Imagine living right down the street from Joni Mitchell, The Byrds and Modern Folk Quartet. Those were just a few of Michelle Phillips’ famous…
Imagine living right down the street from Joni Mitchell, The Byrds and Modern Folk Quartet.
Those were just a few of Michelle Phillips’ famous neighbors in Los Angeles’ Laurel Canyon in the late 1960s and early ’70s, where she co-founded folk group The Mamas and the Papas with then-husband John Phillips, Denny Doherty and Cass Elliot.
«Cass had an open-door policy – anybody could swing by her place any time,» Phillips says. «They’d smoke a joint, drink some wine and play their guitars. That’s how she got Crosby, Stills & Nash together: She heard them all singing (separately) and said, ‘You guys should sing together.’ And that’s how that happened.»
The musical renaissance that sprung out of this idyllic mountainside neighborhood is the subject of two-part docuseries «Laurel Canyon,» premiering on Epix Sunday (9 EDT/PDT) and concluding June 7. The documentary paints an intimate portrait of the friendships, love affairs, collaborations – and sometimes all three – that defined this place and time.
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Graham Nash, for instance, wrote the wistful «Our House» at Mitchell’s Laurel Canyon home, which the then-couple shared.
