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

Name: Laurel Canyon
Brand: Blackstone Audiobooks
Availability: InStock
Author: Michael Walker
ISBN: 9781481564212

Author: Michael Walker

Narrator: Lloyd James

Unabridged: 8 hr 24 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Blackstone Publishing

Published: 01/01/2006

Categories: Nonfiction, Music, Rock, Folk & Traditional, History & Criticism, Social Science, Popular Culture Studies, Pop Vocal

Synopsis

Laurel Canyon was the neighborhood perched above the clubs and record companies of Sunset Strip where Joni Mitchell, Jim Morrison, Graham Nash, Cass Elliot, Carole King, Don Henley, and Peter Tork, just to name a few, lived and collaborated to make an indelible mark on our music and our culture. Starting with The Byrds in 1965, these musicians began combining the effusive harmonies of folk music with the sounds of the British rock invasion. From their song craft was born the singer-songwriter movement and a new style of American pop that thrives on.This is not only a history of an important period in rock music but also the story of what happened to the peace and love philosophy of the sixties, as hard drugs and easy sex began to take their toll and the gruesome Wonderland murders signaled the end of the era.Listen to Lysa William's interview of the author, Michael Walker!Learn more about Laurel Canyon at www.laurelcanyonthebook.com

About Michael Walker

Michael Walker is an independent writer and member of the editorial board of Movie magazine. He has written extensively about popular culture for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Rolling Stone, and other publications. He lives in Laurel Canyon.

About Lloyd James

Lloyd James (a.k.a. Sean Pratt) has been a working professional actor in theater, film, television, and voice-overs for more than thirty years. He has narrated over one thousand audiobooks and won numerous Earphones Awards and nominations for the Audie Award and the Voice Arts Award. He holds a BFA degree in acting from Santa Fe University, New Mexico.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Liz

Midway through "Laurel Canyon," I realized that I was reading the literary equivalent of a VH1 "Behind the Music" episode: It's fun and breezy and there are lots of famous people mentioned, but after a while you realize that it's fairly poorly constructed and that there's no there there. The book is......more

Goodreads review by Joachim

Stel je een vriendengroep van adolescenten voor waar zowat iedereen geweldig kan zingen en een instrument bespeelt. Vrienden die in hetzelfde huis/buurtje samenwonen om muziek te maken en met drugs en free love te experimenteren. Stel je voor dat al deze vrienden één voor één uiteindelijk wereldfaam......more

Quotes

"Laurel Canyon is hilarious and true and bittersweet. Michael Walker catches the mood in the air, and gets it right...The interviews are wonderful...It's a beautifully written document of that time and place when the personalities were as big as those stony dreams that fueled some of the greatest masterpieces in rock."

Cameron Crowe

“This production should appeal to any reader eager to study artistic flashpoints and to understand how artistic breakthroughs—whether the unique harmonies of the Mamas and the Papas or the dissonant chord progressions of Frank Zappa—are sometimes grounded in multigenerational influences.”

AudioFile

“Pop culture journalist Walker has written a fascinating study of the Los Angeles neighborhood in which he lives and its relationship to developments in American popular music in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Highly recommended.”

Library Journal

“Walker’s chronicle…packs a lot of punch in audio. James’ modulated, occasionally reedy delivery enhances the ironic text in a manner worthy of the rock demigods the book limns. An excellent presentation of this bracing evocation of a storied time and place in pop-music history.”

Booklist