"The Changeling" opens The Doors' sixth and final studio album, L.A. Woman, recorded in 1971. The track establishes the album's return to the band's blues-rock roots, driven by a hard-charging groove in B-flat at a brisk 119 BPM. Written collectively by The Doors, the song features Jim Morrison's sardonic vocal delivery exploring themes of personal transformation and reinvention, with lyrics that shift between self-deprecating humor and existential defiance. Robby Krieger delivers a fiery electric guitar solo that captures the raw, stripped-down energy producer Bruce Botnick and the band sought by recording in their rehearsal space rather than a conventional studio. The decision to set up in their workshop at 8512 Santa Monica Boulevard, with recording equipment brought in by Botnick and engineer Bruce Botnick, gave the sessions an informal, loose feel that permeates the entire album. Session bassist Jerry Scheff, borrowed from Elvis Presley's TCB Band, and rhythm guitarist Marc Benno contributed to the fuller sound, while John Densmore's drumming locks in with the driving rock feel. "The Changeling" was released as a single and represents one of Morrison's last studio recordings before his death in Paris on July 3, 1971, just months after the album's release.
