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Mr. Mojo Risin’ – The Story of L.A. Woman is a documentary film about the Doors and their album L.A. Woman which was released on vinyl in April 1971.
This film was released on DVD in 2011 to mark and celebrate the 40-year anniversary of the album – the sixth studio album from the band and the last album on which all four members played together.
When the basic recording work was done, Jim Morrison (the singer) left for Paris, France, where he died in July 1971.
This film tells us how this album was recorded. Nine of the ten songs on the album are discussed - one by one - with interesting details and anecdotes about the music and/or the lyrics of the song.
The DVD has two sections: the main track (59 minutes) is divided into thirteen chapters, while the bonus material (45 minutes) is divided into six chapters.
The total running time is 104 minutes.
Several persons are interviewed: the three surviving members of the band – Ray Manzarek (keyboards), Robby Krieger (guitar), and John Densmore (drums) – plus nine other persons, who were close to the band and/or the musical scene at the time.
Here are the names in the order of appearance:
* Jim Ladd, KLOS Radio DJ
* Michael McClure, a poet and a friend
* Jac Holzman, founder of Elektra Records
* Ben Fong-Torres, a music journalist
* Bill Sidons, former manager of the Doors
* David Fricke, senior editor of Rolling Stone magazine
* Bruce Botnick, engineer on L.A. Woman
* Frank Lisciandro, a friend of Jim Morrison
* Paul A. Rothchild, producer of the first five albums recorded by the Doors
These persons are well-chosen; their comments are sharp and perceptive. Sometimes there is a touch of humour; at other times there is an element of sadness - because of Morrison’s death in Paris in 1971.
Clips of interviews are mixed with clips of songs from the album. This structure works well. The band and their album are placed in a historical context. Their music is seen and understood as a reflection of the time in which it was composed.
Mr. Mojo Risin’ is a line which appears in the title track, which is covered in chapter 8 of the main section. Where does it come from? The answer is given here: it is an anagram.
Morrison took the 11 letters which form his first name and his last name and tried to move them around: suddenly he had something he could use - Mr. Mojo Risin’ – which in turn became the title of this film about the album.
Hyacinth House is covered in chapter 12 of the main section. Ray Manzarek explains what happened when he had to do a piano solo for this song.
He realised that he could borrow a brief passage from the famous Polish composer and pianist Frederic Chopin (1810-1849) and he decided to place it in the middle of his solo.
Chapter 6 of the bonus material is the previously unreleased song She Smells So Nice. It is a good song, but it is easy to understand why it has not been released before.
The quality of the recording is rather poor, especially on the vocal side. From time to time there is something wrong with Morrison’s microphone.
Most of the songs recorded by the Doors are original compositions written by members of the band, but there are exceptions:
Track # 8 Crawling King Snake is written by John Lee Hooker.
Morrison often provided the words, while the other three members created some music to go with them.
The final product was the result of a collective effort, and most songs are credited to all four members, but there are exceptions:
Track # 2 Love Her Madly is credited to one person (Krieger), while track # 7 Hyacinth House is credited to two persons (Manzarek and Morrison).
In this film, the focus if often on Morrison. This is easy to understand: he is the only person who can no longer speak for himself, so the others will talk about him.
The character which emerges from this film has more than one side: he is clever poet and a good singer, when he has a good day; but he has another side: he has a tendency to self-destruction, when he has a bad day.
What the three surviving members of the band say about him here is something like this: we miss our friend, the clever poet and the good singer, but we do not miss his tendency to self-destruction.
Not everything presented in this film is new, but it is good to have the story of the Doors with special focus on this album, which is - according to many observers - one of the best from this band.
The four members of the band played together for about five years, from 1966 to 1970/71. Looking back, it seems like a short period, but it was a very intense time, and the products they created were exceptional.
Mr. Mojo Risin’ – The Story of L.A. Woman is an excellent documentary film which tells us how an outstanding album was created and recorded by a great band.
It is highly recommended.
REFERENCES
# 1. Film and video
Classic Albums – The Doors
(DVD, 2008)
When You’re Strange
(DVD, 2009)
Final 24 – Jim Morrison
(DVD, 2010)
# 2. Books
Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugarman,
No One Here gets Out Alive
(1991) (1997) (2011)
James Riordan and Jerry Prochnicky,
Break on Through:
The Life and Death of Jim Morrison
(1991)
John Densmore,
Riders on the Storm:
My Life with Jim Morrison and the Doors
(1990) (1991)
Ray Manzarek,
Light My Fire:
My Life with the Doors
(1999)
The Doors by the Doors with Ben Fong-Torres was released in 2006 to mark and celebrate the 40-year anniversary of the founding of the band.
*****
The Doors
L.A.Woman
The sixth and final studio album
released on vinyl in
1971
*****
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