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Hotel California

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Hotel California

Written by: Barney Hoskyns
Narrated by: Nick Landrum
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Buy Now for $24.34

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About this listen

The classic account of the LA Canyons scene between 1967 and 1976, featuring Joni Mitchell; Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young; The Eagles; James Taylor; and Jackson Browne. Ambition, betrayal, drugs and genius all combine with great music making.

©2005 Barney Hoskyns (P)2012 Talking Music Music
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I loved this book. The musicians of the Laurel Canyon era are the ones I grew up on, and so much of their music formed the backdrop of my childhood and youth. I have long enjoyed Barney Hoskyns as a "talking head" on a variety of music documentaries, and found his writing to be even more insightful and interesting, when given the time to really spin out the stories of the lives of these seminal singer-songwriters. I knew a lot about Joni, Neil, CSN, etc., but he filled in many details and gave a peek behind the curtain of the "star maker machinery" by adding portraits of Geffen, Roberts, Azoff, and the other moguls and managers who cultured and in some cases exploited the artists and turned their craft into big business. So much of the story of that era is a cautionary tale in grand ideals gradually giving way to easy lives and excessive indulgence, yet I can't help still be grateful for the music that was left behind, and still feel attached to the flawed personalities of many of these, my musical heroes.

An interesting coda that is not part of this book is the amazing resurgence that David Crosby has had in the last decade with his new bands, CPR and "Lighthouse." The music is every bit as good, if not better than his early work, and has an expanded palette of jazz flavoured harmonies and lyrics drafted from the wisdom of a life almost wasted, but given a second chance. If you love his earlier work, but haven't heard this music, check it out, you will fall in love with him all over again.

My only beef with the Audible version is a strange quirk that narrator Nick Landrup displays that I found distracting to the point of losing the thread of the plot. He seems to have made a decision to characterize every female who is quoted in the book by speaking in a slightly higher pitched and breathy voice. It seems to be his "woman voice." It would already be a bit annoying, because it makes the quotes from the women sound like they are all a bit ditzy, but it is doubly galling when these are women who have been interviewed on radio and video so often, that I have the sound of their speaking voices in my head, (as well as their singing voices, of course.) So, when I kept hearing Joni Mitchell or Linda Ronstadt quotes, (two women with voices of amazing range and clairty, both in their singing and speaking), delivered in this strange, breathy tone, it angered me to no end. They don't speak that way, why depict them that way! it has this strange, homogenizing effect that does not occur when he quotes men in his normal speaking voice. We know they are women, we don't need an audible cue each time they are quoted to remind us. And they are some of the most powerful, opinionated, forceful and creative women of their generation. Their words are enough, we don't need any further, "performance" of their voices.

There was a similar tendency to give every Brit the same, vague, not very good British accent that never varied regardless of which region of England the quoted Brits came from. There is an enormous variety in the accents of British speakers, and again, these are people whose voices many of us know, so it did no favours to the story or what they had to say, to whitewash them all with a vague "from nowhere specific" British accent. These narrative tics were so prevalent that right until the very end of the book I couldn't let go of being bothered and distracted by them.

Otherwise, Landrup has a very engaging and descriptive way of speaking, a very pleasant vocal tone and a delivery that elucidates the text of the book. I would urge him and all narrators to trust their natural speaking voices alone to tell the story and trust us to fill in the blanks about the male and female characters, etc.

Great Book With A Quirky Narration

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