author Barney Hoskins reading from and answering questions about his book, Hotel California: The True-Life Adventures of Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young, Mitchell, Taylor, Browne, Ronstadt, Geffen, the Eagles, and Their Many Friends
reading:
- Joni Mitchell & Graham Nash, Stephen Stills, James Taylor
- while Joni was in Europe, wrote song “California”
- Judy Sill as the female Nick Drake
q&a:
- Who are the central figures of the book? David Geffen & Asylum records, Jackson Browne as a leader and the unofficial a&r for Asylum
- why choose this topic? I like the story of relationships between people. this is a “close-knit” “organic” group of people. Laurel Canyon scene. hung out at the bar at the Troubadour.
- why no Steely Dan? not really a part of this scene, they separated themselves, but they did write some of the best songs about Los Angeles
- Led Zeppelin obsessed w/ Southern California
- Linda Ronstadt—didn’t get respect because not a songwriter herself? but she was a great song picker and largely responsible for putting the Eagles together
- who didn’t you get to interview/talk to that you would have liked to? the Eagles, Neil Young, the people who aren’t alive anymore (Judy Sill etc.)
- is there such thing as modern singer/songwriters? is the genre lost? modern singer/songwriters who are good in L.A.: Beck, Elliott Smith