Echo in the Canyon

[sal paradise]

Finally streaming on Netflix in the U.K. I had high hopes, given the lack of decent budget documentaries on the folk-rock scene, then I read the reviews. Bloated, self-congratulatory nonsense aside, I actually enjoyed it.

It misses reality, but isn’t that LA’s trick in general?

[Jonesie]

I watched it a few years ago and remember it being pretty good. If you like that you might like the new Tom Petty Wildflowers doc on youtube.

[Veitchy]

I agree. It would take something closer to Ken Burns to completely document the Laurel Canyon scene but even focusing on the specifics it did, I thought Echo was a little light on. In hindsight I can see how it could come across as self-congratulatory, but I feel like the tone of a lot of scholarship on that era has been pretty much that for decades (bit of a shift in the last decade or so) so I suppose the tone felt reasonably familiar.

The one criticism I had at the time (I watched it a couple of months ago, also on Netflix) was that I felt it couldn't decide what sort of documentary it wanted to be. It seems like they shot a ton of interviews, which would have been nice to see more of. I can give or take the concert footage - perhaps I'd be more into it if it wasn't so broken up. The conversations in the canyon house with the contemporary(ish) musicians seemed like a nice framing device at first, but it became clear pretty quickly that this was rather scripted and I'd be far more interested in these artists' actual opinions on the music.

A lot of this is going to sound like I was pretty down on the doc. This isn't exactly true, I enjoyed it enough and came away knowing more about the scene than I did before. I just felt it was pretty imperfect and I can kinda see why It disappeared off the map after a reasonable amount of hype leading up to it.

I did get a warm fuzzy seeing Neil show up right at the end though.

[sal paradise]

I watched it a few years ago and remember it being pretty good. If you like that you might like the new Tom Petty Wildflowers doc on youtube.

Yes, I watched that last week LOVE wildflowers

[sal paradise]

I agree. It would take something closer to Ken Burns to completely document the Laurel Canyon scene but even focusing on the specifics it did, I thought Echo was a little light on. In hindsight I can see how it could come across as self-congratulatory, but I feel like the tone of a lot of scholarship on that era has been pretty much that for decades (bit of a shift in the last decade or so) so I suppose the tone felt reasonably familiar.

The one criticism I had at the time (I watched it a couple of months ago, also on Netflix) was that I felt it couldn't decide what sort of documentary it wanted to be. It seems like they shot a ton of interviews, which would have been nice to see more of. I can give or take the concert footage - perhaps I'd be more into it if it wasn't so broken up. The conversations in the canyon house with the contemporary(ish) musicians seemed like a nice framing device at first, but it became clear pretty quickly that this was rather scripted and I'd be far more interested in these artists' actual opinions on the music.

A lot of this is going to sound like I was pretty down on the doc. This isn't exactly true, I enjoyed it enough and came away knowing more about the scene than I did before. I just felt it was pretty imperfect and I can kinda see why It disappeared off the map after a reasonable amount of hype leading up to it.

I did get a warm fuzzy seeing Neil show up right at the end though.

I’d recommend reading Turn! Turn! Turn! by Richie Unterberger if you want a deeper look. Hotel California by Barney Hoskins is a far better book, although it’s more focused on the excesses of the 70s and is far more damning. Anything Hoskins writes is perfect.

[Veitchy]

Cheers for the recommendation. I tend to burn through books in the (southern hemisphere) summer so they may well get a look in.