If only books had soundtracks...

Definitely recommended reading for fans of the late 60s-70s LA music scene. Laurel Canyon was an incredible hotbed of musical creativity- its residents and regulars included Joni Mitchell, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, David Crosby, Neil Young, Frank Zappa, Roger McGuinn, Graham Parsons, John Mayall, Jackson Browne, Mark Volman, and Robby Krieger, among others. It's a well-written, quick read, full of tons of interesting anecdotes. A couple of the more interesting things I learned while reading it:

• Mama Cass was the one who got Stills and Crosby together with Brit Graham Nash- she envisioned the three voices melding together perfectly. The first time they sang together was in Joni Mitchell's living room, with Mitchell, Eric Burdon and Cass all watching (and flipping out over how perfect it sounded).
• The Turtles were originally named The Tyrtles, in a completely unsubtle nod toward their Laurel Canyon neighbors The Byrds. Like the Byrds, their first hit single was a Dylan cover: "It Ain't Me Babe." Then:

Their enormous hit "Happy Together" was one of the great pop-rock songs, but it undermined the band's tenuous folk rock-psychedelic cred. Disgusted by their record label's demand for more cheery pop hits, Kaylan wrote the treacly "Elenore" ("El-e-nore, gee, I think you're swell!"), a bald-faced parody of "Happy Together" performed so flawlessly that the song's subversiveness was completely lost on the band's handlers as well as nearly everyone else -- it was almost as big a hit as "Happy Together."

A few weeks after reading the book, CDs that I had requested through the library arrived, allowing me to listen to The Turtles, Buffalo Springfield, and other bands featured in the book. It got me thinking- how nice would it be to have soundtracks built into books? With the way multi-media publishing is evolving, maybe that will be possible someday...