Last Friday night, while I was waiting to go on air with Emile Donovan on RNZ Nights, he played a little bit of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s “Our House” and mentioned that it was written by Graeme Nash for his girlfriend at the time, Joni Mitchell.
I wanted to jump in and recommend that anyone interested in the cultural scene of that period should watch Allison Ellwood’s two-part documentary about it, Laurel Canyon, but by the time I got to go on air the moment had passed.
It’s a brilliant documentary and I reviewed it for the RNZ website when it came out — five years ago this week, in fact.
Somehow, I have always had the idea that Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles was kind of remote and semi-rural. I imagined it much like the Spahn Ranch in Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time In Hollywood, a long drive from the lights of the city and a place where someone could get up to hijinks (or write beautiful songs) uninterrupted by anything but birdsong. (Update: Turns out Spahn Ranch is only about an hour from Hollywood itself.)
I was half right – the communities of Laurel Canyon are tucked away and often out of sight – but until I saw Allison Ellwood’s Emmy-nominated two-part documentary Laurel Canyon I had no idea it was so close to those iconic LA locations like Sunset Boulevard and Hollywood Boulevard (on the Hollywood side) and Studio City and Universal Studios on the Valley side. Location, location, location, they say and for young musicians in the late 60s, new in town, a Laurel Canyon cottage was only a 15-minute drive to the famous Troubador in West Hollywood where they might be discovered – like Linda Ronstadt or Jackson Browne before them.
…
With so many bands and artists to feature – at some point Joni Mitchell, Frank Zappa, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, the musicians who became the Eagles, The Monkees, Love and James Taylor all had pads in the hills of Laurel Canyon – it is amazing how clearly told the stories are.
Something that I don’t mention in the review, but the film makes clear, is that the heart and soul of that Laurel Canyon scene — the person who kept people connected and found people places to stay when they arrived in town — was Mama Cass.
Editor’s note
Next week we celebrate 500 editions of this newsletter. Blimey!
A milestone like that is always an excuse to try and secure more readers and — hopefully — more paid subs. Every time I get a notification from Stripe that there’s some bread about to land in my jar, my heart sings.
We’ll be offering some incentives — physical media giveaways, perhaps? — and some special offers.
If you were thinking about bringing some more readers here1, now is the time as there will be prizes for the most referrals.
Aotearoa & Australia: Streaming on DocPlay
Canada: Streaming on MGM Amazon Channel
Ireland: Not currently available online
India: Not currently available online
USA: Streaming on Fubo or MGM+
UK: Digital rental
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You need someone in your life like the character played by Christoph Waltz in the movie Big Eyes by Tim Burton. lol He is a master of self-promotion. Based on a true story. Although it all came crashing down in the end.