Laurel Canyon

The Inside Story of Life in L.A.'s Legendary Rock and Roll Neighborhood

By: Michael Walker

Narrated by: Lloyd James

Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

Laurel Canyon was the neighborhood perched above the clubs and record companies of Sunset Strip where Joni Mitchell, Jim Morrison, Graham Nash, Cass Elliot, Carole King, Don Henley, and Peter Tork, just to name a few, lived and collaborated to make an indelible mark on our music and our culture. This is the story of an important period in rock music, but also of the harsher results of the sixties, as hard drugs and easy sex began to take their toll and the gruesome Wonderland murders signaled the end of the era.

©2006 Michael Walker (P)2006 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Critic reviews

"Laurel Canyon is hilarious and true and bittersweet. Michael Walker catches the mood in the air, and gets it right....The interviews are wonderful....It's a beautifully written document of that time and place when the personalities were as big as those stony dreams that fueled some of the greatest masterpieces in rock." (Cameron Crowe)

Half of This Story Takes Place Outside the Canyon

Let's stipulate that if you're at all interested in this book, you're probably a fan of the musicians who made Laurel Canyon famous, or at least interested in pop-rock music history. If so, like me, you'll probably feel lukewarm about this take. If you're interested in cultural history, though, this will be much more to your liking, especially if you're looking for insight into the 1960s and 70s.

The book gets off to a great start. The first three chapters are about the Byrds, who catalyzed the folk rock scene that landed in Laurel Canyon during the 60s, Zappa, who briefly but spectacularly lit up the Canyon with experimental music and living, and Mama Cass Elliott, who nurtured the Canyon culture, most famously introducing Graham Nash to Steven Stills and David Crosby in Joni Mitchell's house. Zappa and Mama Cass typically get overlooked, but here they get full chapters.

But then the book leaves the Canyon, with entire chapters devoted to coke, groupies, rock festivals and Charlie Manson. Yes, all of these subjects intersected with Laurel Canyon, but not enough to merit this much attention. Clearly, once you get past the heyday of CSN and Joni and then the singer-songwriter wave that ensued (not adequately covered), there was too little of interest going on to fill up an entire book (the recent movie Echo in the Canyon likewise suffered disappointingly from a lack of material, devoting half its running time to contemporary artists putting on a tribute concert).

But the big issue is music vs. culture. Both were huge parts of the story, but the music gets shortchanged here, other than naming names (and addresses), while Canyon culture in its several incarnations is the focus. No doubt that is a result of Michael Walker (himself a longtime Laurel Canyon resident) getting more interviews with non-musical denizens of the Canyon than those directly involved in the music scene. On one hand, that's actually great (although the number of groupies liberally quoted is more that a little uncomfortable). But it comes at the expense of the raison d'etre of the book: the music.

The narration is surprisingly mediocre. At first I thought it must be the author reading his own work, that's how amateurish it sounds, with its stilted cadence that defies the printed punctuation and its mispronunciations galore. But Lloyd James is a pro with hundreds of audio titles to his credit! How does that happen? All in all, a lot of good things here, but in sum total, disappointing.

Captivating

A legendary cultural time is brought to life, warts and all. Highly recommended to anyone that is interested in this LA oasis of a coming of age for free living baby boomers. Events that permanently changed our society from a circumspect perspective to true liberty in terms of success and failure.

FASCINATING, BRILLIANTLY WRITTEN!!

I loved every second of this smartly written and cleverly conceived book.
Lloyd James made this book come alive!

Interesting book. Poor reader.

As a history of change during the cultural and counter-cultural heyday in Los Angeles, this book is a fascinating tale. Laurel Canyon becomes the stage on which events transpire as well as the abyss in which "the scene" evolves and devolves. Anyone interested in Los Angeles, rock and roll history, the sixties, drug culture, crime and mayhem, will indulge in this story. The only drawback -- and it is quite a major one -- is the reading, which is flat and lacks a sense of pacing. The fatal flaws are repeatedly misplaced pauses that break sentences into dissociated fragments. Nonetheless it is still a worthwhile and valuable "read."

Whimsically melancholy.

A charming recollection of a time that will never again repeat, but is brewing in a garage, a bar, and neighborhood near you. Stay tuned.

Fascibating!

I learned so much about a period in time that I lived through, but clearly had little idea of what was happening behind the scenes. It was fascinating to hear the back story behind so many songs I still listen to today!

Love it!

I have listened to this audiobook about 5x since I got it and I really enjoy it everytime.
It is a collection of first person accounts, interwoven with cultural points of interest, that show how this area was shaped. The narration is good, too.

Not Surprising

As a five-decade fan of Joni's I was pleased to receive this as a freebie from Audible. The author did a fine job describing the Laurel Canyon vibe, as well as adding lots of interesting details that created new back stories to the music I grew up with. As the Laurel Canyon story reeled to its inevitable end, I had the same feeling as when I read Kerouac's "On The Road" in my late twenties. That would be, no wonder the Sixties crashed and burned. A single life can not be sustained with hedonism as its foundation, say nothing of an entire culture. Incessant striving after the extremes of pleasure always seems to be subsumed to evil.

Very personal

I grew up in Hollywood, went to Hollywood High. I went to school with Vito’s wife. Spent many a night on the canyon. This book catches the good and bad of the place and time. However grateful I escaped

Intuitive and works, what more do I need?

Like I said it's Intuitive and works, what more do I need? Oh and it's fun too :)