Like California, Los Angeles has been rebuked and scorned in book, film, song, musical, vaudeville, pretty much every medium dating back to protozoan wall art. It’s easy to hate LA. I don’t have much of a problem with the city, beyond traffic, but the entertainment-industrial complex is a whoremaker chewing up everything in its […]
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As 1966 came to a close, The Byrds were in the studio recording songs for Younger Than Yesterday. Chris Hillman, inspired by his recent session work with Letta Mbulu and Hugh Masekela, brought his first songwriting efforts to the studio. I don’t think there’s enough critical appreciation of Hillman’s artistic leap from Fifth Dimension to […]
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A few days ago, the Rolling Stones released a remastered version of Exile On Main Street. I’m supposed to be excited about this, what with my lifelong membership in the “Exile Might Be The Greatest Album Ever” fan club. Meh. Financially, it makes perfect sense. I’m actually surprised its taken this long for the […]
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Through a fortuitous set of circumstances, this morning I happened upon a 2007 BBC documentary called, Hotel California: From The Byrds To The Eagles. While the title was promising and the documentary well-made, it covered the SoCal folk scene I’ve never much cared for (Neil Young excepted), it seemed to talk around, rather than […]
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In July 1968, The Byrds played South Africa without Gram Parsons, who decided that shooting smack with Keith Richards was better than playing segregated Johannesburg, so he essentially fired himself. While GP’s political motives were as much expedient as heartfelt, to his credit he flew the coop on a tour that was by all […]
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