Saturday, February 7, 2009

Saturday L.A. Country Rock History

The lesson beginneth...

Gram Parsons, Linda Ronstadt, and The Troubadour nightclub all play a role in the rise of LA country-rock in the late '60s and early '70s. From the BBC documentary, "Hotel California: From The Byrds To The Eagles." To read more about country-rock, please visit www.adioslounge.com.


Also see The Adios Lounge YouTube channel.

This is where fans of The Adios Lounge can knock back some beers and watch the videos that shaped a generation.

Since the Adios Lounge person gives his (I assume) age as 39, it musta been the generation just prior, although it would be interesting to know what his Mom and Dad were listening to when he was conceived...

That's just snark on my part. He probably listened to this stuff while he was growing up. Anyway, he does a good job of promoting the music.

Not only am I completely taken by L.A. Country Rock of the era, I was there. At about :28 into this video you'll see a nighttime shot heading west on Santa Monica Blvd. On the left is the familiar red, white, and blue chevron of a Standard Station directly across the street (and railroad tracks at the time) from the Troubadour. I worked at this station in 1967, age 21 and not long out of the service. Total hippie time. The gas station was at the intersection of Sta. Monica Bl., Melrose Ave., and the source of a lot of amusement for us, Doheny Dr.

A little L.A. geography here - The Sunset Strip is about a mile north of Sta. Monica Bl. and considerably higher in elevation. Doheny Dr. is its western border. Sunset Bl. continues west about 15 miles to the ocean, but it's residential past Doheny, so Doheny was the last street the hippies could coast down off of Sunset in their broke-down VW Microbuses (or whatever), overheated from the perpetual evening traffic jams on Sunset. Right into my gas station. Let's just say I learned a lot about VW Microbuses whilst enjoying the then-new phenomena of weed and the double-whammy, so to speak, of bra-less young women. Heh.



Since the video is just a link to YouTube, click on it after it starts and it will take you right to YouTube where you can easily find many more clips from the Beeb doc and anything else you may desire.

The lesson never endeth...

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