If you are a fan of classic rock and have a streaming service that gets Epix, don’t miss “Laurel Canyon,” a 3 hour, two-part documentary on the tiny area in the hills of Los Angeles that was the epicenter of American rock music from 1965 to 1975. Starting with The Byrds in 1965 and culminating with The Eagles in 1975, nowhere else produced anywhere near the quality or quantity of rock music as that little slice of LA.
I remember driving to Laurel Canyon shortly after I moved to Los Angeles in 1975. Laurel Canyon Boulevard is the eastern-most of three arteries that wind from the “flats” of LA up through the hills to Mulholland Drive at the summit and then down to the San Fernando Valley in the north. In some places it is one lane in each direction; in others, it is two lanes. It is never straight. Lots of little streets intersect with it on its route, and then even smaller streets or cul de sacs sprout off of those. It was almost impossible to find your way around it back then unless you knew exactly where you were going. It was typical to have 20 or 30 mailboxes nailed to a fence where one of the “feeder” streets began. I guess the postal person couldn’t find the individual houses either.
All of the musicians lived on the southern side of Laurel Canyon, below Mulholland. At the bottom of the Canyon, on Sunset Boulevard, were the “Meccas” for young rockers back in those days, The Troubadour, which focused more on country/folk/ rock, Ciro’s and Whisky-A-Go-Go, where Buffalo Springfield and The Doors were the house bands. Frank Zappa was the first rock musician to live in Laurel Canyon. The Turtles followed him. The documentary doesn’t really focus on either. It starts pretty much with The Byrds, and also focuses on The Mamas and The Papas, Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, The Doors, Buffalo Springfield, Alice Cooper, The Monkees, Linda Ronstadt, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Little Feat, Bonnie Raitt, a banjo playing comedian named Steve Martin, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and many more (Harrison Ford, who was a carpenter before his acting success, built part of Monkee Peter Tork’s house). Culminating with some guys who were part of Linda Ronstadt’s back up band: Glenn Frey, Don Henley and Bernie Leadon and the bass player who lived around the corner and who their musician neighbors suggested they hire, Randy Meisner. There was also one other guy, not a musician, who lived there, and ultimately had a profound influence on the whole rock music culture: David Geffen. When the mainstream recording companies weren’t interested in signing Jackson Browne, one of the artists that Geffen and his partner really liked, he started his own record company to record him, which morphed over time into a giant multimedia business. (Imagine being a record company A&R executive, listening to a demo featuring “Doctor My Eyes” and saying “We’ll pass.” Yet, they all did.)
The Byrds’ producer, Terry Melcher, lived in the Hollywood Hills, below Laurel Canyon. He had angered a wanna-be musician and cult leader by the name of Charles Manson because he refused to produce his music. A couple of months later, Melcher sublet his house to Roman Polanski and his wife, Sharon Tate. You know the rest. That and Altamont changed Laurel Canyon. As David Crosby explained, nobody used to lock their doors. They were used to people walking in 24 hours a day. But, after the Manson murders, he bought a shotgun.
It’s a fascinating documentary, made better by real home videos and photographs contributed by many of the artists who lived in the community, and interviews with many of the musicians who reminisced about their lives there.
P.S. My first trip there was to meet Bill Payne, who was the keyboard player in Little Feat and became my first musician family law client. This was long before the days of cell phones and GPS. He told me to call him from the pay phone at the Canyon Store to let him know I was close, and then meet him at Laurel Canyon and Kirkwood Drive. From there, he hopped in my car and directed me to his house. Otherwise, I probably would still be looking for it.
I remember driving to Laurel Canyon shortly after I moved to Los Angeles in 1975. Laurel Canyon Boulevard is the eastern-most of three arteries that wind from the “flats” of LA up through the hills to Mulholland Drive at the summit and then down to the San Fernando Valley in the north. In some places it is one lane in each direction; in others, it is two lanes. It is never straight. Lots of little streets intersect with it on its route, and then even smaller streets or cul de sacs sprout off of those. It was almost impossible to find your way around it back then unless you knew exactly where you were going. It was typical to have 20 or 30 mailboxes nailed to a fence where one of the “feeder” streets began. I guess the postal person couldn’t find the individual houses either.
All of the musicians lived on the southern side of Laurel Canyon, below Mulholland. At the bottom of the Canyon, on Sunset Boulevard, were the “Meccas” for young rockers back in those days, The Troubadour, which focused more on country/folk/ rock, Ciro’s and Whisky-A-Go-Go, where Buffalo Springfield and The Doors were the house bands. Frank Zappa was the first rock musician to live in Laurel Canyon. The Turtles followed him. The documentary doesn’t really focus on either. It starts pretty much with The Byrds, and also focuses on The Mamas and The Papas, Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, The Doors, Buffalo Springfield, Alice Cooper, The Monkees, Linda Ronstadt, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Little Feat, Bonnie Raitt, a banjo playing comedian named Steve Martin, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and many more (Harrison Ford, who was a carpenter before his acting success, built part of Monkee Peter Tork’s house). Culminating with some guys who were part of Linda Ronstadt’s back up band: Glenn Frey, Don Henley and Bernie Leadon and the bass player who lived around the corner and who their musician neighbors suggested they hire, Randy Meisner. There was also one other guy, not a musician, who lived there, and ultimately had a profound influence on the whole rock music culture: David Geffen. When the mainstream recording companies weren’t interested in signing Jackson Browne, one of the artists that Geffen and his partner really liked, he started his own record company to record him, which morphed over time into a giant multimedia business. (Imagine being a record company A&R executive, listening to a demo featuring “Doctor My Eyes” and saying “We’ll pass.” Yet, they all did.)
The Byrds’ producer, Terry Melcher, lived in the Hollywood Hills, below Laurel Canyon. He had angered a wanna-be musician and cult leader by the name of Charles Manson because he refused to produce his music. A couple of months later, Melcher sublet his house to Roman Polanski and his wife, Sharon Tate. You know the rest. That and Altamont changed Laurel Canyon. As David Crosby explained, nobody used to lock their doors. They were used to people walking in 24 hours a day. But, after the Manson murders, he bought a shotgun.
It’s a fascinating documentary, made better by real home videos and photographs contributed by many of the artists who lived in the community, and interviews with many of the musicians who reminisced about their lives there.
P.S. My first trip there was to meet Bill Payne, who was the keyboard player in Little Feat and became my first musician family law client. This was long before the days of cell phones and GPS. He told me to call him from the pay phone at the Canyon Store to let him know I was close, and then meet him at Laurel Canyon and Kirkwood Drive. From there, he hopped in my car and directed me to his house. Otherwise, I probably would still be looking for it.
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