agreed, and, suddenly a garage band again, without adult supervision, relaxed into one of their best efforts, including the "cocktail lounge" song, "Riders on the Storm," a Robby Krieger tune, "Love Her Madly," that sounded like the early Doors, and "L.A. Woman," Morrison's paean to a city, a woman, or, most likely, both. There's also an ode to border radio ("The WASP [Texas Radio and the Big Beat]") and to John Lee Hooker ("Crawling King Snake"). And, on the eve of his departure for Paris, he offered a last laugh in "L'America:" "You know the rain man's comin' ta town/ Change the weather, change your… read more »