Amazing access to the mid ‘60s music heroes who changed music forever helps the plodding pace of this extraordinary film. Director Andrew Slater and Executive Producer and star of the film, Jakob Dylan (Son of Bob), have amassed incredible interviews with the musicians who created the California sound that echoed out of LA’s Laurel Canyon. Music had mainly been acoustic, but now electric guitars came in vogue. Great musicians started experimenting.
The list of those involved from 1965 -1967, and Dylan interviewed for this documentary, is endless. It includes low-key but informative conversations with everyone from Tom Petty (The Heart Breakers), Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, Michelle Phillips of the Mamas & the Papas, Stephen Stills (Buffalo Springfield), David Crosby (The Byrds), to Eric Clapton, Graham Nash, Ringo Starr, Jackson Browne. And peppered throughout are interviews with more recent talents, including Fiona Apple, Beck, Jade, Cat Power and Nora Jones, who were influenced by those who explored the new music before them.
Dylan includes performances from a concert he put together recently of the classic songs by such contemporary artists as Beck, Apple, Power and Jones. It makes you realize how great these songs were and still are. We would have like to see more energy in the presentation.
There is even footage of a collection of these musicians at parties jammin’, including one at the Laurel Canyon home of Mama Cass. Plus, there are home movies of many from groups including the Beach Boys, and the Mamas and the Papas hanging out, on stage and in the studio. There is even a map, Hollywood-style, showing exactly where each of these music icons, along with movie stars, who lived all over Laurel Canyon.
Michelle Phillips is still so beautiful and so animated talking about how musicians would just show up with a guitar and just start playing and collaborating. She also talks frankly about her hookups and relationships and those of other musicians that often altered what groups remained together.
The stories behind making this music are the most fascinating elements of this movie. Jakob Dylan is obviously passionate about this project but he is often poker-faced, showing less than an enthralling presence. He is so laid back that we wanted to see him react more to these superstars. We found it a little harder to get engaged and excited watching talking heads, even though the stories are so great. That said, he takes us back to a magical, musical place in time.
No matter how old you are, you’ve been exposed to this music one way or another. It’s part of our collective DNA. And this documentary gives you a rare chance to meet the musicians who created so much of the great music that echoed out of the Canyon.
Greenwich Entertainment 82 minutes Documentary
Director Andrew Slater and Executive Producer present for Q & A and a performance Friday, June 21, at The Music Box Theatre in Chicago.
