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Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon: Laurel Canyon, Covert Ops & the Dark Heart of the Hippy Dream by David McGowan

Laurel Canyon in the '60s and early '70s was a magical place where musicians gathered to create much of the soundtrack to those times. The Doors, the Beach Boys, Frank Zappa, James Taylor, Carole King, Joni Mitchell and more lived and jammed together here. But the scene had a dark side. Many didn't make it out alive, and many of those deaths remain shrouded in mystery. Far more integrated into the scene than most would like to admit was Charles Manson and his infamous Family. It also seems these colourful characters all coexisted alongside a covert military installation.

FORMAT
Paperback LANGUAGE
English CONDITION
Brand New

Author Biography

McGowan is a freelance writer/researcher living in the Los Angeles area.

Long Description

As a native Angeleno who was born in 1960 and came of age in the 1970s, the music produced by the artists who populate this book provided the soundtrack to my youth, so it is a subject matter that is close to my heart. But what really set the hook was discovering, early on in my research, that there were a number of aspects of the Laurel Canyon scene that didn't really seem to fit in with the prevailing image of a hippie utopia that was ostensibly all about peace and love.Having grown up right alongside this scene, I was shocked to learn that I didn't even know that it had existed at all! And after asking around, I discovered that no one else that I know in this city did either. After the passage of nearly 50 years, it seemed that this was a story that was long overdue for greater exposure.Even more overdue, it seemed to me, was an expose of some of the hidden truths of Laurel Canyon. Though a few books exploring the scene have popped up over the last several years, all of them have a certain sameness to them, with the same stories told in much the same way. I felt it was time to tell a different version of the story the one that can be found hiding in the details that are usually left out or glossed over.

Review Quote

"If ignorance is truly bliss, then why do so many Americans need Prozac?" -David McGowan

Excerpt from Book

ALTAMONT PIE: GRAM PARSONS "No one could recall ever seeing or hearing about Gram being involved in a protest of any sort." Author Ben Fong Torres, who interviewed scores of people close to Gram Parsons while researching Hickory Wind Let's begin with the obvious: Gram Parsons was far from being the biggest star to emerge from the Laurel Canyon scene. In his short lifetime, he failed to achieve any significant level of commercial success. None of his albums, whether recorded solo or with the International Submarine Band, the Byrds, or the Flying Burrito Brothers, climbed very high on the sales charts. But to many fans and musicians alike, he is considered a hugely influential and tragically overlooked figure. It is safe to say that Parsons does not have nearly the number of fans that David Crosby or Frank Zappa have, and compared to contemporaries who died during the same era and at roughly the same age-legendary artists like Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix-Parsons is all but unknown. His life story, nevertheless, is a fascinating one, primarily because it contains all the classic Laurel Canyon elements: the royal bloodlines, the not-so-well-hidden intelligence connections, the occult overtones, the extravagantly wealthy family background, an incinerated house or two, and, of course, a whole lot of curious deaths. We begin back about 1,000 years ago, with Ferdinand the Great, the first King of Castille on the Iberian Peninsula. It is to him that the wealthy Connor family claims their family lineage can be traced. Also in the family tree was King Edward II of England, son of Edward I and Eleanor of Castille. According to some sources, Eddie II was murdered by having a red-hot iron rod shoved up his rectum, though most of his loyal subjects probably didn't shed many tears for the hated ruler. Bringing the royal bloodline to America was one Colonel George Reade, born in the UK in 1608 and married in Yorktown, Pennsylvania, sometime thereafter. Reade's offspring would ultimately spawn Ingram Cecil Connor, Jr., a well-to-do gent who settled in Columbia, Tennessee. Like his father before him, Cecil attended Columbia Military Academy. In May 1940, at the outset of WWII, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Force as a Second Lieutenant. In March of 1941, Cecil, who during the war would become known as "Coon Dog" (though no one seems to remember why), was shipped off to Hawaii. Nine months later, Pearl Harbor came under attack by Japanese bombers. Not to

Description for Sales People

Unlike the Haight-Ashbury scene that followed, the Laurel Canyon hippy scene of the 60s & 70s remains largely unknown. An account told from an entirely different perspective. The only book that doesn't shy away from the more controversial aspects of the canyon scene. Updated, revised and expanded collection of David McGowan's essays about Laurel Canyon. McGowan's work has proven to be enormously popular online. This contains both old and new material.

Details ISBN1909394122 Author David McGowan Short Title WEIRD SCENES INSIDE THE CANYON Pages 316 Publisher Headpress Language English ISBN-10 1909394122 ISBN-13 9781909394124 Media Book Format Paperback Residence CA, US Birth 1960 Year 2014 DEWEY 306.1 Illustrations Yes Publication Date 2014-04-18 Subtitle Laurel Canyon, Covert Ops and the Dark Heart of the Hippy Dream Audience General/Trade UK Release Date 2014-04-18 Imprint Headpress Place of Publication Manchester Country of Publication United Kingdom AU Release Date 2014-04-18 NZ Release Date 2014-04-18
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