Hotel California: The True-Life Adventures of Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young, Mitchell, Taylor, Browne, Ronstadt, Geffen, the Eagles, and Their Many Friends
Hotel California: The True-Life Adventures of Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young, Mitchell, Taylor, Browne, Ronstadt, Geffen, the Eagles, and Their Many Friends book cover

Hotel California: The True-Life Adventures of Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young, Mitchell, Taylor, Browne, Ronstadt, Geffen, the Eagles, and Their Many Friends

Paperback – May 1, 2007

Price
$21.05
Format
Paperback
Pages
336
Publisher
Wiley
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-0470127773
Dimensions
6.24 x 0.85 x 9.24 inches
Weight
1.05 pounds

Description

"Comprehensive and lively, Hotel California offers a front-row seat on the wild ride—fueled by drugs, sex, and lots of cash—that took Southern California singer-songwriters from hot tubs and local bars to sold-out stadiums,private jets, and the bestselling album of all time."—Alan Light, author of The Skills to Pay the Bills: The Story of the Beastie Boys "Through hundreds of interviews conducted over the last dozen years, Hoskyns methodically chips away at the era's artifice and ego-driven mythologizing, revealing a creative landscape that was less stardust and golden than it was green with greed and white with cocaine residue."—Erik Himmelsbach, Los Angeles Times Book Review This book is a remarkable look at one of the most dramatic, creative, and revolutionary settings in American popular culture: the Los Angeles popular music scene from the late 1960s to the late 1970s. Drawing on extraordinarily candid firsthand interviews Barney Hoskyns has conducted over more than three decades, Hotel California takes you on an intimate tour—from the Sunset Strip to Laurel Canyon—of the creative and personal lives of the legendary songwriters, superstars, and producers who made the music that everyone listened to. You'll read things you've never read before about such fascinating, complex people as Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Jackson Browne, Glenn Frey, Mama Cass Elliot, James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, David Geffen, and many others. Packed with riveting anecdotes and sharp musical insights, Hotel California captures the amazing results of brilliant creative collaboration and the dark side of fame, wealth, and unbridled ambition. It is a story of rise and fall like none other, and you won't be able to put it down. British journalist Barney Hoskyns has spent much of his professional life in Los Angeles as a correspondent for England's New Musical Express and Mojo . He has contributed to Rolling Stone , GQ , Harper's Bazaar , Interview , British Vogue , and Spin . His other books include Across the Great Divide: The Band and America and Led Zeppelin IV . He is the cofounder and editorial director of the acclaimed online library Rock's Backpages at www.rocksbackpages.com.

Features & Highlights

  • Hoskyns brings a genuine love as well as an outsider's keen eye to the rise and fall of the California scene. . . . This is a riveting story, sensitively told.—
  • Anthony DeCurtis, Contributing Editor,
  • Rolling Stone
  • From enduring musical achievements to drug-fueled chaos and bed-hopping antics, the L.A. pop music scene in the sixties and seventies was like no other, and journalist Barney Hoskyns re-creates all the excitement and mayhem.
  • Hotel California
  • brings to life the genesis of Crosby, Stills, and Nash at Joni Mitchell’s house; the Eagles’ backstage fistfights after the success of ""Hotel California""; the drama of David Geffen and the other money men who transformed the L.A. music scene; and more.

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
30%
(293)
★★★★
25%
(244)
★★★
15%
(146)
★★
7%
(68)
23%
(224)

Most Helpful Reviews

✓ Verified Purchase

Country Rock and More

What I like about this book is that it covers a lot of artists. It doesn't hone in much on most of the characters with the exception of a few like Joni Mitchell, David Geffen, and Neil Young.
If you're a trivia buff this book provides a lot of material!

The history of the Eagles was quite interesting and the birth of what we call "country-rock" which Linda Ronstadt and the Eagles made so popular.
It also covers the agents and record labels that were instrumental in marketing and recruiting music from that era.
There are more than a few tales of excess and tragedy.
It's worth reading if you're curious about the connections and characters that were involved in that part of American music history.
24 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Boring, boring, boring, Sid, boring (mostly)

I originally had this as a one-star review but I had to bump it up a star on retrospect. My problem with the book initially was that it seemed to drop the name of every musician or industry person who had anything to do with Los Angeles folk-rock music in the late 60s and 70s without spending more than a couple of pages on most of them. I was particularly annoyed by the first chapter or two which dispensed with most of the careers of the Byrds and the Buffalo Springfield in a couple of pages, with little in-depth information. This is a really annoying way to start a book - gets the reader off on the wrong foot. By the time you get about a third of the way through, things do pick up and you get a bit more information on the Eagles, for example (aside from finding out everybody that Joni Mitchell ever slept with). I added a star because some of the info in the middle is good background, particularly if you're planning to read, say, another book on the Eagles or Neil Young, so it has some value as an "overview" of the times. But my original criticism still stands: most of these artists have had better or more complete books written about them, so why bother with this one?

A great amount of time is spent discussing various record executives and managers like David Geffen, Mo Ostin and Irv Azoff, all of whom are frankly much more boring to read about than any of the artists they represented. I'd have rather read a few more pages on one of the musicians within - pretty much ANY one of them - than lengthy discussions of Geffen's personality and motivations. Yawn.
6 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Loved it.

Loved it ..it was like I had a chance to revisit that time frame which was about 10 yrs before my time. Well written and historical.
1 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Hotel California for the Serious Fan

This book was hard to put down, especially if you experienced those times, or are a serious student of the evolution of modern folk rock. It was very well written, but I do know that to get the max from this book it is very helpful to know about the music, and the stars of those times. This is very detailed. A great companion to this book is "Girls Like Us" as there is a lot of cross over...

It is interesting to note for the younger reader, that the genesis of a lot of what you hear today, and the reality is that it is almost all still played on the radio consistently.
1 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

California Dreaming

I received this soon after ordering it. It was in perfect condition. It is very informative on the late 60's/70's California country-rock scene. It bounces back and forth a lot, sometimes leaving one unsure exactly when certain things happened, with a lot of names to follow and such, but it is still very interesting and informative. It's great to have as a reference for someone as into the scene as I am. It contains some really outta sight pics as well!
1 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Greed overtakes the artistic community.✌

A good book on the musical landscape from laurel canyon.
✓ Verified Purchase

Greed overtakes the artistic community.✌

A good book on the musical landscape from laurel canyon.
✓ Verified Purchase

Informative window into SoCal music scene

Good book about the Southern California music scene in the late 60s & 70s. Seemed a bit too informative on the agents, promoters and businessmen. Also too slanted towards interlopers like Crosby, Stills, Nash & (especially) Young. Would have liked it more focused on the country-rock scene.
✓ Verified Purchase

good music never dies

personally it was a walk down memory lane when I was in my late teens. All the people mentioned were about the music and the bands that I still listen to today. Nostalgic read and behind the scenes informative.
✓ Verified Purchase

Easy sale

Awesome book