Most of the names are more expected ones: Love, the Doors, the Flying Burrito Brothers. ![]() One of the questions no one asked after seeing “Echo in the Canyon” was: “Where the hell is Alice Cooper?” But he’s in this, too, not in his later guise as a shock-rocker, but as a kid arriving fresh outta Phoenix in the late ‘60s as a protégé of (and next door neighbor to) the canyon’s log-cabin-dwelling freak outlier, Frank Zappa. “Laurel Canyon” is a nearly four-hour exercise in bliss, throwing us back to a fleeting time when musical warmth and formal excellence went hand in hand and made the whole world want to go “California Dreamin’.” With apologies to Joni Mitchell, this, not Woodstock, is the garden you’ll be left wanting to get back to. But let’s face it: this project exists as an excuse to indulge in highly warranted nostalgia for a golden age, enveloped in a slightly-above-the-smog-level golden haze. ![]() Long shadows are cast from a world beyond the canyon (Kent State, Altamont) and, in the horrifying case of the Manson murders, within it. It also allows for the advents of David Geffen, arena-rock and cocaine, any one of which the canyon’s casual vibe might not have survived.Įllwood, the director of “History of the Eagles,” a movie that was weirdly liked by Eagles fans, detractors and even the actual Eagles (and who also helmed Showtime’s terrific upcoming Go-Go’s documentary), does her best to occasionally darken the door of this bungalow heaven. That affords us milestones like the arrivals of Browne and Mitchell in the woodsy ‘hood as baby-faced wizard-cherubs, the Mitchell/Graham Nash live-in romance that produced the song “Our House,” country music supplanting folk as the dominant extra ingredient in the rock stew. Ellwood’s “Laurel Canyon” happily extends the timeline into the mid-‘70s. It was like seeing a promising pilot for a series that never got green-lit, leaving out not just Mitchell but Jackson Browne, the Eagles and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young as Joni-come-latelies. 49th in production, filmed Oct 17-19, next up- "Monkees on the Wheel.The biggest problem with the previous doc - other than how it betrayed, rather than transcended, its origins as a glorified EPK for a Jakob Dylan duets project - was that it arbitrarily set a cutoff date for the end of the movie, with the Byrds and Buffalo Springfield breaking up in the late ‘60s, as if that really marked the end of an era. While Micky's live rendition of the group-composed "Goin' Down" gets its second and last airing (from "The Wild Monkees"), this marked the debut for Boyce and Hart's "Words" (recorded June 14), a harder rocking version superior to the duo's original production of Aug 15 1966, featured in the first season episode "Monkees Manhattan Style." Three Monkees actually play on this Chip Douglas production, first issued as the B-side of fourth single "Pleasant Valley Sunday," with Jones on percussion, Nesmith on electric guitar and percussion, and Tork on organ and killer bass, again sharing lead vocals with Micky. Appearing unbilled are Bonnie Dewberry as Cousin Lucy (previously seen in "I Was a Teenage Monster"), and rock photographer (ala Linda Eastman) Nurit Wilde, who nine months later gave birth to Michael Jason Nesmith, third son of Papa Nez (she was married to frequent Monkees writer Peter Meyerson, who later did the same for WELCOME BACK KOTTER). ![]() Micky and Peter impersonate 'The Lone Stranger and Pronto' as they infiltrate Black Bart's gang, while Mike discovers that 'Texas crude' is the reason behind the attacks (nothing is resolved, the bad guys simply riding off). ![]() Meanwhile, kindly Ben Cartwheel (Barton MacLane) assures Kate that he's available whenever she needs him, because the sheriff (James Griffith) is too busy shooting (his TV series). The Monkees are visiting Michael's Aunt Kate (Jacqueline DeWit), whose Texas ranch is under assault by Black Bart and his cutthroat gang. 45 (Dec 4 1967), "Monkees in Texas" is a major cut above other recent entries, another Western satire with great villains Barton MacLane (I DREAM OF JEANNIE), Rex Holman (STAR TREK's "Spectre of the Gun"), and Len Lesser (previously seen in "Monkees in a Ghost Town").
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