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Echo in the canyon- a jacob dylan film

I saw this little film last week, and thought I would mention it here, because any audiophile with rock records from 1968 will enjoy this film .

It tells stories, or rather films the musicians telling stories about the music they made back in the late sixties, with the common thread being the laurel canyon community.

The idea for the film, as explained in the film, was inspired by a movie called, "The Models" which intrigued Dylan about L.A. at that time, and more specifically the great music made in a short period of time by people living in laural canyon. The film often returns to dylan, beck, cat power, and another I didn't identify as the credits rolled, sitting around a coffee table shuffling a pile of old rock albums from the sixties.

It isn't all talking heads, but the talkers are all big shots from that time. The stories are interspersed with shots of a tribute concert dylan did using this same old rock material, along with some past and present studio work. Old concert footage, mostly from tV , is great fun, as is the entire movie.

David crosby does a lot of the talking, but he is a good story teller, as are all the other storytellers great entertainers. Steven stills shows up, nash says few words, Young only shows at the end , playing for a track in studio, no stories. Brian wilson talks about how each of four studios was selected for a particular sound, Ringo tells how the beatles heard the unreleased tape of pet sounds, and made sergeant peppers as a response.

The movie tells of artistic co operation, and competition, with a few side stories and trips to the modern concert thrown in to keep it interesting. I don't think he actually films an entire song , start to finish, just harvests the main emotional statements and moves on.

End of movie review.

Those were different times in los angeles. People didn't mind being an individual. Today, everyone in L.A. is dressed in black and wants more money.

Back then , as far as I knew, and I never was hip, the scene , as it was explained to me, was that there were hollywood people, beach people, canyon people and flat landers.

This was explained to me by a guy in topanga canyon wearing a battered top hat with a feather in the brim and a cowboy vest. He had asked me, the obvious outsider kid, where I was from. I was so happy to have a crumb of status granted as I learned I was beach people and not a flatlander.

One of the best concerts I ever saw was the a new years eve final performance of the band "Spirit" they were one of the best bands out of topanga canyon.

I was a little bummed as I saw the happy new years crowd in the lobby , they all had dates.

My date was my high school buddy chris, and I even had to buy his ticket, he was always broke, and I drove. All the girls in the world and chris was the best I could do. He was always good company, but I had other desires. I have since come to peace with life on the spectrum.

just as I was turning over this situation in my thoughts, a loud voice called out , "canyon people, get your tickets!" , and some hippy looking guy started passing out tickets to anybody in the crowd with an outstretched hand. As a teenager with a part time job and low money, that was my personal charley brown moment. luckily the concert easily overpowered all that nonsense.

The show started out with Taj mahal playing solo, seated, just back from africa and playing songs of black struggle. I was hoping for the aw shucks folk guy. I was a little too young and undereducated to grasp his song meanings, but he brought the talent.

Then Sprit came out and played every song of theirs, while fighting for musical dominance in the solos , within the context of a top flight performance.

I am forever grateful for the memories. You never know until you go.



Edits: 07/19/19

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Topic - Echo in the canyon- a jacob dylan film - beach cruiser 04:09:57 07/19/19 (2)

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