1 00:00:02,352 --> 00:00:07,918 This programme contains some strong language. 2 00:00:07,953 --> 00:00:13,113 The impetus to move West and blast all that open and be free, 3 00:00:13,148 --> 00:00:16,673 being in that gorgeous state of California. 4 00:00:19,073 --> 00:00:23,673 You smoked a big one, took the shrink-wrap off, put the record on the record player 5 00:00:23,708 --> 00:00:25,672 and you were gone. 6 00:00:28,673 --> 00:00:31,877 There were things that we all felt were right 7 00:00:31,912 --> 00:00:36,192 and the truth is, I don't think we were wrong about hardly any of them. 8 00:00:37,952 --> 00:00:43,073 I had to watch the fights, the egos, the drugs, the alcohol, 9 00:00:43,108 --> 00:00:48,153 the...the...paranoia that came along with all of that. 10 00:00:48,188 --> 00:00:50,152 And it scared me. 11 00:00:54,752 --> 00:00:58,272 10 million girls and 2,000 bumps down the line, 12 00:00:58,307 --> 00:01:00,792 you don't know who you are any more. 13 00:01:04,553 --> 00:01:09,152 What's happening in the process, which I served gladly, 14 00:01:09,187 --> 00:01:11,552 is the corporatisation of rock. 15 00:01:14,712 --> 00:01:17,317 We just... 16 00:01:17,352 --> 00:01:19,833 took it to the bank. 17 00:01:20,313 --> 00:01:23,372 18 00:01:23,407 --> 00:01:26,397 19 00:01:26,432 --> 00:01:32,112 In 1965, Manhattan and London monopolised the music business. 20 00:01:32,147 --> 00:01:35,993 A decade later, for musicians and moguls alike, 21 00:01:36,028 --> 00:01:38,437 there was only one place to be, 22 00:01:38,472 --> 00:01:41,913 and it wasn't rain-soaked England or uptight New York. 23 00:01:43,032 --> 00:01:47,033 This is the story of how a small community of singer-songwriters, 24 00:01:47,068 --> 00:01:51,230 exiled in a rustic paradise at the heart of the metropolis, 25 00:01:51,265 --> 00:01:55,393 transformed Los Angeles into the music capital of the world. 26 00:01:55,428 --> 00:01:59,197 or this could be hell... 27 00:01:59,232 --> 00:02:02,717 It's a tale of artistic brilliance and decadent decline, 28 00:02:02,752 --> 00:02:08,352 of how a bunch of hippies gave rise to the biggest-selling record of all time, 29 00:02:08,387 --> 00:02:12,432 of the birth of corporate rock music and the death of a dream. 30 00:02:12,467 --> 00:02:16,073 31 00:02:18,873 --> 00:02:21,353 What a nice surprise 32 00:02:21,388 --> 00:02:24,833 33 00:02:46,432 --> 00:02:49,232 At 3am on 18th August 1969... 34 00:02:51,152 --> 00:02:56,153 ..a new group from Los Angeles took the stage at the Woodstock music festival. 35 00:02:56,188 --> 00:02:57,673 Thank you. 36 00:02:59,393 --> 00:03:01,792 They faced an audience of several hundred thousand 37 00:03:01,827 --> 00:03:04,997 and a cross-section of their musical heroes. 38 00:03:05,032 --> 00:03:11,033 This is the second time we've ever played in front of people, man. We're scared shitless. 39 00:03:14,112 --> 00:03:18,592 There's that remark by Stephen, "This is our second gig and we're scared shitless." 40 00:03:18,627 --> 00:03:20,238 I mean, he was right. 41 00:03:20,273 --> 00:03:23,352 We'd played a couple of nights before in Chicago 42 00:03:23,387 --> 00:03:25,078 and that was our second gig. 43 00:03:25,113 --> 00:03:28,872 Everybody that we really thought was good was there. 44 00:03:28,907 --> 00:03:32,153 Hendrix, Airplane, Grateful Dead, the Band. 45 00:03:32,188 --> 00:03:33,918 The Band. 46 00:03:33,953 --> 00:03:36,277 Did I mention...the Band? 47 00:03:36,312 --> 00:03:40,193 Uh...all standing around right behind us. 48 00:03:43,393 --> 00:03:45,192 "OK, the record was OK. Come on, show us." 49 00:03:48,953 --> 00:03:52,632 We knew who we were and what we could do, but nobody else did. 50 00:03:53,913 --> 00:03:57,652 51 00:03:57,687 --> 00:04:01,392 52 00:04:02,873 --> 00:04:05,832 53 00:04:07,393 --> 00:04:09,358 54 00:04:09,393 --> 00:04:13,632 55 00:04:14,393 --> 00:04:18,798 56 00:04:18,833 --> 00:04:21,552 Woodstock marked the collective climax of the hippy dream 57 00:04:21,587 --> 00:04:23,838 and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, 58 00:04:23,873 --> 00:04:28,632 along with their friend Joni Mitchell and manager David Geffen, 59 00:04:28,667 --> 00:04:32,232 were the alternative generation's hip new disciples. 60 00:04:38,873 --> 00:04:42,358 61 00:04:42,393 --> 00:04:46,638 and... 62 00:04:46,673 --> 00:04:51,713 We arrive at LaGuardia airport and the New York Times says, "400,000 people sitting in mud," 63 00:04:51,748 --> 00:04:53,873 and I said, "Forget it, I'm not going." 64 00:04:53,908 --> 00:04:57,998 65 00:04:58,033 --> 00:05:03,392 Joni and I stayed in New York at my apartment, where she wrote the song Woodstock. 66 00:05:03,427 --> 00:05:07,032 67 00:05:07,067 --> 00:05:12,190 68 00:05:12,225 --> 00:05:17,313 David Crosby, Stephen Stills, 69 00:05:17,348 --> 00:05:19,770 Graham Nash, Neil Young, 70 00:05:19,805 --> 00:05:22,193 David Geffen, Joni Mitchell. 71 00:05:23,633 --> 00:05:26,558 Six rising stars of the counterculture 72 00:05:26,593 --> 00:05:31,473 who came together in a city where ambition and idealism went hand in hand 73 00:05:31,508 --> 00:05:34,632 and helped put Los Angeles on the musical map. 74 00:05:45,472 --> 00:05:48,672 That man on the end is Jim McGuinn. 75 00:05:48,707 --> 00:05:51,837 The one playing bass is Chris Hillman. 76 00:05:51,872 --> 00:05:55,237 The one playing the drums is Michael Clarke. 77 00:05:55,272 --> 00:06:00,633 And I'm David Crosby and, when we are together, uh, they call us the Byrds. 78 00:06:00,668 --> 00:06:03,392 MUSIC: "Mr Tambourine Man" by the Byrds 79 00:06:05,232 --> 00:06:07,878 You'd be driving down Sunset Strip in your car 80 00:06:07,913 --> 00:06:11,033 and you'd hear the beginning notes of that and think, "Wow!" 81 00:06:11,068 --> 00:06:12,712 It'd just be such a rush. 82 00:06:14,513 --> 00:06:16,872 The quintessential folk-rock music. 83 00:06:17,753 --> 00:06:21,173 84 00:06:21,208 --> 00:06:24,558 85 00:06:24,593 --> 00:06:31,592 no place I'm going to... 86 00:06:32,592 --> 00:06:36,873 In May 1965, the Byrds, a Los Angeles beat group, 87 00:06:36,908 --> 00:06:39,517 released Mr Tambourine Man, 88 00:06:39,552 --> 00:06:44,072 a song written by the definitive hero of '60s folk. 89 00:06:44,107 --> 00:06:48,353 90 00:06:48,792 --> 00:06:53,152 The convincing case, the QED for the singer-songwriter... 91 00:06:55,152 --> 00:06:56,838 ..was Bob Dylan. 92 00:06:56,873 --> 00:07:01,832 Would you say that the words were more important than the music? 93 00:07:02,232 --> 00:07:04,037 Uh... 94 00:07:04,072 --> 00:07:07,232 the words are just as important as the music. 95 00:07:07,992 --> 00:07:10,638 There would be no music without the words. 96 00:07:10,673 --> 00:07:14,673 I got turned on to the Byrds because...I was a Dylan fan. 97 00:07:14,708 --> 00:07:18,877 And the music was important all of a sudden. 98 00:07:18,912 --> 00:07:23,873 Music was saying something, something that might move you, might change you, might change the world, 99 00:07:23,908 --> 00:07:26,158 might...push buttons. 100 00:07:26,193 --> 00:07:30,953 And there was a sense that something very important was going on. 101 00:07:30,988 --> 00:07:34,553 The Byrds transformed Dylan's acoustic folk ballad 102 00:07:34,588 --> 00:07:37,158 into a number-one pop single, 103 00:07:37,193 --> 00:07:40,813 directly inspired by another revolutionary team of songwriters. 104 00:07:40,848 --> 00:07:44,433 George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. 105 00:07:44,468 --> 00:07:47,472 We just were in awe of them. 106 00:07:47,507 --> 00:07:49,153 They were SO good. 107 00:07:50,393 --> 00:07:54,752 They'd put out a song like Paperback Writer and I'd wanna just give up 108 00:07:54,787 --> 00:07:57,838 cos I could never do that, I could never get close. 109 00:07:57,873 --> 00:08:02,873 Probably the thing that John and I will do will be write songs, 110 00:08:02,908 --> 00:08:05,393 as we have been doing as a sideline now. 111 00:08:05,428 --> 00:08:07,357 We'll probably develop that more. 112 00:08:07,392 --> 00:08:11,758 You could be an artist who did songs that were written for you 113 00:08:11,793 --> 00:08:16,153 but you really wanted to be the kind of artist that the Beatles were 114 00:08:16,188 --> 00:08:19,793 because they wrote all their stuff and you could - ha-ha! - 115 00:08:19,828 --> 00:08:22,632 you could really express yourself if you could do it. 116 00:08:25,352 --> 00:08:27,678 Everyone was so thrilled, 117 00:08:27,713 --> 00:08:32,358 and nobody was thrilled about folk music at all. 118 00:08:32,393 --> 00:08:36,753 It was as if it didn't exist, and pretty soon it didn't. 119 00:08:42,392 --> 00:08:46,132 For a generation schooled in the folk tradition of the East Coast, 120 00:08:46,167 --> 00:08:49,838 the Byrds' artistically credible but commercially successful pop 121 00:08:49,873 --> 00:08:54,792 opened up a whole new world in which the singer-songwriter reigned supreme. 122 00:08:54,827 --> 00:08:58,489 Musical life in Los Angeles would never be the same again 123 00:08:58,524 --> 00:09:02,152 and a small stretch of Hollywood became the only place to be. 124 00:09:02,187 --> 00:09:04,512 a rock'n'roll star 125 00:09:04,547 --> 00:09:08,073 126 00:09:09,912 --> 00:09:11,437 127 00:09:11,472 --> 00:09:14,752 how to play... 128 00:09:14,787 --> 00:09:17,998 The Sunset Strip is just this bizarre anomaly, 129 00:09:18,033 --> 00:09:22,472 physically part of the city but politically unincorporated, 130 00:09:22,507 --> 00:09:26,912 and from the '30s and '50s, essentially governed by the Mob. 131 00:09:26,947 --> 00:09:28,878 By the early '60s, the Strip was in decline 132 00:09:28,913 --> 00:09:33,558 and so what happened is that the folk-rock scene inherited 133 00:09:33,593 --> 00:09:38,557 what was the ruins of the glamorous Strip of the 1930s and '40s. 134 00:09:38,592 --> 00:09:43,752 The place where the musicians and songwriters felt they could be most in touch with 135 00:09:43,787 --> 00:09:47,352 the kids who represented the shape of things to come. 136 00:09:54,232 --> 00:09:57,877 All these kids would come, and they'd be underage kids, 137 00:09:57,912 --> 00:10:01,872 wearing bell-bottoms and beads and flowers and all that stuff. 138 00:10:01,907 --> 00:10:05,832 There was this flowering of feeling and reverence for life, 139 00:10:05,867 --> 00:10:07,877 like a carnival midway. 140 00:10:07,912 --> 00:10:10,833 And so the music scene was happening right in the middle of all of that. 141 00:10:13,313 --> 00:10:16,478 There was a magical quality to it. 142 00:10:16,513 --> 00:10:21,513 We suddenly found ourselves in the centre of a vortex. 143 00:10:23,112 --> 00:10:25,798 Somehow, music became 144 00:10:25,833 --> 00:10:28,593 a medium for an entire generation. 145 00:10:33,392 --> 00:10:35,592 You know, they're shooting this for television. 146 00:10:35,627 --> 00:10:37,758 I'm sure that they'll edit this out. 147 00:10:37,793 --> 00:10:40,958 I want to say it anyway, even though they WILL edit it out. 148 00:10:40,993 --> 00:10:45,317 When President Kennedy was killed, he was not killed by one man. 149 00:10:45,352 --> 00:10:49,593 He was shot from a number of different directions by different guns. 150 00:10:49,628 --> 00:10:53,712 The story has been suppressed. Witnesses have been killed. 151 00:10:53,747 --> 00:10:57,912 And this is your country, ladies and gentlemen. 152 00:10:58,992 --> 00:11:04,953 Nobody articulated the values of the Sunset Strip's burgeoning counterculture 153 00:11:04,988 --> 00:11:08,690 with as much swagger as the Byrds' David Crosby. 154 00:11:08,725 --> 00:11:12,358 David was the mouthpiece for our generation. 155 00:11:12,393 --> 00:11:16,632 In Rolling Stone, he was the one who had the mouth - he was speaking out 156 00:11:16,667 --> 00:11:19,358 and saying stuff, politically speaking. 157 00:11:19,393 --> 00:11:23,193 I certainly wasn't anybody's guru, man. I'm not smart enough. 158 00:11:23,228 --> 00:11:24,712 Er ... and I ... 159 00:11:26,352 --> 00:11:28,398 ..I was certainly outrageous. 160 00:11:28,433 --> 00:11:31,833 I probably helped tilt it towards outrageousness. 161 00:11:32,633 --> 00:11:35,638 So outrageous and so outspoken 162 00:11:35,673 --> 00:11:42,353 that it was no surprise when David Crosby was kicked out of the Byrds in 1967 163 00:11:42,388 --> 00:11:45,150 and began to look for a new band. 164 00:11:45,185 --> 00:11:47,888 I like eclectic music, you know. 165 00:11:47,923 --> 00:11:50,557 I like things that have roots. 166 00:11:50,592 --> 00:11:54,052 in the wee, wee hours 167 00:11:54,087 --> 00:11:57,512 cos of drizzling showers 168 00:11:58,392 --> 00:12:01,532 He come movin' up with me 169 00:12:01,567 --> 00:12:04,637 to some little old souped-up... 170 00:12:04,672 --> 00:12:10,273 When my group was playing in New York, we played at a jazz club and we sang four-part harmony. 171 00:12:10,308 --> 00:12:14,952 And we discovered him down the block playing in a little coffee house. 172 00:12:15,513 --> 00:12:18,713 I'd become airborne... 173 00:12:18,748 --> 00:12:22,030 Wow! This young guy with the guitar is really neat. 174 00:12:22,065 --> 00:12:25,313 My group moved to LA 175 00:12:25,348 --> 00:12:28,278 and, soon after, Stephen moved to LA. 176 00:12:28,313 --> 00:12:32,873 He'd stand at the edge of the stage and watch us singing and he loved the harmonies. 177 00:12:32,908 --> 00:12:36,473 No, baby 178 00:12:36,508 --> 00:12:38,272 179 00:12:39,552 --> 00:12:44,672 I'm gone like a cool breeze. 180 00:12:53,472 --> 00:12:57,758 In 1965, Stephen Stills, a folk-singer from Texas, 181 00:12:57,793 --> 00:13:02,397 joined the musical exodus from Greenwich Village to Sunset Strip. 182 00:13:02,432 --> 00:13:07,072 The following year, another precocious songwriter from Canada arrived, 183 00:13:07,107 --> 00:13:09,953 chasing sunshine and stardom in LA. 184 00:13:11,472 --> 00:13:13,672 Everybody having a good time, or what? 185 00:13:16,752 --> 00:13:22,273 and buy a pickup 186 00:13:24,072 --> 00:13:28,072 187 00:13:31,072 --> 00:13:36,393 and try to fix up 188 00:13:37,633 --> 00:13:41,913 189 00:13:43,953 --> 00:13:48,832 I was sitting on the trunk of my car and he saw me and he pulled in 190 00:13:48,867 --> 00:13:50,277 and, is ... 191 00:13:50,312 --> 00:13:53,878 "How are you, man?" And he dug out his guitar 192 00:13:53,913 --> 00:13:58,073 and sang me four or five of the best songs I'd ever heard in my life. 193 00:13:58,108 --> 00:14:01,390 194 00:14:01,425 --> 00:14:04,673 195 00:14:05,712 --> 00:14:10,477 196 00:14:10,512 --> 00:14:13,113 If he'd been a girl, I would have kissed him! 197 00:14:13,148 --> 00:14:18,833 His power as a songwriter is undeniable. 198 00:14:18,868 --> 00:14:22,673 199 00:14:27,113 --> 00:14:31,397 In April 1966, Neil Young and Stephen Stills 200 00:14:31,432 --> 00:14:35,197 came head to head in a traffic jam on Sunset Strip. 201 00:14:35,232 --> 00:14:40,072 Well, we, er...came to Los Angeles in an old hearse to, er...start... 202 00:14:40,107 --> 00:14:43,632 to try and make the stars - you know, we're gonna be stars. 203 00:14:43,667 --> 00:14:45,958 So, er...we were just about to leave 204 00:14:45,993 --> 00:14:49,797 and I saw him in a van going the other way on Sunset 205 00:14:49,832 --> 00:14:53,672 and he stopped and we stopped and we all stopped and then we started. 206 00:14:56,872 --> 00:15:00,432 Stephen Stills had found the band that he'd always wanted. 207 00:15:01,633 --> 00:15:05,998 about no hot, dusty roads... 208 00:15:06,033 --> 00:15:11,073 They were widening the street on Franklin - a street in Hollywood. I went outside 209 00:15:11,108 --> 00:15:14,570 and they were all arguing about what to call the group. 210 00:15:14,605 --> 00:15:18,032 And on a bulldozer, I saw the words "Buffalo Springfield". 211 00:15:21,113 --> 00:15:26,152 Buffalo Springfield represented a hip, new wave of musical emigres - 212 00:15:26,187 --> 00:15:29,449 more a collective of mutually ambitious individuals 213 00:15:29,484 --> 00:15:32,677 than the uniform pop groups that preceded them. 214 00:15:32,712 --> 00:15:38,592 Er...my name is Neil Young... Neil. How do you do?..lead guitar player. How do you do? This is Richie Furay. 215 00:15:38,627 --> 00:15:43,912 Big Dewey Martin - Buffalo Dew. Hello, Dewey. 216 00:15:43,947 --> 00:15:46,632 Bruce Palmer from Toronto, Canada. OK. 217 00:15:46,667 --> 00:15:50,249 Steve Stills from New Orleans. 218 00:15:50,284 --> 00:15:53,832 219 00:15:55,952 --> 00:16:00,192 Buffalo Springfield brought a new musical momentum to the Sunset Strip. 220 00:16:00,227 --> 00:16:04,433 And when their audience provoked the city's reactionary establishment, 221 00:16:04,468 --> 00:16:08,433 their response was a pop protest that, like LA, 222 00:16:08,468 --> 00:16:10,113 was both cool and commercial. 223 00:16:15,273 --> 00:16:19,352 Los Angeles was the scene of one of great culture wars in US history. 224 00:16:19,387 --> 00:16:22,969 They want everybody to do the same thing and live their own life. 225 00:16:23,004 --> 00:16:26,552 They want you to grow up, get an education, raise children and die. 226 00:16:26,587 --> 00:16:31,237 From the coming of Hollywood, with its sinful lifestyles, 227 00:16:31,272 --> 00:16:37,273 into a city into which a million pious, Protestant mid-Westerners had moved during the 1920s... 228 00:16:37,308 --> 00:16:41,273 Because you don't have a job because you don't have a direction, 229 00:16:41,308 --> 00:16:44,878 you're not a part of the super-society called "America". 230 00:16:44,913 --> 00:16:48,912 And in a sense, the battle of the Sunset Strip in the late '60s 231 00:16:48,947 --> 00:16:52,278 was the last battle in this 40-or-50-year-long clash 232 00:16:52,313 --> 00:16:58,752 between Hollywood Babylon on one hand and the kind of main-street puritanism on the other. 233 00:16:58,787 --> 00:17:01,877 Why do they think they can put down on our music? 234 00:17:01,912 --> 00:17:06,432 They say it's bad. They say it's noise - "Turn down the noise." 235 00:17:06,467 --> 00:17:09,233 But do they ever listen to the words? 236 00:17:09,268 --> 00:17:12,233 237 00:17:13,593 --> 00:17:17,192 238 00:17:18,312 --> 00:17:22,492 239 00:17:22,527 --> 00:17:26,673 240 00:17:28,872 --> 00:17:32,273 In the daytime, Sunset Strip had all these posh clothing stores. 241 00:17:32,308 --> 00:17:35,912 Those people didn't like the kids hanging out at night. 242 00:17:35,947 --> 00:17:38,837 And so, pretty soon, the police would come down. 243 00:17:38,872 --> 00:17:45,393 They'd park a big bus in the middle of the Strip and take everyone that was underage on the bus to jail. 244 00:17:48,432 --> 00:17:53,712 Pulling these beautiful young girls and throwing them on the bus. 245 00:17:53,747 --> 00:17:57,513 What is that about? You know. Everybody... "That's crazy! 246 00:17:57,548 --> 00:17:59,997 "It's the man. It's the pigs. 247 00:18:00,032 --> 00:18:04,553 "It's the other side. It's the same people that are trying to send us to war. 248 00:18:04,588 --> 00:18:07,872 "It's the older generation that doesn't know what life is about." 249 00:18:07,907 --> 00:18:09,598 250 00:18:09,633 --> 00:18:12,993 They were worried about the counterculture. 251 00:18:13,028 --> 00:18:15,873 252 00:18:15,908 --> 00:18:18,397 Godless communism. 253 00:18:18,432 --> 00:18:20,433 their minds... 254 00:18:20,468 --> 00:18:22,517 Corruption of youth. 255 00:18:22,552 --> 00:18:25,637 Drugs. 256 00:18:25,672 --> 00:18:30,838 Hey! What's that sound...? 257 00:18:30,873 --> 00:18:36,072 He's communicating with his peers and the cop says, "You can't do it. Get off the street!" 258 00:18:36,107 --> 00:18:39,329 259 00:18:39,364 --> 00:18:42,517 260 00:18:42,552 --> 00:18:46,412 The Sunset Strip riots provided the perfect showcase 261 00:18:46,447 --> 00:18:50,272 for Buffalo Springfield's socially conscious folk rock - 262 00:18:50,307 --> 00:18:52,477 a distinctive sound 263 00:18:52,512 --> 00:18:56,392 that was sending shockwaves through LA's new musical establishment.