February 13, 2015

"My dining room looked out over Frank Zappa's duck pond, and once when my mother was visiting, three naked girls were floating around on a raft in the pond."

"My mother was horrified by my neighborhood. In the upper hills the Buffalo Springfield were playing, and in the afternoon there was just a cacophony of young bands rehearsing. At night it was quiet except for cats and mockingbirds. It had a smell of eucalyptus, and in the spring, which was the rainy season then, a lot of wildflowers would spring up. Laurel Canyon had a wonderful distinctive smell to it."

Joni Mitchell, quoted in "An Oral History of Laurel Canyon, the 60s and 70s Music Mecca."

She also said:
David Crosby and I were never a couple. We spent time together in Florida and he was off drugs and very enjoyable company at that time. We rode bicycles through Coconut Grove and went boating. But David's appetites were for young harem girls who would wait on him. I would not be a servant girl. I had a child-like quality that made me attractive to him and my talent made me attractive. But we weren't an item; I guess you could call it a brief summer romance in Florida.
And David Crosby said:
I wanted to be with a great number of women. I was very entranced with Joni when I was with her, but she had her own plans. Graham [Nash] was unquestionably the best thing that ever happened for her.
Many more quotes at the link. Please discuss the article and the music and culture of the 60s and the 70s in the comments. That is, do me a favor and don't mention Morgellons disease. Here's an old post from 2010 about that if you want a place to put a comment on that subject.

21 comments:

chickelit said...

To find a queen without a king,
They say she plays guitar and cries and sings... la la la

mccullough said...

I like the descriptions of Laurel Canyon in Raymond Chandlers novels. He's got the scent of the eucalyptus trees and "the vague cluster of eaves and gables and lighted windows high on the hillside, remote and inaccessible, like witch houses in a forest."

Philip Marlowe would be amused and not at all surprised by the future denizens of the canyon.

Jim said...

From a quick read, Neil Young has the same approach to band mates that Crosby has to young girls. Young's talent is just off the scale. I like Buffalo Springfield; I like CSN&Y; but Neil makes any group he is in a super-group.

David said...

MICHELLE PHILLIPS: Before 1969, my memories were nothing but fun and excitement and shooting to the top of the charts and loving every minute of it. The Manson murders [in the summer of 1969] ruined the L.A. music scene. That was the nail in the coffin of the freewheeling, let's get high, everybody's welcome, come on in, sit right down. Everyone was terrified. I carried a gun in my purse. And I never invited anybody over to my house again.

Michelle Phillips explains gated communities.

JSD said...

Saw her in 79 at Tanglewood with Pat Metheny and Jaco Pastorius. Joni was great, but at the time, my buddy and I were really into Pat Metheny. Also, Jaco Pastorius, who may have been the best bass player ever. He came to a very tragic ending.

Fernandinande said...

"No one could never understand our bizarre relationship, because I was your intellectual frigid housekeeper. Especially when you would be going to bed with one chick at night and I'd wake in the mornin' and find another one there screamin' at me, asking me what the fuck this chick doin' in your bed, and I'd walk in and you weren't with the same one you were in night before.

Oh, I'll never forget that as long as I live.

That house had your shit all over, and we had cats, we had fleas, we had lot of crabs that we proceeded to give to everyone in Laurel Canyon except Elmer and Phil, because they were too sick to ball.

Elmer has mentality of approximately one peanut possibly. As a matter of fact, I remember Elmer telling me that you really had a lot of talent, but he didn't see how anyone could ever make it who insisted on sayin' "fuck" on stage.

And he used to drive by in his gold Cadillac and peer in the window cuz he could never get over the amount of groupy status that you had and he didn't, possibly because he's fifty years old and wretched.

Zappa: Hahaha!"

Mr. D said...

This book covers a lot of the same ground. It also details the ugliness that followed, post Manson and into the cocaine era. Interesting stuff.

Laslo Spatula said...

Neil Young summed it up for me best in "Revolution Blues":

I got the revolution blues,
I see bloody fountains,
And ten million dune buggies
comin' down the mountains.
Well, I hear that Laurel Canyon
is full of famous stars,
But I hate them worse than lepers
and I'll kill them
in their cars.


I am Laslo.

Fritz said...

A good singer, a good songwriter.

Crazy as a loon.

mccullough said...

I think Zappa lived in the house built by Tom Mix, the silent movie cowboy, in the 1920s.

Tank said...

Saw Zappa at the Capital Theatre in Passaic. I knew nothing about him (I went to a lot of concerts like that back then). Great musician, weird music, I mean ... weird.

I wonder if Althouse hung out at the Capital? Lotta good (great) groups played there. During the week it was a prono theatre.

mccullough said...

Turns out the log cabin house burned down in 1981. Metaphor

Heartless Aztec said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Heartless Aztec said...

I still have many snippets of those bands and songs 45-50 years on that I still play when I drag out the guitars - Grahm, Joni, Byrds, et al. But at this point I'm not playing three and a half minutes of any one song. Just a few bars of remembrance... Surfed Musical Maxim #14 - All the best songs have Rickenbacker's in them.

dustbunny said...

I liked a number of Joni's songs but she seems to have a chip on her shoulder about her position in the songwriters hall of whatever. In the film "The Last Waltz" she looks pissed while everyone else seems to be having a great time. She is especially unhappy during the Dylan songs which are so obviously better than her rather twee, overly sensitive offerings.

walter said...

"Love the one yer with.."

"Why does it hurt when I pee?"

Goju said...

Surfed, check out what Roy Buchanon does with a Telecaster. The Messiah will Come Again will blow your mind to tiny little pieces.

sonicfrog said...

Mr. D said...

This book covers a lot of the same ground. It also details the ugliness that followed, post Manson and into the cocaine era. Interesting stuff.


Yep! That's a great read.

I'm actually in a band that does a lot of CSN&Y covers... And it just happens the name of the band is Laurel Canyon!

Yeah, I know... Original.

But we do have a guy who sounds an awful lot like Niel Young.

Lucien said...

Zappa had a duck pond?!?

I hope he stocked it with mud sharks . . . er, . . . and naked girls.

Saint Croix said...

Young's talent is just off the scale. I like Buffalo Springfield; I like CSN&Y; but Neil makes any group he is in a super-group.

This.

I hate the Eagles. I hate that soft rock. But CSN&Y is amazing to me. Suite Judy Blue Eyes? Wow. And Buffalo Springfield. I saw Neil Young in concert just a few years ago. He's still amazing.

I remember when he said "I'm voting for Reagan," and the media flipped out. I was so young, I didn't know who Neil Young was! Why did the media give a shit about how a musician was voting? But they did.

His politics do not matter at all. Neil Young sings from the heart. And he inspired Sweet Home Alabama! He made musicians who didn't even play with him better. Like the Beach Boys and the Beatles. I have so much respect for Neil Young.

I like Crosby, Stills and Nash, their voices are so sweet. But Young, who was always the passionate guy, he's the one who's still rocking, still reaching out with new art.

Here is Jimmy Fallon and Neil Young singing Old Man. Neil Young outlasted Dylan, Paul Simon, the Beatles, the Who. Are the Stones still making music? We like the mellow but you got to have fire, too.

sonicfrog said...

"Neil Young outlasted Dylan, Paul Simon"

I would quibble with that. Paul Simon still tours and has gone in a lot more interesting musical directions than Neil Young has. And he's not peddling a rip-off music player either.

That said.... Music isn't a contest. Just enjoy it, whatever strikes your fancy.