Book Reviews

Your head will spin dizzily with pleasure before you reach the end of the first chapter of "Canyon of Dreams," Harvey Kubernik’s lovingly told history of the unique Hollywood micro-climate known as Laurel Canyon. The supernovas and the dimly lit alike open up to L.A. native, record biz insider and scene maker Kubernik who transmits their stories with an immediacy that will make you feel more like an eavesdropper than a history buff.

Hippie or hipster, new waver or new ager, Kubernik’s got the lowdown on how every key canyon scene played out over the past 80 or so years, dropping names like a boomer Army Archerd and delivering insider detail with a Smithsonian curator’s care. Kubernik sets scenes we can only dream of having witnessed, relating the stories with the concision of a great screenwriter and the framing skills and concern for textures, colors and lighting of an ace cinematographer. The mind visuals Kubernik imparts are equalled only by the amazing photos he’s managed to dig up or get from, among others, his friend Henry Diltz. Flip to any page and you’ll see something great, like page 226’s shot of Neil Young rehearsing with bassist Greg Reeves and Dallas Taylor at Peter Tork’s house.

Whether you’re into movies, television or music, Harvey’s got stories and scenarios you’re sure to love, all woven together in a celebration that’s as much about the canyon’s mysterious powers as it is about the individuals who dwelled and dwell along its comforting crease. Chapter 1’s got the Garden of Allah Hotel at the base of the canyon off Sunset that was part celebrity retreat, part whorehouse, a fight between big banders Tommy Dorsey and Kay Keyser over who’s more popular settled when Dorsey summons two naked girls from the next room with “T” and “D” shaved in their pubic areas, lots of gay stuff, hidden as well in Kubernik’s prose as it was from mainstream Hollywood fans, opium, Errol Flynn throwing a poseur threw the window of Barney’s Beanery and I could go on. That’s just Chapter 1!

Chapter 2 digs into jazz. There’s a full page Contemporary Records album cover one sheet and yes, Mr. Kubernik gives the great recording engineer Roy DuNann his due along with label founder Lester Koening, all courtesy of discussions with Dan Kessel son of jazz guitar great Barney who played on plenty of famous rock sessions too. Even the most far-flung anecdote springs back to the canyon one way or another. Every time you’re sure Kubernik might disappoint, he comes through with riches. “Okay,” you think, “Van Dyke Parks has a surreal tune called ‘Laurel Canyon Blvd.’ on his indispensable album Song Cycle, so will Harvey even mention Parks? And if he does will it be perfunctory or will we get the real goods?” Come on! Just the picture of a very young Van Dyke chording a red Rickenbacker with Brian Wilson looking on satisfies, but there’s so many more memories and stories from Mr. Parks and from so many others in this ambitious epic.

Turn to any page at random as I’m doing while writing this and you’ll turn up a gem: a Cash Box ad for Love’s “My Little Red Book” on page 62. The text begins “(Mark) Volman lived three doors down from Ken Forssi, the bass player in Love. Johnny Echols, Love’s guitarist lived further down the block.” Try another page: a photo of The Seeds at the Hollywood Bowl 1967 on page 82, a photo of the police riot at Pandora’s Box that inspired Stills’ “For What It’s Worth” along with a poster calling for a protest in front of the club on page 108, Firesign Theater on 131, Felix Cavaliere, Stills and Young shopping for clothes on Sunset on page 175. How about a shot of Zubin Mehta and Frank Zappa going over some orchestral scores on page 242? If you get the idea that I’ve done little more than look at pictures beyond the first few chapters, you’re correct.

I confess: I haven’t had time to read beyond the first few, but trust me, I will devour every word and every picture in this sumptuously produced, photo-generous 370 page, hard covered, oversized extravaganza. “A zip code with its own playlist,” is how Kubernik describes Laurel Canyon and vicinity. If that sounds like hyperbole to you now, it won’t when you finish the book. It won’t after the first chapter! Highly recommended.