Hotel California: The True-Life Adventures of Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young, Mitchell, Taylor, Browne, Ronstadt, Geffen, the Eagles, and Their Many Friends

For those interested in the history of the California Sound of the 1960's and 70's this is an interesting and engaging book. It goes into the personalities of important performers and writers of this genre. Including how fame and fortune compromised many of the stars. Well written and easy to read. I read it in a couple of days.

After the gold rush, before the deluge ...Hotel California documents the cultural shifts in the music business from the time when the New York City folk scene of the early sixties moved west to the dominance of arena rock in the late seventies. The migration from the early singer-songwriters to the mega-groups is a fascinating and wide-ranging story that is well told in this book.Hotel California the book, like the song by The Eagles, one of the groups in the story, is also a story of loss of innocence as the tumultuous sixties morph into the self-absorbed seventies. This is the saga behind the music that is still playing today.It's always risky to read about one's musical heroes as their personal stories are rarely as sweet and innocent as the art they created. I appreciated all the behind the scenes peeks at bands like Little Feat and artists like Randy Newman who don't often get top billing in discussions about this era. I exit this book still loving Joni Mitchell and my crush on Linda Ronstadt is intact, but the trajectories of CSNY and The Eagles read like a cautionary tale of how intense, and ego-driven, and drug-fueled the music business became.Behind the success and excess were some very savvy and often cutthroat agents and promoters who recognized and helped realize the potential to re-invent the music business. Mansions and swimming pools for the artists, even deeper profit pools for the record companies.Hotel California is well-written, fast paced and extensively researched. Barney Hoskyns is a seasoned rock journalist who has impeccable credentials to observe and document the California music scene.I enjoyed this book on many levels and recommend it to music fans, students of cultural history, and anyone interested in the business behind the soundtrack of the last fifty years.

When I first started this book it smacked of name dropping, boring and confusing details that seemed disoriented, and I almost packed it up. Problem was-- I was expecting the wrong thing. As I went further I realized that along with the included artists was a fundamental background of the industry itself-- which subsequently became an integral part of the story. The book expertly details relationships of artist to artist---- artist to record company-- and all the chess games that were played to put certain people into certain places--- and also why certain people did not get to certain places. A lot of corporate web-spinning but intriguing none-the less. It also covers the change of musical direction/development morphing from the late 60's to the mid 70's. A nice offering. Believable, interesting, and comfortable. Primarily for people that went through it or are interested in what it was all about.

I understand why it frustrates some people, but this is a decent book. The author has done a ton of research: if you were in Laurel Canyon in 1968-71 and Hoskyns didn't interview you, it probably means you are dead. He has digested the music itself and, in addition to all the milestones, champions several obscure works. His quick portraits are instinctive and convincing. And I like the trajectory he depicts: beginning with a truly vital scene that included the Byrds, Burritos, and Buffalo Springfield, the story moves from the hippie days in the Canyon, when it was about good weed and tail and you slept on someone's couch, to the hard and aloof multi-platinum era, when creativity gave way to cocaine and albums whose productions were as bloated as 'Cleopatra.' "The world stopped looking to musicians for answers and instead started to live vicariously through their heroes' hedonism," Hoskyns writes--a withering observation.There are a couple problems here, though. First, Hoskyns has simply taken on too many stories. As if it weren't a tall enough order to treat Joni Mitchell, the Eagles, and CSN&Y (and all its offshoots) in a single book, the author also feels obliged to keep up with James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Tom Waits (one of the few native Californians here), Linda Ronstadt, Lowell George, et al, and to salvage the reps of forgotten artists like Judee Sill, Gene Clark, and Jimmy Webb. By the time Gram Parsons shows up, dragging his whole Nudie suits/funeral pyre myth along with him, the book has become hopelessly over-committed. And we haven't even gotten to Fleetwood Mac and Warren Zevon yet. On top of this there is the whole behind-the-scenes component: Doug Weston's Troubadour club down on Santa Monica Boulevard; the Reprise guys and their "Burbank sound"; David Geffen and the rise of Asylum; Irving Azoff, who stole the Eagles from Geffen and oversaw all those all those records with the horrible Boyd Elder cow skulls on them. You see what I mean, it all gets mighty complicated. The book could sorely use a family-tree diagram to sort out all of the players. (While they're at it, we could use another diagram just to sort out everyone Joni Mitchell and J.D. Souther had sex with.)There are no real hatchet jobs here; several people (Browne, Souther, Geffen, Stills, Crosby, Henley and Frey of the Eagles) are awfully hard to like, but I'm not sure that could be helped. What isn't all right is the way the music itself becomes hard to like. Which brings us to the second serious problem: the deterioration that Hoskyns traces is all too true. In the end it simply isn't a terribly vibrant scene he's writing about--it's the death of the rock'n'roll spirit and the victory of pure product. Not very heroic stuff. As one onlooker remarks in the midst of so much success, "I didn't think it was good poetry, and I didn't think it was good show business."Curious thing: while the photo gallery here is unusually good--I particularly enjoy all the shots of people lighting Glenn Frey's cigarettes--the cover art is weirdly bush league; it looks like it belongs on something like 'Bob Stroud's Mellow Guitar for Intermediate Players.' (I made up Bob Stroud, so don't go looking.)

This is one thats hard to put down. After each reading session I find myself researching both Google Earth and YouTube, immersing myself in the rich Laurel Canyon musical history. Hanging out at the Troubadour, Geffens Asylum, Cass Elliot, Peter Tork or Stephen Stills house is only part of the behind the scenes stories. Always interesting is JD Southers comings and goings, and which lady he's spending time with, everyone from Ronstadt to Joni. Speaking of Joni, she dated so many up and coming musicians, wow. A highlight for me is the continuing and interesting CSNY stories, which in part saw me going back and enjoying many Hollies songs with Graham Nash. There is a great interview on the Washington National Library yt channel with Graham, and another with Chris Hillman.

Hoskyns nails it with his unblemished look at the music scene in California in the 70s. Great to read these stories about how this whole movement was put together. Factual and very straight forward he doesn't try to steal the stage. Just reporting what went on. Highly recommended.

In this book I found a lot of information about a musical era that have fascinated me for a long time. How the kind of music I love the most was born and how it evolved. Laurel Canyon and its relevant characters, I wish I had been there !!

I bought this book out of interest in the L.A. singer/songwriter scene of the late 60's/early 70's. I'm not yet completely finished with the book, but I can say that it's nicely written and contains a high density of detailed information. Hoskyns scetches careers of artists I hadn't even heard of so far (which probably isn't a big surprise considering that I was born in '82), but stays focused on the big names like CSN(&Y), Joni Mitchell, Eagles, Jackson Browne, David Geffen etc. This book is a good overview of the singer/songwriter scene back in the day.

This is a fascinating insight to the somewhat musically incestuous tight knit Southern California community of the sixties and seventies. The threaded connections that led to such 'supergroups' as The Eagles and CSN&Y are a true indication that, in most instances, they could not have survived and thrived without each other. A complex human jigsaw of incredible talent, if ever there was one.

Illuminating. A compelling read. There is plenty of detail to paint a colourful and interesting picture of the magic of these halcyon days.