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Sto caricando le informazioni... Laurel Canyon: The Inside Story of Rock-and-Roll's Legendary Neighborhood (2006)di Michael Walker
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Iscriviti per consentire a LibraryThing di scoprire se ti piacerà questo libro. Attualmente non vi sono conversazioni su questo libro. An interesting and nostalgic look at the residents of Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles in the 1970’s – Joni Mitchell, Jim Morrison, Graham Nash, Cass Elliott, Carole King, Don Henley, and David Crosby - as music turned away from the Brill Building in New York City to the performer/composer in California. Full of inside tidbits and inside stories. A fun read. This snapshot of Laurel Canyon, by veteran journalist Michael Walker, focuses on the 60's and 70's and provides many rock and roll tidbits, in addition to an indepth exploration of this canyon neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Its strength is in the lively history of bands, musicians, groupies, managers, record company employees, music venues. His extensive research upholds the view that the time frame and bohemian occupants were critical in forever changing the way popular music was recorded and marketed. "Laurel Canyon found itself a nexus of counterculture activity and attitudes in the 1960s" and "Walker focuses on the scene through numerous lenses." Walker's compilation is wistful is part, but also bittersweet. Darkness did descend on the canyon....first drugs (pot to cocaine), then the Manson family murder spree. Anxiety and apprehension infiltrated the canyon. Cocaine would weave itself into the fabric of the canyon as both a symptom and cause of an era's end. In 1979, fire destroyed 23 canyon homes. 1981 brought the "Wonderland Massacre". You'll find Walker's work encompasses pre and post 60's -70's. I've simply highlighted my particular area of interest. You'll find a well researched book that I heartily recommend. 4★ nessuna recensione | aggiungi una recensione
In the late sixties and early seventies, an impromptu collection of musicians colonized a eucalyptus-scented canyon deep in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles and melded folk, rock, and savvy American pop into a sound that conquered the world as thoroughly as the songs of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones had before them. During the canyon's golden era, the musicians who lived and worked there scored dozens of landmark hits, selling tens of millions of records and resetting the thermostat of pop culture. Here, journalist Walker tells the story of this unprecedented gathering of some of the baby boom's leading musical lights--including Joni Mitchell; Jim Morrison; Crosby, Stills, and Nash; John Mayall; the Mamas and the Papas; Carole King; the Eagles; and Frank Zappa --who turned Los Angeles into the music capital of the world and forever changed the way popular music is recorded, marketed, and consumed.--From publisher description. Non sono state trovate descrizioni di biblioteche |
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Google Books — Sto caricando le informazioni... GeneriSistema Decimale Melvil (DDC)781.66The arts Music General principles and musical forms Traditions of music Rock {equally instrumental and vocal}Classificazione LCVotoMedia:
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During the 1960s a group of people who would later become household names, made their home in Laurel Canyon. The neighborhood then became legendary- but is mostly mythologized. It had a reputation for having a commonality, a peace and love, 'my door is always open' atmosphere.
Until...
The Manson family murders, that is.
Suddenly, all those open doors were slammed shut and locked up tight. The murders, along with the disastrous Altamont concert are often blamed for killing the mood in the late sixties, but as we look back, all that ‘brotherhood’ stuff was mostly an illusion to begin with.
As these musicians began to reap financial rewards, cocaine became a status symbol, without the accusation of having commercially sold out. Once the drug took over it was truly the end of an era.
This scene fizzled out eventually, as these things often do, when times and taste change- as well as the darker side of the lifestyle takes over, and goes too far, causing people to wake up - or in many cases, finally grow-up.
Still, Laurel Canyon, for many, remains romanticized and nobody dares to dispute that. It has its place in pop culture history, much the same as Haight-Ashbury, during the 1960s.
As to this book, though, it starts out strong, but continues far, far too long. The author moved out of Laurel Canyon before the halfway mark, it seems, and proceeded to explain how rock became bloated, how punk popped that bubble, and how all those early sixties artists had moved out, the famous landmarks closed, and cocaine, murders, and decadence burned it out, sometimes literally, leaving only idealistic, nostalgic memories in its wake.
Towards the end of the book, I was skimming over the material, because I’d either heard it before, or found it boring, or the author quoted people I’d never even heard of, didn't care about, or had nothing to do with Laurel Canyon, really- and because it had moved past the decades I had wanted to read about in the first place.
Eventually, the author returns to the Canyon to close the book with another infamous mass murder that killed any semblance of innocence that might have remained.
Most of this stuff can be found if one is willing to do the research, read a few biographies, or comb through the interviews given during this time. But, I'm not sure I'd ever much care about long forgotten rock groupies and most of the history presented here is not news to me, so ultimately, the book became a snooze-fest.
2 stars ( )