Review: Echo in the Canyon on Netflix
Review: Echo in the Canyon on Netflix
Jakob Dylan searches for the spark that lit the fire that became the Laurel Canyon sound.
Jakob Dylan searches for the spark that lit the fire that became the Laurel Canyon sound.
Even if you have a rudimentary knowledge of music, you’re familiar with the Laurel Canyon sound. It’s often singled out as the epicenter of the singer/songwriter movement of the 1970s and sometimes called the “Southern California Sound.”
Its’ kings may be CSN, sometimes Y, and the queen is Carole King (whose Tapestry is the high watermark of this genre). That said, one could argue who should wear the crown. It’s entirely subjective.
What isn’t really subjective is the impact Laurel Canyon had on the music industry.
Growing up a happy little music nerd, I’ve always been well acquainted with the singers and songwriters that emanated from “the canyon”. Some of the artists included:
The Byrds
The Mamas and Papas
Crosby, Stills and Nash (sometimes Young)
Joni Mitchell
The Eagles
Brian Wilson (of the Beach Boys)
Jackson Browne
But the artists who shaped the Laurel Canyon sound weren’t the only musicians in the area. Other residents in the mid to late 1960s included:
Frank Zappa
Peter Tork (of The Monkees)
Jim Morrison
Micky Dolenz (of The Monkees)
John Mayall
Dusty Springfield
It’s All Connected
It’s sound identified by introspective and personal lyrics sung in front of acoustic instruments, mainly guitars, and elegant yet non-complex arrangements. The focus was on the words. As Roger McGuinn points out, it was the marriage of the intellect and individuality of folk music like Pete Seeger and the rock and roll of The Beatles.
As a dime-store music scholar, I never made that connection. McGuinn smashes the two together perfectly.
The other new bit of information came from producer Lou Adler who equated the musical movement of that era to the film explosion in the early 20th century. Laurel Canyon has always been a haven of the creative set going back to the silent film era. Past residents included Clara Bow, Errol Flynn and Harry Houdini.
Back then, Laurel Canyon was considered the “BelAir of its day.”
Echo in the Canyon interviews a bunch of the sounds’ originators like Roger McGuinn, David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and Jackson Browne. The film also has some cameos like Brian Wilson and Eric Clapton. While Michelle Phillips of The Mamas and Papas is present, noticeably absent are some of the other female voices like Joni Mitchell and Carole King.
There are also a few scenes with Tom Petty. And ANY interview with Tom Petty reminds you of three things — how much he loved music, how engaging he was and how much of a loss his death is.
Outside of that, Echo of the Canyon, directed by Andrew Slater, comes across as a rather empty and meandering exercise in self-indulgence.
As the host of this sojourn for the origins of the Laurel Canyon sound, Jakob Dylan comes across as rather annoyed and only perks up a couple of times. Maybe that’s his general disposition? It might be argued that he’s simply there because of his surname and to give the story gravitas. I’m pretty certain he grew up in Malibu.
In fact, during more than one interview I found myself wondering why the interview was a two-shot (two people). The artist was already responding to whatever the question was and Dylan was just sitting there. Maybe he’s a substitute for the audience?
There were also some random shots of Dylan inexplicably driving and walking around. In one case, he walks into some music shop…that I guess we’re to know which one it was. I think Slater’s idea was to juxtapose these Dylan scenes with the 1969 movie Model Shop, that’s woven into the film.
I get it. It didn’t work.
It was interesting to see some modern artists like Norah Jones, Beck, Fiona Apple and Regina Spektor pop-up. However, that’s all it was, interesting.
The living room rehearsal and “discussion” scenes between Dylan, Regina Spektor, Beck and Cat Power lacked energy and seemed pointless. They’re painfully dull and sucked the energy from me.
It’s almost as though everyone felt obligated to be in the film.
The song selection was also odd, which I’m going to attribute to the cost of licensing the songs we all know. Even Petty acknowledges as much in the beginning when he plays a few notes of an intro to a Byrds song (I think) and then coyly looks into the camera and says “You can’t afford the rest.”
The one highlight for me was “Goin’ Back” by Beck and Jakob Dylan.
The only artists who really put any energy into any performance were Fiona Apple, Regina Specktor and Jade Constrinos.
I was also confused as to why some artists who recorded songs weren’t part of the live performance. I get it, logistics…but still.
Jakob Dylan brought Norah Jones in to record The Associations “Never My Love” for the soundtrack but the live version has Cat Power singing the Jones part. Josh Homme is on the soundtrack but makes no appearance in the film. And Neil Young just pops up at the end doing his wandering guitar solo thing in a studio, but no interview.
Perhaps that’s picky, but it seemed incongruous.
The inter-cut scenes from the live performance were meh. Worse, it sounded like what I was watching was VERY far from a “live” performance. There had to have been some serious over-dubbing. Again, maybe too picky…but live should be mostly live.
Attempting to find the origins of the Laurel Canyon sound is really a fools’ errand. We can listen to the stories of the people who were there…and we should. Their stories created the music. The creative how and why will remain a mystery. As they should.
Chasing that dragon is were Echo in the Canyon falls short. The fact is we’re never going to understand what made that moment what it was. If it could’ve been copied, rest assured the music industry and the artists themselves would have done so by now.
David Crosby, the longtime enfant terrible of Laurel Canyon, said it best when he said that people have “been trying to put salt on this bird’s tail for years, but it happened. I was there.” For proof, which his documentary David Crosby: Remember My Name.
Was it the era? Sure. Was it the drugs? Those may have helped. Was it the creative power of people capturing the zeitgeist? Without a doubt.
That’s the flaw of Echos in the Canyon, it’s trying to capture something that simply can’t be captured.