But, at the time, the prices were exorbitant to get all the rights (to the songs for the soundtrack). “That opened up the door to doing the ‘Laurel Canyon’ film. “I was a big Doors’ fan and was trying to do a film about the band,” she said, speaking from her home in Massachusetts. “I wanted to, but I couldn’t afford it!” said Ellwood, whose other directorial credits include “The Go-Go’s” and “History of The Eagles: The Story of an American Band.”Įither way, the enduring mythology - musical and otherwise - of Laurel Canyon made an impact on Ellwood, before and after she moved to Los Angeles. She wanted to move to Laurel Canyon after seeing the 2002 feature film also titled “Laurel Canyon,” starring Frances McDormand. They had just been a little group before, but now they were making hit songs!”Īlison Ellwood, the Australian-born director of “Laurel Canyon: A Time and Place,” lived in Los Angeles in the 1990s and beyond. because we’d heard The Byrds on the radio. “We were all terribly inspired by The Beatles, and it was a whole new kind of music that all of us wanted to be a part of. “There were so many artists that had gotten out of folk music, because folk had gone out of fashion,” she said, speaking from her current Los Angeles home in Cheviot Hills. Its prime location, just minutes away from Sunset Strip - home to The Troubadour, The Whiskey, Ciro’s and other top Los Angeles nightclubs - made it especially appealing to live in the musicians who often performed at those Hollywood venues. It was just fortuitous and serendipitous.”Ī 1998 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Phillips, 75, likens Laurel Canyon in the 1960s to “a great big commune,” albeit one with an unusually high ratio of famous and soon-to-be-famous musicians. It was really a place and time that could never happen again. “It was unique that so many musicians lived so close together, let alone so many musicians who became successful. “Frank Zappa lived next door to me, David Crosby lived right behind me and (Love co-founder) Arthur Lee had a house nearby,” Echols, 73, recalled. Both are featured in “Laurel Canyon” and contribute valuable insights to the film. Those sentiments were recently seconded in separate phone interviews with Johnny Echols of Love and Michelle Phillips of The Mamas & The Papas. “And it has held up for more than 50 years.” “The music created there was pivotal,” Hillman, 75, said. Other songs written in the woodsy enclave above Hollywood’s Sunset Strip range from The Doors’ “Love Street” and The Mamas & The Papas’ “Twelve-Thirty (Young Girls Are Coming to the Canyon)” to Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth” and Jackie DeShannon’s “Laurel Canyon.” She wrote all of the songs for her classic 1971 album, “Blue,” while residing there. Nash wrote the Crosby, Stills & Nash classic “Our House” in (and about) the home he shared there with Mitchell. Mitchell’s third album, 1970’s “Ladies of the Canyon,” featured fellow Laurel Canyon residents Neil Young, David Crosby, Graham Nash and Stephen Stills. Hillman and The Byrds’ Roger McGuinn co-wrote their band’s classic song, “So You Want To Be a Rock ‘n’ Roll Star,” when both lived in Laurel Canyon. The former San Diego bluegrass musician lived in Laurel Canyon from 1964 to 1968. “It could have been anywhere, but the music was just blossoming at that point in Laurel Canyon,” said Chris Hillman, who - as a co-founder of The Byrds - was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991.
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