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

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."

The book was alright. I was expecting quite a bit more and hoped for a deeper insight into the goings on of the time. I did find the vocabulary that the writer used to very often be unnecessarily loquacious which repeatedly sent me scurrying off to my thesaurus.

Now I can go through my old Joni Mitchel albums and line up the songs with the back ground happenings in Laurel Canyon. The author is not as talented a writer as the people he writes about. He uses the biggest words he can find in the dictionary to say the simplest things. It reminds me of the long winded papers I wrote in grad school. Aside from that, it is an interesting read for the baby boom generation.

I thought the stories in this book were really good. I would definitely recommend it. The biggest issue I had was that it was hard to follow at certain times. In large part this is due to the fact that this is a compilation of different stories about the canyon. Since this is an audio book, (obviously) if you lose track of who is talking at any point, you can't easily look back and see the name of the narrator. It can make it hard to follow in certain instances...especially if you get side tracked in the middle of a story.

Being 20 yrs. old in 1967, I was a part of it all, but on the San Francisco side. I made a few visits to LA during that time, but never got to know the real scoop, of course, and this filled the gaps -- it was a fun, easy read. This is a sixties time capsule nugget.

a very enjoyable listen, for this baby boomer at least. It goes beyond pop culture to capture some of the social history of the time.