They may have come for the cheap living but they stayed for the creative musical atmosphere of “Laurel Canyon.”
Airing consecutive Sundays beginning May 31, the so-named two-part EPIX documentary uses archival interviews and footage to tell how the rural enclave in the Hollywood Hills outside Los Angeles became home to a laundry list of some of the most influential and famous names of 1960s and ’70s music, among them the Eagles, the Doors, the Mamas & the Papas, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Joni Mitchell, the Byrds, Bonnie Raitt, The Monkees, Little Feat and Jackson Browne.
It’s easy to understand the attraction. In addition to being an inexpensive place to live (at the time), the area had a rural vibe and lots of bucolic beauty that fed their imaginations yet was a quick drive to the clubs on the Sunset Strip, where many of them congregated. As more musicians moved in, more wanted to join the party.
“Artists from the New York scene were just coming out west to a change of pace,” said Alison Ellwood (“Story of the Eagles”), the film’s director, “and then they all started coming and they all started gathering there. And they would say, ‘Where are you living?’ and next thing you know, people were just — you know, I think David Crosby says it first: ‘There were just a few of us. Next thing you knew, there were like 30 or 50 and it became a real scene then.’ … Artists were around and supporting one another so it was a very conducive environment for creativity.”
The stories in the documentary are pure meat and potatoes for any music aficionado. Yes, there are the parties, the drugs, the hook-ups and the break-ups but there are also tales of fateful events, such as how the Doors’ success eclipsed the band Love’s standing at Electra Records, what inspired John and Michelle Phillips to write “California Dreamin’ ” and how future Eagles Glenn Frey and Don Henley first met at the legendary club the Troubadour.
“Obviously, the Troubadour was a huge Grand Central place for all of these artists,” Ellwood said. “You know, Glenn would hang out there just to meet people and learn about the business. … And he was not just a great musician and singer/songwriter but he was a very savvy business guy, which a lot of them were not at that time. … But you know, Glenn had a vision and a dream and set about making it happen and he did. He hooked up with Don and Don signed up and off they went and really took it to the next level.”
And then there are stories of the coupling and uncoupling that went on, including John and Michelle Phillips, Graham Nash and Joni Mitchell and even Steve Martin and Linda Ronstadt, one of Ellwood’s favorite discoveries while making the film.
“It’s just wonderful how interlaced everybody was,” she said, “and how they shared and grew from one another and took from one another and expanded. And it was a very nurturing environment.”
