Laurel Canyon Episode 4: RE-EDITED VERSION - "So You Want To Be A Rock 'n' Roll Star" 

I wonder what it was like to navigate those roads while snockered.

Billy, you have done an extraordinary job of delving into a space and time that has previously been a maze of convolution. You've made this information easily digestible. By being on-site and providing the in-person experience, you've made each story all the more real. You've also done a masterful job of pulling all of the phenomenally famous personalities out of the ether, back down to earth, making them relatable (as much as that's possible(. Thank you for your many hours of labor filming, editing, research and scripting this series, Thank you as well as for your highly entertaining delivery. And finally thank you for sharing your skilled musicianship that pays wonderful homage to many of those you shared about. ❣

This is the absolute best series on Laurel Canyon I've ever seen. Thank you! I love it and can't wait for more. ❤

RIP Jim Ladd..an icon who was a big part of my life growing up.

My Japanese friend, Satoru Tamaki, was the manager of Japan’s first successful hard rock band called Oz. After their first album was a success, they talked the recording company into sending them to Hollywood to record their second album… This was during John Lennon’s “Lost Weekend”. My friend’s band was recording in another studio in the same building as Harry Nilsson was recording, and John Lennon was hanging out in the lobby of the building. The first video game, Pong, had just come out, and they had one in the lobby. Satoru and Lennon started to play Pong with each other… This event had a great effect on Satoru. He got an English biography about John Lennon, and began to make a translation of the book, got it published in Japan, and was very successful. Satoru went on to become a successful translator of English books and video game scripts into Japanese… .

I'm transported back in time with your videos. I want to stay there.

I'm from Long Beach and radio station was on Signal Hill, 1 mile away. I remember Jim Ladd so we'll and tried to get every show of his. I thought I was so special to be able to get his broadcast Which didn't go very far. Long Beach was a hippie rich environment. I just wish I had traveled to Laurel Canyon more. The L A underground paper used to publish things about parties, get together, etc. I didn't get a car till 69. But I actually took the bus up to sunset Blvd and walk around. Wish I was just a little more aware. Oh well...a great time in the world

I love those houses that had mining car elevators. So cool.

Jim Ladd and Elliot Mintz were great radio personalities! Thanks Billy i love history and the history of music and Laurel Canyon. The early history was very intersting cause people were learning as they went on. But THE BYRDS perfect example that practice makes perfect!!!! Love it. You could see it in their first hit Mr. TAMBORINE MAN! The harmony and the music beautiful!

I still want to be there to experience the weather and the sites.

Great video,Rest In Peace Jim and John.

You have done a lot of research, invested a lot of time and love into this excellent product/passion of yours. Thank You!

Wow, first comment. This whole series on Laurel Canyon was excellent. Not sure why you are re-editing but, OK ill watch it again. I thought it was THAT good.

Jim Ladd was the MAN of KMET. He played the best music in the 70’s

But for all the wires! John Lennon should had bought a sailboat and gone sailing everyday. Fresh air and sunshine will trump drug’s every time.

I didn't realise that there were so many houses....I always pictured the canyon as just a narrow road with houses on each side....not hanging precariously off the cliff face. Also, for an area that millionaires live in, the roads are in a shocking state.

Billy you have done such a good job i am watching them all again

We are essentially the same age and on December 8, 1980 I was in 8th grade and a neighborhood friend told me John Lennon had died and the mood around the city turned grey and nothing like I had ever experienced. I admit I didn’t know the names well of the Beatles as I had only just heard the White Album 2 years before and had never really looked at their pictures much. Over the next 20 years they became my favorite band and then John’s death really hit me. The senseless crime. However, I later found out about his days in LA but you really have given a tremendous amount of insight on John’s life through the Laurel Canyon series. Enjoyable. Thank you.

Elliot Mintz is the most interesting gentleman from LA. 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

Superb telling of extraordinary histories.

I am loving this series; Well done! Commenting on this particular episode because I live near where Neil Peart grew up.

amazing how these young kids had houses to live in at such a young age look at it now young people can;'t even rent a shed also we are looking at people who got promoted by the music industry who get session musicians like the wrecking crew who were well employed at the time all successful bands are products and are worked to death in many cases its the contracts that they sign which makes them go insane with work and schedules that they have to comply with and thus there private lives suffer

This has been a great series, thank you.

ONE MORE TIME Billy, I really enjoyed this wonderful tour!

Well done, my friend... this series is absolutely brilliant and you tell it all so well!

I think I got a couple years on you but I remember the Beatles from my earliest childhood memories. I adored them. This series is magnificent. Thankyou.

Great job Billy, thank you for the "education" on this iconic area ..and time. :)

I'm stopping the video to say thank you, Billy. the way you these stories are so compelling. going back to the vid now.

Jim Ladd sounds like DR.JOHNNY FEVER!!!!!! I Like your intro Tune.

Thanks you for sharing this video this is very inspiring and interesting

“Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon” by David MacGowan is a very interesting book about all the people that became famous musicians and lived in Laurel Canyon in the 1960’s. Check it out.

This is a very well done series. I love it!

Just some great R&R history all located in one small area. Very well done.

People who see these would really be impressed if you went to Toronto and scanned stomping grounds of Alex , Geddy and Neil .... you wouldn't even have to prepare anything. You could wing it just from your 40 year knowledge ! Rush's #1 Fan nerd from College Park !!!

Oh but to have followed my heart in the summer of’78. 😢 a lifetime time later and the Bi -Polar Express has taken my will to live. Music is my shelter, the world is still a natural wonder. People have evolved into opinionated beings without factual information. We are obsessed with putting others down and helping one another is frowned upon. God has nothing to do with Religion. And won’t in the future.

_Most excellent videos!_

Love the Byrds as well! Look at those cool sunnies! 😊😊😊

I have been in johns shoes 2 times in my life as far as terribly unhappy divorce loss , and i drank to get over it but i didnt get as bad as that, i had to drive a logging truck 16 hours a day , hard days

Love this series, Billy!

Great great great...

I,ll tell you something about John Lennon which not everyone is aware of. Lennon was not a drinker, at least not in the sense of Ringo, Harry Neillson or Keith Moon who drank himself to death. Lennon didnt like drink because as with some people, it made him aggressive. Lennon has said this in many interviews. There are people who can handle their booze and those who cannot. Lennon knew he could not handle his booze and kept away from it mostly. When he goes to California and meets the big boozers like Keith Moon, Alice Cooper,Ringo(at the time) and others. Phil Spector ect. They were a drinking club but Lennon couldnt keep up. It was poisonous to him, he knew but the silly macho side of him took over. If Yoko had have been there, the Lennon bender would not have happened. We have all seen it amongst our friends. The one who has a totally different personallity change after a couple of drinks. That was John Lennon and he knew it. It's sad to watch. Most people know how to drink but some like Lennon do not. I have a friend who starts to get drunk after 2pints of beer, after 3 he starts to fall asleep. He's very Lucky. There is no anger or aggression, just sleepiness. We have all seen it. Most people can drink but not all. Also, most get away with just a bad hang over but the aggressive drunk has to make a long list the next day of people, known and unknown who they have to apologise to. That's the ups and downs of booze unfortunately.

This is really, really cool. And very well done. My first episode.....now I have to go watch all the rest.

I know I am late on the scene, but this docuseries has been excellent. Very well done. However, growing up in suburbs of Houston, I cannot imagine living that close to folks, much less on a cliff! Isn't anybody asking how that RV got up there?! 🙄

Wow Gene, Chris, David and Roger and Michael as THE BYRDS were young SUPERSTARS! AT THE TIME. So sorry that happened to Chris. Started listening to the music of the mid 60's a decade ago. I was a baby in 1964. Love Bob Dylan remake of Mr. TAMBORINE MAN. and Eight Miles High!Music changing so THE BYRDS were waning so they split up true Billy. David really became popular when he met Graham Nash and Stephen Stills and became Crosby, Stills, and Nash in 1969!!! I remember their music since I was 5 really getting into music by then by ear. I could hear certain notes but wasn't ever trained.

Fascinating, thank you!

I really like your vids. I have always been a huge fan of, probably, every artist and group that lived in this magnet of a neighborhood Back Then. This is history. American history and I love it.

Hi from New Zealand!🇳🇿Love your video’s!🎤🎸🎹🎧🥁

The Byrds records were recorded by the LA Wrecking Crew and Michael Clark most likely didn’t play drums on those recordings

Personally, I found your Elliot impression just fine. A plus was the words describing his vocal style in his vocal style. A deft touch. ;-)

I just want to say that I am new to your channel and I love watching your mini series, I have always been in to the Sixties music and Laurel Canyon history! You really know your stuff, so I just want to say keep up the good work!

Hi Billy - thanks for the great series. My daughter - who would have been 4 years old at the time - remembers me crying when I heard about Lennon’s death. I have much clearer memories of JFK’s death coming over our radio here in Australia.

Growing up in the 60s and 70s, I always had a feeling that Lennon was a terrible person. I didn’t even know about the Troubador incident back then. In vino veritas. FWIW, I consider Lennon a great songwriter, and Revolver, Sgt. Pepper, Abbey Road, some of the best albums ever made. And I still recall exactly where and how I learned of his murder, as one of the worst tragedies of my lifetime. But art is one thing, and character another.

Great Video and well narrated. Good Job!

This a great series on laurel canyon this episodes he tals about Jim ladd

My 20th time watching. I love your videos. Thank you!

Can’t believe peace loving, violence hating John Lennon would go through such a dark period such as this. He even chased his beloved Yoko away. Late sixties/early seventies they were inseparable! What a fuhrickin shame! John was always my favorite Beatle. With all his fame and fortune I wish his life was happier. I know he got his life together by the time of his death except for the relationship he had with his son Julian, who Paul McCartney wrote the song Hey Jude for, but still wish he lived a happy peaceful life that he sang about “all those years ago.” Proven fact money can’t buy you love or happiness! Great video Billy, as always! I enjoy your videos so much, this is my second time watching!❤

Fantastic series, thank you. Interesting fact about the 'Lennon house'. It was also recently owned by Ian Thorpe, a famous Australian swimmer - Australia's version of Michael Phelps.

Thanks for this, it’s timely!

Your videos are just awesome. Thank you.

These videos are awesome. I’m enjoying the shit out of them!

Your series was a find” on my feed,joyously! I was born in 1961. Loving the sixties since I’ve been in my 40s this style” 1960s style music! I think it’s very well done written,reaserched, must’ve taken plenty of patience as well. Billy,you are a true music lover yourself! Ta. For all that all you do/ done for us wannabe or whatever hippies” …..I use that term loosely , musically . Not politically. I knew the Lennon story poor May Pang! Poor waitress back then ! Glad he mended his ways….. Now of course RIP every Dec 8 John Lennon my fave Beatle……😊

Great tour Billy,aloha

Jim Ladd, Petty wrote about him Last DJ...he recently passed away, and boy do we miss him.. Ladd was something...Ladd gave an interview, regarding this home, he said. "he knew it when he saw it". He was reading a book about "knowing" where you are supposed to live..supposed to "be". It isn't a big house, but oh, he said he knew it..and I can sure see why.

Yoko....her album, the one at that time, is such a unique trip. His life took a such a twisty turn when he and Yoko got together.

Man i feel you about the beatles i had a box set that had the fab fours pictures on front in four squares and had all the great beatles hits on 33 lp vinyl and i played those records over and over i really liked the ballad of john and yoko alot for some great reason i remember really grooving and digging that track .daytripper the guitar licks on that song paperback writer back in ussr great great band the beatles i really like the rolling stones the altamont concert was some hardcore guitar boogie from mick and keith the whole band rocked i noticed it alot on sympathy thanks again i love your channel great great content

Great video's man 👍

Great series man!

Interesting.... 8 miles high is a great tune 🙂

Found something interesting about the Hillman property. This person in another video said that the guy that played 'Skippy' on Family Ties' bought it, but didn't have enough money to rebuild there, and he's the one that moved that trailer there and lived in it for a time. Too much, huh? That view from there is awesome. I rarely revisit stories, but these are so good I had to. especially after seeing that other video I referenced above. Peace. LedHed Pb 207.20 🎶 🎸 🎹

My strange uncle and cousins live in Pasadena. Visits with them were very brief. I didn't get the chance to look around the city and beyond so thanks, for sharing. You'd think everyone would be always falling off the cliffs. Risk if they have a drink or two and off they go into the air - lots of broken bones.

Very good episode, and a fantastic series: thank you! A couple points worth mentioning : although the Byrds didn't play on their initial single, that was the only time they didn't play on their records; they played on the entire debut album, and everything after that. I would disagree with calling Sweetheart their finest work: bold, maybe but certainly not their finest, and at that point it was hardly the Byrds anymore.

This has been such a fascinating series to watch. Thank you so much - have really appreciated your research. The Cass Elliott episode was done with such dignity and respect too. Laurel Canyon is an amazing place - so close to the city yet so countrified, and so secluded between neighbours too. It seems like it was fairly cheap to rent and buy there in the sixties. I imagine it is seriously expensive and exclusive now? It also seems so quiet - was this because you were filming during the pandemic?!

I'm reading "'I'm With the Band" by Pamela Des Barres, wherein she talks about her crush on Chris Hillman, among other musicians, lol. Looking at him as was back then as you show him, I guess I would've had to've been there to get the attraction. And everyone has different tastes. Thanks, Billy, to you and your crew - you folks are super-super!

Do any of the old musicians still live in the canyon, it seems if nobody is around anymore it would be really lonesome around there

It seems to me that after watching videos and seeing fires on the news that fire is most often the cause of destruction in California. Wow

Drummers and musicians in the band may not have even played on most song recordings back then but would later rehearse their parts for live shows.

My Brother had a similar type of accident. He was caught on fire while working on his face car and threw himself into his swimming pool!

Darrell Lance Abbott of Pantera was also shot several times on December 8 but he was playing guitar on the stage.

I’m watching a 2nd time its so good. Beautiful production and your musical accompaniment is amazing. All my band mates are now watching it. Just an excellent A+++ series and your narration is phenomenal. Now about the fire at the Hillmann house, since the McGuinn house is quite a bit downhill I don’t see how Roger could have filmed it from his house. Maybe he could see/smell the smoke but more likely Chris drove to Rogers house and said “holy shit my house is burning” and perhaps they hopped in the car with the camera and drove back up the hill to film it?

I never thought of anything you said about Michael Clarke as "insulting". You were instead, just laying out the history of a bunch of Folk and Bluegrass, moving to Rock n Roll and making due with what they had, and making some of most important music of the 60s.

Unfortunately most of LA is junked out! Great video.

all of this stuff was 57 years or so ago. and today that neighborhood is for the well monied only. 💰💰

Wow. I didn't know that you are from Houston!

Hello..just finding and enjoying these vids..did you have to get permissiin to access these areas? You seem to walk freely in secret nooks and crannies. Im a hippie from way back, I truly miss the good 'ol days!

Great series. One question I have, who owned these houses you are visiting and discussing? Were the rock stars renting, leasing, or buying?

Most of their music was considered underground rock at that time. Mamas and Papas was more mainstream although I can see that they really were not at heart.

You used to have every Part and episodes in order and now it is a mes to try and watch from the beginning

That lost weekend was Lennon's most creative post Beatles years - Hmmm?

I'm in my mid 50s and I've been a big Beatles fan since I was 10 years old. In my opinion Lennon was a genius but was kind of quirky and I think he could be pretty difficult at times. He wasn't very nice to his first wife and I don't think much of that.

IMHO The time that John Lennon was with May Pang were his most creative in music since the Beatles broke up. He was far from being lost, he just coined that phrase whenever the press asked him about that time away from the Dark Tower - aka the Dakota. It was all Yoko's fault when she moved him to NYC and they hung around with Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin. Nixon had those two in his sight because of their protests, etc.Yoko wanted to get rid of John for many reasons but while he was with May Pang, Yoko had the hots for session musician Dave Spinoza. She liked the money and taking a chunk of his fame. So many of his fans wished he had stayed with May Pang because she was good for him and encouraged him. He was always unsure of his talents, especially his voice. John admitted in an interview years late that he didn't really like Mintz and he didn't trust him because he was spying for Yoko. John was right to think that. John continued to see May Pang after he went back to the Dark Tower....Your video should have named the woman that made John feel whole again, MAY PANG!

I'd say that might have been, oh, December, 1980, after signing the wrong autograph for the wrong person.

@39:20 which band member has his hand on David Crosby's left shoulder, with the middle finger *possibly* extended?

Your videos,are very well done. Love old photos, but it would be better if you just told us instead of covering images with text, we want to see them!! Great stories.

Lennon was pretty distasteful in general even going back to taking the piss out of the disabled as a teenager. Doesn't affect the enjoyment of the music mind.

John Lennon was a flawed and complicated person, as so many original and great artists are. There's no point in trying to sugarcoat his deeds and misdeeds; so it's perfectly OK to document both. The point is to be balanced and fair about it, which this documentary certainly is. I'm sure John would agree with that. None of us can honestly predict how we might behave if we suddenly attained super-wealth plus global super-fame. Given those, even the finest of us could easily go badly astray for awhile.

31:23 If they're not going to do anything with that land after all this time they should just sell it. It's worth a fortune now. PS: Half the time your voice sounds very much like actor Ron Livingston

Sorry that John Lennon was not feeling well due to alcoholism. He was alone for sure witjout Yoko. He really did get better and his career was reinvented who knows what he wouldve done if he hadnt been murdered!

It is despicable behavior for one artist like John Lennon to be harassing another during a performance. It’s called respect. Performers know all too well how tough audiences can be so for a fellow creative person to be verbally engaging at a club with another act is beyond ungracious. I loved John Lennon but this story is unfortunate and shows he is not perfect.

Monkees aren't just for 13yr old kids.

Haven't you already thoroughly covered this content in previous, original Laurel Canyon episode vids.....???