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Laurel Canyon – Frank Zappa, The Byrds, Jim Morrison, Joni Mitchell

You can also find the Laurel Canyon Store here, and if you are lucky, you may see a famous Rock star or two shopping there.

Other famous past and current residents include: Eric Burdon, David Byrne, Alice Cooper, David Crosby, Micky Dolenz, Cass Elliot, Fabian, Glenn Frey, Jackson Browne, Jimi Hendrix, Chris Hillman, Anthony Kiedis, Carol King, Robby Krieger, Ray Manzerek, John Mayall, Justin Timberlake, Peter Tork, Brian Wilson and Neil Young

Laurel Canyon Los Angeles, CA

Artist Details

• Alice Cooper
• The Animals
• The Beach Boys
• Carole King
• Crosby Stills And Nash
• Jackson Browne
• Jimi Hendrix
• Mamas And Papas
• The Monkees
• The Talking Heads

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Home Sweet Home

I guess i’m one of the lucky few to have truely been blessed in my life to have grown up in the canyon. I miss you Mr. Bird and living across the street from Huodini’s Estate. I remember going to Frank Zappa’s Cave an listening to Alexander Bizentine play drums. It sure was wild. I still remember Fonya an Bernie an the girls. My mother Was Rock’nRobin which as Mario the awesome an aww inspiring owner of the Whiskey knows helped shape the face of music in the canyon in the late 70’s an early 80’s. Thank you God for allowing this now 38yr old kid to be so lucky to have lived a life so filled with love at 1402 Laurel Canyon Rd. Love and Respect to all the fore said peoples so much. Thank you all for such an amazing life guys. You never know our paths may one day cross again.

What a beautiful testimony of a time in history full of peace, love and everlasting music. I can only imagine being amongst people so talented and supportive of each other.

My mama said look out for those bad girls that live in the canyon.

I am a fan of the original Star Trek. I just watched a movie about Susan Oliver and it said she lived in Laurel Canyon. Would you happen to know where? Just curious because it seemed she had it together, but unfortunately trusted people who took advantage of her investments.

Thanks much if you are able to help.

I am in the canyon now, history lives Now a lot of rockers and friends hang out in Ventura on weekends.

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Laurel Canyon Tours

Stroll through rock and roll paradise!

Meet Your Hosts

Greetings, friends!  

Thank you for visiting our website, and welcome to our little slice of heaven in the hills.  As a seasoned residents of Laurel Canyon, we're excited to give you a local insider point of view, and  take you on a journey back in time.  

Memories will come to life as you enter this land of wonder, and see L.A. like you've never seen it before!  Along the way, we'll show you where legendary rock stars lived, and share stories about the nature and history of L.A.’s most magical and mythical neighborhood: Laurel Canyon.

We invite you to take a walk on the wild side!

Read our reviews on Trip Advisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g32655-d24854266-Reviews-Laurel_Canyon_Hippie_Hiking_Tour-Los_Angeles_California.html

Visitor Information

Adventure awaits you.

For the first time ever, go behind-the-scenes on a guided hiking tour through 1960's rock and roll paradise! See the former homes of Neil Young (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young), John Lennon (the Beatles), Frank Zappa (Mothers of Invention), Glenn Frey (the Eagles), Jackson Browne, Paul Rothchild (Doors' Producer), Arthur Lee (Love), Slash (Guns N' Roses), John Mayall (Bluesbreakers), Ginger Rogers (dancer), Bette Davis (actress), and more! Along the way you will learn about the nature and history of Laurel Canyon, and see the most beautiful scenic views of LA !!!!!

Where the Craziest People Live

Joni Mitchell recalls L.A.'s Laurel Canyon reputation the 1960s and 1970s: "When I first came out to L.A. in 1968, my photographer Joel Bernstein found an old book in a flea market that said: Ask anyone in America where the craziest people live and they'll say Los Angeles. Ask anyone in Los Angeles where the craziest people live and they'll tell you Hollywood. Ask anyone in Hollywood where the craziest people live and they'll say Laurel Canyon."

Coming to the Canyon

What to bring: comfortable shoes, wide brimmed hat, bottled water, sunscreen. 

We will be walking approximately 2-3 miles (moderate fitness level required).  Be prepared for a fun, active, and invigorating hike!

Experience the Best of L.A.

See these famous rockers' old houses, neil young house, john lennon treehouse.

Crosby , Stills, Nash, and Young

John Densmore

The Beatles

Glen Frey House

Jackson browne house, frank zappa house.

The Mothers of Invention

John Mayall House

Paul rothchild house.

John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers

Record Producer

Arthur Lee House

Stephen stills house.

Buffalo Springfield

Slash House

Chris hillman house.

Guns N' Roses

Frequently Asked Questions

Please reach us at [email protected] if you cannot find an answer to your question.

Prices vary depending on the specific tour and time of year. Please email us for pricing and availability.

There is a combination of moderate uphill and downhill terrain.  We will walk at your pace for maximum comfort and enjoyment.

At this time we only offer tours by foot.

Absolutely!  Our tour is pet friendly and we love dogs :)

Questions? Bookings?

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A Classic Laurel Canyon Playlist (60’s & 70’s)

by Taylor On A Trip | Jul 15, 2022 | California , Music , Playlists , Popular Posts , Uncategorized | 10 comments

Looking for a classic Laurel Canyon playlist that will transport you back to the magic of 60s and 70s California? Then strap in for the ride.

It’s undeniable that Laurel Canyon is a special place, and it was especially so during the romanticized halcyon days of the late 60s and early 70s. Of course, if you’re reading this article, you know a thing or two about the 60s and 70s Laurel Canyon music scene. But still. There’s something about the Mamas and the Papas, CSNY, Joni Mitchell, and all the others that we just can’t get enough of.

Full disclosure — I was born in 1991. BUT, I have visited Laurel Canyon, have gone on Pamela Des Barres Laurel Canyon and Hollywood tour , and have basically been a music aficionado my entire life. In this article, I’ll go through my picks of the ultimate Laurel Canyon tunes and give a bit of an explainer surrounding each addition.

*Scroll down to the bottom of this post to listen to the full playlist, and more, on Spotify!*

A Classic Laurel Canyon Playlist (Late 60’s & Early 70’s)

The Mama’s and The Papa’s “Twelve Thirty (Young Girls are Coming to the Canyon)”

So much can be said about The Mama’s and The Papa’s in regards to Laurel Canyon – for example, John and Michelle Phillips lived on Lookout mountain, and Mama Cass Elliot was basically known as the scene’s den mother of sorts (or, as Graham Nash referred to her, the Gertrude Stein of the Canyon), constantly influencing and bringing musicians together.

Released in 1967, “Twelve-Thirty” is an ode to Laurel Canyon, and also one of the last great recordings the Mama’s and the Papa’s produced.

Joni Mitchell ” The Circle Game”

Released in 1970, Joni Mitchell’s third album Ladies Of The Canyon was a groundbreaking album for Mitchell – both commercially and stylistically. Of course, the name album itself pays ode to the creative scene in Laurel Canyon at the time, of which she was a member, and has multiple themes referencing the aura. For example, the song “Willy” on the album is an ode to Graham Nash, whom she was dating and living with in the Canyon at the time.

“The Circle Game” is one of my favorite tracks from the album, doubly so as Joni once said that she wrote this song as a response to Neil Young’s “Sugar Mountain”; in which song he references losing his youth.

Sixteen springs and sixteen summers gone now Cartwheels turn to car wheels through the town And they tell him, Take your time, it won’t be long now Till you drag your feet to slow the circles down

📚 Read More: Honoring The Spirit of Gram Parsons at Joshua Tree Inn & Motel

Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young “Our House”

And as a follow up to Joni, it’s only fitting that I put CSNY’s “Our House” in the mix. The song was released on their 1970 album, Deja Vu , and became an instant classic.

One of my favorite Laurel Canyon stories, this song was written by Graham Nash after he and Joni Mitchell went for a walk, grabbed some breakfast, bought a flower vase at an antique store along the way, and then realized peak “countercultural domestic bliss”. The pair then went home, Graham sat at Joni’s piano, and “Our House” was finished an hour later.

Buffalo Springfield “For What It’s Worth”

Before CSNY, Stephen Stills and Neil Young were in a little band together with Richie Furay, Dewey Martin, and Bruce Palmer called Buffalo Springfield.

The song “For What It’s Worth” was born out of the ’66 Sunset Strip riot where around 1000 young protesters congregated to save the club Pandora’s Box, and to take a stand for legislators having recently introduced a curfew to the area.

📚 Read More: The Ultimate Route 66 Playlist

Poco “Pickin’ Up the Pieces”

Following the breakup of Buffalo Springfield, Richie Furay went on to form Poco, one of the pioneering country-rock groups of the era, along with Jim Messina and Rusty Young. Their first album, “Picking Up the Pieces” was in reference to the Buffalo split.

Eric Clapton (Cream “Sunshine of Your Love”)

While Eric is primarily known as an English musician through and through, I include him on this list because of his influence on the scene of the time and his work with with The Yardbirds, then John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers (which will further come into focus in a second), then Cream, then Blind Faith, then… okay i’m cutting myself off here.

Another reason I put him on this list, in this exact spot? Because of a photo, one of my favorite photos from this era. You know the one, the one taken by Rock n’ Roll photographer extraordinaire Henry Diltz at Mama Cass’s house in 1968. The one with Eric Clapton and David Crosby listening intently to Joni Mitchell as she plays guitar; with Clapton’s eyes transfixed on her. If I could have sat in on a moment…

John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers “Miss James”

A Laurel Canyon resident from 1969 – 1979, John Mayall released his 1968 album Blues From Laurel Canyon after he first landed in Laurel Canyon and met local characters such as Frank Zappa and resident groupie, and namesake of the song “Miss James”, Catherine James.

I read about her in the magazine The writer painted her in colors of a queen Other people said bad things instead So I was curious to check up what I’d read But askin’ around She couldn’t be found Strange, elusive Miss James

Frank Zappa “Willie the Pimp”

Confession: I have a little bit of an obsession with Frank Zappa. In 2012, I took a writing workshop by his one-time governess, Pamela Des Barres (for like, so many more reasons than that though). A few years later, I read “Freak Out! My Life with Frank Zappa” by Pauline Butcher, and was subsequently in correspondence with her regarding an edited version of the tome. Then, in 2016, I went to Laurel Canyon on Pamela’s LA Rock Tour and got to see not only where the infamous Log Cabin that Frank lived in for a short period (it eventually burned to the ground in 1981), but his long-term estate further into the Canyon.

I’m obsessed because, in my eyes, Frank was the King of Laurel Canyon and the Log Cabin, while only part of the story for a short time, was the setting of legends. Musicians and madmen would come strolling into the cabin day or night looking for a party and a story, and it was with Frank that many people came together to make history.

I could go into this so much further, but I’m going to just leave you with this song featuring LA character/musician Captain Beefheart. Oh, and I should mention that Miss Christine of the GTO’s is on the cover of the album on which this song is featured, Hot Rats.. more on that shortly as well.

The GTO’s “I’m In Love With the Ooh-Ooh Man”

Formed under the direction of Frank Zappa, The GTO’s (Girls Together Outrageously, Orally, or “anything else starting with O”) were an all-girl group made up of Miss Pamela (Miller, later Des Barres), Miss Christine, Miss Sparky, Miss Cynderella, Miss Lucy, Miss Mercy, and Miss Sandra. While the group only performed together 4 or 5 times, they gained notoriety when they opened for Wild Man Fischer, Alice Cooper, and the Mothers of Invention at Shrine Auditorium in 1968.

The group’s only album, Permanent Damage, was released in 1969.

Alice Cooper “Levity Ball”

In the late 60’s, after Vincent Furnier and crew had cemented their band name as Alice Cooper, they were playing a club in Venice Beach when they were approached by Supermensch himself, Shep Gordon. Shep took the band over to Frank Zappa’s studio where they were subsequently signed to Straight Records. While far from refined, I love the psychedelic sound of these early Alice Cooper recordings, which seem a far cry from, and yet still set the groundwork for, the harder sound for which they eventually became known.

Once signed to Zappa’s label, the GTO’s gave the band their special touch, with Christine and Pamela specifically in charge of setting the boys up with their uniquely costumed and heavily made-up look.

The Byrds “So You Wanna Be A Rock N’ Roll Star”

The Byrds, one of the first acts to achieve fame out of the LA scene, had a bit of a rotating lineup, but the important people for our purposes are David Crosby (later of CSNY), Jim (Roger) McGuinn, Gram Parsons (later of The Flying Burrito Brothers), and Chris Hillman. If you were a Byrds fan in the late 1960’s and you wanted to stalk the people behind the music, all you had to do was pay a visit to Chris Hillman’s house at 5424 Magnolia Drive (it has subsequently burned down due to a motorcycle fire), or Gram’s house nearby which, uh, also burned down in a fire.

“So You Wanna Be A Rock N’ Roll Star”, released in 1967, was essentially a low-key swipe at manufactured acts such as The Monkees (Mickey Dolenz was also a Canyonite btw), and was written in Chris’s Canyon home.

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

The Flying Burrito Brothers “Christine’s Tune”

A band born out of The Byrds, The Flying Burrito Brothers further pioneered the country-rock sound of the late 60’s. While the band has an insane and seriously convoluted amount of members and lineups since its heyday (wiki it, there’s like 70 of ’em), Chris Hillman and Gram Parsons basically stole the show as far as the original’s are concerned (in my eyes, anyway).

For further reading, I have a whole article on Gram Parsons and the place he tragically passed away at the age of 26 from an overdose, the Joshua Tree Inn and Motel.

The Doors “Love Street”

Take a walk around the Canyon Country Store and you’ll find a plaque that says “Love Street” and details why the little chunk of land it’s dug into is so important to music history.

Released on The Doors’ 1968 album Waiting For The Sun , “Love Street” was originally a poem written by Jim Morrison as an ode to the street in Laurel Canyon that he lived on with his girlfriend, Pamela Courson (the address was 8021 Rothdell Trail for anyone wondering). Apparently, the pair nicknamed the street love street because they would sit out on their balcony and watch all the hippies go strolling by.

Jim wrote Waiting For The Sun and a lot of The Soft Parade while living in this apartment.

She has wisdom and knows what to do She has me and she has you I see you live on Love Street There’s this store where the creatures meet I wonder what they do in there Summer Sunday and a year I guess I like it fine, so far

Linda Ronstadt “Don’t Cry Now”

A Tuscon native, Linda Ronstadt established herself early on as a Californian folk-rock / country rock leader.

Her fourth album, Don’t Cry Now was  released in 1973 and was co-produced by J.D. Souther, also of Laurel Canyon folk rock fame. The duo ended up dating and living together for some time in the Canyon, before fleeing due to the growing cocaine/boy’s club scene that was becoming more and more prominent by that time (the change in vibe partially spearheaded by The Eagles, more to come on that).

The songs on this album have been composed by a hodgepodge of great writers, with one of my favorites, the title track of the album, having been written by J.D. Souther.

Eagles “Take It Easy”

As Eagles member Glenn Frey once stated, “My very first day in California, I drove up La Cienega to Sunset Boulevard, turned right, drove to Laurel Canyon, and the first person I saw standing on the porch at the Canyon Store was David Crosby. He was dressed exactly the way he was on the second Byrds album—that cape, and the flat wide-brimmed hat. He was standing there like a statue. And the second day I was in California I met J. D. Souther.”

Being part of the Laurel Canyon scene, and having formed in 1971, the Eagles had the chance to see a lot of the early country-rock bands break-up, reform, and produce some of the most classic music of the era. They essentially took what was great out of bands such as CSNY, Poco, and The Flying Burrito Brothers, mashed it all together, and then found their own groove from those influences.

At the same time, with the rise of the Eagles began the demise of the Canyon scene. Of course, this wasn’t a single-handed venture, but from all I’ve read the band perpetuated a lot of the negative vibes that were going on in the early 70’s. When Don Henley and Glenn Frey arrived, they not only brought with them the aforementioned ‘boy’s club’, to which a lot of people either wouldn’t bow down to or who were shunned from, they were heavily involved in the cocaine scene, which eventually made users in the Canyon closed off and hostile.

I list “Take It Easy” here as not only is it my favorite Eagles tune, it was written by Glenn Frey and Jackson Browne, his Canyon neighbor at the time.

Longbranch/Pennywhistle (Glenn Frey & J.D. Souther) “Run Boy Run”

As previously mentioned, J.D. Souther is a singer, songwriter, comma slash actor who, in the early 70’s, was an integral part of the Laurel Canyon scene. Not only did he provide a wealth of his own material, he was an influence to other notables such as Linda Rondstat, Eagles, and Jackson Browne.

Which leads me to the fact that, pre-Eagles, Glenn Frey and Souther had a band together called Longbranch Pennywhistle.

Jackson Browne “Rock Me On The Water”

Once having held up residence in the laundry room of Columbia Records A&R guru Billy James’ Laurel Canyon home, Jackson Browne was a prolific songwriter in his Laurel Canyon days. Browne began writing songs for established acts such as Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Nico, and the Eagles, before getting signed by David Geffen to Asylum Records and releasing his eponymous album in 1972.

“Rock Me On The Water” is from that album.

The road is filled with homeless souls Every woman, child and man Who have no idea where they will go But they’ll help you if they can Now everyone must have some thought That’s going to pull them through somehow Well the fires are raging hotter and hotter But the sisters of the sun are going To rock me on the water now

Carole King “You’ve Got A Friend”

One of the most successful female songwriters in the second half of the 20th century, Carole King made waves in the folk music world when she, with the help of friends Joni Mitchell and James Taylor, released her debut album Writer , and then later 1971’s Tapestry .

The cover of Tapestry, taken by photographer Jim McCrary, was taken at King’s Laurel Canyon home in 1971, which she had been living in for a few years by that point. Both albums included, of course, “You’ve Got A Friend”.

Leon Russell “A Song For You”

One of the most successful and prolific musicians of the era, and afterwards (he recorded 33 albums and about 430 songs), one-time Canyon resident Leon Russell had his start as a songwriter, and as a member of Delaney & Bonnie and Friends in 1969 and 1970, during which time he met a lot of influential characters who would help to grow his career. And yeah, I know this is all a huge understatement given the magnitude of this guy’s career, but for sake of brevity…

Fun fact, both Eric Clapton and Gram Parsons were also one-time musicians for Delaney & Bonnie and Friends.

A Laurel Canyon Reading List

So much of this article was drawn from my knowledge gained by reading many books on the subject.

Some of my favorites are:   “ I’m With The Band ” by Pamela Des Barres, “ Laurel Canyon: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll’s Legendary Neighborhood ” by Michael Walker, “ No One Here Gets Out Alive ” by Jerry Jopkins and Danny Sugerman, “ Freak Out! My Life With Frank Zappa ” by Pauline Butcher, and “ Wild Tales: A Rock & Roll Life ” by Graham Nash.

Why Was Laurel Canyon Special?

When Joni Mitchell first came to Los Angeles, she was given a book by a friend that said, “Ask anyone in America where the craziest people live and they’ll tell you California. Ask anyone in California where the craziest people live and they’ll say Los Angeles. Ask anyone in Los Angeles where the craziest people live and they’ll tell you Hollywood. Ask anyone in Hollywood where the craziest people live and they’ll say Laurel Canyon. And ask anyone in Laurel Canyon where the craziest people live and they’ll say Lookout Mountain.”

So Joni bought a house on Lookout Mountain.

This was the sentiment among many in the late 60s and early 70’s seeking an alternative lifestyle in the Los Angeles hills. Not only was Laurel Canyon just a stone’s throw away from the Sunset Strip, it smelled of eucalyptus, acted as a reprieve away from the hustle and bustle, offered a groovy scene, and it was chock-full of characters.

That said, this scene wasn’t the first to have Laurel Canyon as its home base. In fact, in the early 20th century, when the area was first being developed, the Canyon attracted personalities such as Wally Reid, Harry Houdini, Bessie Love, and Errol Flynn. Then, in the post-WWII boom, the area began to welcome residents from the Beat Generation , with a couple of cool jazz cafes having popped up nearby.

But while the Canyon has lived a few lives, it was the late 1960’s / early 1970s that put Laurel Canyon on the map for all things creative, open-minded, and free-wheeling. Sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll, man.

Full Playlist on Spotify

The Spotify playlist includes this full list, plus a lot of extras that I cut out of the article for fear of going on forever and my fingers falling off from typing.

On Pamela Des Barres, A Lifetime of Stories, and Being a Doll

Graffiti and Velvet at the John Lennon Wall in Prague

Père Lachaise Cemetery: Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, Gertrude Stein, & friends

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10 Comments

You have a nice way of tying that whole 60’s and 70’s Laurel Canyon story together. I knew bits and pieces. You continue to enlighten me. Nice going!

Hey Taylor, a lovely piece on a time and music which evoke many special memories for me.

I created your playlist in Tidal: https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/2b5730e8-9777-44df-9c60-3f258d263ad6

Thank you for pulling it together. 🙂

Love Love Love your site!! I’m totally enamoured with the 60s/70s era, especially Laurel Canyon.

Thank you so much!! This site is a total labor of total love. Always nice to meet a kindred spirit!

As a boomer, I’m familiar with most of the songs and musicians mentioned here but I had no idea they were all connected. I came to this site after reading the article Gordon Lightfoot’s 10 Essential Songs, in the NY Times. He had just died and the article was explaining that Lightfoot’s songwriting drew from Greenwich Village folk and Laurel Canyon pop. Being from NYC, I guess you can’t blame me for not knowing what Laurel Canyon pop is. Now I not only learned what it is but I also learned the inspiration behind the writing of these great songs. I was very amused by the Monkees being the target of The Byrds “So You Wanna Be A Rock N’ Roll Star”.

Thanks for the great article! Peace & Love

Hi Frank! So awesome to hear you love the article and learned from it. Despite having seen Gordon Lightfoot live and having written music articles on Greenwich, I never actually knew he took inspiration from the Greenwich Village scene directly. I’m absolutely going to look into that more! And yeah, that Monkees/Byrds tidbit is one of my faves too haha. Cheers!

Love love love this. You are a wonderful writer. I am seventy-one years old, and now you’ve gone and leaped generations so that we have the chance to be, in a musical way, brother and sister. That makes me immensely younger.

From my blog, my take on the same era; forgive the slight bitterness, but I am a retired history teacher, and my generation let yours down.

But not in the music.

Hi Jim! Thank you so much for your kind words. I love your perspective on that; music does unite us!

Hi Taylor, I love your history of Laurel Canyon. When I was a little kid, my Dad owned Pandora’s Box. This was in the late 50s (around 1958-1959). At that time it was a coffee house frequented by “The Beat Generation.” I was probably 6 or 7 at the time.

Anyway, I am very interested in the Laurel Canyon musicians and would like to do a 3- or 4-part late night radio series based largely on your article. I am in a very small resort town I Oregon. Would you give me permission to use your narrative and playlist? I would definitely give you proper credit.

Hi JJ! That’s incredible that your dad owned Pandora’s Box in the 50s. If those walls could talk…

I’d be honored if this article was turned into a radio series. I’ll be in touch about this!

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• What Is Cinema?

An Oral History of Laurel Canyon, the 60s and 70s Music Mecca

By Lisa Robinson

When I first came out to L.A. [in 1968], my friend [photographer] Joel Bernstein found an old book in a flea market that said: Ask anyone in America where the craziest people live and they’ll tell you California. Ask anyone in California where the craziest people live and they’ll say Los Angeles. Ask anyone in Los Angeles where the craziest people live and they’ll tell you Hollywood. Ask anyone in Hollywood where the craziest people live and they’ll say Laurel Canyon. And ask anyone in Laurel Canyon where the craziest people live and they’ll say Lookout Mountain. So I bought a house on Lookout Mountain. —Joni Mitchell

Some say the Laurel Canyon music scene began when Frank Zappa moved to the corner of Lookout Mountain and Laurel Canyon Boulevard in the late 1960s. Former Byrds bassist Chris Hillman recalls writing “So You Want to Be a Rock ‘n’ Roll Star” in Laurel Canyon in 1966 in his house, on a steep winding street with a name he doesn’t remember. The Doors’ lead singer Jim Morrison reportedly wrote “Love Street” while living behind the Laurel Canyon Country Store. Michelle Phillips lived with John Phillips on Lookout Mountain in 1965 during the Mamas and the Papas’ heyday. Books and documentaries have mythologized and romanticized this woodsy canyon nestled behind Sunset Boulevard in the Hollywood Hills. Still, misconceptions continue.

For a start, the scene was more metaphorical than geographical. Nearly everyone who was there was, at one time or another, stoned; nobody remembers everything the same way. What is undeniably true is that from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s some of the most melodic, atmospheric, and subtly political American popular music was written by residents of, or those associated with, Laurel Canyon—including Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, Chris Hillman, Roger McGuinn, J. D. Souther, Judee Sill, the Mamas and the Papas, Carole King, the Eagles, Richie Furay (in Buffalo Springfield and Poco), and many more. They made music together, played songs for one another with acoustic guitars in all-night jam sessions in each other’s houses. Many of those houses were cottages with stained-glass windows, and fireplaces that warmed the living rooms in the chilly L.A. nights. They took drugs together, formed bands together, broke up those bands, and formed other bands. Many of them slept with each other. The music was mislabeled “soft rock” or “folk rock,” especially in the Northeast, where critics panned it as granola-infused hippie music—too “mellow” and too white. But in truth, it was an amalgam of influences that included blues, rock and roll, jazz, Latin, country and western, psychedelia, bluegrass, and folk. It certainly was a forerunner of today’s “Americana.”

Four decades after those songs were recorded, their harmonies and guitar interplay have influenced such contemporary bands as Mumford and Sons, the Avett Brothers, Dawes, Haim, Wilco, the Jayhawks, and the Civil Wars. (Even the facial hair has made a comeback.) Adam Levine (whose Maroon 5 got its start with a demo paid for by family friend Graham Nash) says, “The vibe of that music, the way it makes you feel when you’re driving in a car—it’s a landscape.” And producer Rick Rubin, who owns “the Houdini mansion,” on Laurel Canyon Boulevard (Houdini actually lived across the street for a brief time in 1919 in a rented house), says, “Laurel Canyon had the cross-breeding of folk with psychedelic rock and created some of the greatest music ever made.”

ELLIOT ROBERTS, manager, Neil Young; former manager, Joni Mitchell, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, the Eagles: It was a melting pot. People came from everywhere. Joni and Neil were from Canada, Glenn Frey was from Detroit, Stephen Stills and J. D. Souther were from Texas, Linda Ronstadt was from Tucson . . .

By Katie Nicholl

By Bess Levin

By Brian Stelter

DAVID GEFFEN, former agent, Laura Nyro, Joni Mitchell; former co-manager, CSNY, the Eagles, Jackson Browne; founder, Asylum Records: I first saw Joni when she played in Greenwich Village—she was a duo at the time with [her husband] Chuck. Then she made a record by herself.

ELLIOT ROBERTS: I saw Joni in New York in 1966 at the Café au Go Go. . . . I went up to her after the show and said, “I’m a young manager and I’d kill to work with you.” At that time, Joni did everything herself; she booked her own shows, made her travel arrangements, carried her own tapes. She said she was going on tour, and if I wanted to pay my own expenses, I could go with her. I went with her for a month, and after that, she asked me to manage her.

DAVID GEFFEN: I was [singer-songwriter] Buffy Sainte-Marie’s agent, and she sent me an advance test pressing of her new album with no information on the label. I called her up and said, “Buffy, I’m insane for your new album—I love it.” She said, “That’s so great—what’s your favorite song?” I said, “ ‘The Circle Game’—that’s the best song on the album.” She said, “Joni Mitchell wrote that.”

It Happened in Laurel Canyon

JONI MITCHELL, singer-songwriter-guitarist: Elliot, David, and I migrated from New York to Los Angeles. David was my agent; Elliot was my manager. I bought this little house, and David Crosby chided me for it; he said I should have looked around. But I liked that house.

The hill behind my house was full of little artificial man-made caves. The house was charming. I paid $36,000 for it, but I paid it off. I probably paid more for it because I paid it off. It had a fireplace and it was mysteriously protected by a force. My neighbors, who were six feet from my house, were junkies; I was out of town and came back and their house had burned down to the ground.

RICHIE FURAY, singer-songwriter-guitarist, Buffalo Springfield, Souther Hillman Furay Band, Poco: Stephen Stills said, Come out to California—I’ve got a band together. I need another singer. I said, I’m on my way. Once we [Buffalo Springfield] started playing at the Whisky [on Sunset Strip], everybody moved to Laurel Canyon—it was the spot. Neil Young [one of Buffalo Springfield’s guitarists] had been living in his Pontiac hearse, but he moved up to Lookout. But I don’t think Neil ever really wanted to be in a band. He’s certainly proved to be an icon in rock and roll, but Stephen was the heart and soul of Buffalo Springfield.

DAVID CROSBY, singer-songwriter-guitarist, the Byrds; Crosby, Stills & Nash; CSNY: After I got tossed out of the Byrds [in 1967], I went to Florida. I’m very romantically inclined and I’d always wanted to get a sailboat and just sail away. I went into a coffeehouse in Coconut Grove, and Joni was singing “Michael from Mountains” or “Both Sides, Now,” and I was just gobsmacked. It just pushed me up against the back wall. Even at the beginning she was very independent and already writing better than almost anybody. I brought her back to California and produced her first album [ Song to a Seagull ].

RICHIE FURAY: Stephen [Stills] was quite a stylized musician. A lot of people tried to copy him but couldn’t. I think that’s one of the things that made Buffalo Springfield musically click—the different styles that Neil and Stephen played. I just found my little rhythm in there somewhere, kind of the glue that would hold it together.

ELLIOT ROBERTS: We went out to California for Joni to record, and that’s when we took houses on Lookout Mountain, about four houses down from each other. When we were doing that first album, at Sunset Sound, the one Crosby produced, Buffalo Springfield was recording next door. Joni said you’ve got to meet Neil—she knew him from Canada. That night we all went to Ben Frank’s [a coffee shop on Sunset Boulevard], which in those days was one of the only places open around midnight. So I started working with Neil, and pretty soon I had Neil and Joni. Neil was leaving the Springfield—he had left two times before, but this was his final leave. And pretty soon a scene started in Joni’s house—that was the center where we would go all night.

GLENN FREY, singer-songwriter-guitarist, the Eagles: My very first day in California, I drove up La Cienega to Sunset Boulevard, turned right, drove to Laurel Canyon, and the first person I saw standing on the porch at the Canyon Store was David Crosby. He was dressed exactly the way he was on the second Byrds album—that cape, and the flat wide-brimmed hat. He was standing there like a statue. And the second day I was in California I met J. D. Souther.

J. D. SOUTHER, singer-songwriter-guitarist, actor: It all just sort of evolved. There really was no “moment.”

STEPHEN STILLS, singer-songwriter-guitarist, Buffalo Springfield, CSN, CSNY: It wasn’t Paris in the 20s, but it was a very vibrant scene.

GLENN FREY: There was just something in the air up there. I came from Detroit and things were flat. [In Laurel Canyon] there’s houses built up on stilts on the hillside and there’s palm trees and yuccas and eucalyptus and vegetation I’d never seen before in my life. It was a little magical hillside canyon.

CHRIS HILLMAN, singer-songwriter-guitarist, the Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers, Souther Hillman Furay Band, Desert Rose Band: Before rock and roll, Laurel Canyon had a lot of jazz guys and a bohemian Beatnik-type thing. Robert Mitchum got arrested for marijuana there at a party in 1948.

JONI MITCHELL: My dining room looked out over Frank Zappa’s duck pond, and once when my mother was visiting, three naked girls were floating around on a raft in the pond. My mother was horrified by my neighborhood. In the upper hills the Buffalo Springfield were playing, and in the afternoon there was just a cacophony of young bands rehearsing. At night it was quiet except for cats and mockingbirds. It had a smell of eucalyptus, and in the spring, which was the rainy season then, a lot of wildflowers would spring up. Laurel Canyon had a wonderful distinctive smell to it.

JONI MITCHELL: I had met Graham Nash in Ottawa and then re-met him in California. David was producing my first album, and all these people were here. . . . I do believe I introduced them at my house; that’s where Crosby, Stills & Nash was born.

STEPHEN STILLS: I always had a place in my heart for alley cats, and David was really funny. We would scheme about a band, and one night at the Troubadour I saw Cass, who I hadn’t seen for a while, and she said, “Would you like to have a third harmony?” I said, “I’m not sure—it depends on the guy, the voice.” So she said, “When David calls you to come over to my house with your guitar, don’t ask—just do it.” I knew that the queen bee had something up her sleeve, and, sure enough, David calls me and says, “Get your guitar and come to Cass’s house.” I can see it now—the living room, the dining room, the pool, the kitchen—and we’re in the living room and there’s Graham Nash. Then Cass goes, “So sing.” And we sang “In the morning, when you rise . . . ”

GRAHAM NASH, singer-songwriter-guitarist, the Hollies, CSN, CSNY: Stephen’s completely out of his mind. I remember it clearly and so does David. It was not at Mama Cass’s. We did sing at Cass’s. But not the very first time.

JONI MITCHELL: Well, there could be some overlap, because we did hang out at Cass’s too. But the first night they raised their voices together I do believe happened at my house. I just remember in my living room the joy of them discovering their blend.

STEPHEN STILLS: David and Graham insist that they took me to Joni’s, which I knew was impossible because Joni Mitchell intimidated me too fuckin’ much to sing in front of her. None of those books have got it right, because every one of us has a different memory. I don’t have Cass around to back me up; she remembered everything exactly.

GRAHAM NASH: It was thrilling and liberating for me, because I’d spent my formative years with the Hollies, who weren’t trusting me anymore, not wanting to record my songs like “Marrakesh Express.” Then, all of a sudden, there were David and Stephen saying, That’s a great song—we could sing the shit out of that.

DAVID CROSBY: When Neil [Young] joined [to form Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young], Neil didn’t think it was a group. For him, it was a stepping-stone. He was always headed for a solo career; we were a way to get there. Which doesn’t mean that he wasn’t a fantastic musician and songwriter and a force in CSNY. There was a point where I think we were the best band in the world.

Listen: The Laurel Canyon Playist

DAVID CROSBY: Cass was such a funny and vibrant person and somebody you definitely wanted to hang out with and talk to. She knew everybody and everybody liked her.

MICHELLE PHILLIPS, singer-songwriter-actor, the Mamas and the Papas: It was very lax at Cass’s house when she moved to Woodrow Wilson. Ashtrays were overflowing. She would let people write their phone numbers and messages on her walls with felt pens. She smoked a lot of pot. I wasn’t into food at that point in my life, but there were a lot of grown men there, so there must have been food. They probably called down to Greenblatt’s Deli and had 20 different platters of sandwiches brought up.

GRAHAM NASH: For me it was all a fantasyland. People were asking me for my opinion, saying why don’t you try this harmony part. It was a very freeing time in Los Angeles; it was an incredible place to be, America. The phone rang like it did in the movies. And you know, take-out food? What an incredible concept.

MICHELLE PHILLIPS: Cass’s house was the biggest mess I have ever seen a house be in my life. She never cleaned, never tidied up, never did the dishes, never made her bed. I remember going to her house in Stanley Hills before she moved to Woodrow Wilson. I got to her house and she wasn’t home, so I decided to jimmy the window and get in. You know those huge, giant, industrial-size jars of mayonnaise? She had dropped one on the floor and just left it there. I cleaned up her entire kitchen, her entire house; it took me, like, three and a half hours. I just kept cleaning until it was spotless. Then I walked out the door, closed it, and never said a word to her.

Everyone was single. Everyone was in their 20s. They could all hang out all night long. And, according to Jackson Browne, “Everybody slept with everybody. It was a time of sexual revolution and pre-AIDS. But it wasn’t pre-venereal disease; we had a soft spot in our hearts for the free clinics.”

LINDA RONSTADT, singer-actor: Well, who are you going to date—the dentist? But if you were smart, you didn’t mess around with anybody in your band. If you were smart.

PETER ASHER, singer-guitarist, Peter and Gordon; producer-manager for James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt: Linda had been working on tracks with producers John Boylan, John David Souther, and somebody else—all of whom were her boyfriends—and it wasn’t working out very well. I came in initially as a producer and then she asked me to be her manager. Linda and I were never boyfriend and girlfriend, which is probably a good thing—incredibly hot though she was.

BONNIE RAITT, singer-songwriter-guitarist: J.D. [Souther] is one of the greatest songwriters and a wonderful guy and a terrific singer. And of course he and Linda were an item for a long time. He’s just part of the family.

STEPHEN STILLS: I missed a lot of the scene because I was going back and forth to New York to see Judy [Collins].

The Snob’s Dictionary: Laurel Canyon’s Chill, Open-Door Music Scene

JUDY COLLINS, singer-songwriterguitarist: Stephen was in my band. It was after Buffalo Springfield broke up and before he put CSN together. We were falling in love and having this hot affair. I fell in love immediately. Four days after Robert Kennedy was assassinated.

DAVID GEFFEN: It was a scene with incredibly talented, attractive people. And many of them had sex with one another. Who wouldn’t? It was after birth control and pre-AIDS. It was a different world.

ELLIOT ROBERTS: A lot of that incestuous stuff [that’s been written about Joni and David Crosby and Graham Nash]—that never happened.

JONI MITCHELL: David Crosby and I were never a couple. We spent time together in Florida and he was off drugs and very enjoyable company at that time. We rode bicycles through Coconut Grove and went boating. But David’s appetites were for young harem girls who would wait on him. I would not be a servant girl. I had a child-like quality that made me attractive to him and my talent made me attractive. But we weren’t an item; I guess you could call it a brief summer romance in Florida.

DAVID CROSBY: I wanted to be with a great number of women. I was very entranced with Joni when I was with her, but she had her own plans. Graham was unquestionably the best thing that ever happened for her.

Watch and Listen: Let’s Take a Trip to Laurel Canyon

JONI MITCHELL: Graham and I fell in love, and he got sick and I Florence-Nightingaled him back to health. We were a good couple. I cooked for Graham, but the trouble was he’s from Manchester, and he liked gray, wrinkled peas from cans. And I like fresh peas from the market. I like to cook—I got quite zaftig, actually. But when he started doing coke, he had no appetite.

GRAHAM NASH: Joni and I had something very special. I was very privileged to have spent the one and a half, two years that I spent with her.

With the Vietnam War, and Richard Nixon in the White House, it was a time of protest. And whether it was Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth” (which writer Stephen Stills says was actually about a “funeral for a bar” when police closed the Pandora’s Box club, on Sunset Strip, in 1966) or Neil Young’s “Ohio” (after the 1970 Kent State shootings), the songs reflected the activism in the air.

DAVID GEFFEN: The music in the 1960s and ‘70s influenced people’s lives, influenced the culture, influenced politics. The difference between then and now is the draft. A volunteer army doesn’t get the same level of protest. When I was young, everybody wanted to pick up a guitar. Now everybody wants to work at Goldman Sachs.

DAVID CROSBY: The draft made it personal. And it made every college campus in America a hotbed of anti-war activism.

ELLIOT ROBERTS: It was such an exciting time, because we felt we were making change. Between Vietnam and the Black Panthers and civil rights, we were kicking shit up. A lot of kids who were going up to Canada [to avoid the draft] would come to our shows.

J. D. SOUTHER: The other thing you have to remember is that in those days people thought their votes counted for something. Now kids think that no matter who’s in the White House he’s still an asshole.

ELLIOT ROBERTS: David and I were friends from New York; he was from Brooklyn, I was from the Bronx, and we both had worked at talent agencies. He came out to L.A. when I was managing Joni and Neil and CSN. One night we were going to a birthday party, and I picked David up at his house on Sunset. When we got to the party, he said, “Don’t get out of the car for a second.” He said he’d been thinking that we should partner up and be Geffen-Roberts. I said I didn’t know. And he said, “Elliot, don’t be stupid.”

DAVID GEFFEN: We were very young. But I thought Elliot and I did a very good job. We really were flying by the seat of our pants; we were learning on the go. We invented it as we went along.

ELLIOT ROBERTS: David was such an influence and such a guiding light, the way he approached everything. I just didn’t have his balls.

JACKSON BROWNE, singer-songwriter-guitarist: David really had good taste in songs. I mean, to have your first artist be someone as incredibly gifted and as fully developed as Laura Nyro. . . . He was like a kingpin in between these really creative people and an industry that was not used to letting musicians do everything on their own terms.

DAVID CROSBY: We knew we were in a shark pool, and I’ve said it before: we wanted our own shark. We thought David was a guy who was hungry and voracious, that Elliot would be the mensch and David would be the shark. In the long run, Elliot became a shark, too. What I liked best about David was that he loved Laura Nyro and really wanted her to succeed. He took me to meet her in that little penthouse she lived in in New York and I was just blown away by her. She was such a sweetheart and so strange and talented.

DAVID GEFFEN: At Geffen-Roberts, we had no contracts with any of our artists. If they wanted to leave, they could leave on a day’s notice.

JACKSON BROWNE: I’ve seen David have arguments with his clients, but then, if someone else would put any of them down, he would take them to the mat. He was very loyal to his clients. And he probably could still hum you their songs.

IRVING AZOFF, co-owner, Azoff MSG Entertainment; current manager, the Eagles: By the time I arrived at Geffen-Roberts in 1973, David had already left to run the record company [Asylum], so I basically became the touring guy. The greatest gift David and Elliot gave me was that I saw the future with the Eagles, who, at the time, were managed by Geffen-Roberts. I was their age and they really appealed to me. And I got to go on the road with Joni Mitchell and Neil Young. To this day, you put me around Neil Young and I’m gaga.

PETER ASHER: Elliot is brilliant. Hippie chaos, but let’s not forget he’s a brilliant chess player. And David could do relatively outrageous things. But by the end of a phone conversation with David you’re thinking he didn’t do anything wrong. Then, after you hang up, you go, Wait a minute—how did I get talked out of that? He can be very convincing.

JACKSON BROWNE: David finally said he was going to start his own record label so he could make the records he wanted to make. In that way, he has more in common with those indie guys—he’s like the father of indie music.

DAVID GEFFEN: The music business was beginning to become big business. In 1972, when I sold Asylum Records for $7 million, the highest price ever paid for a house in Beverly Hills at that time was $150,000. The last year Elliot and I were in partnership—1971–1972—we earned $3 million. It was a lot of money, but I just didn’t want to do it anymore. I had sold the record company; I was just going to run the record company and Elliot would run the management company. I gave him my half [of the management company] for nothing, and I said, “Elliot, I’m giving it to you—just don’t call me about any problem with these guys.” And of course, he did.

CHRIS HILLMAN: I think the West Coast was more open to ladies in the business. I mean, what Joni Mitchell did was way far and above what most of the guys, myself included, could do as a songwriter or guitar player.

DAVID CROSBY: When I was with Joni, I’d write a song like “Guinnevere”—probably the best song I ever wrote—I’d play it for her, and she’d say, “That’s wonderful, David, here, listen to these ones.” Then she’d sing me four that were that good. It was a humbling experience for a writer.

JONI MITCHELL: As a girl, I was kind of allowed to be one of the boys. I was told that boys were able to be themselves around me. Somehow I was, in my youth, trusted by men. And I was able to be a catalyst in bringing interesting men together.

JACKSON BROWNE: It was the beginning of very big changes in the way women were regarded by society. It was a huge step forward in independence from religious dogma and there was no hierarchy there. If anything, women had more power than they’d ever had.

MICHELLE PHILLIPS: Cass was unique in the sense that she had some money, she had a lot of friends, and she was not dependent on John [Phillips].

BONNIE RAITT: It didn’t feel like a boys’ club to me, because there were really cool women who were hanging out with these guys. Joni was absolutely as original and deep and brilliant as anybody I had heard. She made a huge impact on all of us. And Emmylou Harris, Maria Muldaur, Nicolette Larsen, Linda Ronstadt, me—we were all part of that group.

LINDA RONSTADT: The good thing about musicians in terms of making advances in racial discrimination or sexual-gender identification is that musicians don’t give a shit as long as you can play. If you could play, hallelujah.

J. D. SOUTHER: Linda had a huge effect on me. She really gave me and Warren Zevon our careers because she cut so many of our songs. We were always grateful. She had good ears to spot the songs, and then she knew which ones she could sing.

JONI MITCHELL: My talent was kind of mysterious in that it was unorthodox. I can tell you I had a good right hand. There is a picture of me with Eric Clapton and David Crosby and Mama Cass’s baby on the lawn of Cass’s house, and Eric is just staring at me playing guitar and David looks proud, like the cat that ate the cream.

GLENN FREY: In 1974, I moved to a place at the corner of Ridpath and Kirkwood in Laurel Canyon, and we had poker games every Monday night during football season. Notorious card games. Joni Mitchell got wind of those card games, and she always was a good hang, so she started coming every Monday night and playing cards with us. We’d watch football from six to nine and then play cards until the wee hours. They called our house the Kirkwood casino.

J. D. SOUTHER: When Glenn and Don [Henley] had those poker nights and football nights, Linda and I moved to Beachwood Canyon, [so as] not to be living in that boys’ club over there in Laurel Canyon.

IRVING AZOFF: If you wanted to play there, you signed those contracts. David and Elliot thought it was an injustice to the acts, so with Lou Adler and [club owner] Elmer Valentine, they opened the Roxy.

LOU ADLER, producer, the Mamas and the Papas, Carole King: We opened the Roxy so we could give the artists a better dressing room, a better sound system, a better contract.

DAVID GEFFEN: Doug Weston would not play David Blue. He didn’t like David Blue. I said to him, “I don’t care if you like David Blue or not; he’s one of our artists, and if you want Joni or Neil or Jackson, you’ll play David Blue.” He said, “I’m not playing him.” So we opened our own club. Then, a week after we opened the Roxy [and its private upstairs club, On the Rox], I got a call from Ray Stark complaining that he didn’t like his table. Then I got a call from someone else saying the drink was shit. So I sold my interest to Elliot.

ELLIOT ROBERTS: We needed an alternative venue that was cool for our bands. The Troubador was 150 to 170 seats, the Roxy 600. It was that simple. I saw a documentary that said we declared war on Doug Weston—the most insane, idiotic thing. Who the fuck had time in those days?

LINDA RONSTADT: The Eagles had seen a lot of other bands break up, come together, and break up—like Poco and the Burrito Brothers. There had been a lot of versions of that country-rock sound. It finally coalesced because it found a groove with Don Henley.

GLENN FREY: When we got to Geffen-Roberts, in 1971, CSN were the big thing and we watched them. I watched them carefully—what they did right and what they did wrong.

CAMERON CROWE, former music journalist; film director and Oscar-winning screenwriter: At the time [the Eagles] were the little kid brothers looking for the respect of Neil Young. Glenn saw where Poco had failed and they could succeed. Taking the best of Poco and CSNY and putting it together to take it as far as it could go. CSN weren’t thinking about business as much as Elliot and David were. They were about the music. But the Eagles were about both.

CHRIS HILLMAN: I have great respect for the Eagles, for Henley and Frey, and I love the original band. What they did was take all those influences—but they did it right. They were smarter than we were. In the Burrito Brothers, Gram Parsons and I wrote good songs, but we didn’t have that work ethic.

GLENN FREY: I kept my eye on everybody’s careers. I read the backs of albums like they were the Dead Sea Scrolls. CSN hung the moon. They were like the Beatles for about two years.

STEPHEN STILLS: [The Eagles] certainly destroyed us at the box office. We have to get Neil and stay out a long time to make that kind of money.

CAMERON CROWE: Glenn and Don were never embraced as songwriters the way they should be. You’d catch shit for loving the Eagles as much as you loved CSNY.

J. D. SOUTHER: The press didn’t like the Eagles, because Irving Azoff wouldn’t let them talk to the press.

IRVING AZOFF: I loved Crosby, Stills & Nash, but the Eagles were saying something different. The Eagles were that post-Woodstocky thing. They were writing about lines on the mirror. They were guys’ guys. It was more like a fraternity.

DAVID GEFFEN: I remember everything, because I was not stoned.

BONNIE RAITT: Partying became a nuisance and self-destructive if you let it go on. By the time you’re at it for 10 or 15 years, it’s going to look different on you in your mid-30s than it did in your 20s.

PETER ASHER: This is the contradiction, isn’t it? They said the music was “mellow,” but these weren’t particularly mellow people. There was quite a lot of cocaine involved—which is not renowned for a mellowing effect.

DAVID CROSBY: Drugs were a bad influence on everybody. I can’t think of a single way that hard drugs ever helped anybody.

JONI MITCHELL: Cocaine just puts a barrier up. Where Graham and I had been a real couple, very close, suddenly there was this barrier. People were more secretive about drugs back then. I never was much of a druggie. Cigarettes and coffee—that’s my poison.

JUDY COLLINS: A lot of people used a lot of drugs. I was up to my eyeballs drinking. I wouldn’t use anything else seriously, because I really didn’t want to have my drinking interfered with.

DAVID GEFFEN: They all made a lot of money. They didn’t all keep a lot of money. David Crosby went through an incredible fortune; look what he went through to finally get his act together—he had to go to jail.

LOU ADLER: The hippie version of freedom in the 1960s was breaking down the Establishment. Well, we were buying houses in Bel Air; we were becoming the Establishment.

BONNIE RAITT: Once people get successful, they move to more expensive Zip Codes, and nobody does the hang anymore. The early days of being single and in your early 20s was a really golden era where all of us had less responsibilities than we did later. Once people started having kids, they moved to areas where the schools were good.

ELLIOT ROBERTS: The scene broke up because you became adults. We were all in our early 20s when there was that scene—all kids in their early 20s have a scene. All of a sudden you have a girlfriend or you’re getting married. By 30, 35, the scene is gone. You have families, kids, jobs. You buy a house. You want to get guitar lessons for your kid and a Bar Mitzvah. When you’re 20, it’s O.K. for eight people to crash in a living room, six on a floor. At 35 you’re not crashing anymore—your back hurts.

MICHELLE PHILLIPS: Before 1969, my memories were nothing but fun and excitement and shooting to the top of the charts and loving every minute of it. The Manson murders [in the summer of 1969] ruined the L.A. music scene. That was the nail in the coffin of the freewheeling, let’s get high, everybody’s welcome, come on in, sit right down. Everyone was terrified. I carried a gun in my purse. And I never invited anybody over to my house again.

Lisa Robinson

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Plan a road trip online with AAA TripTik Travel Planner, and save your trips for use with the AAA Mobile app . Along with trip planning maps and traveling directions, you can find AAA Approved and Diamond Rated places to stay and dine . Use the booking feature to make hotel reservations. Find nearby gas stations and get updated fuel prices . Locate electric vehicle charging stations. Calculate your driving distance and save your trips for use with the AAA Mobile app. Learn More

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Complete your AAA travel package with printable maps from AAA Map Gallery on AAA.com. Map Gallery has full-color maps of more than 400 popular destination areas across North America from Miami Beach to British Columbia. If you're a member, stop by your local AAA office. AAA's team of knowledgeable travel professionals will create a TripTik Travel Planner routing for you, provide information on vacation packages, help you find the best travel deals and even help you rent a car for the trip.

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Cyndi Lauper Announces 2024 Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour: See the Dates

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Cyndi Lauper is saying goodbye to the road.

On Monday (June 3), the veteran pop star announced her Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour, a 23-city North American trek that marks the singer’s first major run in more than a decade.

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The Live Nation-produced jaunt is scheduled to launch Oct. 18 at the Bell Centre in Montreal and wrap Dec. 5 at the United Center in Chicago. The tour will also visit major such major cities as New York, Boston, Nashville, Atlanta and Houston. See the full list of dates below.

Special guests on the trek will be revealed at a later date.

A ticket presale begins on Tuesday (June 4) and the general onsale starts Friday (June 7) at livenation.com .

Lauper’s farewell tour announcement arrives alongside the release of her upcoming biopic , Let the Canary Sing , which debuts June 4 on Paramount+. The feature-length film, directed by Emmy-winning documentarian Alison Ellwood ( Laurel Canyon ), premiered at last year’s Tribeca Festival in New York.

Legacy Recordings will release a career-spanning companion album that takes listeners from the singer’s early days in the group Blue Angel (“I’m Gonna Be Strong”) through the global breakout success of “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” and other iconic hits such as “True Colors,” “I Drove All Night,” “Money Changes Everything,” “The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough,” “She Bop,” “All Through the Night” and more.

See the dates to Lauper’s Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour below.

Oct. 18 : Montreal (Bell Centre) Oct. 20 : Toronto (Scotiabank Arena) Oct. 24 : Detroit (Fox Theatre) Oct. 26 : Boston (MGM Music Hall at Fenway) Oct. 27 : Washington, D.C. (Capital One Arena) Oct. 30 : New York (Madison Square Garden) Nov. 1 : Nashville (Bridgestone Arena) Nov. 3 : Columbus, Ohio (Schottenstein Center) Nov. 6 : Tampa, Fla. (Amalie Arena) Nov. 8 : Hollywood, Fla. (Hard Rock Hollywood) Nov. 10 : Atlanta (State Farm Arena) Nov. 12 : Dallas (American Airlines Center) Nov. 14 : Austin, Texas (Moody Center) Nov. 16 : Houston (Toyota Center) Nov. 19 : Phoenix (Footprint Center) Nov. 20 : San Diego (Viejas Arena) Nov. 23 : Los Angeles (Intuit Dome) Nov. 24 : Palm Desert, Calif. (Acrisure Arena) Nov. 26 : San Francisco (Chase Center) Nov. 30 : Portland, Ore. (Moda Center) Dec. 1 : Seattle (Climate Pledge Arena) Dec. 4 : Minneapolis (Target Center) Dec. 5 : Chicago (United Center)

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