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This programme contains some strong language.
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The impetus to move West and blast all that open and be free,
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being in that gorgeous state of California.
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You smoked a big one, took the shrink-wrap off, put the record on the record player
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and you were gone.
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There were things that we all felt were right
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and the truth is, I don't think we were wrong about hardly any of them.
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I had to watch the fights, the egos, the drugs, the alcohol,
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the...the...paranoia that came along with all of that.
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And it scared me.
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10 million girls and 2,000 bumps down the line,
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you don't know who you are any more.
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What's happening in the process, which I served gladly,
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is the corporatisation of rock.
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We just...
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took it to the bank.
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# On a dark desert highway
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# Cool wind in my hair... #
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In 1965, Manhattan and London monopolised the music business.
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A decade later, for musicians and moguls alike,
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there was only one place to be,
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and it wasn't rain-soaked England or uptight New York.
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This is the story of how a small community of singer-songwriters,
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exiled in a rustic paradise at the heart of the metropolis,
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transformed Los Angeles into the music capital of the world.
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#..This could be heaven or this could be hell... #
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It's a tale of artistic brilliance and decadent decline,
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of how a bunch of hippies gave rise to the biggest-selling record of all time,
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of the birth of corporate rock music and the death of a dream.
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#..Welcome to the Hotel California
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# What a nice surprise What a nice surprise
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# Bring your alibis... #
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At 3am on 18th August 1969...
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...a new group from Los Angeles took the stage at the Woodstock music festival.
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Thank you.
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They faced an audience of several hundred thousand
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and a cross-section of their musical heroes.
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This is the second time we've ever played in front of people, man. We're scared shitless.
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There's that remark by Stephen, "This is our second gig and we're scared shitless."
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I mean, he was right.
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We'd played a couple of nights before in Chicago
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and that was our second gig.
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Everybody that we really thought was good was there.
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Hendrix, Airplane, Grateful Dead, the Band.
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The Band.
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Did I mention...the Band?
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Uh...all standing around right behind us.
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"OK, the record was OK. Come on, show us."
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We knew who we were and what we could do, but nobody else did.
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# It's getting to the point
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# Where I've no pride any more
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# I'm sorry
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# Sometimes it hurts
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# So badly I must cry out loud
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# I'm lonely... #
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Woodstock marked the collective climax of the hippy dream
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and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young,
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along with their friend Joni Mitchell and manager David Geffen,
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were the alternative generation's hip new disciples.
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# By the time we got to Woodstock
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# We were half a million strong and... #
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We arrive at LaGuardia airport and the New York Times says, "400,000 people sitting in mud,"
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and I said, "Forget it, I'm not going."
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#..We are stardust... #
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Joni and I stayed in New York at my apartment, where she wrote the song Woodstock.
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#..And we got to get ourselves
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# Back to the garden... #
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David Crosby, Stephen Stills,
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Graham Nash, Neil Young,
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David Geffen, Joni Mitchell.
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Six rising stars of the counterculture
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who came together in a city where ambition and idealism went hand in hand
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and helped put Los Angeles on the musical map.
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That man on the end is Jim McGuinn.
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The one playing bass is Chris Hillman.
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The one playing the drums is Michael Clarke.
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And I'm David Crosby and, when we are together, uh, they call us the Byrds. 78
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MUSIC: "Mr Tambourine Man" by the Byrds
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You'd be driving down Sunset Strip in your car
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and you'd hear the beginning notes of that and think, "Wow!"
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It'd just be such a rush.
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The quintessential folk-rock music.
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# Hey, Mr Tambourine Man
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# Play a song for me
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# I'm not sleepy and there ain't no place I'm going to... #
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In May 1965, the Byrds, a Los Angeles beat group,
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released Mr Tambourine Man,
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a song written by the definitive hero of '60s folk.
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#..I'll come following you... #
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The convincing case, the QED for the singer-songwriter...
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...was Bob Dylan.
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Would you say that the words were more important than the music?
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Uh...
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the words are just as important as the music.
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There would be no music without the words.
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I got turned on to the Byrds because...I was a Dylan fan.
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And the music was important all of a sudden.
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Music was saying something, something that might move you, might change you, might change the world,
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might...push buttons.
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And there was a sense that something very important was going on.
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The Byrds transformed Dylan's acoustic folk ballad
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into a number-one pop single,
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directly inspired by another revolutionary team of songwriters.
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George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.
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We just were in awe of them.
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They were SO good.
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They'd put out a song like Paperback Writer and I'd wanna just give up
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cos I could never do that, I could never get close.
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Probably the thing that John and I will do will be write songs,
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as we have been doing as a sideline now.
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We'll probably develop that more.
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You could be an artist who did songs that were written for you
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but you really wanted to be the kind of artist that the Beatles were
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because they wrote all their stuff and you could - ha-ha! -
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you could really express yourself if you could do it.
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Everyone was so thrilled,
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and nobody was thrilled about folk music at all.
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It was as if it didn't exist, and pretty soon it didn't.
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For a generation schooled in the folk tradition of the East Coast,
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the Byrds' artistically credible but commercially successful pop
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opened up a whole new world in which the singer-songwriter reigned supreme. 122
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Musical life in Los Angeles would never be the same again
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and a small stretch of Hollywood became the only place to be.
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# So you want to be a rock'n'roll star
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# Then listen now to what I say
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# Just get an electric guitar
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# And take some time and learn how to play... #
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The Sunset Strip is just this bizarre anomaly,
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physically part of the city but politically unincorporated,
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and from the '30s and '50s, essentially governed by the Mob.
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By the early '60s, the Strip was in decline
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and so what happened is that the folk-rock scene inherited
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what was the ruins of the glamorous Strip of the 1930s and '40s.
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The place where the musicians and songwriters felt they could be most in touch with
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the kids who represented the shape of things to come.
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All these kids would come, and they'd be underage kids,
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wearing bell-bottoms and beads and flowers and all that stuff.
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There was this flowering of feeling and reverence for life,
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like a carnival midway.
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And so the music scene was happening right in the middle of all of that.
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There was a magical quality to it.
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We suddenly found ourselves in the centre of a vortex.
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Somehow, music became
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a medium for an entire generation.
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You know, they're shooting this for television.
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I'm sure that they'll edit this out.
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I want to say it anyway, even though they WILL edit it out.
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When President Kennedy was killed, he was not killed by one man.
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He was shot from a number of different directions by different guns.
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The story has been suppressed. Witnesses have been killed.
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And this is your country, ladies and gentlemen.
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Nobody articulated the values of the Sunset Strip's burgeoning counterculture
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with as much swagger as the Byrds' David Crosby.
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David was the mouthpiece for our generation.
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In Rolling Stone, he was the one who had the mouth - he was speaking out
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and saying stuff, politically speaking.
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I certainly wasn't anybody's guru, man. I'm not smart enough.
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Er...and I...
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...I was certainly outrageous.
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I probably helped tilt it towards outrageousness.
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So outrageous and so outspoken
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that it was no surprise when David Crosby was kicked out of the Byrds in 1967
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and began to look for a new band.
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I like eclectic music, you know.
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I like things that have roots.
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# New Jersey turnpike in the wee, wee hours
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# I was rolling slowly cos of drizzling showers
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# Here come a flat-top He come movin' up with me
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# Waving goodbye to some little old souped-up... #
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When my group was playing in New York, we played at a jazz club and we sang four-part harmony.
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And we discovered him down the block playing in a little coffee house.
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#..Bye-bye, New Jersey I'd become airborne... #
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Wow! This young guy with the guitar is really neat.
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#..And you can't catch me... # My group moved to LA
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and, soon after, Stephen moved to LA.
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He'd stand at the edge of the stage and watch us singing and he loved the harmonies.
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#..You can't catch me No, baby
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# You can't catch me
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# Cos if you get too close, you know I'm gone like a cool breeze. #
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In 1965, Stephen Stills, a folk-singer from Texas,
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joined the musical exodus from Greenwich Village to Sunset Strip.
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The following year, another precocious songwriter from Canada arrived,
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chasing sunshine and stardom in LA.
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Everybody having a good time, or what?
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# I think I'll pack it in and buy a pickup
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# Take it down to LA
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# Find a place to call my own and try to fix up
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# Start a brand-new day... #
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I was sitting on the trunk of my car and he saw me and he pulled in
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and, er...
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"How are you, man?" And he dug out his guitar
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and sang me four or five of the best songs I'd ever heard in my life.
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#..See the lonely boy
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# Out on the weekend
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# Trying to make it pay... #
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If he'd been a girl, I would have kissed him!
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His power as a songwriter is undeniable.
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#..Can't begin to say... #
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In April 1966, Neil Young and Stephen Stills
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came head to head in a traffic jam on Sunset Strip.
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Well, we, er...came to Los Angeles in an old hearse to, er...start...
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to try and make the stars - you know, we're gonna be stars.
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So, er...we were just about to leave
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and I saw him in a van going the other way on Sunset
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and he stopped and we stopped and we all stopped and then we started.
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Stephen Stills had found the band that he'd always wanted.
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# I don't tell no tales about no hot, dusty roads... #
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They were widening the street on Franklin - a street in Hollywood. I went outside
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and they were all arguing about what to call the group.
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And on a bulldozer, I saw the words "Buffalo Springfield".
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Buffalo Springfield represented a hip, new wave of musical emigres -
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more a collective of mutually ambitious individuals
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than the uniform pop groups that preceded them.
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Er...my name is Neil Young... Neil. How do you do?..lead guitar player. How do you do? This is Richie Furay.
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Big Dewey Martin - Buffalo Dew. Hello, Dewey.
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Bruce Palmer from Toronto, Canada. OK.
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Steve Stills from New Orleans.
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#..I don't like being alone. #
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Buffalo Springfield brought a new musical momentum to the Sunset Strip.
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And when their audience provoked the city's reactionary establishment,
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their response was a pop protest that, like LA,
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was both cool and commercial.
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Los Angeles was the scene of one of great culture wars in US history.
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They want everybody to do the same thing and live their own life.
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They want you to grow up, get an education, raise children and die.
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From the coming of Hollywood, with its sinful lifestyles,
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into a city into which a million pious, Protestant mid-Westerners had moved during the 1920s...
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Because you don't have a job because you don't have a direction,
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you're not a part of the super-society called "America".
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And in a sense, the battle of the Sunset Strip in the late '60s
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was the last battle in this 40-or-50-year-long clash
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between Hollywood Babylon on one hand and the kind of main-street puritanism on the other.
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Why do they think they can put down on our music?
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They say it's bad. They say it's noise - "Turn down the noise."
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But do they ever listen to the words?
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# Somethin' happening here
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# What it is ain't exactly clear
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# There's a man with a gun over there
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# Tellin' me I've got to beware... #
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In the daytime, Sunset Strip had all these posh clothing stores.
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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
#..Battle lines being drawn... #
250
00:18:09,633 --> 00:18:12,993
They were worried about the counterculture.
251
00:18:13,028 --> 00:18:15,873
#..If everybody's wrong... #
252
00:18:15,908 --> 00:18:18,397
Godless communism.
253
00:18:18,432 --> 00:18:20,433
#..Young people speaking their minds... #
254
00:18:20,468 -->00:18:22,517
Corruption of youth.
255
00:18:22,552 --> 00:18:25,637
#..So much resistance... # Drugs.
256
00:18:25,672 --> 00:18:30,838
# I think it's time we stop 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
#..Paranoia strikes deep
259
00:18:39,364 --> 00:18:42,517
# Into your life... #
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.
264
00:18:56,427 --> 00:18:58,877
# Stop! Hey, what's that sound?
265
00:18:58,912 --> 00:19:01,918
# Everybody look what's going down... #
266
00:19:01,953 --> 00:19:06,433
I saw dollar signs. I thought, "These guys will do something great!"
267
00:19:06,468 --> 00:19:09,397
#..Stop! What's that sound...? #
268
00:19:09,432 --> 00:19:11,398
There was sort of a whole marketplace.
269
00:19:11,433 --> 00:19:17,393
These guys were doing something purely unique and wonderful
270
00:19:17,428 --> 00:19:18,917
that I really loved.
271
00:19:18,952 --> 00:19:21,398
That was it. It was like the moment of truth!
272
00:19:21,433 --> 00:19:25,638
Whether or not any one group could hold that much talent...
273
00:19:25,673 --> 00:19:31,632
Don't forget, in Buffalo Springfield, on top of Neil and Stephen you had Richie Furay and Jim Messina
274
00:19:31,667 --> 00:19:33,273
and, er...
275
00:19:35,392 --> 00:19:36,037
It was...
276
00:19:36,072 --> 00:19:39,392
It was explosive!
277
00:19:41,232 --> 00:19:44,918
Despite producing three albums and a hit single,
278
00:19:44,953 --> 00:19:48,992
a combination of incompatible egos and bad management
279
00:19:49,027 --> 00:19:52,072
made Buffalo Springfield's demise inevitable.
280
00:19:53,192 --> 00:19:54,958
And by 1968,
281
00:19:54,993 --> 00:19:59,993
Stephen Stills and Neil Young were once again solo artists.
282
00:20:02,832 --> 00:20:06,192
If you're political, I guess it means a political revolution
283
00:20:06,227 --> 00:20:09,558
and, to some people, it's a spiritual revolution.
284
00:20:09,593 --> 00:20:13,913
I like to believe that maybe people are getting more together.
285
00:20:18,553 --> 00:20:24,037
# I've looked at clouds from both sides now... #
286
00:20:24,072 --> 00:20:28,512
When Judy Collins sang, "I've looked at life from both sides now..."
287
00:20:29,592 --> 00:20:32,832
#..It's clouds' illusions I recall... #
288
00:20:32,867 --> 00:20:34,557
"Clouds' illusions".
289
00:20:34,592 --> 00:20:40,113
We'd never used words like that, and so we discover a new songwriter
290
00:20:40,148 --> 00:20:41,917
named Joni Mitchell.
291
00:20:41,952 --> 00:20:46,393
# Rows and flows of angel hair... #
292
00:20:46,428 --> 00:20:51,150
#..And ice-cream castles in the air
293
00:20:51,185 --> 00:20:55,873
# And feathered canyons everywhere
294
00:20:56,232 --> 00:21:00,072
# I've looked at clouds that way... #
295
00:21:01,272 --> 00:21:04,398
By 1967,
296
00:21:04,433 --> 00:21:07,473
Joni Mitchell, a Canadian folk singer based in New York,
297
00:21:07,508 --> 00:21:11,398
had already found success as a writer.
298
00:21:11,433 --> 00:21:16,313
But a chance meeting with David Crosby, following his unceremonious exit from the Byrds,
299
00:21:16,348 --> 00:21:18,437
would draw her west to LA.
300
00:21:18,472 --> 00:21:23,832
#..Oh, I've looked at clouds from both sides now... #
301
00:21:23,867 --> 00:21:26,433
Walked in to a coffee house in Florida.
302
00:21:26,468 --> 00:21:28,232
She was singing.
303
00:21:31,833 --> 00:21:34,158
My heart nearly stopped.
304
00:21:34,193 --> 00:21:36,918
#..I really don't know life... #
305
00:21:36,953 --> 00:21:40,918
I'd never heard anybody play like her, anybody sing like her.
306
00:21:40,953 --> 00:21:45,432
I most especially had never heard anybody write like her, and I still haven't.
307
00:21:45,467 --> 00:21:47,952
For about a year after that, we...
308
00:21:49,113 --> 00:21:51,393
..stayed together. It was good.
309
00:21:57,632 --> 00:22:00,332
David Crosby had been thrown out of the Byrds
310
00:22:00,367 --> 00:22:02,998
and hadn't found Crosby, Stills And Nash yet,
311
00:22:03,033 --> 00:22:06,878
so he was bumming around town in a VW bus with a Porsche engine.
312
00:22:06,913 --> 00:22:11,193
And one night, David says, "Come on up to the house and we'll get high."
313
00:22:11,228 --> 00:22:13,158
He always had the best dope.
314
00:22:13,193 --> 00:22:17,412
It was like being invited for a wine tasting at Baron Rothschild's.
315
00:22:17,447 --> 00:22:21,632
About three or four in the morning, we're pretty wasted and David said,
316
00:22:21,667 --> 00:22:25,449
"Oh, there's someone I want you to hear..."
317
00:22:25,484 --> 00:22:29,197
..and comes back downstairs
318
00:22:29,232 --> 00:22:32,592
with Joni Mitchell - live, with a big guitar.
319
00:22:32,627 --> 00:22:34,512
# Light up
320
00:22:35,193 --> 00:22:36,877
# Light up
321
00:22:36,912 --> 00:22:40,632
# Light up your lazy blue eyes
322
00:22:41,832 --> 00:22:44,878
# Moon's up, night's up
323
00:22:44,913 --> 00:22:48,798
# Taking the town by surprise... #
324
00:22:48,833 --> 00:22:52,638
She played songs that hadn't even been recorded yet.
325
00:22:52,673 --> 00:22:56,112
Nobody had heard that music. Nobody had heard that voice.
326
00:22:56,147 --> 00:22:58,918
For us, it was like a hallucination.
327
00:22:58,953 --> 00:23:02,832
But by the time Crosby had finished producing her first album,
328
00:23:02,867 --> 00:23:06,157
everybody in LA knew about Joni Mitchell.
329
00:23:06,192 --> 00:23:10,597
I did not do a very good job of producing her record.
330
00:23:10,632 --> 00:23:15,912
But I did do one wonderful thing, which was keep everybody else off it.
331
00:23:15,947 --> 00:23:17,558
THAT'S a good thing.
332
00:23:17,593 --> 00:23:20,917
We have the power. We have the tolerance.
333
00:23:20,952 --> 00:23:23,397
We can go in front of a TV camera, we can go on the air
334
00:23:23,432 --> 00:23:26,632
and we can say with definition that Hitler was wrong, Rockwell is wrong,
335
00:23:26,667 --> 00:23:28,597
people who hate Negroes are wrong.
336
00:23:28,632 --> 00:23:31,798
We can get up there and shout it to the world, Pete!
337
00:23:31,833 --> 00:23:38,513
# I thought I was dreaming But I was wrong, yeah, yeah, yeah
338
00:23:38,548 --> 00:23:41,112
# Oh, but I'm gonna keep on schemin'
339
00:23:41,147 --> 00:23:43,589
# Till I can make you
340
00:23:43,624 --> 00:23:45,997
# Make you my own... #
341
00:23:46,032 --> 00:23:49,593
I spent years with the Hollies perfecting the pop song.
342
00:23:49,628 --> 00:23:52,477
#..Yeah, yeah, yeah... #
343
00:23:52,512 --> 00:23:54,477
Frivolous is not the right word,
344
00:23:54,512 --> 00:23:58,713
but certainly a little shallower than the stuff I was feeling personally.
345
00:23:58,748 --> 00:24:00,677
#..Oh, oh
346
00:24:00,712 --> 00:24:02,197
# Just one look... #
347
00:24:02,232 --> 00:24:06,473
So, at one point, the Hollies were not wanting to do my stuff -
348
00:24:06,508 --> 00:24:10,397
I'm talking about Marrakesh Express, Teach Your Children,
349
00:24:10,432 --> 00:24:13,872
Lady Of The Island, the first Sleep Song - and it kinda made me feel bad,
350
00:24:13,907 --> 00:24:16,913
because I thought they were decent songs.
351
00:24:18,912 --> 00:24:21,438
At the beginning of 1968,
352
00:24:21,473 --> 00:24:26,472
Graham Nash was a highly successful but thoroughly discontent Mancunian pop star.
353
00:24:27,552 --> 00:24:29,917
By the end of the year,
354
00:24:29,952 --> 00:24:35,952
he'd joined Joni Mitchell, David Crosby and Stephen Stills on the musical trail to LA.
355
00:24:35,987 --> 00:24:40,513
# Don't you know we're riding on the Marrakesh Express...? #
356
00:24:40,548 --> 00:24:43,752
Stephen is at loose ends after Buffalo Springfield.
357
00:24:43,787 --> 00:24:47,150
David has been thrown out of the Byrds.
358
00:24:47,185 --> 00:24:50,469
He and Stephen tried to cut some songs.
359
00:24:50,504 --> 00:24:53,753
Graham, as it turns out, meets up with Joni
360
00:24:53,788 --> 00:24:56,918
while he's on tour with the Hollies.
361
00:24:56,953 --> 00:25:02,917
#..I smell the garden in your hair... #
362
00:25:02,952 --> 00:25:04,673
Joni and I spent the night together in Ottawa
363
00:25:04,708 --> 00:25:07,432
and I fell completely in love.
364
00:25:08,153 --> 00:25:12,713
Listening to his high harmonies on the Hollies records, David and Stephen
365
00:25:12,748 --> 00:25:14,677
have conspired to kidnap him.
366
00:25:14,712 --> 00:25:18,477
#..Let me hear you now... # "That's just the thing we need!"
367
00:25:18,512 --> 00:25:22,512
#..On the Marrakesh Express... # David shows up at a Hollies show in England.
368
00:25:22,547 --> 00:25:27,478
Crosby came, with his cape and his cane and his attitude.
369
00:25:27,513 --> 00:25:32,712
"Hmm. Having a hard time with all these drinking guys who don't wanna cut Marrakesh Express."
370
00:25:32,747 --> 00:25:35,037
He had the best drugs. He had the best grass.
371
00:25:35,072 --> 00:25:37,713
He had the prettiest women, who were always naked.
372
00:25:37,748 --> 00:25:41,592
#..All aboard the train... #
373
00:25:41,627 --> 00:25:43,038
Crosby said,
374
00:25:43,073 --> 00:25:46,473
"They're crazy. We'll record it. Come on over."
375
00:25:46,508 --> 00:25:54,757
#..Come aboard... #
376
00:25:54,792 --> 00:26:00,712
If Nash had any doubts, they were banished after a musical gathering in the Hollywood Hills.
377
00:26:03,153 --> 00:26:06,633
My memory is that we were in Joni's living room
378
00:26:06,668 --> 00:26:10,113
and David said, "Hey, Stephen, play that song."
379
00:26:10,148 --> 00:26:13,952
And it was, um... You Don't Have To Cry.
380
00:26:13,987 --> 00:26:16,237
#..Cry, my baby
381
00:26:16,272 --> 00:26:19,077
# You don't have to cry... #
382
00:26:19,112 --> 00:26:21,993
And he said, "Sing it again. That's fabulous!"
383
00:26:22,028 --> 00:26:23,997
#..You don't have to cry... #
384
00:26:24,032 --> 00:26:28,473
"OK, one more time. Just sing it one more time."
385
00:26:28,508 --> 00:26:30,278
#..You don't have to cry... #
386
00:26:30,313 --> 00:26:34,152
The third time, I put my harmony in there and my world changed.
387
00:26:34,187 --> 00:26:37,878
#..In the morning... #
388
00:26:37,913 --> 00:26:40,752
Stephen and I both had the same thought, which rarely happens.
389
00:26:40,787 --> 00:26:44,478
We both thought, "Oh! We know what we're gonna be doing."
390
00:26:44,513 --> 00:26:49,917
I heard that sound and that's what I wanted. I wanted that sound.
391
00:26:49,952 --> 00:26:54,912
And I left everything. I left the Hollies, I left my band, I left my family and I went to America.
392
00:26:54,947 --> 00:26:57,678
#..Cry, my baby
393
00:26:57,713 --> 00:27:00,917
# You don't have to cry... #
394
00:27:00,952 --> 00:27:04,712
Graham Nash was the latest addition to a communal Who's Who of LA music
395
00:27:04,747 --> 00:27:08,672
that had made its home in the most tranquil of city settings.
396
00:27:11,753 --> 00:27:16,438
Los Angeles is unusual in that it has a mountain range running through it. 397
00:27:16,473 --> 00:27:21,953
There are several canyons that slice through it in a more or less north to southerly trace.
398
00:27:21,988 --> 00:27:26,193
Laurel Canyon was settled at the turn of the 20th century -
399
00:27:26,228 --> 00:27:29,637
in the early 1900s - by land speculators.
400
00:27:29,672 --> 00:27:34,073
It was a place where, mostly, people would come to hunt on the weekends -
401
00:27:34,108 --> 00:27:37,912
a bucolic canyon in the middle of this unsparing urban environment.
402
00:27:41,472 --> 00:27:46,673
Since the 1920s, Los Angeles had traded on the contrasting allure of sun and surf by day
403
00:27:46,708 --> 00:27:49,518
and Hollywood glitz by night.
404
00:27:49,553 --> 00:27:53,317
But the spiritual Shangri-La for a generation
405
00:27:53,352 --> 00:27:57,478
collectively committed to going back to the garden
406
00:27:57,513 --> 00:28:02,033
was Laurel Canyon, a rural paradise nestled right behind Sunset Strip.
407
00:28:04,233 --> 00:28:06,132
# I'll light the fire... #
408
00:28:06,167 --> 00:28:07,997
I lived across the street
409
00:28:08,032 --> 00:28:10,312
from Mark Volman of the Turtles.
410
00:28:10,347 --> 00:28:12,477
On my street alone
411
00:28:12,512 --> 00:28:17,832
was Mama Cass, Henry Diltz, Joni Mitchell, Carl Wilson.
412
00:28:17,867 --> 00:28:20,489
Jim Morrison right up the hill.
413 00:28:20,524 --> 00:28:22,838
#..Staring at the fire... #
414
00:28:22,873 --> 00:28:25,118
Tim Hardin was living there.
415
00:28:25,153 --> 00:28:28,953
There was Frank Zappa and the Mothers. There was Frazier Mohawk.
416
00:28:28,988 --> 00:28:31,038
Stephen Stills, David Crosby.
417
00:28:31,073 --> 00:28:35,433
I'd been living there since the Byrds. Jackson Browne.
418
00:28:35,468 --> 00:28:36,272
Micky Dolenz lived round the corner.
419
00:28:36,307 --> 00:28:38,833
#..Such a cosy room... #
420
00:28:38,868 --> 00:28:40,398
Tim Buckley
421
00:28:40,433 --> 00:28:43,358
and Larry Beckett lived somewhere else,
422
00:28:43,393 --> 00:28:46,373
but they were at our house really, really a lot.
423
00:28:46,408 --> 00:28:49,318
Eric Burdon was living in the canyon.
424
00:28:49,353 --> 00:28:53,273
The Doors had a place in canyon. John Mayall lived in the canyon.
425
00:28:53,308 --> 00:28:55,478
Crazy Horse had a house in the canyon.
426
00:28:55,513 --> 00:29:00,953
The late, great record producer Paul Rothschild had a house in the canyon,
427
00:29:00,988 --> 00:29:05,913
with the late Fritz Richmond, who was the jug player...
428
00:29:05,948 --> 00:29:07,917
#..Our house
429
00:29:07,952 --> 00:29:10,353
# Is a very, very, very fine house
430
00:29:10,388 --> 00:29:12,850
# With two cats in the yard
431
00:29:12,885 --> 00:29:15,277
# Life used to be so... #
432
00:29:15,312 --> 00:29:21,472
Graham Nash found himself in the midst of an extraordinary community of songwriters.
433
00:29:21,507 --> 00:29:25,489
But his alliance with David Crosby and Stephen Stills was hampered
434
00:29:25,524 --> 00:29:29,472
by a series of contracts binding all three to their previous bands.
435
00:29:29,507 --> 00:29:32,389
They needed professional help.
436
00:29:32,424 --> 00:29:35,237
We knew that we needed a manager,
437
00:29:35,272 --> 00:29:40,832
and we thought we had met one that was intelligent, that we liked, in Elliot Roberts.
438
00:29:40,867 --> 00:29:43,958
He was already managing Joni, and we liked him.
439
00:29:43,993 --> 00:29:47,272
But we also knew that we were going into the big leagues,
440
00:29:47,307 --> 00:29:50,470
and, essentially, the big leagues are a shark pool,
441
00:29:50,505 --> 00:29:53,598
so we thought it would be good if we had our own shark.
442
00:29:53,633 --> 00:29:58,992
I think I liked music. Whatever strikes me as being good is something that I wanna record.
443
00:29:59,027 --> 00:30:02,958
I don't think that every record we make is a hit,
444
00:30:02,993 --> 00:30:05,333
or that every artist that we record is going to be a star,
445
00:30:05,368 --> 00:30:07,673
but I think that all the music we put out is very valid.
446
00:30:16,473 --> 00:30:19,632
First of all, I had no contracts with my clients.
447
00:30:19,667 --> 00:30:21,718
They could all leave at any time.
448
00:30:21,753 --> 00:30:24,633
As it happens, none of them ever left.
449
00:30:29,992 --> 00:30:35,233
It was my job to stand like a dam against the river of shit that was coming down on these people,
450
00:30:35,268 --> 00:30:37,518
and that was a difficult job.
451
00:30:37,553 --> 00:30:40,993
I don't think THEY had a sense of how difficult it was,
452
00:30:41,028 --> 00:30:44,437
but I certainly did and, given how young we were,
453
00:30:44,472 --> 00:30:47,673
how inexperienced we were, I think we did a pretty great job.
454
00:30:59,392 --> 00:31:05,593
David Geffen and Elliot Roberts set up shop on Sunset Strip in 1969,
455
00:31:05,628 --> 00:31:08,630
and set about challenging the balance of power
456
00:31:08,665 --> 00:31:11,598
in LA's increasingly outdated music industry.
457
00:31:11,633 --> 00:31:15,513
Most of the business was still centred in New York,
458
00:31:15,548 --> 00:31:19,597
so...we had an advantage over the people
459
00:31:19,632 --> 00:31:22,512
who were surfing and smoking a lot of pot out here.
460
00:31:22,547 --> 00:31:26,993
Our metabolisms ran at a much higher speed.
461
00:31:30,233 --> 00:31:33,917
New York's Tin Pan Alley and Brill Building -
462
00:31:33,952 --> 00:31:40,473
songwriting factories churning out hits for artists considered disposable by their record labels -
463
00:31:40,508 --> 00:31:43,170
had dominated the industry for decades.
464
00:31:43,205 --> 00:31:45,798
Geffen and Roberts had a different model,
465
00:31:45,833 --> 00:31:49,878
in which the artist was the centre of the musical world.
466
00:31:49,913 --> 00:31:56,032
There were deals for artists with the record companies that were, you know, horrible,
467
00:31:56,067 --> 00:31:59,958
and David and Elliot, in particular, changed the dynamic.
468
00:31:59,993 --> 00:32:04,192
Up until then, the artists were getting screwed in a profound way.
469
00:32:04,227 --> 00:32:08,392
After them, they only got screwed in a less-than-profound way.
470
00:32:11,033 --> 00:32:16,398
In 1969, David Geffen set about negotiations
471
00:32:16,433 --> 00:32:20,633
to release David Crosby, Graham Nash and Stephen Stills from their previous commitments,
472
00:32:20,668 --> 00:32:25,192
and allow them to begin work on their eagerly anticipated first album.
473
00:32:25,227 --> 00:32:28,117
He's a rapacious businessman.
474
00:32:28,152 --> 00:32:31,752
Once you give him something to work with,
475
00:32:31,787 --> 00:32:35,318
he will, you know, tear it up, and he did.
476
00:32:35,353 --> 00:32:39,273
Elliot and I were baby doctors helping them deliver their baby,
477
00:32:39,308 --> 00:32:40,998
but it was about them.
478
00:32:41,033 --> 00:32:43,078
They were genuinely exciting.
479
00:32:43,113 --> 00:32:46,117
When you heard them sing, you were blown away.
480
00:32:46,152 --> 00:32:50,513
When Stephen wrote Suite - Judy Blue Eyes, about Judy Collins,
481
00:32:50,548 --> 00:32:53,433
who he was having a relationship with at the time,
482
00:32:53,468 --> 00:32:56,032
and you heard them sing that song,
483
00:32:56,067 --> 00:32:59,989
it was awesome.
484
00:33:00,024 --> 00:33:03,912
# Friday evening
485
00:33:06,432 --> 00:33:09,672
# Sunday in the afternoon
486
00:33:12,992 --> 00:33:16,192
# What have you got to lose? #
487
00:33:17,673 --> 00:33:19,733
They had wonderful songs,
488
00:33:19,768 --> 00:33:21,758
exquisitely roving melodies,
489
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and the simplest of arrangements.
490
00:33:24,628 --> 00:33:27,152
The whole thing was so pure.
491
00:33:27,187 --> 00:33:29,569
And it sang.
492
00:33:29,604 --> 00:33:31,917
And it worked.
493
00:33:31,952 --> 00:33:33,033
And it touched your heart.
494
00:33:36,633 --> 00:33:39,478 Just like their LA predecessors,
495
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the Beach Boys and the Mamas And Papas,
496
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Crosby, Stills And Nash were a harmony group,
497
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but they encapsulated a new spirit -
498
00:33:48,312 --> 00:33:52,957
the laid-back acoustic sound of Laurel Canyon.
499
00:33:52,992 --> 00:33:56,352
We wanted to engage the listener and put the listener on a journey
500
00:33:56,387 --> 00:33:59,369
where you smoked a big one, took the shrink-wrap off,
501 00:33:59,404 --> 00:34:02,352 put the record on the record player, and you were gone! 502 00:34:02,387 --> 00:34:09,873 # Guinevere had green eyes 503 00:34:11,313 --> 00:34:17,712 # Like yours, milady, like yours... # 504 00:34:20,553 --> 00:34:26,597 People say, "I don't know how many hours I stared at that picture." 505 00:34:26,632 --> 00:34:32,753 I had a musician from England say, "We used to sit and look at that Crosby, Stills And Nash cover 506 00:34:32,788 --> 00:34:35,910 "and say, 'What is it like to be there in California?' 507 00:34:35,945 --> 00:34:39,033 "and just stared at that thing while the music played." 508 00:34:39,068 --> 00:34:42,997 #..Peacocks wandered aimlessly underneath... # 509 00:34:43,032 --> 00:34:47,472 The '60s counterculture had been dominated by the strident psychedelia 510 00:34:47,507 --> 00:34:51,197 of acts like Jimi Hendrix, Cream and the Grateful Dead, 511 00:34:51,232 --> 00:34:56,993 but LA had produced a new sound that was both commercial and politically credible. 512 00:34:59,472 --> 00:35:02,793 FM radio, which was our path to the marketplace, 513 00:35:02,828 --> 00:35:05,878 was all hard-ass rock'n'roll, you know, 514 00:35:05,913 --> 00:35:10,953 and then along came acoustic guitars and three harmonies, 515 00:35:10,988 --> 00:35:13,490 and it just changed everything. 516 00:35:13,525 --> 00:35:15,958 # Da-da Da-de-dum-de-dum... # 517 00:35:15,993 --> 00:35:20,153 They had a hit album, a formidable manager 518 00:35:20,188 --> 00:35:22,757 and were planning a live tour, 519 00:35:22,792 --> 00:35:26,472 but Crosby, Stills And Nash also had a problem. 520 00:35:27,233 --> 00:35:32,153 Stephen played both guitar and keyboard on the record, and you can't do that on stage. 521 00:35:32,188 --> 00:35:36,078 Stephen talked to Ahmet Ertegun, who owned Atlantic Records at the time, 522 00:35:36,113 --> 00:35:42,473 a dear friend and a great supporter of Crosby, Stills And Nash, and he said, "Why don't you talk to Neil?" 523 00:35:42,508 --> 00:35:45,490 # He's a perfect stranger 524 00:35:45,525 --> 00:35:48,473 # Like a cross of himself 525 00:35:48,508 --> 00:35:49,752 # And a fox... # 526 00:35:51,592 --> 00:35:55,392 Less than a year after the collapse of Buffalo Springfield, 527 00:35:55,427 --> 00:35:59,158 Neil Young had already begun to make his mark as a solo artist. 528 00:35:59,193 --> 00:36:06,513 Now he was the fourth front man in a supergroup overflowing with individual talent. 529 00:36:08,952 --> 00:36:10,917 Even then, 530 00:36:10,952 --> 00:36:12,957 Neil was powerful. 531 00:36:12,992 --> 00:36:17,313 You weren't sure if you wanted to be competing with that power or co-operating with it. 532 00:36:17,348 --> 00:36:20,112 # It's the loner... # 533 00:36:22,593 --> 00:36:27,113 It was inevitable that that band would be as big as it turned out to be. 534 00:36:27,148 --> 00:36:28,797 No question about it. 535 00:36:28,832 --> 00:36:34,553 And it was also inevitable when Neil joined the group 536 00:36:34,588 --> 00:36:37,512 and it became Crosby, Stills, Nash And Young, 537 00:36:37,547 --> 00:36:40,149 that, inherent in that greatness, 538 00:36:40,184 --> 00:36:42,717 was the seeds of its destruction. 539 00:36:42,752 --> 00:36:47,612 # I'm not going back to Woodstock for a while... # 540 00:36:47,647 --> 00:36:52,473 Crosby, Stills, Nash And Young's mutual ambition 541 00:36:52,508 --> 00:36:55,078 had brought them fame and fortune, 542 00:36:55,113 --> 00:36:59,652 but over the next ten years, their early potential would be squandered 543 00:36:59,687 --> 00:37:04,157 amid clashing egos, drug addiction and the trappings of celebrity, 544 00:37:04,192 --> 00:37:10,992 and as the collective spirit of the '60s gave way to an age that would come to be known as the Me Decade, 545 00:37:11,027 --> 00:37:14,912 LA's solo singer-songwriters found their voice. 546 00:37:35,993 --> 00:37:37,918 When listening to music, 547 00:37:37,953 --> 00:37:41,832 look at the social forces that surrounded it when it came out. 548 00:37:44,472 --> 00:37:46,352 Look at what happened that year. 549 00:37:50,152 --> 00:37:53,557 In the summer of 1969, there was a genuine feeling 550 00:37:53,592 --> 00:37:58,512 that the collective values of the Woodstock generation might change the world. 551 00:37:58,547 --> 00:38:02,592 By the end of the year, that optimism would be all but shattered. 552 00:38:04,392 --> 00:38:07,512 The assassinations of Martin Luther King 553 00:38:07,547 --> 00:38:10,918 and Robert F Kennedy 554 00:38:10,953 --> 00:38:12,832 so shook our world in America... 555 00:38:14,952 --> 00:38:17,958 ..but in '69... 556 00:38:17,993 --> 00:38:22,072 Charles Manson visited Los Angeles, 557 00:38:22,107 --> 00:38:26,117 and that changed the entirety for ever. 558 00:38:26,152 --> 00:38:31,712 # Now we live in a trailer at the edge of town 559 00:38:32,952 --> 00:38:37,518 # You'd never see us cos we don't come around... # 560 00:38:37,553 --> 00:38:42,233 'The Manson family has become the most notorious of hippy groups... 561 00:38:42,268 --> 00:38:45,798 'It is said they were a pseudo-religious cult. 562 00:38:45,833 --> 00:38:49,752 'People who worked on the ranch said they were heavy users of drugs.' 563 00:38:49,787 --> 00:38:52,872 We went horseback riding out there at that farm. 564 00:38:52,907 --> 00:38:54,913 We knew some of the people. 565 00:38:56,953 --> 00:38:58,957 It was just terrifying. 566 00:38:58,992 --> 00:39:02,072 'Among his followers, members of the family, 567 00:39:02,107 --> 00:39:04,473 'Manson is regarded as a saint. 568 00:39:04,508 --> 00:39:05,478 'Many call him Jesus.' 569 00:39:05,513 --> 00:39:09,993 It was the commune gone wrong, wasn't it? 570 00:39:10,028 --> 00:39:13,273 # Well, I hear that Laurel Canyon 571 00:39:13,308 --> 00:39:16,517 # Is full of famous stars 572 00:39:16,552 --> 00:39:19,232 # But I hate them worse than lepers 573 00:39:19,267 --> 00:39:21,912 # And I kill them in their cars... # 574 00:39:21,947 --> 00:39:24,037 I don't have any big illusions. 575 00:39:24,072 --> 00:39:27,272 I know what I have done, and no man can judge me. 576 00:39:27,307 --> 00:39:29,678 I judge me. What have you done, Charlie? 577 00:39:29,713 --> 00:39:36,997 This crazed, misguided, drug-driven cultism...Satanism... 578 00:39:37,032 --> 00:39:43,477 touched the irrationality of the very thing that sustained flower-power, 579 00:39:43,512 --> 00:39:48,632 and that was the sense of unbridled optimism and social integration and trust, 580 00:39:48,667 --> 00:39:53,753 and all of that was shattered. It was like the snake that came into the Garden. 581 00:40:01,273 --> 00:40:06,833 The Manson gang's killing spree shamed and terrorised LA's alternative artistic community, 582 00:40:06,868 --> 00:40:11,112 of which he'd been a well-known if barely tolerated presence. 583 00:40:12,672 --> 00:40:18,472 Three months later, at a free Rolling Stones' concert at Altamont, near San Francisco, 584 00:40:18,507 --> 00:40:22,113 the counterculture was dealt another devastating blow. 585 00:40:29,913 --> 00:40:31,992 It was crazy, man. 586 00:40:34,392 --> 00:40:37,452 The Hell's Angels were the security. 587 00:40:37,487 --> 00:40:40,513 The were all drinking cheap red wine. 588 00:40:40,548 --> 00:40:42,672 They were all loaded on PCP... 589 00:40:42,707 --> 00:40:44,238 and acid. 590 00:40:44,273 --> 00:40:46,873 And it got really ugly. 591 00:40:49,992 --> 00:40:51,993 Can everybody just clear out! 592 00:40:53,952 --> 00:40:56,273 Will you clear out, everybody! 593 00:40:59,033 --> 00:41:05,513 Altamont's defining moment was the murder of an audience member called Meredith Hunter 594 00:41:05,548 --> 00:41:06,957 by a Hell's Angels gang member. 595 00:41:06,992 --> 00:41:11,878 People have been killed in sight of the stage, you know. 596 00:41:11,913 --> 00:41:17,312 While the Stones sing Sympathy For The Devil, everybody went, "This is a little NOT OK." 597 00:41:22,992 --> 00:41:24,198 That was death in your own backyard. 598 00:41:24,233 --> 00:41:26,753 It happened where people were congregating. 599 00:41:26,788 --> 00:41:29,478 It became larger than life. 600 00:41:29,513 --> 00:41:33,872 And it all occurred within months of the Woodstock festival, 601 00:41:33,907 --> 00:41:36,078 where everything had bloomed, 602 00:41:36,113 --> 00:41:40,753 and the sense of real possibility, suddenly you were brought up short at Altamont. 603 00:41:45,433 --> 00:41:48,198 There was a sense, in a way, 604 00:41:48,233 --> 00:41:51,593 like the discovery of AIDS, that the party was ending. 605 00:41:56,872 --> 00:42:00,918 It was time, it seemed, for the comedown. 606 00:42:00,953 --> 00:42:07,272 The new decade brought a shift in the emotional landscape of LA's emerging singer-songwriters, 607 00:42:07,307 --> 00:42:12,130 as the failure of the collective gave way to the power of the personal. 608 00:42:12,165 --> 00:42:16,918 Here's another really new one that isn't quite finished, just for fun. 609 00:42:16,953 --> 00:42:22,632 I think, if you listen to the material, you can see how everyone was forever changed. 610 00:42:26,753 --> 00:42:32,512 In 1970, Joni Mitchell, who two years earlier had penned the theme to Woodstock, 611 00:42:32,547 --> 00:42:37,198 recorded a collection of startlingly autobiographical songs. 612 00:42:37,233 --> 00:42:42,152 It was the basis of an album that would become the definitive statement 613 00:42:42,187 --> 00:42:44,433 of confessional songwriting. 614 00:42:45,993 --> 00:42:47,997 In my first week of college, 615 00:42:48,032 --> 00:42:50,678 she called and asked would I come out to California 616 00:42:50,713 --> 00:42:55,033 to do some photos of her. She was writing the songs for Blue. 617 00:42:55,068 --> 00:43:00,070 # I am on a lonely road and I am travelling 618 00:43:00,105 --> 00:43:05,072 # Looking for the truth in men and in me 619 00:43:05,107 --> 00:43:09,072 # Oh, my jealousy, my greed 620 00:43:09,107 --> 00:43:11,832 # They all unravel me 621 00:43:13,512 --> 00:43:17,118 # It undoes all the joy that could be... # 622 00:43:17,153 --> 00:43:22,953 From a songwriting viewpoint, most songwriters still are in awe of that record. 623 00:43:28,673 --> 00:43:35,997 # Blue-ue-ue-ue-eu... # 624 00:43:36,032 --> 00:43:39,072 Blue is an overwhelming album. 625 00:43:39,107 --> 00:43:42,112 # There is a song for you too 626 00:43:42,147 --> 00:43:44,832 # Ink on a pin 627 00:43:46,112 --> 00:43:48,277 # Underneath the skin... # 628 00:43:48,312 --> 00:43:51,993 All of a sudden, there's this woman writing about personal relationships 629 00:43:52,028 --> 00:43:55,010 on a very profound level, 630 00:43:55,045 --> 00:43:57,958 and it was deeply affecting. 631 00:43:57,993 --> 00:43:59,793 # Well, there's so many sinking now 632 00:43:59,828 --> 00:44:01,878 # You've gotta keep thinking 633 00:44:01,913 --> 00:44:05,312 # You can make it through these waves 634 00:44:05,347 --> 00:44:07,869 # Acid, booze and ass 635 00:44:07,904 --> 00:44:10,248 # Needles, guns and grass 636 00:44:10,283 --> 00:44:12,558 # Lots of laughs... # 637 00:44:12,593 --> 00:44:14,597 She changed the way I wrote, 638 00:44:14,632 --> 00:44:19,512 because I realised that it was OK to talk about what was happening in your heart, 639 00:44:19,547 --> 00:44:21,558 so that other people could go, 640 00:44:21,593 --> 00:44:26,352 "I know what you're saying. It happened to me the other day." Those kind of songs. 641 00:44:31,593 --> 00:44:34,238 A year after Joni Mitchell released Blue, 642 00:44:34,273 --> 00:44:38,993 Neil Young, an equally uncompromising singer-songwriter, 643 00:44:39,028 --> 00:44:40,433 produced a breakthrough record. 644 00:44:42,033 --> 00:44:45,273 Over the next 35 years, his relentless soul-searching 645 00:44:45,308 --> 00:44:48,712 would underpin an unpredictable musical journey. 646 00:44:50,793 --> 00:44:52,872 These guys will do anything for a laugh. 647 00:44:55,984 --> 00:44:58,748 # I wanna live 648 00:44:58,783 --> 00:45:01,477 # I wanna give 649 00:45:01,512 --> 00:45:07,992 # I've been a miner for a heart of gold... # 650 00:45:08,027 --> 00:45:09,997 Harvest was a huge success 651 00:45:10,032 --> 00:45:12,953 and it kind of put Neil on the map in a very profound way. 652 00:45:12,988 --> 00:45:20,513 #..That keep me searching for a heart of gold 653 00:45:20,548 --> 00:45:22,592 # And I'm getting old... # 654 00:45:24,232 --> 00:45:29,712 But immediately after, there were some tragedies. There was a roadie named Bruce Berry, 655 00:45:29,747 --> 00:45:34,477 and then there was Danny Whitten from Crazy Horse, 656 00:45:34,512 --> 00:45:36,992 both of whom OD'd in a short period of time, from heroin. 657 00:45:37,027 --> 00:45:39,829 #..I've been to Hollywood 658 00:45:39,864 --> 00:45:42,597 # I've been to Redwood 659 00:45:42,632 --> 00:45:48,558 # I crossed the ocean for a heart of gold... # 660 00:45:48,593 --> 00:45:54,353 Neil, at the peak of his success in the marketplace, 661 00:45:54,388 --> 00:45:56,238 exorcised all his demons, 662 00:45:56,273 --> 00:45:59,592 and that was Tonight's The Night, which was, 663 00:45:59,627 --> 00:46:02,912 in some ways, the most imperfect record he made. 664 00:46:02,947 --> 00:46:06,513 # Tonight's the night 665 00:46:08,392 --> 00:46:11,997 # Tonight's the night... # 666 00:46:12,032 --> 00:46:14,998 He was rebelling against production. 667 00:46:15,033 --> 00:46:18,398 He said, "I wanna make a record, and I wanna do this live, 668 00:46:18,433 --> 00:46:22,272 "but I want people to hear it before the band knows what they're doing." 669 00:46:22,307 --> 00:46:24,997 # Bruce Berry was a working man 670 00:46:25,032 --> 00:46:28,832 # He used to load that Econoline van... # 671 00:46:28,867 --> 00:46:30,678 So we went on tour, 672 00:46:30,713 --> 00:46:34,792 and everyone expected that he would play all the songs from Harvest. 673 00:46:34,827 --> 00:46:37,518 The Eagles were the opening act. 674 00:46:37,553 --> 00:46:40,772 The Eagles came out and were fucking great. 675 00:46:40,807 --> 00:46:44,500 #..And sing this song in a shaky voice 676 00:46:44,535 --> 00:46:48,193 # That was real as the day was long 677 00:46:49,593 --> 00:46:52,557 # Tonight's the night... # 678 00:46:52,592 --> 00:46:57,033 And then Neil came out and he did the Tonight's The Night album 679 00:46:57,068 --> 00:46:58,798 from beginning to end. 680 00:46:58,833 --> 00:47:01,598 He would say, "If you stick with this, 681 00:47:01,633 --> 00:47:05,033 "at the end I'll play songs that you've heard before." 682 00:47:05,068 --> 00:47:08,433 And then, at the end, he started the album over again! 683 00:47:10,032 --> 00:47:12,393 And that's when I knew I loved him. 684 00:47:12,428 --> 00:47:14,550 And the place emptied out. 685 00:47:14,585 --> 00:47:16,637 Pretty much every night! 686 00:47:16,672 --> 00:47:21,713 You know, it was fantastic. I never saw anyone do that. 687 00:47:21,748 --> 00:47:23,598 It was just awesome. 688 00:47:23,633 --> 00:47:27,633 It was just the power of his own belief and his own convictions, 689 00:47:27,668 --> 00:47:29,712 that he just didn't give a fuck. 690 00:47:29,747 --> 00:47:32,752 #..Tonight's the night 691 00:47:32,787 --> 00:47:34,233 # Whoa... # 692 00:47:41,792 --> 00:47:46,712 I guess I'm writing about a part of me that I don't know if I'll ever share. 693 00:47:46,747 --> 00:47:48,609 I don't know. 694 00:47:48,644 --> 00:47:50,437 It's just, um... 695 00:47:50,472 --> 00:47:53,193 I'm writing about, um... 696 00:47:54,552 --> 00:47:56,398 ..the way I feel inside 697 00:47:56,433 --> 00:47:59,557 and no matter how many people are around me... 698 00:47:59,592 --> 00:48:03,953 I keep talking about it, all the things that go on inside me, 699 00:48:03,988 --> 00:48:05,313 and, um... 700 00:48:07,392 --> 00:48:09,752 I guess by talking about it, it helps. 701 00:48:15,353 --> 00:48:17,993 Neil Young's low-fire rock'n'roll 702 00:48:18,028 --> 00:48:20,633 and Joni Mitchell's acoustic poetry 703 00:48:20,668 --> 00:48:22,998 sounded worlds apart, 704 00:48:23,033 --> 00:48:25,853 but they were both serious, sensitive musicians 705 00:48:25,888 --> 00:48:28,638 whose songwriting was intensely self-centred. 706 00:48:28,673 --> 00:48:33,637 They led a new generation of ruthlessly single-minded artists 707 00:48:33,672 --> 00:48:39,473 and prompted a radical change in the commercial strategy of LA's music industry. 708 00:48:41,873 --> 00:48:44,438 In the early days of Warner Reprise, 709 00:48:44,473 --> 00:48:48,033 the label had signed artists like Neil Young and Randy Newman 710 00:48:48,068 --> 00:48:49,598 and Joni Mitchell, 711 00:48:49,633 --> 00:48:53,632 and I think the label became aware that those artists had a vision, 712 00:48:53,667 --> 00:48:57,238 and it wasn't just a creative musical vision. 713 00:48:57,273 --> 00:49:02,393 It had to do with who they were and how they were represented and how they were perceived. 714 00:49:02,428 --> 00:49:05,797 Warner Reprise - part of Warner Bros - 715 00:49:05,832 --> 00:49:10,252 and previously best-known as Frank Sinatra's record company, 716 00:49:10,287 --> 00:49:14,672 was the first to gamble on LA's uncompromising troubadours. 717 00:49:14,707 --> 00:49:16,913 It was a calculated risk. 718 00:49:16,948 --> 00:49:18,717 And it paid off. 719 00:49:18,752 --> 00:49:22,032 If you put out great records by great artists, 720 00:49:22,067 --> 00:49:23,958 regardless of what they did, 721 00:49:23,993 --> 00:49:27,033 as long as you weren't getting hurt too badly financially, 722 00:49:27,068 --> 00:49:29,992 that was a way of drawing other artists. 723 00:49:30,027 --> 00:49:33,190 # Something in the way she moves 724 00:49:33,225 --> 00:49:36,353 # Or looks my way, she calls my name 725 00:49:37,593 --> 00:49:42,198 # That seems to leave this troubled world behind... # 726 00:49:42,233 --> 00:49:47,552 I was in a band in New York for a while, after I finished high school 727 00:49:47,587 --> 00:49:52,872 and, um...when that broke up, I decided I'd like to travel a little bit, 728 00:49:52,907 --> 00:49:56,517 so I went over to London and, um... 729 00:49:56,552 --> 00:50:00,232 I...I found it very difficult to get work without having papers, 730 00:50:00,267 --> 00:50:04,890 so I decided instead that I'd like to make a record. 731 00:50:04,925 --> 00:50:09,513 #..And if I am well you can tell she's been with me now 732 00:50:09,548 --> 00:50:11,610 # She's been with me now 733 00:50:11,645 --> 00:50:14,319 # Quite a long, long time 734 00:50:14,354 --> 00:50:16,958 # And I feel fine... # 735 00:50:16,993 --> 00:50:21,997 I was here in California and made a record deal for James 736 00:50:22,032 --> 00:50:26,033 with Warner Bros, choosing Warner Bros because of the cool people they had already, 737 00:50:26,068 --> 00:50:28,878 and because of the ads Stan Cornyn wrote, 738 00:50:28,913 --> 00:50:31,478 which were the coolest album ads we'd ever seen. 739 00:50:31,513 --> 00:50:36,072 James Taylor left Apple Records to be on Warner Bros. 740 00:50:36,107 --> 00:50:39,070 Apple was as hip as it could be 741 00:50:39,105 --> 00:50:42,033 and he wanted to be on our label. 742 00:50:46,112 --> 00:50:48,873 This was Sweet Baby James. This was amazing. 743 00:50:48,908 --> 00:50:53,033 # Well, there is a young cowboy 744 00:50:53,068 --> 00:50:54,993 # He lives on the range 745 00:50:56,433 --> 00:51:01,152 # His horse and his cattle They're his only companions... # 746 00:51:01,187 --> 00:51:03,678 Sensitive lyrics, 747 00:51:03,713 --> 00:51:09,552 mellow music and the intriguing suggestion of a tortured soul 748 00:51:09,587 --> 00:51:13,352 made James Taylor LA's latest exile singer-songwriter 749 00:51:13,387 --> 00:51:15,592 a powerful artistic force. 750 00:51:17,153 --> 00:51:21,833 #..So goodnight You moonlight ladies 751 00:51:21,868 --> 00:51:26,478 # Rock-a-bye My Sweet Baby James... # 752 00:51:26,513 --> 00:51:32,313 Neither James nor I have ever particularly liked the mellow, um, application, 753 00:51:32,348 --> 00:51:33,797 nor sensitive, 754 00:51:33,832 --> 00:51:36,912 because he's not that mellow and he's not that sensitive. 755 00:51:40,512 --> 00:51:47,033 But there is a contrast between a certain mellowness, for want of a better word, musically, 756 00:51:47,068 --> 00:51:50,033 with the fact that the lyrics are pretty intense. 757 00:51:50,068 --> 00:51:52,278 #..Just yesterday morning 758 00:51:52,313 --> 00:51:55,077 # They let me know that you were gone 759 00:51:55,112 --> 00:52:00,233 # Susanne the plans we made put an end to you 760 00:52:02,712 --> 00:52:05,317 # I walked out on a morning 761 00:52:05,352 --> 00:52:08,517 # And I wrote down this song... # 762 00:52:08,552 --> 00:52:11,632 There are lyrics about a friend who killed herself 763 00:52:11,667 --> 00:52:14,850 and experiences in a mental hospital and drugs, 764 00:52:14,885 --> 00:52:18,033 so the subject matter is not mellow at all. 765 00:52:18,068 --> 00:52:19,912 #..I've seen fire and I've seen rain 766 00:52:21,192 --> 00:52:26,033 # I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end... # 767 00:52:26,068 --> 00:52:28,313 He was a harder-core drug addict than any of us. 768 00:52:28,348 --> 00:52:30,998 Sweet Baby James was this fucking animal. 769 00:52:31,033 --> 00:52:35,392 He was a hippie junkie. And there was something about that mentality 770 00:52:35,427 --> 00:52:40,272 that, somehow or other, set him apart from everybody else. 771 00:52:40,307 --> 00:52:43,409 I remember saying to him one time, "It's a good thing 772 00:52:43,444 --> 00:52:46,512 "you're a fucking folk guy. If you were a rock'n'roller, 773 00:52:46,547 --> 00:52:48,558 "you'd have been dead years ago. 774 00:52:48,593 --> 00:52:53,593 "You can't behave like this without someone killing you, or killing yourself." 775 00:52:53,628 --> 00:52:58,117 #..Oh, I've seen fire and I've seen rain... # 776 00:52:58,152 --> 00:53:03,558 Backed by musicians drawn from a pool known as the LA Mafia, 777 00:53:03,593 --> 00:53:07,873 James Taylor's first West Coast record stayed on the album charts 778 00:53:07,908 --> 00:53:09,278 for over 100 weeks, 779 00:53:09,313 --> 00:53:13,272 making the sensitive singer-songwriter front-page news, 780 00:53:13,307 --> 00:53:16,037 and, in the same year, 781 00:53:16,072 --> 00:53:21,753 a fellow East Coast exile released the most successful record that LA had ever produced. 782 00:53:21,788 --> 00:53:26,832 I know that many of you are admirers of James Taylor. 783 00:53:26,867 --> 00:53:28,398 I am myself. 784 00:53:28,433 --> 00:53:30,958 I'd like to get him out here to help me. 785 00:53:30,993 --> 00:53:34,992 He was kind enough to volunteer, so, come on, James! 786 00:53:37,472 --> 00:53:42,878 Carole King had made her name as one half of Goffen And King, 787 00:53:42,913 --> 00:53:48,873 a prolific partnership at the heart of New York's hit songwriting factory, the Brill Building. 788 00:53:51,552 --> 00:53:54,993 But in LA, she would undergo a radical re-invention. 789 00:53:55,028 --> 00:53:58,957 # So far away 790 00:53:58,992 --> 00:54:05,553 # Doesn't anybody stay in one place any more...? # 791 00:54:06,713 --> 00:54:10,673 Carole King, she played on Sweet Baby James, 792 00:54:10,708 --> 00:54:13,752 so Carole was a huge part of it. 793 00:54:13,787 --> 00:54:17,930 #..It doesn't help to know 794 00:54:17,965 --> 00:54:22,038 # You're just time away... # 795 00:54:22,073 --> 00:54:26,513 She wrote all the great songs that we all grew up learning, 796 00:54:26,548 --> 00:54:31,032 from Up On The Roof to One Fine Day to Natural Woman. 797 00:54:31,067 --> 00:54:33,757 I mean, she wrote everything. 798 00:54:33,792 --> 00:54:39,392 Carole King's transformation from writer-for-hire to introspective singer-songwriter 799 00:54:39,427 --> 00:54:43,552 exemplified the music industry's shift from New York to LA, 800 00:54:43,587 --> 00:54:46,638 from Brill Building to Laurel Canyon. 801 00:54:46,673 --> 00:54:51,833 #..One more song about moving along the highway... # 802 00:54:54,553 --> 00:54:57,917 Tapestry spent a staggering 15 weeks at number one, 803 00:54:57,952 --> 00:55:03,513 confirming LA as the natural commercial and spiritual home for a new kind of popular artist. 804 00:55:05,313 --> 00:55:08,693 I think it's fair to say that Los Angeles had every intention 805 00:55:08,728 --> 00:55:12,073 of becoming the place to bring that heightened individuality 806 00:55:12,108 --> 00:55:15,278 of the singer-songwriter to the fore. 807 00:55:15,313 --> 00:55:19,513 We developed a thing out here called "the heat behind the beat", 808 00:55:19,548 --> 00:55:23,713 and those were the attorneys who made this whole thing possible. 809 00:55:23,748 --> 00:55:27,038 The idea of self-publishing, for example. 810 00:55:27,073 --> 00:55:30,032 The new autonomies that were available to the singer-songwriter. 811 00:55:30,067 --> 00:55:31,952 These things were codified out here. 812 00:55:34,912 --> 00:55:36,517 By the end of 1971, 813 00:55:36,552 --> 00:55:41,072 LA was the centre of a multi-million-dollar music business 814 00:55:41,107 --> 00:55:43,232 increasingly driven by its songwriters... 815 00:55:45,152 --> 00:55:49,518 ..and among the city's community of self-absorbed artists, 816 00:55:49,553 --> 00:55:53,753 one young musician emerged as the voice of the collective conscience. 817 00:55:53,788 --> 00:55:58,152 I remember I got an 8 x 10 glossy of this really cute guy 818 00:55:58,187 --> 00:56:00,150 with a demo, and I thought, 819 00:56:00,185 --> 00:56:02,078 "Can't beat Bob Dylan." 820 00:56:02,113 --> 00:56:06,272 Then my secretary listened to it and called me up the next day and said, 821 00:56:06,307 --> 00:56:09,593 "You ought to listen to that tape. That guy is really good." 822 00:56:09,628 --> 00:56:12,353 # Jamaica was the lovely one 823 00:56:12,388 --> 00:56:15,037 # I played her well 824 00:56:15,072 --> 00:56:19,197 # As we lay in the tall grass where the shadows fell... # 825 00:56:19,232 --> 00:56:23,673 Jackson Browne had moved the short distance from Orange County 826 00:56:23,708 --> 00:56:25,593 to Los Angeles in 1966, 827 00:56:25,628 --> 00:56:27,997 aged just 17. 828 00:56:28,032 --> 00:56:31,553 He was soon a popular and much-admired favourite 829 00:56:31,588 --> 00:56:35,110 of the Laurel Canyon community. 830 00:56:35,145 --> 00:56:38,597 #..Jamaica say you will... # 831 00:56:38,632 --> 00:56:44,172 There was a couple of years that I had offers, but didn't feel that I was really ready. 832 00:56:44,207 --> 00:56:49,713 I had it demonstrated to me really early that it took a lot of intention to make records, 833 00:56:49,748 --> 00:56:52,673 and that one couldn't just drift into the studio 834 00:56:52,708 --> 00:56:56,557 like our legendary heroes did 835 00:56:56,592 --> 00:57:00,512 and sit down, and, for $250, make your first masterpiece. 836 00:57:00,547 --> 00:57:04,433 I heard about Jackson through a woman named Pamela Polland - 837 00:57:04,468 --> 00:57:07,317 P-O-L-L-A-N-D. Gentle soul. 838 00:57:07,352 --> 00:57:13,553 Pamela's in Hawaii. When I found Pamela, Pamela said, "If you think I'M good, 839 00:57:13,588 --> 00:57:15,753 "you ought to find Jackson Browne." 840 00:57:18,833 --> 00:57:21,873 Musically, he was tremendously respected, 841 00:57:21,908 --> 00:57:23,557 and really a touchstone 842 00:57:23,592 --> 00:57:26,873 for a lot of the new genre of singer-songwriter. 843 00:57:26,908 --> 00:57:30,233 # Well, I've been out working... # 844 00:57:32,072 --> 00:57:36,432 Confessional lyrics, beautiful poetry, and wondering why the world is so screwed up 845 00:57:36,467 --> 00:57:38,917 and why your life is screwed up. 846 00:57:38,952 --> 00:57:44,918 He's an incredibly important seminal artist of our times. 847 00:57:44,953 --> 00:57:48,953 When Jackson wrote, "Please don't confront me with my failures, 848 00:57:48,988 --> 00:57:51,770 "I've not forgotten them," 849 00:57:51,805 --> 00:57:54,517 and he was only 17, you know! 850 00:57:54,552 --> 00:57:58,632 # Don't confront me with my failures 851 00:57:58,667 --> 00:58:02,797 # I had not forgotten them... # 852 00:58:02,832 --> 00:58:07,558 Good grief! You're writing like you're a man of 60! 853 00:58:07,593 --> 00:58:12,633 "Don't confront me with my failures, I've not forgotten them." 854 00:58:14,393 --> 00:58:15,952 Wonderful. 855 00:58:15,987 --> 00:58:17,477 Wonderful! 856 00:58:17,512 --> 00:58:22,792 Jackson Browne had the talent, charisma and looks to be a star. 857 00:58:24,593 --> 00:58:28,277 What he didn't have was a recording contract. 858 00:58:28,312 --> 00:58:33,672 David Geffen had been a manager and an agent, and he'd been well-versed in the different aspects of that... 859 00:58:33,707 --> 00:58:36,037 music business. 860 00:58:36,072 --> 00:58:40,113 I think he was going to put me to Columbia or Atlantic. 861 00:58:40,148 --> 00:58:41,993 Suddenly, I decided... 862 00:58:42,028 --> 00:58:43,957 Hell, I'll do it! 863 00:58:43,992 --> 00:58:50,238 I went to see Ahmet Ertegun, played the tapes and said, "You should sign him. You'll make a lot of money." 864 00:58:50,273 --> 00:58:57,632 He said, "I have a lot of money. Why don't you start a record company? You could have a lot of money." So I did. 865 00:58:57,667 --> 00:59:01,392 We use independent producers, or we let the artist produce themselves. Whatever they want. 866 00:59:01,427 --> 00:59:03,598 It's a very artist-oriented company 867 00:59:03,633 --> 00:59:06,837 and whatever they want to do, we support them. 868 00:59:06,872 --> 00:59:10,992 What I like the most were people who sang their own songs. 869 00:59:11,027 --> 00:59:16,072 That's what they all had in common at Asylum Records. 870 00:59:16,107 --> 00:59:18,850 That was the...gestalt of the day. 871 00:59:18,885 --> 00:59:21,558 He was also everybody's manager, too. 872 00:59:21,593 --> 00:59:24,197 Later, we had people grumbling about conflict of interest 873 00:59:24,232 --> 00:59:31,032 but there was no conflict of interest because I don't think he ever charged any of us for management. 874 00:59:31,067 --> 00:59:32,197 He was our patron, you know. 875 00:59:32,232 --> 00:59:35,832 The medici. The medici of rock'n'roll. 876 00:59:38,073 --> 00:59:40,517 # Doctor, my eyes have seen the years 877 00:59:40,552 --> 00:59:45,472 # And the slow parade of fears without crying 878 00:59:45,507 --> 00:59:49,518 # Now, I want to understand... # 879 00:59:49,553 --> 00:59:53,052 Asylum's artist-driven ethos was anathema 880 00:59:53,087 --> 00:59:56,517 to the conventions of the music business, 881 00:59:56,552 --> 01:00:00,312 and Geffen's approach to A&R was typically direct. 882 01:00:00,347 --> 01:00:04,038 David realised that other musicians are very often 883 01:00:04,073 --> 01:00:08,473 an extremely important source for finding out about new talent. 884 01:00:12,512 --> 01:00:16,517 Went over to his house, played some songs to him. Yes. 885 01:00:16,552 --> 01:00:20,952 He knew that when Jackson told him about John David Souther, 886 01:00:20,987 --> 01:00:25,353 or whichever order it happened in, he really paid attention. 887 01:00:25,388 --> 01:00:28,357 I don't think that every record that we make is a hit, 888 01:00:28,392 --> 01:00:33,593 or that every artist is going to be a star, but I think the music we put out is very valid. 889 01:00:33,628 --> 01:00:35,913 I thought, "Wow. This is just the way you think it's gonna work. 890 01:00:35,948 --> 01:00:40,357 #..Doctor, my eyes... # 891 01:00:40,392 --> 01:00:45,552 If we believe in them, we'll stick with them. We're not going to drop an artist if they don't sell. 892 01:00:45,587 --> 01:00:50,169 #..For having learned how not to cry... # 893 01:00:50,204 --> 01:00:54,717 Geffen's close relationship with his acts 894 01:00:54,752 --> 01:01:00,552 led Asylum to to sign some of the most talented, established and interesting songwriters in LA. 895 01:01:02,232 --> 01:01:06,872 But just a year after its birth, its solo artists would produce a band 896 01:01:06,907 --> 01:01:11,512 that would become one of the most successful acts in music history. 897 01:01:28,072 --> 01:01:30,952 For any musician serious about making the big time, 898 01:01:30,987 --> 01:01:33,198 LA was the only place to be, 899 01:01:33,233 --> 01:01:39,273 and by 1970, an new wave of artists had followed the heroes of the counterculture west. 900 01:01:39,308 --> 01:01:41,830 Among them were Glenn Frey, 901 01:01:41,865 --> 01:01:44,318 a guitar player from Detroit, 902 01:01:44,353 --> 01:01:48,353 and JD Souther, a songwriter from Texas. 903 01:01:51,633 --> 01:01:54,118 Befriended by local hero Jackson Browne, 904 01:01:54,153 --> 01:02:00,432 the three young troubadours found cheap digs in a Mexican neighbourhood near downtown LA, 905 01:02:00,467 --> 01:02:04,158 the unlikely setting for another songwriting collective 906 01:02:04,193 --> 01:02:08,673 that would, once again, transform the city's musical identity. 907 01:02:08,708 --> 01:02:14,033 # Like a bluebird with its heart removed 908 01:02:14,068 --> 01:02:16,558 # Lonely as a train 909 01:02:16,593 --> 01:02:20,673 # I've run just as far as I can run... # 910 01:02:20,708 --> 01:02:23,158 I moved to Echo Park 911 01:02:23,193 --> 01:02:27,273 and was instantly surrounded by people coming up through this... 912 01:02:27,308 --> 01:02:30,990 beautiful cloud, this merger of literature and music 913 01:02:31,025 --> 01:02:34,673 that seemed to take place around acoustic guitars. 914 01:02:35,873 --> 01:02:40,552 #..You tell me how long, how long 915 01:02:40,587 --> 01:02:43,072 # Woman, will you weep...? # 916 01:02:43,673 --> 01:02:48,552 Glenn Frey and I roomed together for a while, Jackson moved out, I moved downstairs, 917 01:02:48,587 --> 01:02:52,998 Glenn moved out, Jackson and I both got houses on Camrose Court, 918 01:02:53,033 --> 01:02:58,233 all writing in different combinations with each other. It was growing all the time. 919 01:02:58,268 --> 01:03:01,593 That was the little ball of dust that became a tornado. 920 01:03:01,628 --> 01:03:04,158 # Oh, goodbye-bye, baby 921 01:03:04,193 --> 01:03:10,553 # Rock yourself to slee-ee-eep... # 922 01:03:14,433 --> 01:03:20,758 The Echo Park posse would provide the songwriting basis for the biggest band in LA's history. 923 01:03:20,793 --> 01:03:26,113 Their musical inspiration would come from a raucous music club half a mile west of the Sunset Strip. 924 01:03:31,353 --> 01:03:35,833 I mean, it was a heart of a scene that encompassed James Taylor, 925 01:03:35,868 --> 01:03:40,552 Ry Cooder, Randy Newman, Little Feat, 926 01:03:40,587 --> 01:03:41,718 John David Souther... 927 01:03:41,753 --> 01:03:45,572 There was 20 or 30 people that all became very good friends 928 01:03:45,607 --> 01:03:49,357 and would, on any given night, go to the Troubadour bar 929 01:03:49,392 --> 01:03:54,877 and then drive a short distance up into the canyons to party at one or the other's houses 930 01:03:54,912 --> 01:04:00,632 and germinations of songs and love affairs, and terminations of love affairs, and deals were made 931 01:04:00,667 --> 01:04:03,553 within two or three miles of the Sunset Strip. 932 01:04:06,032 --> 01:04:11,277 LA's singer-songwriters had emerged from the folk tradition. 933 01:04:11,312 --> 01:04:16,553 At the Troubadour, they absorbed another form or reassuringly authentic American music. 934 01:04:21,352 --> 01:04:23,958 As the idealism of the '60s faded, 935 01:04:23,993 --> 01:04:29,393 country music would offer LA's troubadours a new sense of identity. 936 01:04:29,428 --> 01:04:32,570 # You made me 937 01:04:32,605 --> 01:04:35,677 # Sweet and nice 938 01:04:35,712 --> 01:04:41,712 # But that won't keep you warm at night 939 01:04:41,747 --> 01:04:44,317 # Cos I'm the one... # 940 01:04:44,352 --> 01:04:50,312 At the centre of LA's country revival was a charismatic cowboy called Gram Parsons. 941 01:04:50,347 --> 01:04:53,150 #..You're doing now 942 01:04:53,185 --> 01:04:55,918 # He may feel... # 943 01:04:55,953 --> 01:04:58,477 Country music was so horrible 944 01:04:58,512 --> 01:05:02,252 and you didn't even imagine that you would dare listen to it, 945 01:05:02,287 --> 01:05:05,958 but he sat me down in his room, took out his little record player 946 01:05:05,993 --> 01:05:12,193 and forced us to listen to George Jones, Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, and made us get it. 947 01:05:12,228 --> 01:05:17,430 #..I was right beside you then... # 948 01:05:17,465 --> 01:05:22,597 During a brief stint in the Byrds, 949 01:05:22,632 --> 01:05:27,592 and as a driving force in the Flying Burrito Brothers, 950 01:05:27,627 --> 01:05:30,558 Parsons was just one of a large pool of players 951 01:05:30,593 --> 01:05:32,833 infatuated with the music and mythology of the West. 952 01:05:32,868 --> 01:05:35,112 Chris Hillman, in the Burritos and the Byrds, 953 01:05:35,147 --> 01:05:37,433 he'd been a bluegrass mandolin player, 954 01:05:37,468 --> 01:05:39,918 I'd been a bluegrass banjo player, 955 01:05:39,953 --> 01:05:42,478 Jerry Garcia had been a bluegrass banjo player, 956 01:05:42,513 --> 01:05:45,753 so they were people who became influential musicians 957 01:05:45,788 --> 01:05:47,958 in the late '60s, early '70s, 958 01:05:47,993 --> 01:05:51,833 who started out in folk but had been off into the bluegrass thing as well. 959 01:05:57,753 --> 01:06:04,072 One of the most influential figures, and the undisputed queen of the Troubadour scene, 960 01:06:04,272 --> 01:06:06,513 was yet another exile in LA. 961 01:06:07,872 --> 01:06:10,318 I'm going to do a truck-driver's song now. 962 01:06:10,353 --> 01:06:15,993 I live with a bunch of people I knew from Tucson, on the beach, and we started hanging round the Troubadour. 963 01:06:16,028 --> 01:06:19,597 It's responsible for the entire music scene. 964 01:06:19,632 --> 01:06:24,672 This song was written by my friend Lowell George from Little Feat, and it's called Willin'. 965 01:06:26,113 --> 01:06:29,713 Of all the people responsible for the country-rock revolution, 966 01:06:29,748 --> 01:06:33,313 maybe Linda Ronstadt is the one that's overlooked the most, 967 01:06:33,348 --> 01:06:36,153 because she's a woman and considered a pop artist. 968 01:06:37,872 --> 01:06:40,473 # I've been warped by the rain 969 01:06:40,508 --> 01:06:42,110 # Driven by the snow 970 01:06:42,145 --> 01:06:43,678 # I'm drunk and dirty 971 01:06:43,713 --> 01:06:47,352 # Don't you know that I'm still 972 01:06:48,672 --> 01:06:51,558 # Willin'... # 973 01:06:51,593 --> 01:06:54,598 Linda, in many respects, was the glue that held this together, 974 01:06:54,633 --> 01:07:00,633 because she never was a singer-songwriter - she has barely written a song in her life - 975 01:07:00,668 --> 01:07:04,713 but Linda picked singers, and songwriters in particular, brilliantly. 976 01:07:04,748 --> 01:07:09,273 #..And I've been from Tucson to Tucumcari 977 01:07:09,308 --> 01:07:14,078 # Tehachapi to Tonopah 978 01:07:14,113 --> 01:07:17,953 # Driven every kind of rig that's ever been made... # 979 01:07:17,988 --> 01:07:20,512 She was the vehicle for JD Souther, 980 01:07:20,547 --> 01:07:22,237 for Warren Zevon, 981 01:07:22,272 --> 01:07:26,952 Karla Bonoff, Eric Kaz. She introduced me to Willin', by Lowell George. 982 01:07:26,987 --> 01:07:30,072 # And if you give me 983 01:07:31,912 --> 01:07:34,073 # Weed 984 01:07:35,272 --> 01:07:42,233 # Whites and wine... # 985 01:07:42,268 --> 01:07:44,077 In June 1971, 986 01:07:44,112 --> 01:07:46,957 Linda Ronstadt's boyfriend, JD Souther, 987 01:07:46,992 --> 01:07:50,513 and his friend Glenn Frey were in a country duo. 988 01:07:54,113 --> 01:07:57,278 But when JD decided to pursue a solo career, 989 01:07:57,313 --> 01:08:02,312 it seemed that Frey, despite being assigned to David Geffen's Asylum Records, 990 01:08:02,347 --> 01:08:05,073 was out on a limb. 991 01:08:05,192 --> 01:08:06,637 By the end of the year, 992 01:08:06,672 --> 01:08:10,592 he was fronting what would become LA's biggest band. 993 01:08:14,472 --> 01:08:17,812 Originally I told Glenn and JD 994 01:08:17,847 --> 01:08:21,117 that Glenn should form a band, 995 01:08:21,152 --> 01:08:24,432 that he wasn't strong enough as a solo artist to go by himself. 996 01:08:24,467 --> 01:08:26,993 Glenn wanted a bigger thing, more sound, 997 01:08:27,028 --> 01:08:28,438 and I wanted less, 998 01:08:28,473 --> 01:08:31,512 I wanted to be like Jackson and just go play by myself. 999 01:08:31,547 --> 01:08:33,672 I had left the Flying Burrito Brothers. 1000 01:08:33,707 --> 01:08:35,357 I'd hang out at the Troubadour, 1001 01:08:35,392 --> 01:08:39,478 and I'd run into Glenn Frey and Don Henley. 1002 01:08:39,513 --> 01:08:43,473 I found Don from this band, Shiloh. I heard them at the Troubadour. 1003 01:08:43,508 --> 01:08:47,037 Linda Ronstadt's producer, John Boylan, was helping them. 1004 01:08:47,072 --> 01:08:50,432 He told them to get Randy Meisner on bass, they thought that was a good idea. 1005 01:08:53,232 --> 01:08:55,037 They were missing a guitar player. 1006 01:08:55,072 --> 01:08:57,312 We told them they should get Bernie Leadon. 1007 01:08:57,347 --> 01:08:59,552 So I called Boylan and he said, "Yeah." 1008 01:09:01,073 --> 01:09:03,598 So the original Eagles were four people, 1009 01:09:03,633 --> 01:09:06,792 Glenn Frey, Don Henley, myself and Randy Meisner. 1010 01:09:07,793 --> 01:09:08,793 It's serious! 1011 01:09:11,873 --> 01:09:14,073 I never doubted that they'd be big. 1012 01:09:15,112 --> 01:09:17,433 We wanted him to get us on Atlantic Records, 1013 01:09:17,468 --> 01:09:19,597 he said, "Well, I can probably do that 1014 01:09:19,632 --> 01:09:23,237 "or you can be the first band on my new label, Asylum." 1015 01:09:23,272 --> 01:09:27,633 Then he was going to be our manager AND our record company president - 1016 01:09:27,668 --> 01:09:29,677 obviously, there's a conflict of interest there, 1017 01:09:29,712 --> 01:09:33,473 but we did it because we were sure that David was going to succeed. 1018 01:09:39,513 --> 01:09:43,512 The Eagles, an unashamedly ambitious band of country rockers, 1019 01:09:43,547 --> 01:09:45,238 seemed an incongruous addition 1020 01:09:45,273 --> 01:09:49,598 to Asylum's roster of earnest singer-songwriters. 1021 01:09:49,633 --> 01:09:53,273 But after a brief apprenticeship as Linda Ronstadt's backing band, 1022 01:09:53,308 --> 01:09:55,597 they made their first public appearance 1023 01:09:55,632 --> 01:09:59,073 in a tiny art gallery in Venice, California. 1024 01:09:59,108 --> 01:10:01,997 MUSIC: "Witchy Woman" by the Eagles 1025 01:10:02,032 --> 01:10:07,233 The first time The Eagles played was at an art opening for Boyd Elder, 1026 01:10:07,268 --> 01:10:08,513 our friend from Texas. 1027 01:10:11,352 --> 01:10:15,112 Joni Mitchell and Mama Cass and David Geffen was there, 1028 01:10:15,147 --> 01:10:18,072 Ned Doheny there was, you know, the whole gang. 1029 01:10:20,873 --> 01:10:24,932 Everybody was dancing on this wet concrete floor with beer all over it, 1030 01:10:24,967 --> 01:10:28,992 and the Eagles were there playing Witchy Woman over and over again. 1031 01:10:29,027 --> 01:10:33,597 # Woo-hoo, witchy woman 1032 01:10:33,632 --> 01:10:36,792 # See how high she flies... # 1033 01:10:36,827 --> 01:10:39,918 We only knew seven songs, 1034 01:10:39,953 --> 01:10:42,353 so we played the same seven songs over and over. 1035 01:10:43,553 --> 01:10:46,632 #..She got the moon in her eye... # 1036 01:10:46,667 --> 01:10:48,753 It was fun. Joni was dancing. 1037 01:11:04,112 --> 01:11:06,992 They were the apex of the California sound. 1038 01:11:07,027 --> 01:11:09,873 It expressed the sunshine and the warmth, 1039 01:11:09,908 --> 01:11:11,473 they were the core of it. 1040 01:11:13,272 --> 01:11:18,153 A magical combination of people who could create their material, 1041 01:11:18,188 --> 01:11:21,038 who could pick the best of other people's material, 1042 01:11:21,073 --> 01:11:25,632 and roll it up again in one of those very dusted musical packages. 1043 01:11:28,712 --> 01:11:30,672 # Well, I'm a-running down the road 1044 01:11:30,707 --> 01:11:32,597 # Trying to loosen my load... # 1045 01:11:32,632 --> 01:11:35,397 Helped by JD Souther and Jackson Browne, 1046 01:11:35,432 --> 01:11:39,872 the Eagles wrote songs that would become emblematic of '70s LA. 1047 01:11:41,273 --> 01:11:46,032 But not everybody was thrilled by their carefully crafted brand of country rock. 1048 01:11:46,067 --> 01:11:50,038 #..Take it easy... # 1049 01:11:50,073 --> 01:11:52,117 Their take on how to do it 1050 01:11:52,152 --> 01:11:55,233 is to reproduce the record every time perfectly, note for note, 1051 01:11:55,268 --> 01:11:58,998 and it works for them, you know, 1052 01:11:59,033 --> 01:12:03,073 it makes a good show for the crowd, but to me it's... 1053 01:12:05,032 --> 01:12:06,198 ..boring. 1054 01:12:06,233 --> 01:12:11,077 #..Take it easy... # 1055 01:12:11,112 --> 01:12:13,518 They take no chances. Ever. 1056 01:12:13,553 --> 01:12:16,357 #..Well, I was standing on a corner... # 1057 01:12:16,392 --> 01:12:19,992 The Eagles' reward for leaving nothing to chance 1058 01:12:20,027 --> 01:12:23,592 was a hit album and three number-one singles. 1059 01:12:23,627 --> 01:12:24,277 It started in the '60s. 1060 01:12:24,312 --> 01:12:26,993 We had a problem with the word "commercial", 1061 01:12:27,028 --> 01:12:28,438 and everybody said, 1062 01:12:28,473 --> 01:12:31,597 "We don't want to be commercial." 1063 01:12:31,632 --> 01:12:34,512 Commercial was like the Monkees, it's like the Turtles, 1064 01:12:34,547 --> 01:12:37,637 and commercial meant success. 1065 01:12:37,672 --> 01:12:41,393 For the sake of the audience, you're the Monkees. 1066 01:12:41,428 --> 01:12:44,878 #..We may lose and we may win... # 1067 01:12:44,913 --> 01:12:48,118 When we got together, we stated the intention - 1068 01:12:48,153 --> 01:12:53,433 this band is about doing really well, becoming famous and making a lot of money. 1069 01:12:53,468 --> 01:12:55,530 That was our goal. 1070 01:12:55,565 --> 01:12:57,558 #..Hey, yeah... # 1071 01:12:57,593 --> 01:13:01,913 It was a goal that they achieved with their debut album, 1072 01:13:01,948 --> 01:13:06,233 confirming the denim-clad, long-haired Western troubadour 1073 01:13:06,268 --> 01:13:11,072 as the new image of mainstream commercial success. 1074 01:13:13,272 --> 01:13:17,232 The Eagles' next record was once again was written and conceived 1075 01:13:17,267 --> 01:13:20,993 with the help of Jackson Browne and JD Souther. 1076 01:13:25,673 --> 01:13:29,233 When Jackson turned 21, I gave him The Album Of Gunfighters. 1077 01:13:29,268 --> 01:13:33,330 There were the bodies of slain outlaws in it, 1078 01:13:33,365 --> 01:13:37,357 John Wesley Hardin's shotgun-riddled body... 1079 01:13:37,392 --> 01:13:41,197 Underneath, you could read about how all this happened, 1080 01:13:41,232 --> 01:13:46,993 and, in a way, it sort of became the template for that Desperado record. 1081 01:13:48,633 --> 01:13:51,312 # They were Doolin 1082 01:13:51,347 --> 01:13:54,210 # Doolin-Dalton 1083 01:13:54,245 --> 01:13:57,038 # High or low 1084 01:13:57,073 --> 01:13:59,638 # It was the same... # 1085 01:13:59,673 --> 01:14:04,593 The notion of cowboys, you know, those wild, taciturn heroes, 1086 01:14:04,628 --> 01:14:07,117 stepping into a saloon 1087 01:14:07,152 --> 01:14:10,233 and changing everyone's lives for ever with a single shot or comment. 1088 01:14:10,268 --> 01:14:13,798 It's a mythological moment that caught on. 1089 01:14:13,833 --> 01:14:17,673 On Desperado, the Eagles invented a collective identity 1090 01:14:17,708 --> 01:14:20,992 directly inspired by their country roots... 1091 01:14:21,027 --> 01:14:25,158 and by the ultimate American fantasy. 1092 01:14:25,193 --> 01:14:29,438 As young guys 100 years ago, rather than being rock'n'roll guitar players, 1093 01:14:29,473 --> 01:14:36,673 they might well have been rock'n'roll gunslingers - they would have been carrying guns instead of guitars - 1094 01:14:36,708 --> 01:14:40,552 so we decided to do this Western motif shoot way out in the Malibu Hills. 1095 01:14:44,273 --> 01:14:47,038 It was almost like a time-warp 1096 01:14:47,073 --> 01:14:50,773 because it really did feel like we were back in the 1800s. 1097 01:14:50,808 --> 01:14:54,440 It was so real. The guys would come running down the street 1098 01:14:54,475 --> 01:14:58,073 with their guns blazing, and the Eagles, and it was very heroic! 1099 01:15:02,993 --> 01:15:09,593 In the '60s, LA's singer-songwriters had portrayed themselves as heroes of the counterculture. 1100 01:15:12,153 --> 01:15:15,118 The Eagles had re-cast themselves as fictional outlaws, 1101 01:15:15,153 --> 01:15:20,073 an escapism that marked a timely disengagement from the political world around them. 1102 01:15:21,632 --> 01:15:23,678 # I am an outlaw 1103 01:15:23,713 --> 01:15:25,757 # I was born an outlaw's son... # 1104 01:15:25,792 --> 01:15:30,353 There can be no whitewash... at the Whitehouse. 1105 01:15:30,388 --> 01:15:32,833 'Richard Nixon as the President,' 1106 01:15:32,868 --> 01:15:35,610 valiums were on the rise. 1107 01:15:35,645 --> 01:15:38,317 People were taking downers 1108 01:15:38,352 --> 01:15:43,873 just to anaesthetise themselves against the reality of this rightist regime 1109 01:15:43,908 --> 01:15:49,050 that was going from Vietnam to Cambodia with napalm. 1110 01:15:49,085 --> 01:15:54,192 #..A life upon the road is the life of an outlaw... # 1111 01:15:54,227 --> 01:15:56,557 What that did to music 1112 01:15:56,592 --> 01:16:01,232 was, I think, for any person who wanted to be a player and continue, 1113 01:16:01,267 --> 01:16:03,353 was to stop bitching. 1114 01:16:05,232 --> 01:16:06,958 To shut up. 1115 01:16:06,993 --> 01:16:11,072 What's in now is songs of consolation that can be marketed 1116 01:16:11,107 --> 01:16:13,837 in the greater reality of a Republican regime. 1117 01:16:13,872 --> 01:16:19,153 The songs were more handsome, and a mile wide and an inch deep. 1118 01:16:19,188 --> 01:16:22,838 MUSIC: "Desperado" by the Eagles 1119 01:16:22,873 --> 01:16:27,012 But the Eagles' Western escapade was a commercial flop. 1120 01:16:27,047 --> 01:16:31,152 They would be forced to rethink their country roots 1121 01:16:31,187 --> 01:16:33,517 and re-invent their cowboy image. 1122 01:16:33,552 --> 01:16:36,753 And there was more bad news from their record company. 1123 01:16:39,353 --> 01:16:43,113 Steve Ross, who ran Warners in those days, came to me 1124 01:16:43,148 --> 01:16:45,637 and said that he wanted to buy it 1125 01:16:45,672 --> 01:16:49,398 and, uh, he offered me $7 million for it, 1126 01:16:49,433 --> 01:16:53,558 which, at the time, seemed like a staggering amount of money, 1127 01:16:53,593 --> 01:16:58,632 and I had watched Sonny and Cher go from the biggest act in the world to nothing, 1128 01:16:58,667 --> 01:17:01,157 and Otis Redding die in a plane crash, 1129 01:17:01,192 --> 01:17:05,513 and I thought, "Jeez! $7 million!" It was such a huge number. 1130 01:17:05,548 --> 01:17:07,393 It ended up being worth... 1131 01:17:09,992 --> 01:17:12,593 ..so much more money than I sold it for 1132 01:17:12,628 --> 01:17:14,558 but, you know, I'm doing OK! 1133 01:17:14,593 --> 01:17:17,512 Geffen and Roberts' management, our management, 1134 01:17:17,547 --> 01:17:19,558 comes to us...and our record company, 1135 01:17:19,593 --> 01:17:23,717 and they say to us, "We've sold Asylum Records to Warner Brothers, 1136 01:17:23,752 --> 01:17:30,113 "we're splitting up the management company, you have to find new management." We're, like, "What?!" 1137 01:17:31,313 --> 01:17:36,032 Geffen continued to manage Asylum Records, now owned by Warner Brothers, 1138 01:17:36,067 --> 01:17:40,632 but he would be forced to hand over the Eagles' personal management 1139 01:17:40,667 --> 01:17:44,638 to another formidable hustler, Irving Azoff. 1140 01:17:44,673 --> 01:17:48,873 The first thing I think Irving did was turn around and sue Geffen 1141 01:17:48,908 --> 01:17:53,490 to get the Eagles' publishing back from Warner Brothers Music. 1142 01:17:53,525 --> 01:17:58,073 You know, in success, people feel like they're entitled to more, 1143 01:17:58,108 --> 01:18:00,837 forgetting that, when they made these deals, 1144 01:18:00,872 --> 01:18:05,112 they had nothing and nobody was interested in them. 1145 01:18:07,632 --> 01:18:12,598 When Warner Brothers merged Asylum with Elektra Records, 1146 01:18:12,633 --> 01:18:15,412 another independent label it had purchased two years earlier, 1147 01:18:15,447 --> 01:18:18,192 it signalled a shift in the tone of LA's record business. 1148 01:18:19,793 --> 01:18:24,593 The change was that more and more managers were coming to the party. 1149 01:18:24,628 --> 01:18:27,277 The lawyers were getting involved. 1150 01:18:27,312 --> 01:18:32,793 When it became more business and less music...I left. 1151 01:18:34,312 --> 01:18:36,673 What's happening in the process, 1152 01:18:36,708 --> 01:18:39,078 which I served gladly, 1153 01:18:39,113 --> 01:18:41,078 is the corporatisation of rock. 1154 01:18:41,113 --> 01:18:44,453 I mean, the music died around the middle '70s. 1155 01:18:44,488 --> 01:18:47,793 At least in terms of everything that defined LA 1156 01:18:47,828 --> 01:18:49,797 a decade earlier. 1157 01:18:49,832 --> 01:18:52,913 If you go back to the Strip in the late '60s, 1158 01:18:52,948 --> 01:18:55,877 there was a kind of Utopian dimension, 1159 01:18:55,912 --> 01:19:01,153 and I guess we were so carried away by that spirit 1160 01:19:01,188 --> 01:19:03,877 that people failed to see how much of it 1161 01:19:03,912 --> 01:19:08,633 was also about carrying people forward into Tower Records 1162 01:19:08,668 --> 01:19:11,950 or into a whole brave, new world of consumption 1163 01:19:11,985 --> 01:19:15,233 in which rock'n'roll was simply the soundtrack. 1164 01:19:15,268 --> 01:19:18,030 In an increasingly corporate climate, 1165 01:19:18,065 --> 01:19:20,889 the social scene was also moving - 1166 01:19:20,924 --> 01:19:23,678 away from bars like the Troubadour 1167 01:19:23,713 --> 01:19:28,197 to a more exclusive class of nightclub. 1168 01:19:28,232 --> 01:19:33,272 Among the clients that we had was a guy named David Blue - a friend of ours, Joni's, etc - 1169 01:19:33,307 --> 01:19:38,312 and we had booked all of our biggest acts into the Troubadour and I called Doug Weston 1170 01:19:38,347 --> 01:19:43,158 and asked him to put David Blue in there, and he wouldn't do it. 1171 01:19:43,193 --> 01:19:47,393 I said, "I've given you Crosby, Stills, Nash And Young, the Eagles, Jackson Browne and Joni Mitchell, 1172 01:19:47,428 --> 01:19:50,553 "Linda Ronstadt, etc. I want you to play David Blue." 1173 01:19:50,588 --> 01:19:53,038 He said, "I'm not going to play David Blue." 1174 01:19:53,073 --> 01:19:56,993 I said, "If you don't play David Blue, I'll start a club." 1175 01:19:57,028 --> 01:19:59,478 And he said, "You think you can start a club?" 1176 01:19:59,513 --> 01:20:05,352 I said, "Yeah, I think I can start a club, and if you don't put David Blue in the Troubadour, I will." 1177 01:20:05,387 --> 01:20:07,833 And he said, "Fuck you, do it." 1178 01:20:07,868 --> 01:20:09,713 So we did. 1179 01:20:14,113 --> 01:20:18,678 The Roxy represented a new kind of Sunset Strip venue 1180 01:20:18,713 --> 01:20:24,833 in which the Eagles and their entourage found themselves at the centre of an exclusive elite. 1181 01:20:24,868 --> 01:20:26,797 'All of a sudden,' 1182 01:20:26,832 --> 01:20:29,433 there was an awful lot of money, 1183 01:20:29,468 --> 01:20:32,557 a lot of celebrity, 1184 01:20:32,592 --> 01:20:35,752 a lot of, "You can come in here, you can't." 1185 01:20:35,787 --> 01:20:37,917 # Eager for action 1186 01:20:37,952 --> 01:20:40,357 # Hot for the game... # 1187 01:20:40,392 --> 01:20:45,953 In their songwriting, the Eagles had begun to chronicle the mid-'70s hedonistic lifestyle 1188 01:20:45,988 --> 01:20:48,517 of which they were the prime players. 1189 01:20:48,552 --> 01:20:50,877 The summer after the fourth album, I left. 1190 01:20:50,912 --> 01:20:54,078 For a long time, I felt I couldn't talk about it, 1191 01:20:54,113 --> 01:20:58,273 partly because it had to do with my own personal drug use, 1192 01:20:58,308 --> 01:21:00,517 too much partying, 1193 01:21:00,552 --> 01:21:02,273 and I needed to get away from it. 1194 01:21:02,308 --> 01:21:03,958 And when I left, 1195 01:21:03,993 --> 01:21:09,432 the whole acoustic, bluegrass, folk, acoustic guitar thing 1196 01:21:09,467 --> 01:21:10,957 went away. 1197 01:21:10,992 --> 01:21:13,518 #..Life in the fast lane 1198 01:21:13,553 --> 01:21:16,213 # Surely make you lose your mind 1199 01:21:16,248 --> 01:21:18,838 # Life in the fast lane... # 1200 01:21:18,873 --> 01:21:22,312 Bernie Leadon was replaced by guitar hero Joe Walsh, 1201 01:21:22,347 --> 01:21:26,117 as the Eagles ditched their acoustic roots, 1202 01:21:26,152 --> 01:21:29,392 and followed the musical drift towards stadium rock. 1203 01:21:29,427 --> 01:21:32,598 Was there a point in the '70s at which you realised 1204 01:21:32,633 --> 01:21:37,553 that many of your contemporaries had become self-satisfied and smug about their own positions? 1205 01:21:37,588 --> 01:21:42,472 I realised that about myself but I didn't make any judgments on the rest of 'em. 1206 01:21:44,152 --> 01:21:49,558 In 1974, Crosby, Stills, Nash And Young embarked on a world tour, 1207 01:21:49,593 --> 01:21:55,152 the extravagance of which clashed wildly with the morality of their songs. 1208 01:21:55,187 --> 01:21:58,552 # You...who are on the road... # 1209 01:22:00,313 --> 01:22:02,232 #..Must have a code 1210 01:22:03,912 --> 01:22:06,353 # That you can live by... # 1211 01:22:07,793 --> 01:22:10,753 We had 85 people in the crew, 1212 01:22:10,788 --> 01:22:13,678 we had helicopters, jets, 1213 01:22:13,713 --> 01:22:16,793 limousines sat in front of the hotel 24 hours a day... 1214 01:22:16,828 --> 01:22:19,873 It was just an exercise in excess. 1215 01:22:20,872 --> 01:22:25,113 # Teach the children well 1216 01:22:26,152 --> 01:22:29,252 # Their father's hell 1217 01:22:29,287 --> 01:22:32,318 # Did slowly go by... # 1218 01:22:32,353 --> 01:22:35,412 You're top of the charts, everybody loves you, 1219 01:22:35,447 --> 01:22:38,437 you've got enough women to satisfy you for years, 1220 01:22:38,472 --> 01:22:42,312 you have enough money and the ability to buy the best drugs, 1221 01:22:42,347 --> 01:22:44,392 and, you know, it takes over, 1222 01:22:44,427 --> 01:22:46,757 and it took over. 1223 01:22:46,792 --> 01:22:49,318 #..Don't you ever... # 1224 01:22:49,353 --> 01:22:55,113 From my perspective, these were the guys that were talking about freedom, about justice, 1225 01:22:55,148 --> 01:22:59,592 about respect for Mother Earth, about getting back to the Garden. 1226 01:22:59,627 --> 01:23:02,712 It was very hard to make sense of it all. 1227 01:23:02,747 --> 01:23:05,512 #..And know they love you... # 1228 01:23:06,713 --> 01:23:12,072 All of them represent, to me, the liberal Hollywood concepts. 1229 01:23:12,107 --> 01:23:13,837 They favoured money 1230 01:23:13,872 --> 01:23:17,712 and they'd just forget that sometimes, 1231 01:23:17,747 --> 01:23:21,117 that it walks this thin line. 1232 01:23:21,152 --> 01:23:25,492 But, ultimately, it was about being successful. 1233 01:23:25,527 --> 01:23:29,832 By 1975, LA's once politically conscious musicians 1234 01:23:29,867 --> 01:23:32,238 were consumed by cynicism, 1235 01:23:32,273 --> 01:23:37,113 a mood fuelled by a substance that had replaced marijuana and acid 1236 01:23:37,148 --> 01:23:38,677 as Hollywood's drug of choice. 1237 01:23:38,712 --> 01:23:44,552 One of its earliest advocates and biggest casualties was David Crosby. 1238 01:23:44,587 --> 01:23:50,638 David had bowls of it, big wooden bowls of cocaine, 1239 01:23:50,673 --> 01:23:53,832 and he walked around stark naked, with his pudgy little belly, 1240 01:23:53,867 --> 01:23:56,838 and it was different. It felt OK. 1241 01:23:56,873 --> 01:24:00,973 It felt all right in, like, '69, '70. 1242 01:24:01,008 --> 01:24:05,073 It just... slowly got pretty awful. 1243 01:24:05,108 --> 01:24:07,630 # You take Sally 1244 01:24:07,665 --> 01:24:10,117 # And I'll take Sue 1245 01:24:10,152 --> 01:24:13,153 # There ain't no difference between the two 1246 01:24:13,188 --> 01:24:14,753 # Cocaine 1247 01:24:15,912 --> 01:24:18,152 # Running all round my brain... # 1248 01:24:19,473 --> 01:24:23,913 When we started doing cocaine and heroin and speed, 1249 01:24:23,948 --> 01:24:25,512 as a generation... 1250 01:24:28,552 --> 01:24:34,512 ..that essentially degraded the original spirit that we had 1251 01:24:34,547 --> 01:24:37,593 in that group of people, in California, 1252 01:24:37,628 --> 01:24:40,450 to a very low level... 1253 01:24:40,485 --> 01:24:43,237 # Mama, come here quick 1254 01:24:43,272 --> 01:24:47,793 # That old cocaine's 'bout to make me sick 1255 01:24:47,828 --> 01:24:49,637 # Cocaine... # 1256 01:24:49,672 --> 01:24:53,953 ..and the shift from one to the other was a palpable thing. 1257 01:24:53,988 --> 01:24:56,112 You could feel it. 1258 01:24:57,432 --> 01:25:00,873 More greed, more anger, more craziness, 1259 01:25:00,908 --> 01:25:02,352 more... 1260 01:25:03,633 --> 01:25:06,037 ..darkness. 1261 01:25:06,072 --> 01:25:09,072 MUSIC: "Hotel California" by the Eagles 1262 01:25:17,073 --> 01:25:19,278 In less than a decade, 1263 01:25:19,313 --> 01:25:24,672 collective optimism had given way to a ruthlessly self-centred culture 1264 01:25:24,707 --> 01:25:29,633 and, in 1976, with an honesty typical of LA's singer-songwriters, 1265 01:25:29,668 --> 01:25:33,238 the Eagles captured the mood with an acerbic tribute 1266 01:25:33,273 --> 01:25:38,873 to a city whose appeal had proved seductive long before the '70s. 1267 01:25:40,793 --> 01:25:43,813 The whole vision of Hotel California - 1268 01:25:43,848 --> 01:25:46,798 finally, the Pilgrims come to Paradise, 1269 01:25:46,833 --> 01:25:50,632 only to find a seedy broken-down hotel on a boring ocean, 1270 01:25:50,667 --> 01:25:54,312 where people are all thinking about suicide - 1271 01:25:54,347 --> 01:25:57,273 this is a fairly consistent vision. 1272 01:25:57,308 --> 01:26:00,512 # On a dark desert highway 1273 01:26:01,713 --> 01:26:03,652 # Cool wind in my hair... # 1274 01:26:03,687 --> 01:26:05,557 Remember, in the 1940s, 1275 01:26:05,592 --> 01:26:11,193 all the great stars, and half of Bloomsbury, were in Los Angeles, 1276 01:26:11,228 --> 01:26:15,198 along with a whole generation of American writers, 1277 01:26:15,233 --> 01:26:18,273 and they ended up rehearsing every possible form of despair and alienation, 1278 01:26:18,308 --> 01:26:20,570 every kind of delight and euphoria. 1279 01:26:20,605 --> 01:26:22,798 #..I had to stop for the night... # 1280 01:26:22,833 --> 01:26:26,393 Everybody can find some part of Los Angeles 1281 01:26:26,428 --> 01:26:29,953 that can be the bearer either of their dreams 1282 01:26:29,988 --> 01:26:31,518 or their nightmares. 1283 01:26:31,553 --> 01:26:33,277 #..I was thinking to myself 1284 01:26:33,312 --> 01:26:36,598 # This could be heaven or this could be hell... # 1285 01:26:36,633 --> 01:26:41,232 So, in a way, the emotional landscape that the rock generation lived in 1286 01:26:41,267 --> 01:26:46,638 was repeating what the writers had gone through in the 1920s, 1287 01:26:46,673 --> 01:26:49,833 veering back and forth between the land of sunshine and the land de noir. 1288 01:26:49,868 --> 01:26:53,677 #..Welcome to the Hotel California... # 1289 01:26:53,712 --> 01:26:58,272 The Eagles had evolved from a generation of artists 1290 01:26:58,307 --> 01:27:02,797 whose determination to succeed had brought them to LA, 1291 01:27:02,832 --> 01:27:10,193 and in the same year as Hotel California, that ambition reached its ultimate peak 1292 01:27:10,228 --> 01:27:12,277 when the Eagles released another record 1293 01:27:12,312 --> 01:27:17,152 that marked the commercial climax of a ten-year journey. 1294 01:27:18,073 --> 01:27:23,112 People always put out the greatest hits albums when the bands are in decline. 1295 01:27:23,147 --> 01:27:26,593 I wanted to put it out when they were at their absolute peak. 1296 01:27:26,628 --> 01:27:30,078 That album is the biggest-selling album of all time. 1297 01:27:30,113 --> 01:27:35,672 The sales of the Eagles' greatest hits prompted the invention of the platinum record. 1298 01:27:35,707 --> 01:27:40,312 It was the first in a long line of multi-million-selling albums 1299 01:27:40,347 --> 01:27:43,758 commercially and musically inspired by Los Angeles. 1300 01:27:43,793 --> 01:27:48,192 And it marked the end of a journey in which the collective ambition 1301 01:27:48,227 --> 01:27:50,877 of a tight-knit community of troubadours 1302 01:27:50,912 --> 01:27:56,153 had turned LA into the corporate capital of the music world. 1303 01:27:57,352 --> 01:27:59,553 Don't miss it. Don't miss it. 1304 01:28:18,432 --> 01:28:21,873 # The King is gone but he's not forgotten 1305 01:28:25,072 --> 01:28:29,192 # This is the story of a Johnny Rotten 1306 01:28:33,072 --> 01:28:36,752 # It's better to burn out 1307 01:28:36,787 --> 01:28:39,113 # Than it is to rust 1308 01:28:41,152 --> 01:28:44,632 # He is gone but he's not forgotten... # 1309 01:28:44,667 --> 01:28:48,113 Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd - 2007 108001108198
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