![]() A little bigger area, but similar to Laurel. My house burned down where I was living and I moved up to Topanga Canyon, which was about 30 miles north of LA. I think we were several of the first ones up there. Roger McGuinn and David Crosby and I lived within a half mile of each other in Laurel Canyon. Did it as well or better, a lot of times better.Īnd it is all connected to where we were living. They went “okay,” and did the same thing. Mamas and Papas, Buffalo Springfield, Lovin’ Spoonful, I’m sure they saw what we did. So when The Byrds first started, and all the other bands came along later, most of them did come from the same place, from folk music. ![]() We did make some great music, and it’s held up for 50 years, it’s still going. We’re all guilty of stepping out and recording something that isn’t going to hold up. What The Byrds and what they created all around that period, back to our topic of Laurel Canyon, it held up through the decades.Ī lot of times we cut some pretty silly songs. Then, we get to the point of doing songs like “Eight Miles High” and “So You Want to Be a Rock and Roll Star” and stuff like that. ![]() ![]() Go back to “Turn, Turn, Turn” which is Pete Seeger taking Old Testament scripture and putting music to it. I thought that’s what I loved about The Byrds. “Eight Miles High” is one of the beginnings of psychedelic rock. Souther and Richie Furay, and the progressive country group the Desert Rose Band.Ĭhris Hillman spoke with Den of Geek about his bands, bass, and the canyon which created the California sound. Hillman went on to found the Flying Burrito Brothers with Parsons, joined Stephen Stills’ band Manassas, formed the Souther-Hillman-Furay Band with J.D. He and McGuinn even visited Stonehenge with two of the Rolling Stones, and knew enough to get out of their Altamont rock festival as soon as he unplugged his cable from his amp. “So, you want to be a rock and roll star,” he asked in the song of the same name, and gave step-by-step instructions. He brought a melodic bottom to the band’s foundation, flawless harmonies and original songs which went on to become rock anthems. When Crosby was fired from the Byrds, he found Stephen Stills and Graham Nash within walking distance, and the band found Gram Parsons.Ĭhris Hillman was playing mandolin in country and bluegrass bands before he joined The Byrds. Collaborations happened, bands formed, and sometimes restructured within the small community. They would soon be joined by The Monkees, The Mamas & The Papas, Love, Buffalo Springfield and other musicians who turned Laurel Canyon into an artistic Shangri-La for a new generation of players. They were also one of the first groups to move into the woody enclave above Los Angeles’ Sunset Strip, starting with their then-19-year-old bass player. The band, which also included future David Crosby, Gene Clark, Michael Clarke and Chris Hillman, was known for a short while as “The American Beatles.” The Byrds put out one of the first psychedelic rock songs, and went on to create country rock. Rock and roller Bobby Darrin put a backbeat to folk tunes in the early ‘60s, but his then-guitarist Jim “Roger” McGuinn transformed the genre into folk rock by electrifying Bob Dylan songs with an electric 12-string Rickenbacker when he formed the Byrds. Laurel Canyon, the two-part docuseries Alison Elwood directed for Epix, opens as the Los Angeles folk music scene went electric and The Byrds found a place to nest. ![]()
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