Laurel Canyon Essentials

In the mid- to late ’60s, the California coast housed a thriving counterculture. While Bay Area hippies famously tuned in and turned on, a kind of satellite bohemian enclave formed in the rolling hills high above the Sunset Strip. This group of artists captured their close-knit clan’s intimacy, domestic coziness, squabbles, social-justice aspirations and blissed-out trips in music. The results: indelible songs that fuse firebrand folk, intricate jazz, soft-focus acoustic balladry, countrified rock and gently hallucinatory psychedelia. Their entanglements also led to rich cross-pollination. Joni Mitchell’s lilting melodies fed into Crosby, Stills & Nash’s otherworldly harmonies; Neil Young’s ragged, rangy approach inspired the Eagles to stretch their wings; Frank Zappa cultivated a spirit of zany collective experimentation during wild parties. The picturesque backdrop and family-like dynamics felt like paradise, for a time. As the ’70s approached and various musicians found success, new dreams (and new drugs) shattered the fantasy. The community dissolved, but you can still hear utopia beckoning in their songs to this day.