Laurel Canyon | Folk Rock Music, Rock Stars, & Groups

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Laurel Canyon is a community nestled in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles. Unlike other locales, this area is not known primarily for its beautiful streets, good schools, or proximity to a city center but rather the explosion of folk rock music that emerged from its community members in the 1960s and ’70s.

“Our House,” come on in

At the time of its musical boom, Laurel Canyon was a collection of hippie bungalows along one-lane roads winding through the mountains. Woodsy and sparse, the town included one country store. The owner, Bill Brogan, observed the soon-to-be rock legends moving into his business’s locale. He told the Toronto Star in 1969 that “some of these young longhairs I’d trust enough to let them write a cheque for any amount but others would steal you blind if you gave them the chance. That’s the way it is.”

The area was ripe for these “longhairs” to make music, as it was set conveniently opposite the east end of the Sunset Strip, where many now-historic music venues, such as the Troubadour, provided the canyon’s residents a platform to showcase new work.

The neighborhood’s natural landscape of eucalyptus trees, wildflowers, and other vegetation provided “a wonderful distinctive smell,” according to folk artist Joni Mitchell, that paired well with the sweeping sounds of burgeoning bands rehearsing among the otherwise quiet hills.

It is true that the musical occupants were the main cause of noise in the wooded area. The Monkees member Micky Dolenz even attached a speaker to the gate of his Laurel Canyon home for visitors to announce themselves (although his 12 dogs and cats likely added to the volume as well), according to the same write-up in the Toronto Star that detailed the historic tunes coming from the canyon.

One morning the canyon’s inhabitants threw open their windows and started playing the Beatles’ “Let It Be” on their record players at the exact same moment. In an oral history in Vanity Fair magazine, founding member of the Eagles Glenn Frey recounted the area as a “magical hillside canyon” with “just something in the air up there.”

The energy of the neighborhood was indeed fostered by Laurel’s locals, who went on to become some of the biggest names in rock music.

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“So You Want to Be a Rock ’n’ Roll Star”

Joni Mitchell is often cited as one of the first stars to move into Laurel Canyon. The Byrds’ Chris Hillman is another: He showed up in 1965 and was shopping at the country store when he met someone with a place to rent. He moved in at just 19 years old, before the rest of the band’s future members, David Crosby and Roger McGuinn, followed.

Other residents included Carole King, James Taylor, Carly Simon, Jackson Browne, Frank Zappa, Jim Morrison, Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt, Harry Nilsson, Cass Elliot of the Mamas and the Papas, and Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys.

Members of the Eagles, Canned Heat, Fleetwood Mac, Buffalo Springfield, Love, and the Monkees settled in the canyon as well.

“Everybody’s Talkin’ ”

The melting pot of stars waltzing in and out of each other’s homes and meeting other musicians consequently led to the breakup and formation of new groups.

For example, Fleetwood Mac’s Mick Fleetwood took up residence in Laurel Canyon in 1974, where he met Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, who agreed to join the band on New Year’s Eve, forming the Rumours era of the band. Rock group Buffalo Springfield also officially formed in Laurel Canyon, after Stephen Stills persuaded Neil Young and others to move up to the hills.

“Ladies of the Canyon”

The unofficial “mothers” of the canyon were (“Mama”) Cass Elliot and Joni Mitchell. Their homes became the creative hubs where music history was made. Elliot had an open-door policy, her home the center for the exhibition of new music and groups. Graham Nash reportedly called her the “Gertrude Stein of Laurel Canyon.”

There is a debate over whether it was Mitchell’s or Elliot’s home that birthed the founding of Crosby, Stills & Nash; it seems that the artists recall their stays in the magical canyon differently. Stills insists it was Elliot’s home that Crosby called him to, telling him to bring his guitar. However, Mitchell told Vanity Fair, “I do believe I introduced them at my house; that’s where Crosby, Stills & Nash was born.”

“For What It’s Worth”

As with many special things, the Laurel Canyon era eventually came to an end. The 1969 Tate murders, in nearby Benedict Canyon, shook Laurel’s residents. Michelle Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas started carrying a gun in her purse, and the open-door policy that her bandmate Elliot had previously implemented quickly slammed shut. Furthermore, the inhabitants who gained more success in the music business eventually moved out of the canyon’s bungalows and into bigger Hollywood homes.

The canyon’s collective sound was ambient and atmospheric, reflecting the rolling landscape and the harmonious relations between its residents—at least in terms of musical collaboration—as they floated in and out of each other’s homes each night playing songs together. And in the end, this whirlwind of rock music that the neighborhood and its inhabitants generated continues to echo throughout the canyon and beyond, influencing modern artists today.