A Song of the Beautiful Time

It's a little before '69, which AVI says is the end of the period rather than the beginning of it. I wasn't quite there, so I'll bend to the judgment of my elders on the point.



You can easily see what I like about it: the rejection of the city, the embrace of the canyon, the love of simple beauty and a renewed sort of human relation. It's interesting for those of you who follow my movie recommendation of last week, as it turns up in an interesting context.

8 comments:

raven said...

Yes- get the city off our shoes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLAuzVb-C_o
Guy Clark via Jerry Jeff Walker.

Assistant Village Idiot said...

I think it;s Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurel_Canyon,_Los_Angeles

Gringo said...

L.A. Freeway reminded me of Lyle Lovett's L.A. County.

Laurel Canyon reminds me of Weird Scenes Inside The Canyon: Laurel Canyon, Covert Ops & The Dark Heart Of The Hippie Dream.

The author maintains that all that hippie music was a secret op meant to distract American youth from politics. He points out many rockers had fathers in interesting positions. Jim Morrison's father was an However,The author does go off the track with Peter Tork. While Peter Tork was born in Washington DC, his father didn't fit the narrative, as his father asked that upon his death in lieu of flowers, donations be sent to a Marxist library in Oakland.

Gringo said...

Jim Morrison's father was an Admiral.

raven said...

Lyle Lovett is a treasure- LA County is a great song, although dark and murderous, like "She wore Red Dresses" there is a version performed by Dwight Yoakum and Flaco Jimenez that is just amazing.
Could just be those hippie rockers had both the rebellious nature and the money to not have to work to make ends meet, if their parents were connected. Pretty hard to be a rocker if you can't afford a guitar.

Grim said...

I didn’t get the LA connection, but I think LA was a very different place 50 years ago. Much less of a mega city than it has become.

Still, I prefer the mental image of a wilder canyon.

douglas said...

Oh, I can tell you from experience that L.A. is quite different than it was 50 or even 30 years ago.

Where I live was a quiet suburb back then, even though it's less than fifteen minutes from downtown (depending on traffic or course). Almost all the canyons were still wild in feeling, but with development starting to encroach. Now it's nearly impossible to get away from the rush and crowds. There are still little pockets of 'wilderness' in the local hills, but they get smaller and smaller.

As they do, my interest in sticking around here gets smaller as well.
The mountains call, but too many unbreakable ties bind me here.

douglas said...

That said, I still sometimes marvel at the wildlife that manages to keep on living in proximity to more and more humans. Recently a biologist doing studies in urban areas confirmed a bobcat not far from me, and the coyotes, skunks, possums, and the like are plentiful enough. In the foothills, you can still run into bears and occasionally foxes, but I've yet to see a cougar personally.