The best song by The Doors, according to Robby Krieger: “We just started jamming”
The only person who can talk about an artist’s output with any real authority is the artist themselves. For the rest of us, all we can really do is theorise with a mix of historical context, found facts and personal opinions. But for the people involved, they have all the information: the how, what, when, who, where and, maybe more importantly, the why. They have all the context, the emotional connection and the factual understanding. So when an artist picks out their own favourite track from their back catalogue, that’s an opinion to take seriously. When it comes to the best of The Doors, Robby Krieger’s choice means something.
Sure, it could be argued that they’re too close to it to be objective about what is the best. But absolutely nothing about music or art is objective. Everything is subject to opinion, which is made up of a constellation of little personal factors like how someone is feeling at the time, where they are both literally and mentally, how art is first presented to them, and even who they’re with. No art can ever be judged rigidly about what is bad and what is best; there always has to be space for feeling to be involved. But still, Krieger’s opinion is probably as close to objective as someone could get.
As The Doors’ guitarist, he was also one of their principal songwriters. In the group, he was the closest to Jim Morrison as they would work together on tracks a lot, allowing him an insider view into his mind that few others got, as well as having the best understanding of the actual build and craft of a Doors song. He holds the keys, knowing how the lyrics would appear, how Morrison might figure them out, how his guitar would fit on top and then how the rest of the band and the other details would be brought in. Having played an essential role in the making of every single song from the band, he’s a pretty good authority to talk about the good, the bad, the great and this track that he sees as the best. Or, at least, the one he thought was the best that week when he first spoke to Vulture in 2021.
“There are so many good ones, but lately, my favourite is ‘L.A. Woman’ because of the way we recorded it,” he said. It’s a perfect example of how subjective context always plays a part in opinion, as his love and respect for this track are inseparable from his good memories of making it.
“We just started jamming, and the song came together. With most of our songs, either Jim would write it, or I would write it, or Jim and I would write it together. But this time, it was more of a jam,” he said, recalling a different type of songwriting session for the group. In this instance, it was a wider collaboration between all four members as well as some additional players that Krieger loved working with. “We had these great session players for the L.A. Woman album — Jerry Scheff on bass and Marc Benno on rhythm guitar,” he recalled, praising the energy they brought into the room, too.
Especially on Krieger’s end, ‘L.A Woman’ is an electrifying song, held down by some more funky guitar details from him and spotlighting solo moments. It’s a joyful one in their discography, letting the band really come to life as it seems to capture the experience they were all having in the studio working on it. “It’s just really fun to play that song,” Krieger said, with that fact definitely colouring his opinion.
But, this opinion changes. Krieger could provide a whole playlist of songs he considers to be the best of their best. “Of course ‘Light My Fire’ is one and still is, because that was the first song I ever wrote,” he said as another major standout that needs to be noted as their first yet still one of their finest moments.
