Movie Review: "Echo In The Canyon"

[srick]

Originally Posted by Jobe

Twice in this thread the book "Weird Scenes Inside The Canyon" by David McGowan has been mentioned. Read it if you are really interested in this topic. One question to ask is, "How in the world did all these 'musicians' congregate in one place and at one time?" Why Laurel Canyon? "

IMO Lou Adler (among others) is probably the answer to the question of why LA, and Laurel Canyon was likely comparatively cheap to live in.

[rokdog49]

I’m going to watch it soon and give my hardly-anticipated review.

[ChrisE]

I haven’t watched it yet but I’ve been a big Jakob Dylan fan for a long time. I wasn’t around during the Laurel Canyon era but I like the music.

I’m always up for any show about music.

[Jobe]

Originally Posted by srick

IMO Lou Adler (among others) is probably the answer to the question of why LA, and Laurel Canyon was likely comparatively cheap to live in.

Maybe Mr. Adler (born 1933, Chicago) could explain things more fully. That would be nice. There was a Mr. Elmer Valentine (born 1923, Chicago) that arrived in LA in 1960. In 1964 he opened up "Whiskey a Go Go" on the Sunset Strip. 1965 he opened up "The Trip" just down the road. 1972 he opened the "Rainbow Bar and Grill". Here enters Lou Adler as a partner. 1973 Lou and Elmer (among others) open the "Roxy". The Strip is hopping. The "Whiskey" introduces bands such as the "Byrds", "Buffalo Springfield" and even the "Doors" and others we have lost to time and memory and obscurity dating back to 1964. Adler signed and produced "The Mamas and the Papas" and later Carole King. He did many other things. But to think people flocked to Laurel Canyon because of Lou Adler is to miss the initial conception. And Elmer Valentine is not the initial source either. What crazy webs were weaved in that time and space.

[srick]

My reference to Adler should likely have been expanded to include producers like Terry Melcher and Phil Spector. As talented as these groups (and performers)were, the newer record companies, (as opposed to the stodgy Eastern companies like RCA) and their execs, were at the heart of the West Coast musical boom and took a chance on these young artists. And, they hit paydirt. IMO, it was a very simple equation - that's where the money was, and the talent followed.

So you Want to be a Rock and Roll Star?

So you want to be a rock and roll star?
Then listen now to what I say
Just get an electric guitar
Then take some time and learn how to play

And with your hair swung right
And your pants too tight, it's gonna be all right
Then it's time to go downtown
Where the agent man won't let you down

Sell your soul to the company
Who are waiting there to sell plastic ware
And in a week or two if you make the charts
The girls'll tear you apart

The price you paid for your riches and fame
Was it all a strange game? You're a little insane
The money, the fame, and the public acclaim
Don't forget who you are, you're a rock and roll star

McGuinn - Hillman (1966)

[RP]

I wasn't familiar with Jakob Dylan's music but enjoyed it. I also thought he did a decent job as interviewer in that he spoke little and got former musical residents of Laurel Canyon to speak to the music scene. However, I still feel that Dylan's omnipresence as a musician playing songs by The Byrds, The Association and others should have been omitted with more archival performances shown.

This is especially true considering that the music of many others was "cultivated in the canyon" according to Harvey Kubernik in Canyon of Dreams. These included Bobby Hart (of the songwriting team Boyce & Hart), Sonny & Cher, Turtles, Canned Heat, Monkees, Three Dog Night, Jackie DeShannon, Poco, Eagles, War, John Mayall, Little Feat, Guns N' Roses, Bobby Womack (not AGF's, the other one) and many others I'd never heard of. The other thing to keep in mind is that Laurel Canyon was a haven for artistic, free-thinkers, actors and architects among others long before the 1960s. It seems that it was kind of a Greenwich Village West for creative folks...

[Riverwolf]

Watched it last night.
Liked it for what it was.

[Jobe]

Originally Posted by srick

My reference to Adler should likely have been expanded to include producers like Terry Melcher and Phil Spector. As talented as these groups were, the newer record companies, (as opposed to the stodgy Eastern companies like RCA) and their execs, were at the heart of the West Coast musical boom and took a chance on all of these young artists. They hit paydirt. IMO, it was a very simple equation - that's where the money was, and the talent followed.

So you Want to be a Rock and Roll Star?

So you want to be a rock and roll star?
Then listen now to what I say
Just get an electric guitar
Then take some time and learn how to play

And with your hair swung right
And your pants too tight, it's gonna be all right
Then it's time to go downtown
Where the agent man won't let you down

Sell your soul to the company
Who are waiting there to sell plastic ware
And in a week or two if you make the charts
The girls'll tear you apart

The price you paid for your riches and fame
Was it all a strange game? You're a little insane
The money, the fame, and the public acclaim
Don't forget who you are, you're a rock and roll star

McGuinn - Hillman (1966)

Terry Melcher? Phil Spector? Really? Terry Melcher was the son of Doris Day. He brought on the Byrds which was a band that couldn't even play their instruments excluding their front man. That includes David Crosby. Enter Phil Spector (what a nice guy he is). It all happened in the studio. The band didn't record as they couldn't. Glenn Campbell was one of the studio musicians. Oh, and it seems like they were doing Bob Dylan covers. To assume Melcher and Spector were at the heart of this thing would be wrong. Who came first, the chicken or the egg? Melcher and Spector were eggs. Who was the Chicken? And where did the Chicken come from?

[RP]

The Byrds were far from the only group whose studio work was done by the Wrecking Crew....

The Wrecking Crew was a loose collective of session musicians based in Los Angeles whose services were employed for thousands of studio recordings in the 1960s and 1970s, including several hundred Top 40 hits. The musicians were not publicly recognized in their era, but were viewed with reverence by industry insiders. They are now considered one of the most successful and prolific session recording units in music history.

Most of the players associated with the Wrecking Crew had formal backgrounds in jazz or classical music. The group had no official name in its active years, and it remains a subject of contention whether or not they were referred to as "the Wrecking Crew" at the time. Drummer Hal Blaine popularized the name in his 1990 memoir, attributing it to older musicians who felt that the group's embrace of rock and roll was going to "wreck" the music industry. Some of Blaine's colleagues corroborated his account, while guitarist/bassist Carol Kaye contended that they were called "The Clique". Another unofficial name was "The First Call Gang", sometimes used in the 1950s for an early version of the group headed by bassist Ray Pohlman which featured some of the same musicians.

The unit coalesced in the early 1960s as the de facto house band for Phil Spector and helped realize his Wall of Sound production style. They subsequently became the most requested session musicians in Los Angeles, playing behind many popular recording artists including Jan and Dean, Sonny & Cher, the Mamas and the Papas, the 5th Dimension, Frank Sinatra, and Nancy Sinatra. The musicians were sometimes used as "ghost players" on recordings credited to rock groups, such as the Byrds' debut rendition of Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man" (1965), the first two albums by the Monkees, and the Beach Boys' 1966 album Pet Sounds.

The Wrecking Crew's contributions to so many hit recordings went largely unnoticed until the publication of Blaine's memoir and the attention that followed. Keyboardist Leon Russell and guitarist Glen Campbell were members who became popular solo acts, while Blaine is reputed to have played on more than 140 top-ten hits, including approximately 40 number-one hits. Other musicians who formed the unit's ranks were drummer Earl Palmer, saxophonist Steve Douglas, guitarist Tommy Tedesco, and keyboardist Larry Knechtel, who became a member of Bread. Blaine and Palmer were among the inaugural "sidemen" inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000, and the entire Wrecking Crew was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2007. In 2008 and 2015 they were the subject of the documentary The Wrecking Crew.

[srick]

Originally Posted by Jobe

Terry Melcher? Phil Spector? Really? Terry Melcher was the son of Doris Day. He brought on the Byrds which was a band that couldn't even play their instruments excluding their front man. That includes David Crosby. Enter Phil Spector (what a nice guy he is). It all happened in the studio. The band didn't record as they couldn't. Glenn Campbell was one of the studio musicians. Oh, and it seems like they were doing Bob Dylan covers. To assume Melcher and Spector were at the heart of this thing would be wrong. Who came first, the chicken or the egg? Melcher and Spector were eggs. Who was the Chicken? And where did the Chicken come from?

Say what you will about the producers Jobe, they controlled the purse strings, they made the connections, and they made the stars. They made mediocre acts sound great and they got the records airplay.

When I worked at my college radio station (1971-75), we would audition dozens of new artists releases each week - all with incredible talent, all waiting to hit it big. Very few ever did.

[RP]

Originally Posted by srick

Say what you will about the producers Jobe, they controlled the purse strings, they made the connections, and they made the stars. They made mediocre acts sound great and they got the records airplay.

The Monkees, two of whom Mickey Dolenz & Peter Tork) lived in Laurel Canyon, were clearly the best example of a manufactured musical act.

Originally Posted by srick

When I worked at my college radio station (1971-75), we would audition dozens of new artists releases each week - all with incredible talent, all waiting to hit it big. Very few ever did.

And thus the phrase "One Hit Wonders"....

[Jobe]

Originally Posted by srick

Say what you will about the producers Jobe, they controlled the purse strings, they made the connections, and they made the stars. They made mediocre acts sound great and they got the records airplay.

When I worked at my college radio station (1971-75), we would audition dozens of new artists releases each week - all with incredible talent, all waiting to hit it big. Very few ever did.

That is a valid point. But it is not my point of topic.

[rokdog49]

Just finished watching it.
And now for my highly un-anticipated review.

Pretty well done and I didn’t mind the Jakob Dylan music stuff being inserted that much. I’ve been a fan anyway so it was kind of a nice gear change inserted as an occasional distraction. I certainly didn’t mind seeing Fiona Apple perform.
I found it quite revealing to learn how the “folk” thing morphed into the “folk rock” thing with a lot of credit seemingly going to the Byrds.
Lou Adler obviously had a huge role in the whole scene and I enjoyed his reflections. He was right there at ground zero and deeply involved.
David Crosby was certainly a big part of the interviews. He is quite a “character.” Others interviewed were Clapton, Ringo Starr, Tom Petty, Michelle Phillips, Roger McGuinn, Stephen Stills and Jackson Browne to name a few and they all got a fair share of screen time.
I liked the juxtaposition of the All-American Beach Boy California music at the time and how it was placed alongside the burgeoning changes occurring with this new wave of introspective artists. No question, the pop music dynamic was in flux and it was moving into something more complex.
Admittedly in commentaries a lot of these young-uns were driven to “out Beatle” the Beatles. They were certainly a catalyst if not “the” catalyst for many of these artists.
At the end of it all, it seemed like everything just kind of “fell into place” in that time span with those people in that location and it all exploded into a new segment of popular music. That’s kind of how David Crosby summed it up.
It was definitely a breeding ground for a lot of really good music and a lot of great artists.
I give it 3.5 out of five ⭐️’s and entertaining at a minimum.