Old songs

BBC 4 is doing a show tonight about the growth of the California music industry from 1965-1975 and it’s dragging me through some amazing moments. Crosby, Stills and Nash; Neil Young; Joni Mitchell; James Taylor. The songs I’m hearing are the very timber from which my ears are built. The bizarre thing here is seeing the landscape mapped out: why Laurel Cañon was important, who David Geffen actually was, how important the law profession was – in defining legal structures that allowed singer-songwriters to survive outside the machines. More of them: Jackson Browne, the Eagles. This is the AM radio of every single night of my life. James Taylor, Ry Cooder, Little Feat, Bonnie Rait, Graham Parsons. The Byrds, The Flying Burrito Brothers. Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead. Linda Ronstadt (ack!).