OK, I'll admit that I like this song disproportionately because I lived in LA when I was young, in my 20s and 30s...
That said, besides being tremendously evocative (in my experience, there is no place I've been like LA, if you are young and looking for romantic encounters). It was (and I hope it still is) a city for lovers, overlain by a certain decadence that only serves to spice up the whole mix.
It seemed like any exciting thing could happen...I have little doubt that Morrison saw it this way, too, based on his writing. I can see the young woman, in 20th Century Fox, walking past the boutiques on a sunny day on Rodeo Drive...
(For a really good idea of what it felt like to live there in the 70s/80s, Steely Dan's "Gaucho", and other of their albums of the period hit it pretty good, too. Aja really speaks to the West Hollywood/Beverly Hills/Westwood/Brentwood axis, for sure... )
I think that someone mentioned the paring of "city at night" and "city of light". The "City of Light" could well be a reference to Paris, known for a long time as "The City of Light". I realize that he moved there sometime in 70 or 71. I'm not sure how this aligns with the time the song was written and recorded. I think this could bear more analysis.
OK, I'll admit that I like this song disproportionately because I lived in LA when I was young, in my 20s and 30s...
That said, besides being tremendously evocative (in my experience, there is no place I've been like LA, if you are young and looking for romantic encounters). It was (and I hope it still is) a city for lovers, overlain by a certain decadence that only serves to spice up the whole mix.
It seemed like any exciting thing could happen...I have little doubt that Morrison saw it this way, too, based on his writing. I can see the young woman, in 20th Century Fox, walking past the boutiques on a sunny day on Rodeo Drive...
(For a really good idea of what it felt like to live there in the 70s/80s, Steely Dan's "Gaucho", and other of their albums of the period hit it pretty good, too. Aja really speaks to the West Hollywood/Beverly Hills/Westwood/Brentwood axis, for sure... )
I think that someone mentioned the paring of "city at night" and "city of light". The "City of Light" could well be a reference to Paris, known for a long time as "The City of Light". I realize that he moved there sometime in 70 or 71. I'm not sure how this aligns with the time the song was written and recorded. I think this could bear more analysis.