Laurel Canyon Docuseries

Another Epix offering. A docuseries beginning Sunday, May 31.

Laurel Canyon

'Laurel Canyon': Mamas and the Papas singer on the 'very big highs and lows' of '60s music scene
Patrick Ryan
USA TODAY/ May 29 2020

Original Article

Imagine living right down the street from Joni Mitchell, The Byrds and Modern Folk Quartet.

Those were just a few of Michelle Phillips' famous neighbors in Los Angeles' Laurel Canyon in the late 1960s and early '70s, where she co-founded folk group The Mamas and the Papas with then-husband John Phillips, Denny Doherty and Cass Elliot.

"Cass had an open-door policy – anybody could swing by her place any time," Phillips says. "They'd smoke a joint, drink some wine and play their guitars. That's how she got Crosby, Stills & Nash together: She heard them all singing (separately) and said, 'You guys should sing together.' And that's how that happened."

The Mamas and the Papas members Michelle Phillips, left, and Cass Elliot, in a still from Epix documentary "Laurel Canyon."
The musical renaissance that sprung out of this idyllic mountainside neighborhood is the subject of two-part docuseries "Laurel Canyon," premiering on Epix Sunday (9 EDT/PDT) and concluding June 7. The documentary paints an intimate portrait of the friendships, love affairs, collaborations – and sometimes all three – that defined this place and time.

More:'David Crosby: Remember My Name' reveals a musician trapped in his own kind of hell

Graham Nash, for instance, wrote the wistful "Our House" at Mitchell's Laurel Canyon home, which the then-couple shared. The Doors were the house band at nearby nightclub Whiskey A Go Go before they hit big, and Peter Tork was roommates with Stephen Stills pre-The Monkees fame. (In fact, it was Stills who helped get him the gig.)

"What was so unique about Laurel Canyon at that time was just how many of the artists who were there became really influential musicians – it's the music of our lives even still to this day," director Alison Ellwood says. "It was a really fun process of discovery, finding the myriad ways these artists connected and interacted with each other."

Joni Mitchell, left, and Graham Nash, who dated from 1968 to 1970.

The docuseries features a slew of new interviews with artists who called the community home, including Jackson Browne, Don Henley, Linda Ronstadt and Bonnie Raitt. It also features never-before-seen images from photographers Henry Diltz and Nurit Wilde, and home footage and recordings from some musicians' personal archives.

Phillips, now the last-living member of The Mamas and the Papas, is featured prominently throughout the documentary. She recalls the night John woke her up to write the band's now-signature hit "California Dreamin'," which came to him in his sleep. She also gets candid about their tumultuous relationship, when he temporarily kicked her out of the group shortly after they separated, upon learning she was dating The Byrds' Gene Clark.

"It was a really fun time, but all very dramatic, with very big highs and lows," says Phillips, 75, who transitioned into acting in the early '70s.





She prefers not to discuss Charles Manson, an aspiring rocker-turned-cult leader who attended at least one party at Elliot's house before orchestrating the murders of actress Sharon Tate and six others in 1969. ("Even after all this time, it just makes me want to cry," Phillips says.) The singer gets similarly emotional talking about Elliot, fondly known as "Mama Cass," who died of heart failure in 1974 at just 32.

"It was a huge loss for everybody," Phillips says. "She had such a stage presence. So funny and quick on her feet. She always had the audience in the palm of her hand."

Joni Mitchell, left, and Cass Elliot. Mitchell's 1970 album "Ladies of the Canyon" was inspired by Laurel Canyon, a music mecca in the Hollywood Hills during the late '60s and '70s.

The Mamas and the Papas were together for only 2½ years, but left an indelible mark on folk music in a short amount of time. In addition to "California Dreamin'," which has been streamed nearly 240 million times on Spotify, they scored Top 5 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart including "Monday, Monday," "Creeque Alley" and "Dedicated to the One I Love." And in 1998, the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

"I would never have become a singer if it hadn't been for John," Phillips says. "Really, all I wanted to do was dress up in a cute cocktail dress, put my hair up, drink a Brandy Alexander, have a Marlboro, and be the bandleader's girlfriend. That's what I thought I had in front of me."

MansonBlog Tour 2019: Laurel Canyon

MansonBlog did daylong bus tour (more on that in a later post, and no it wasn't black). We started in Laurel Canyon. First stop was the Canyon Country Store.

At the intersection of Kirkwood Drive and Laurel Canyon Blvd. a small inn called the Bungalow Lodge opened in the early 1900s (there's conflicting information on the exact date), catering primarily to hunters. The Lodge served as the burg's "downtown" and brought Laurel Canyon denizens together through nightly picnics, but the wood building went up in flames in 1929. Reconstruction using brick and stones (from the original river that flowed where Laurel Canyon Blvd. is now) began later that year, and the spot was re-fashioned as a local market. Thus, the Canyon Country Store was born.

The tiny market and deli was a hit, and it also lent itself to the gatherings of artists and musicians. At the height of the counterculture movement of the 1960s, Laurel Canyon became southern California's answer to Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco. But instead of psychedelic-focused performers like Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead, the canyon became a secluded haven for the more bohemian performers. Laurel Canyon musicians of the era included Neil Young, Carole King, J.D. Souther, Leon Russell, Chris Hillman, Alice Cooper, Stephen Stills, John Mayall, Nico, Leonard Cohen, Judy Collins, Peter Tork, Pamela Des Barres and her band Girls Together Outrageously, John and Michelle Phillips, Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Jimmy Webb, and members of The Animals, and The Turtles. The story that Cass Elliot once lived under the store is urban legend. As all Manson scholars know, Catherine Gillies joined the Manson family sometime in 1968 after she had been following Laurel Canyon based Buffalo Springfield around.

Buffalo Springfield during their Laurel Canyon days

Joaquin Phoenix hiding from my menacing camera. He did a sort of casual twisting go go dance to hide his face. Can’t really blame him he looked like he just rolled out of bed. He had socks on but no shoes.

The Jim Morrison house is located behind the store at 8021 Rothdell Trail. When Morrison and his longtime partner Pamela Courson moved into the home catty-corner to the store in the early 1960s, the building's patio became the backdrop to impromptu jam sessions with neighbors Frank Zappa and Joni Mitchell - as well as Morrison and Courson's legendary fights. It became so dear to Morrison that he immortalized it in The Doors’s song, "Love Street" as the "store where the creatures meet."

After the Canyon Country Store we headed further up the canyon:

This house located at 2774 Woodstock Rd. is the one once rented by Voytek Frykowski and Gibbie Folger.

Frank Zappa's house at 7885 Woodrow Wilson Dr. He moved here after the Log Cabin became overrun with fans and freeloaders and died here on December 4 1993. The Log Cabin property is completely obscured by foliage now so we didn't attempt to photograph it.

7708 Woodrow Wilson Dr. This was the last residence owned and lived in by Cass Elliot. She died on July 29, 1974 at the age of 32 while in London to perform a series of concerts as a solo performer at the London Palladium. Beverly D'Angelo is the current resident.

7008 Woodrow Wilson Dr. Bernard Crowe gave this address as his residence in his testimony. If you care to read his testimony you can download it here and here.

The Wonderland Murders house at 8763 Wonderland Ave. Not Manson-related but we couldn't resist this monument to the macabre.

When you reach the top of the canyon, you see this view of the San Fernando Valley.

WATCH: The Legends Of Laurel Canyon, The Complete Documentary

"The Legends of Laurel Canyon", Tina Malave’s fascinating documentary of the music and residents of Laurel Canyon, is now streaming online.

The documentary focuses on the L.A. music community of the late 60s and early 70s where Jim Morrison, Frank Zappa, Crosby Still & Nash, Linda Ronstadt, Mama Cass and The Monkees were all neighbors.

Tina’s documentary is exceptionally made, giving detail of the people and the lifestyle and the birth of an endless era of music.

Warning: If you start watching you won't be able to stop!

Watch the complete "Legends of Laurel Canyon" here

BOOK REPORT- "Laurel Canyon: The Inside Story of Rock-n-Roll's Legendary Neighborhood" by Michael Walker

n,Thanks to Panamint Patty for the book report.  She is one brave lady who fears not~ the wrath of~Eviliz


ENJOY!

I humbly offer on the altar of Eviliz a book report on "Laurel Canyon: The Inside Story of Rock-n-Roll's Legendary Neighborhood" by Michael Walker (Faber & Faber Inc.)


  Walker's excellent title is divided into two parts aptly
 named "Jingle Jangle Mornings" and "Cocaine Afternoons".
The last chapter of the first part is simply called "1969" and is meant to delineate the first part from the second by discussing
three pivotal events which occurred that year: the Tate-LaBianca murders, Woodstock and Altamont.  Miller argues that the events of 1969 changed life in the canyon forever, but also had far reaching implications for our culture at large.  


  The page count that specifically deals with Manson is 9 of 248,
though references to the Family can be found throughout.  Those who were interviewed by the author include, Graham Nash, Frank Zappa's widow Gail, record executives Sally Stevens and Michael James Jackson, photographer David Strick and Troubador doorman Paul Body who claims to have gone to high school with Lulu:


"She was in my French class. Sweet little girl,
homecoming princess. We hung around the same sort of people.  Then she got into the drug thing, then LSD, and that just ruined her.  Then she hooks up with Manson and becomes totally different from anything I remember." 
     
  This chapter also claims that Charlie auditioned live for Neil Young and that the Family regularly hung out at Cass Elliot's
house on Woodrow Wilson.  In fact, early rumors about who was responsible for the murders centered on an acquaintance of Elliot's,
"a drug dealer who had disappeared."  As evidence that Charlie and his minions were firmly entrenched in Laurel Canyon at that time,
Gail Zappa states that:


"If you were surprised by the Manson murders,
then you were not connected to what was going on in the canyon.
I don't think that you could have necessarily predicted it, but those people were dangerous and everyone I know knew it."


  Miller never does take a position on motive.  He outlines the main theories that we are all familiar with:  The "same old Helter Skelter" and/or rage at Terry Melcher and "the establishment" over being denied a record deal.  What Miller does say however is that the ultimate impact of the Family and the murders on history may be taken as "evidence of the counterculture's internal rot."  This laughable overgeneralization was necessary however in order for Miller to progress his book from part 1 to part 2:  from the peaceful, loving hippie-dippie sixties to the spun out, smacked out, soulless seventies.  There is no revelation here, but there are enough interesting tidbits to make the book a good read including discussions about where a lot of your favorite songs came from.