A dip into one of the fascinating periods of rock history
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Subtitled "Singer-Songwriters and Cocaine Cowboys in the LA Canyons, 1967-1976", this is a dip into one of the fascinating periods of rock history - but also one of the most neglected.
It's the story of the talented but dysfunctional men and women who swirled through the boho milieux of the canyons surrounding LA in the 60s and 70s, and of the business brilliance of men like David Geffen who made so many of them into stars.
Ex-NME and Mojo scribe Barney Hoskyns is a thorough researcher and an elegant wordsmith. He offers a compassionate glimpse into the maverick genius of Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, follows the drugged downward spiral of David Crosby, Gram Parsons and Cass Elliott as though he were tracing the whole decade's gradual descent into decadence and destruction. He describes the rise of country-rock through the stories of The Eagles and Little Feat, and how the glamorous decadence of LA imports like Led Zeppelin embraced the hedonistic past of the city's mainstream.
And through the stories of Geffen and his world, he shows how the dream of social change in the idealistic 60s was gradually transmuted into a business proposition; in the words of poet Jeff Nuttall, "how the market saw that these revolutionaries could be put in a safe pen and given their consumer goods."
In many ways, the story Hoskyns tells is a tragedy, a story of the death of youth and of hope in arguably the most decadent city on earth. But he never takes the easy route, never typecasts his subjects as either hero or villain. One of the book's most touching moments is Geffen's flash of insight into the artistic condition: "Artists tend to be difficult...by that I don't mean more difficult for me - I think their lives are more difficult for them."
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the straightest guy in the LA hippie era?
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If you have any interest at all in the Byrds/Crosby Stills Nash & Young/Joni Mitchell/Eagles era then this book explains a lot and fills in many of the gaps in your education. It doesn't just focus on the main characters either, all the associated artists turn up. Few are good and most come across as first rate jerks with Crosby and Stills as the the two biggest.
Cocaine features heavily indeed and it seems everyone was addicted to it and I never really understood the impact that this had on the artists and less so in the creativeness but more in their inability to keep it together. Throwing people out of bands because they were doped up seems an everyday occurrence.
What a superb read, I really couldn't put it down, unusual for me unless it is thriller fiction.
The straightest guy? well Frank Zappa apparently. I suppose if you were the only normal one amongst the drug crazed canyon then I guess you would be seen as very weird.
Totally recommend it.
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Barney Hoskins does it again
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After reading the magnificent 'say it one more time for the broken hearted'I thought Barney wouldn't be able to better his account of a place in time of modern music history,but he has.For the black and white soul of the south read the rock of the east coast.
The album that you can buy to accompany the album is also superb.
Any chance of a similar album for 'Say it one more time.......'Barney?
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Wish I was there
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This is a superb read for anyone interested in the music of CSN, Joni Mitchell, The Eagles, Neil Young, Randy Newman, Tom Waits, Linda Ronsdalt, Gram Parsons, Little Feat, and Jackson Browne (and also lesser known artists such as Judee Sill, J D Souther and Warren Zevon)(and not forgetting the business men who ran the show, most prominently David Geffen). Packed full of drugs, sex, and rock and roll, it tells the story of how the late 60s hippie dream of an idealistic Utopian society of acoustic guitar strumming bohemian singer-songwriters living in wooden houses in the Laurel Canyon suberb of LA, was inevitably shattered within a few short years. It was far too good to be true and couldn't last and those times are gone forever, but to read about the scene, when the music was great and "fornication was on tap", remains very exciting and Barney Hoskyns' superbly researched and written book tears along at a cracking pace.
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An excellent read
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I thoroughly enjoyed this as indeed I have enjoyed all of Barney Hoskyns' other books. If you are interested in the music of this time and place, it really is the definitive account. Utterly fascinating.
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