Kate wrote: > I look at those photos with such envy!!! The thing that gets me is that I > was sooooo close (time & place wise), I just didn't know about that scene at > the time, not they would have let me in!!! Especially if Peter Sellers was > turned away! > Kakki were you in LA then? Did you know about all that stuff or maybe it was > in hindsight we have learned of all these get togethers, via Henry Diltz > photos, etc. Yes - I'm a native who lived my early years in Westwood, but in the 60s, I lived about 25 miles south by the beach and was too young to drive a car, or otherwise get up to the scene ;-) However, a bit of it still reached my neighborhood - I remember when Stills was dating a sister of a friend in '66 and how we all drooled over that, I was friends with a couple of Sonny Bono's cousins, had friends whose parents were connected with the Herb Alpert, A&M and the record biz, the Byrds and Buffalo Springfield played at the local high school, and the local radio stations KFWB, KHJ and KRLA plied us daily with the latest happenings on the scene. It was a fantastic time, even if one was a bit removed by age or distance - it was still close enough to live it not so vicariously! Plus in those days, as Steve Dulson can tell you, it was so easy and downright cheap to see the top acts around L.A. and also out in its suburbs. There was a place near my home where you could see just about anyone for a couple bucks. Another friend lived in Laurel Canyon for a bit with one of his former college professors. My friend was trying to get an extension of his draft deferment at the time and has told me of going to the Canyon store, running into Joni there and having a great chat with her about all kinds of topics of the day. My biggest "argh, I missed it" story, though, was when I was visiting an old family friend who was terminally ill about 10 years ago. He had been a childhood actor and was later a fairly famous movie director. He also had written songs for TV and film and he asked me that night to play something on his piano. So I said to him "you won't know this, but it's a favorite of mine" and started playing. He immediately said "Joni Mitchell - Song to a Seagull." I was stunned - he was about 70 years old at the time. I asked him how he knew that and he said "because she played it for me once on this very piano at one of my parties." He lived in Laurel Canyon the same time as Joni but I'd never imagined a friend of my parents would have been included in the "scene" ! > I was up in Santa Barbara, on the mountain, doing a similar musical thing > though, we just weren't rich or famous! And in those days, SB was light > years away from LA it seemed....(though I do have a friend who grew up here > who told me that once she had a big party & a very obnoxious Jim Morrison > showed up at her door...) There was a group of guys who lived in one of the canyons near me. They were all musicians and artists and my friends and I would go there and have jam sessions with them whenever we could. They were always playing Joni and their own incredible original music. Their parties were legend in my area and I was always having this fantasy-wish that one day Joni would somehow show up at one of them!! > hell said, "the parties that John and Michelle Phillips used to have in LA (I think it was > Laurel Canyon, but that may have been Cass Elliot)" Cass was the one who lived there and I think she was the main "den mother" of the gang ;-) Kakki
