‘Laurel Canyon’ Documentary Finds Something New To Say About L.A.’s Musical Garden Of Eden

It’s the onion base of a million rock docs; beautiful people in an idyllic setting, coming together and creating music before drugs and egos get in the way. The setting in this case is Laurel Canyon, the much storied community up in the Hollywood Hills that was home to successive waves of L.A. musicians. It’s also a subject that’s been done to death, covered in Echo In The Canyon and any number of films about its famed former residents. Improbably, the new documentary Laurel Canyon finds something unique to say about the time and place. Broken into 2 parts, it premieres on EPIX Sunday, May 31, at 9 p.m. ET and concludes the following week, on June 7.

Directed by Alison Ellwood, who helmed 2013’s excellent History of The Eagles documentary, Laurel Canyon mixes archival footage and new interviews with a multitude of musicians who lived there during the golden age of the ‘60s folk rock boom and ‘70s singer-songwriter era. Photographer Henry Diltz is our primary tour guide. Like others, he came to Los Angeles to pursue his musical dreams and picked up his camera when they petered out. He would go on to shoot some of the most famous rock album covers of all-time and document the scene.

Laurel Canyon was cheap at the time and afforded the pleasantries of country living while being just a couple miles north of Hollywood and the nightlife of the Sunset Strip. The Byrds were among the first musicians to move there and others soon followed. As David Crosby says, “Once you got above 20 or 30 of us living up there, it was a kind of a community.”

Many of the musicians were former folkies who traded in their acoustic guitars for electrics after hearing the Beatles. Others included virtuosic rock satirist Frank Zappa, garage band turned orchestral pop purveyors Love and horror-loving hard rockers Alice Cooper. “There were no rules anymore. “It was a good time to be starting a band,” says Doors guitarist Robbie Kreiger, who moved to the area along with his bandmates after their first flush of success.

According to photographer and scenester Nurit Wilde, the L.A. rock scene lived in an apolitical bubble until the Sunset Strip riots of late 1966, which sought to rein in the emerging hippie counter-culture. Canyon residents Buffalo Springfield sang about the riots in their hit, “For What It’s Worth,” which was soon adopted as an anthem by those opposed to the Vietnam War. Though Laurel Canyon offered a safe haven for musicians, dark storm clouds were gathering overhead.

By the late ‘60s bands were reshuffling. Crosby, Stills & Nash came together during a jam session at singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell’s house, the ultimate manifestation of Laurel Canyon’s creative mythos. Musicians pulled their  acoustic guitars out from under the bed and began exploring country music, shown the way by transplanted Southerner Gram Parsons. Though it happened on the opposite coast, 1969’s Woodstock Festival was the full flowering of the hippie ideal. “We thought, hey we’re going to change everything. Didn’t work out that way,” says Crosby ruefully. Part one of Laurel Canyon ends with an image of the Manson Family superimposed over the Pacific Coast Highway. It’s chilling.

Occurring a week before Woodstock, the Tate-LaBianca murders committed by followers of Charles Manson changed everything. “Suddenly hippies were not harmless anymore. Hippies became dangerous,” says singer Alice Cooper. The bloody Altamont Festival in December 1969, at which Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and Parsons’ Flying Burrito Brothers performed, further dampened spirits. Meanwhile, a new crop of musicians was waiting in the wings.

By the early ’70s, artists like Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt and the nascent Eagles were calling Laurel Canyon home and set on taking Southern California country rock into the Top 10. They were aided by no nonsense music industry insiders transplanted from the East Coast. “Success breeds change,” says manager Elliot Roberts. The sense of community unraveled as artists spent most of the year touring stadiums and became more protective of their musical ideas. Episode 2 climaxes with the advent of the Eagles, an apt choice considering their unrepentant commercial aspirations.

More than merely a documentary about Laurel Canyon and the same six musical acts you usually hear about, Ellwood presents a thorough investigation of the L.A. music scene of the ’60s and ’70s. By expanding the artists covered and including events which happened outside Southern California, Laurel Canyon avoids repeating the same old stories you’ve heard a million times before. Though it rearranges its timeline for the sake of narrative and jams in too much information, it never drags and is compelling up until the very end. Add to that more gossip than a celebrity blog (Joni Mitchell broke up with Graham Nash via telegram? Really? Ooooooh snap!), and you’ve got a new take on an old tale that’s worth your while.

Benjamin H. Smith is a New York based writer, producer and musician. Follow him on Twitter:@BHSmithNYC.

Watch Laurel Canyon on EPIX