The Doors - L.A. Woman Sessions (1971)

This album features seven alternative versions of songs from the Doors' 1971 album 'LA Woman', plus a never-before-heard song 'She Smells So Nice', which captures the band joyfully barreling through a full-throttle original before segueing into the blues standard 'Rock Me'. As the song closes, Jim Morrison can be heard chanting 'Mr. Mojo Risin' (an anagram of his name that was made famous during the bridge of 'L.A. Woman'). The track was recently discovered by producer Bruce Botnick while reviewing the L.A. Woman session tapes. Dave Horn reviewed it on Amazon, and it's worth hearing his view on it:
This one isn't just another reissue of the well known album but also one for the discerning Doors fans and collectors, featuring as it does different versions of 7 of the 10 tunes plus the unissued 'She Smells So Nice'/'Rock me Baby', all recorded in The Doors Workshop at the time of the 'LA Woman' sessions. The quality of the alternative versions is, as one would expect, excellent of course and I'm surprised that they have never appeared before. Enough has been said about the original album so I'll concentrate here on the alternative versions. I haven't actually compared any of them to the originals, merely listened to the unreleased ones and said what comes to mind, but I can say with certainty that most of the alternate versions are less polished than those used on the album and, indeed, sound at times like demos rather than alternate takes or versions. 'The Changeling', which Jim tells the band is his favourite number, is longer at nearly 5 minutes and powers along at around the same speed as the album version but with a different keyboard riff. It is, perhaps, more powerful and certainly bluesier with more raucous lead guitar. 'Love Her Madly' features a lazier Morrison vocal with different lyrics and a totally different keyboard section in the middle. 'Been Down So Long' is probably the least different alternative, much the same as the album version apart from being a bit rougher and longer. 
The slow, dirty, blues of 'Cars Hiss By My Window' seems to feature somewhat more prominent guitar than the LP version and is 30 seconds longer. 'LA Woman' meanwhile features different lead guitar riffs and a weird bit of extra vocalising brings it to a sudden end at 8.45. 'The WASP (Texas Radio And The Big Beat)' features different lyrics and is 1.20 longer than the album version but this comprises a cacophony of jazzy guitar and drums with no discernible tune. Clocking in at 2 minutes longer than the original, 'Riders on the Storm' could have been the jewel in the crown here, were it not for the fact that the extra time is occupied by a throw away Morrison ditty, false start and chat occupying the first 2 minutes plus a somewhat flat Morrison vocal, especially evident at the start of the tune proper. Finally, music-wise, you get the addition of an actual unreleased song 'She Smells So Nice', which morphs into 'Rock Me', but both are pretty much filler and it`s no wonder they were not used on the 'LA Woman' album proper. One further song is reputed to have been recorded at these sessions, but 'Paris Blues' is only known to exist on a cassette tape that was originally in Ray Manzarek's possession, but somehow, over time, the cassette was inadvertently recorded over in parts by his son Pablo. Efforts are apparently being made to repair/restore it, with a view to adding it to a future box set, but as there isn't even a copy of the damaged tape online, we'll just have to bide our time and wait to hear it. I usually edit out the studio chatter on albums like this, but as it's The Doors I thought that I'd leave it in, although I have also included an edited version in case you only want to hear the chatter the once.

Track listing

01 The Changling
02 Love Her Madly
03 Cars Hiss By My Window
04 LA Woman
05 The WASP (Texas Radio And The Big Beat)
06 Been Down So Long
07 Riders On The Storm
08 She Smells So Nice >
09 Rock Me