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Friday, June 20, 2008

Info Post

The wooded Los Angeles neighborhood of Laurel Canyon was "the door to paradise". Members of all the key L.A. rock bands - the Byrds, the Mamas and the Papas, Buffalo Springfield, Love, the Doors , Joni Mitchell - found a rural refuge in the canyon, which was five minutes from the Sunset Strip, the heart of Hollywood nightlife. Musicians gathered in one another's houses, living an upscale version of the hippie dream: "Sometimes I would wake up to find Denny Doherty and David Crosby swimming in my pool, with a half-empty gallon of wine floating in the pool that they would take occasional hits from," says Monkees member Peter Tork, whose mansion in Studio City, on the north side of Laurel Canyon, was a major gathering place."Mama" Cass Elliott's cozy canyon house functioned as a sort of rock salon; she played host to locals and visitors such as Eric Clapton and Graham Nash, then in the Hollies. "There was something happening in '67 and '68 in Los Angeles," Nash has said. "A lot of walking over to people's houses with a new song. We'd be smoking heavily and talking, and a lot of incredible music was being made." Elliott introduced Nash to former Byrd David Crosby and former Buffalo Springfield leader Stephen Stills; the trio joined forces in 1968 as Crosby, Stills and Nash, defining the Laurel Canyon sound.
The Mamas and the Papas

Buffalo Springfield
Frank and Gail Zappa

The Byrds

Jim and Pam Morrison



Joni Mitchell


Graham Nash and Joni





Michelle Phillips


Mama Cass's Laurel Canyon home
Jim and Pam's house on "Love Street"

John and Michelle



James Taylor and Joni Mitchell



Laurel Canyon's most romantic couple



(images by Linda McCartney, getty images, Henry Diltz, scans from Girls Like Us, and guywebster.com)

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