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What led to the DEMISE of Laurel Canyon’s Freewheeling Society of Sex and Rock n Roll?

Freewheeling

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What led to the DEMISE of Laurel Canyon’s Freewheeling Society of Sex and Rock n Roll? Imagine living in a dreamy place where you look out your window to see Jim Morrison riding his bike past the Eucalyptus trees as you hear Joni Mitchell’s guitar echoing through the hills while ducks swim in the pond in your backyard? David Crosby and Frank Zappa breeze by you at the local country store before you stop by your neighbor’s house to enjoy a game of Ping Pong and a swim because it’s always a fun time with The Monkees. It may sound like a dream but it’s actually just another day in Laurel Canyon, 1967.

But then change creeps in when disturbing events take place and the laid back feeling dissolves into fear and hopelessness. So what happened to Laurel Canyon’s famously thriving community?

TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 - 1960’s Laurel Canyon Scene
01:55 - The Byrds Move into Laurel Canyon
03:09 - The Turtles Move into Laurel Canyon
04:03 - The Mamas & The Papas Love Triangle
05:50 - The band Love in Laurel Canyon
06:35 - The Monkees Move into Laurel Canyon
07:25 - Brian Wilson’s Living Room Filled with Sand
08:14 - Buffalo Springfield Sunset Strip Riot
09:40 - The Doors Jim Morrison Laurel Canyon apartment
11:58 - Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention Laurel Canyon house
13:33 - Alice Cooper Arrives in Laurel Canyon
14:38 - George Harrison Visits Peter Tork’s House
15:12 - Jimi Hendrix Visits Peter Tork’s House
15:45 - Peter Tork Emcee’s Monterey Pop Festival
16:33 - David Crosby Invites Joni Mitchell to Laurel Canyon
17:22 - Eric Clapton Visits Mama Cass’ Laurel Canyon House
18:43 - Graham Nash Moves into Joni Mitchell’s Laurel Canyon House
19:55 - Crosby Stills & Nash are Formed in Laurel Canyon
22:30 - The Flying Burrito Brothers Create California Country Rock
23:00 - Charles Manson Murders Change Laurel Canyon
24:22 - Altamont Ends the 1960s
25:50 - 1970s Laurel Canyon Second Wave Emerges
26:00 - Jackson Browne in Laurel Canyon
26:55 - The Eagles in Laurel Canyon
27:13 - Linda Ronstadt in Laurel Canyon
28:45 - Bonnie Raitt in Laurel Canyon
29:08 - James Taylor in Laurel Canyon
29:34 - Little Feat in Laurel Canyon
30:10 - Carole King’s album Tapestry in Laurel Canyon
30:43 - Ending

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20 Comments

@Catherine-259-s5u 2 years ago

My brother came home in a body bag because of the Vietnam war. He was 28 and a medic. His name was John.

@wlodell 2 years ago (edited)

An interesting but sad video. In 1971, I walked the street of Haight-Ashbury, then went to fight in the Vietnam War. On my return from the war, a changed young man, I ended up for a short time on the east coast near DC. I spent many late afternoons in a cafe drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes listening to Jackson Browne’s ‘Doctor My Eyes’ and Don McLean’s ‘American Pie’. Great music, indeed. But, it was the incredible music by the Moody Blues I credit for getting me through that tumultuous period of my life, enabling me to stay away from smoking weed and from excessive boozing and to finish college to graduation. Praise to the Lord God Almighty. Now, in 2024, I’m an old man long retired from two careers that involved global travel. From my experiences and education and from living and working with people smarter than me, it is clear (to me) that history virtually repeats itself, and that the more we learn, the less we know. (Bring it on)

@meghill4537 2 years ago

The soundtrack of my life. I was 20 in '67, born and raised in LA, a student not a groupie, running around Laurel Canyon having fun with young musicians. Met so many of these future famous when all of us were young. Troubador, Ash Grove, Whiskey A Go Go. Viet Nam, Manson, thousands marching in the streets, all in the near future. I never talk about it because I barely believe it myself as I look at 80!

@rufuspipemos 2 years ago (edited)

The amount of talent and great songs that came out of this single square mile over 4 years is almost impossible to comprehend. The Byrds, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Joni Mitchell, Graham Parsons, The Mamas and the Papas. The Doors, Linda Rhonstad, The Eagles, The Byrds, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Frank Zappa. Literally incredible.

@tomcoryell 2 years ago

Thanks for this. My brother was in Vietnam getting shot out of the sky. My alcoholic father killed himself and my family imploded. The music of the era saved me.

@beverlykandraceffinger3764 2 years ago

...once again, I sense that Cass Elliot was an important figure in the Laurel Canyon scene, and not only for the contribution she'd made with her own music. She seems a friendly and open soul who'd had a talent for bringing other creative people together. As with others from the music field in the late sixties she'd passed away far too young. Her energy and good will, sorely missed.

@ScottPeterson-j8f 2 years ago

Laurel canyon is where I grew up. Frank Zappa was on the corner, Alex Karas and Susan Clark were my neighbors too. I’m a proud guitarist and am terrible at it.

@anthonysmall5090 1 year ago (edited)

I just love the way all these people could get together despite individual fame and hangout out together at each others home and just jam together wish I could’ve been there. The narrator states that the music of today couldn’t hold a candle to the music from the 60s and that’s damn true…

@robinboyle5667 2 years ago

I was born and raised in Laural Canyon. But it was before the musicians moved in. Dad was an artist for Universal Studio. Mom was an artist, and I've been a lifelong artist. Always been that way!

@DEPARTMENTOFREDUNDANCYDEPT 2 years ago

I was in LA in 1967, just back from Vietnam on my first ship, USS Waddell, DDG-24, home ported in Long Beach. That music which welcomed us home in April, 1967, became the sound track of my young adult life. I was hanging out in Glendale at the home of one of my Navy buddies whose family welcomed me to stay there on weekends. I loved the music and the scene and met my first wife there, but I did not know how close I was to the Laurel Canyon scene. If I had known, I might have explored those quaint, convoluted Hollywood Hills with my California girl soon-to-be wife and we might have had a brush with fame. As it was, we did go to Griffith Park and enjoy the hippie scene there, which was pretty wild for a Minnesota boy far away from home for the first time in his life. I still love that music of the sixties and seventies and I still believe it was the best soundtrack for a life that I could have asked for. After I was discharged from the Navy in 1969, my California girl wife and I moved back to Minnesota, but the marriage did not last. We were so young, too young to be married in those chaotic times. I was a Vietnam vet trying to get back on track in college, and the campuses were hostile to Vietnam vets in those days. We were the first military veterans to not be welcomed home. My marriage failed, my career path changed, and almost nothing turned out as I had expected it to. That's when I learned the truth that life is what happens while you are making different plans. American culture was changing, and not for the better. There were dark years ahead. Everything changed, but the music never let me down. That's why even today, as a 77 year-old man, I treasure that music and understand how lucky I was then to have it playing in the background as my life unfolded in ways I could never have predicted in spite of my best efforts. I went on to meet the woman I needed to meet, and she gave me the family I did not know I needed in order to give my life meaning. See? Life is what happens while you are making other plans! So here I am, an old man with two sons, one daughter, and four grandsons, grateful for all of my good fortune (dumb luck, really) and still loving and enjoying that great music of the sixties and seventies and the great music of the eighties and nineties which it inspired and influenced. Thank you for this great documentary about one of the essential cultural scenes which helped to create the sound track of my life.

@barlobarlo303 2 years ago

I heard David Crosby say in an interview before he died that, "It was a magical time and a magical place. Someone should make a documentary about it". Looks like someone took his advice and I'm glad they did. Good work.

@puglove876 2 years ago

I remember paying $6 for a ticket to see three of these great bands at the same venue. And latter having a drink at the bar with them. Boy how things have changed. You wouldn't get within three feet of these musicians today.

@THEScottCampbell 2 years ago

This is far and away the best documentary on Laurel Canyon and the late 60's music scene.

@rainmanjr2007 2 years ago (edited)

"But don't think too badly of one who's left holding sand. He's just another dreamer, dreaming of Everyman." - Jackson Browne. I understand that line fully now.

@peterlovett5841 2 years ago

It really was a time when performers had talent and not just a savy producer.

@BlueSky11.11 2 years ago

I don't know what's greater. The video or these comments. Time well spent giving attention to both. 🕊️

@Eeohippus 2 years ago

It was also the incoming of cocaine and heroin as opposed to just weed and alcohol. The culture is different with cocaine you begin to hide and get paranoid and that was not conducive to acoustic guitars and backyard barbecues

@MisterBaltimoron 2 years ago

Thoroughly enjoyed revisiting my youth. Growing up in the 60’s & 70’s was a gift!

@jamesbueker11 2 years ago

In Germany in 1968, I was in a band called the Daisy Chain. We were grooving on all these great groups. At a high school dance we played The End. One of the school monitors was actually listening to the words and pulled the plug on our show. Oh well. You got to let your freak flag fly.