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23rd out of 207 books
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Hotel California: The True-Life Adventures of Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young, Mitchell, Taylor, Browne, Ronstadt, Geffen, the Eagles, and T
This book is a remarkable look at one of the most dramatic, creative, and revolutionary settings in American popular culture: the Los Angeles popular music scene from the late 1960s to the late 1970s. Drawing on extraordinarily candid firsthand interviews Barney Hoskyns has conducted over more than three decades, Hotel California takes you on an intimate tour—from the Suns...more
Hardcover, 324 pages
Published
May 19th 2006
by John Wiley & Sons
(first published January 1st 2006)
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Certainly full of interesting facts, but suffers from too many of them. The cast of characters is huge and unwieldy, with many people doing what I felt were unnecessary walk-ons. The writing was magazine-like with extra trivia shoehorned in. I enjoyed parts of it very much, especially how songs came to be written. On the whole, though, I can't recommend it to anyone but the stone Laurel Canyon junkie.
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Not the deeply satisfying and more sensational reads of "Shakey" or "Long time Gone" but still an interesting read and a broader scope. For those of us who did not live through the late 60's and 70's and did not experience the music happening out of the LA area in a linear way this book puts that in perspective nicely. History has kind of judged and divided these troubadours into our sacred cow artists like Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, the soft rock stadium sell outs like Th...more
It began in the late 1960s in a bohemian, artistic enclave in the canyons near Los Angeles. It spawned the singer-songwriter era of rock music and produced what would be called "the Southern California sound" and "country rock." It essentially ended in the 1970s as commercial success and millionaire lifestyles led to the disintegration of an edifice symbolized by "Hotel California."[return][return]That song title also serves befittingly as the title of Barney Hosk...more
Mitchell
rated it
Not the first book I've read which covered the LA music scene in the 60s and 70s, but definitely the worst. I can't say that it was inaccurate but it was a mean-spirited downer and in the pieces that I knew something about, I was able to find some errors - which brought much of this into question. I remember Laurel Canyon: The Inside Story of Rock-and-Roll's Legendary Neighborhood by Michael Walker as being a much better read. And Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon--and the J...more
I generally love reading about anything having to do with musicians. But overall, this book was less about the musicians and more focused on the music "business", those who felt they were responsible for "making" the artists of this era, in spite of having to deal with the artists' debauchery, drug addiction and ego-mania. it was very disjointed and jumbled, often jumping from one thought to the next seemingly without much connection. I got a much better feel for this place a...more
Hoskyn's book, in the edition that I have is subtitled "Singer Songwriters and Cocaine Cowboys in the L.A. Canyons, 1967-1976." This book covers the intersection of both subtitles. It centers on the Laurel Canyon scene in L.A. in the 60s and early 70s. There is a lot on CSNY and the Eagles, and Jackson Browne, and lesser but still fairly decent chunks on Joni Mitchell, David Geffen/Elliot Roberts/Asylum, the Troubador, The Roxy, Buffalo Springfield, and Gene Clark. Honestly, I am still...more
The hippies go to hell. Excellent account of the coke-fuelled 70's Californian singer/songwriter scene. What a bunch of assholes! Jackson Browne is one of the few to emerge with his honour intact - most of the others come across as ridiculous, self-obsessed brats. Hoskyns, as always, covers the ground very well and writes superbly. One of the better music books out there for sure.
Barney got this one right. An exciting page turner with all the right details about all the right artists. The flow was exceptional and the period of music was wrapped up exceptionally. A must read for anyone born in the sixties because you were raised on this music and the stories behind the music are as exciting as the artists and what they created in the late sixties and 1970s.
In depth story of the artists and business people behind the California sound of the late sixties and early seventies. Talks about the rise of Joni Mitchell, CSNY, Neil Young, The Byrds, James Taylor, The Eagles and also some of the business execs behind the scenes, notably David Geffen, who's stories are just as fascinating as their proteges.
Um, this was not good. No real insight OR fun gossip, and no real sense of why these artists mattered. I love me some classic rock, and I'm interested in how folk music fed into pop to truly help define what "rock" became in the 1970s...but this was just an unfocused, boring mess.
California was a good musical hotbed... specifically in this book, you get the 70's Laurel Canyon/Troubador scene. Consider Joni Mitchell, CSNY, Byrds, Jackson Browne and leading towards the Eagles...
I liked it but would not recommend it for most people.
I liked it but would not recommend it for most people.
I opened this book looking for information about the late singer, Judee Sill, and was drawn into Hoskyns' narrative about how many of these idealistic folkies of the 60's became big, bloated, spoiled, and egotistical cokeheads in the 70's and 80's.
Mendy
added it
Read this book after seeing PBS' American Masters on Laurel Canyon and The Troubadour. Great book about the California music scene in the late 60's/70's. I don't know why I got so sucked in . . . I guess because it's the music I grew up with.
This book started me on a quest to read as many books as I could find on the singer/songwriters of the 60's and 70's. The book cronicles a time when the musical icons of this era were living in Laurel canyon in LA. They were hanging out together, dating each other and writing songs about it all. They spent their nights playing and listening to each other at the Troubadour. I loved the book and I was sorry when it ended. After you read the book, you should go to a web-site called "thebrombie...more
I can't explain why I'm always drawn to this era of music, and am always reading about it. I think it's neat to learn the stories behind the songs. There was lots of boring stuff in there also.
If you love any of these musicians, don't read this book! None of these musicians come out looking like decent people. Do yourself a favor and enjoy the music instead.
This non-fiction book gave some good insights into the incestuos nature of the rock scene in Laurel Canyon and L.A. in the early-mid 60s to the mid 70s. Everybody was doing everyone and their music. The book was a bit heavy handed with the name dropping of agents, producers, etc. but it did demonstrate the competition between and different management styles of label-owners and producers (e.g., should I do coke with my artists or not?). Some of my favorite artists simply dropped off the radar ...more
A decent book about the background and music of the "Laurel Canyon" rock musicians. The title tells it all.
Mostly about drugs and sex.
Mostly about drugs and sex.
Nostalgia for a time I never knew. Pretty interesting. Made me want to check out David Crosby. Not sure if that's a good thing.
Pretty sure I read this about 5-10 years ago. Didn't stickin my memory very well since I just now remembered it and had to do some searching to get the title. Lots of LA stories including peripheral stuff about a favorite band of mine, Spirit, who lived in Topanga and encountered Charlie Manson. Manson was a hanger on at the time trying to sell songs. Date read is a guess.
If you liked the American Masters "Troubadours" episode on PBS, this book is a good way to dig deeper on the subject.
How the shift from East Coast to West created AOR and cocaine fueled a decade of solipsistic music.
Reads like a biographical journey of a genre of music; that of the singer/songwriter.
From country rock to coke rock, the L.A. music scene in broad strokes -- with Randy Newman as Greek chorus. And, man, Joni Mitchell got around!
Lisa
added it
Loved it!
I anjoyed reading about what lead up to Eagles recording the Hotel California album and getting a look behind the scenes of the music industry in Los Angeles. The author did a great job researching this book and writing it. It was sort of sad to learn that the musicians were such messed-up hedonistic jerks.
Hotel California: The True-Life Adventures of Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young, Mitchell, Taylor, Browne, Ronstadt, Geffen, the Eagles, and Their Many Friends by Barney Hoskyns (2007)
Really gives you a good look at both the professional and the personal lives of everybody. It's always interesting and informative and good to learn more about different cultures, but neither the business nor the lifestyle is at all appealing to me, so although it is a good book, it's just not that much fun to read about unhappy people. Spend the whole day feeling sorry for them--even during their good times.
Helen
rated it
Recommends it for:
people who love the California country/rock/singer-songwriter's of the 70's
I worked in record shops during high school and college, I grew-up on this music. I still feel that these artist's made the best music ever pressed to vinyl (yeah I said vinyl). I still can't believe John Hall is a congressmen now :)- who would have thunk :). Springsteen sang about glory days, for me that is what this era of music was and still is.Long may the music run.
Hoskyns' infatuation with the mythic culture of southern California in the 60s and 70s is evident in his depiction of the people and circumstances that produced much of the best music of those years. He describes an era of magic and gives detailed background to the rise of singer/songwriters, revealing their vulnerability to the evolving culture.
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