THE DOORS’ “L’AMERICA”: AN AMERICAN EPIC SET TO MUSIC

 

A soundtrack for an innovative movie, made by a famous and respected director, was something The Doors still lacked in 1969.

In the fall of that year, the band had begun recording their fifth LP, "Morrison Hotel”.

At that time, Michelangelo Antonioni introduced himself to the band to hear a song that could possibly be part of the score for his next movie.

For "Zabriskie Point", Antonioni's film that would be released the following year, in 1970, The Doors composed an unusual-sounding rock song: "L’America”.

The famous director rejected The Doors' idea and turned to Pink Floyd and other artists instead. As a result, "L’America" remained unused, only to be included on the group's "L.A. Woman" LP a year later.

The structure of this song is built around the repetition of the simple and somber main riff, played by Robby Krieger's electric guitar (with fuzz distortion) and constantly picked up by the electric bass.

This combination drives the main part of the song, deliberately giving it an atmosphere charged with dark eeriness and mysterious tension.

To support this repeated guitar riff, achieved with low, solemn and grave notes, two sound elements are inserted.

The first is represented by another electric guitar line developed by Krieger in synergy with the main one and similar to it. It intervenes especially in the last part of "L’America", with the purpose of making the sound of the first guitar even more pervasive and broad.

The second element is Ray Manzarek's electric organ (here a Gibson G-101). Its sound is noticeably distorted to sketch a mysterious, dreamlike ambience that swings elusively beneath the guitar riff just described.

Verse and chorus (in the latter, Morrison insistently just repeats the song title) alternate in this somewhat original sound context, then they are interrupted by a colorful middle section (listen from min. 2:08 to min. 3:30).

This middle section takes up a third of the composition and consists of three phases.

First phase (min. 2.08 to min. 2.29): an unexpected leap into rock-blues made al the more exciting by Morrison's voice and musically led by Manzarek's electric organ (in this part played without any distortion).

Second phase (min. 2.30 to min. 2.53): a return to the eerie atmospheres that dominate the piece through a solo shared by electric organ and electric guitar, while the dark main riff comes back and remains in the background.

Third phase (min. 2.54 to min. 3.30): a nonchalant motif sung by Morrison, which is abruptly extinguished by some desolate and enigmatic verses which prepare the listener for the return of the somber main guitar theme and the last verse-chorus.

The musical passages that alternate throughout the song, together with the lyrics that are paired with each of them, outline an extreme synthesis of the Latin American epic.

From the arrival of the Europeans, ready to deceive the natives in order to obtain their gold, to the social changes that will lead to the definition of a new common identity between the original inhabitants and the colonizers.

In addition to other possible interpretations of the lyrics written by Jim Morrison, there is another point to be clarified about this The Doors’ composition.

The version of the tune we hear in "L.A. Woman" is almost certainly the one that was prepared for the movie "Zabriskie Point" in the second half of 1969, that is without being re-recorded for the “L.A. Woman” LP.

This rules out the possibility that the bass player was Jerry Scheff (session man on electric bass in "L.A. Woman") and suggests two other solutions.

The first involves Ray Neopolitan or Lonnie Mack, the two bassists who were in the studio for the "Morrison Hotel" sessions (the time when "L’America" was recorded).

However, L. Mack's only occasional presence in the recording studio and R. Neopolitan's noticeably different style tend to disprove this thesis.

The second solution features Robby Krieger himself on bass, who in the past had at times played this instrument in addition to his electric guitar in the recording studio.

The bass line, which, as mentioned at the beginning of this article, follows that of the electric guitar, makes it more likely that it was Krieger who played bass on "L’America".

Between the socio-historical hints and the predominantly dark arrangement, the song we have briefly analyzed is one of The Doors' least accessible creations.

This is mainly due to the original purpose for which the song was written: the soundtrack of a committed movie about the emerging social protest movement in the 1960s and 1970s in the USA.

In addition, the band's compositional vein found in this niche movie soundtrack setting a propitious opportunity to experiment with daring sound ingredients, less suited to the tastes of the general public.

P.S.: My book "The Doors Through Strange Days"- The most comprehensive journey ever made through The Doors' second LP, is out and available on Amazon.com!

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