No, this isn’t actually a new installment of the Laurel Canyon series. It is, instead, an explanation of why there haven’t been any new chapters posted in quite some time now. There are, I can assure you, a number of new chapters that have been written – one on Frank Zappa and a couple of his more colorful discoveries (Captain Beefheart and Larry “Wild Man” Fischer), one on Arthur Lee and his band Love, one on John Kay and his band Steppenwolf, and one on Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys. There are also a number of new additions to the Laurel Canyon Death List. And some supplemental material concerning the death of young Godo Paulekas.
There is also a new chapter that takes a look at the punk and new wave scene that, in the late 1970s, began replacing the sounds of Laurel Canyon on the radio dial. And a new epilogue that reveals that Charlie Manson wasn’t the only serial killer/mass murderer with curious ties to the Laurel Canyon scene. And a new preface that aims to accomplish two things: explain to readers how and why I came to pen this saga, and preemptively respond to potential critics. Also added is a forward written by my esteemed colleague, Nick Bryant, author of The Franklin Scandal.
None of that, however, will be making an appearance on this website, or on any other website. Instead, it will be incorporated into – drum roll, please – a Laurel Canyon book! I have been, you see, quietly working for some time now with a publisher in the UK. And what we have put together is, I honestly believe, a vastly improved telling of the Laurel Canyon saga. In addition to all the new material that will be exclusive to the book, much of the previously posted material has been reorganized and extensively edited to improve the flow of this rather dark journey through what was supposed to be a hippie utopia. And both an index and a bibliography have been added to make this work a more valuable research tool.
The published version carries a different title: Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon: Laurel Canyon, Covert Ops & the Dark Heart of the Hippie Dream. In the Table of Contents below, all chapters/sections that appear in red consist of all new, previously unposted material; those in orange have been supplemented with varying amounts of new material. Since late September, Weird Scenes has had its very own Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/WeirdScenesInsideTheCanyon, with additional information. If you stop by, please be sure to hit the ‘like’ button.
The book’s official release date is April 4. I have begun taking pre-orders for signed copies here, for both paperback and hardcover editions. From that same page, you can also order signed copies of my previous book, Programmed to Kill.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword by Nick Bryant
Preface
1 Village of the Damned By Way of an Introduction
2 Power to the People Call this a Counterculture?
3 Dig! The Laurel Canyon Death List
4 Related Lives and Relative Deaths
5 Desirable People The Canyon’s Peculiar Past
6 Vito and his Freakers The Sinister Roots of Hippie Culture
7 The Death of Godo Paulekas Anger’s Infant Lucifer
8 All the Young Turks Hollywood Tripping
9 Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon
10 Helter Skelter in a Summer Swelter The Return of the Death List
11 Detours Rustic Canyon & Greystone Park
12 Riders on the Storm The Doors
13 Eight Miles High and Falling Fast The Byrds
14 The Great Serendipity Buffalo Springfield
15 Beyond Buffalo Springfield (and the Monkees, too)
16 Altamont Pie Gram Parsons
17 The Lost Expedition of Gene Clark
18 The Wolf King of LA ”Papa” John Phillips
19 Hungry Freaks, Daddy Frank Zappa
20 Born To Be Wild John Kay
21 A Whiter Shade of Pale Arthur Lee and Love
22 Endless Vibrations The Beach Boys
23 The Grim Game Houdini
24 Won’t Get Fooled Again Punk and New Wave Arrive
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
Selected Bibliography & Filmography
Index
About the Author
Great read! Helps to understand where we are now………….
Far out I am 65 years old and drank the cool aid all the way to their bitter dregs. I grew up on drugs and all the music you mention here and bought into all the lies and it brought me nothing but heartache and madness and death. I came to Christ 10 years ago and the scales dropped off my eyes instantly. I remember zappa saying just before he died that he did not believe in Christ oh well that was that then.
I’ve been a professional conspiracy freak since the mid seventies when the CIA removed the prime minister of Australia, Gough Whitlam. Of course the US military intelligence has always been getting the blame yet they are only puppets, and not American. This goes way further than the 1900s and although the lost souls of conspiracydom make good livings peddling experteas and expercoffees with current bozo language labeling the perpetrators “psychopaths” all these evils are invented and managed by the ruling elites that control the world, once you put in the 18 hour days of fulltime research it is all easily traced back to Genesis chapter 3- SATAN HIMSELF. THEN! by divine help, ( assuming you read the bible then as a believer now) you will understand the KJV bible explains it all, and where it is all going..
All past empires of the world: Babylon, Medo-Persia- Greece- Roman empire were all Satan’s and the Roman empire didn’t fall it just went undergrounnd under the power of the antichrist- The Popes.
The Jesuit Order, the Vatican, this is the entity that has controlled everything you read, hear and are manipulated to perceive and has done for centuries. It’s all in the bible but you wont understand the bible until ye are born again.
.
Now I’d like to argue about the claims the song by Barry Maguire was not a protest song. It just needed me to rewrite the words for the reality in the 21st century so here it is- EVE OF DESTRUCTION 21st Century Version:
The beast owns the world,
Man’s devolvin’;
Ignorance bliss,
your silence is golden;
To the ruling elites
your lives they’re controlin’,
your kids had no chance
cause you just sold ’em,
more concerned about fashion
than what is unfoldin’
as yu tell me over and over and over again my friend,
Ah you don’t believe we’re on the eve of destruction.
You’ll never understand what I’m trying to say,
Cause you have devolved into sheep today;
With not even enough sense to run away,
From the wolves as you rave and dig your grand children’s grave;
You can look around yu boy but it won’t scare yu boy cause you
Don’t see that over and over and over again my friend
Ah yer head’s so far up yer ass you think its organic.
Yeah you chose to ignore the ” eve of destruction”,
now you’re breeding kids with brains that don’t function;
You bury your heads leave it all to assumption,
As a generation suffers toxic chemical consumption;
But don’t let that interfere with the toxic life you’ve bought,
with entertainment as your God and your enjoyment of sport,
just condemn your grand children incapable of thought;
and tell me over and over and over again my friend,
ah you don’t believe but you’re incapable of comprehension.
Now your incapable grasping reality,
You’re programmed to label it conspiracy;
incapable of questioning authority,
now your granny gets her wisdom from a celebrity;
everything you read and everything you hear,
everything you’ve been brainwashed and trained to fear,
it’s all an illusion and year after year,
your ignorance destroys everything you hold dear.
And you tell me over and over and over again my…………
👌🏻😊❤🕊🙏🏻🕊❤
however Richard i did see him in an interview take a pro-Christ view by expounding on Christ beating the Pharisees out of the temple for mis-using the space (John chapter 2 et al) . He was intolerant to the money making christian scene; to which you may be in agreement
What a load of bollocks. Entertaining bollox though 🙂
Much enjoyed. I’ll pass on the book.
Cheers – L
Hahaha! Well, at least we can agree on the entertaining part! 🙂
I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed reading this and say thanks for sharing it. It seems like it puts together more of the pieces of this puzzle. The more I read, the more I know- there was never any good old days! Thank God for Jesus Christ- the way out of the lies and madness.
Zappa’s father was a chemical weapons engineer. Zappa didnt drink. He didnt have to.
It’s a “must read” for those wanting to understand .
Those were the daze: good Mexican weed $40 a pound / $70 a kilo, pharma crank $10 a gram, a hit of Owsley for $1.
Even with radio quotas introduced to limit the dominance of the Brits, they continued to rule throughout the ’60s. I still prefer McGuinn’s 12-string, though.
Well, I finally got to the end of all the articles and am somewhat confused. I thought there were going to be at least one final chapter that ties it all together to who was pulling the strings and what were all the connections about, etc…
Someone-Please help me figure it out.
Amy, it’s research. Dave wasn’t one to draw conclusions for his readers, and would likely be wrong if he did. The point is that things are not how we were told they were by popular media and culture. Also, buy the book and read it to get closer to what you are asking about. But the bottom line is that Dave was a genuine researcher and not a peddler of conspiracy theories, so don’t expect everything to be tied together with a simple conclusion since it’s not always possible to know the motivations of those behind the scenes, let alone who exactly is behind the scenes pulling the strings.
Read this stuff years ago when your dad was posting it a segment at a time. Man I used to jones for the next installment. I don’t necessarily agree with a lot of the conspiracy theories that your father put forth but that never diminished my enjoyment in reading Dave’s work. He was a dedicated researcher and a hell of an entertaining storyteller. I miss him.
It was a fascinating read and it left many unanswered dilemmas. Your father has a really engaging style of writing that at times made me burst with laughter.
Thank you for this website, Alissa, and congratulations to your father for his work!
This Laurel Canyon series was certainly interesting. I read McGowan’s book some years ago, and just now have read through all these blogs. I need to read more about the Canyon scene, since it connects so many of the public figures who have been significant to me over the years. The darkness in the scene seems to have been a reality, although it is not easy to trust the relentlessly conspiracist tone of this author. Sometimes conspiracies are real, and sometimes, when you look closer, they vanish into thin air. Very few readers of this today will have anything like the level of knowledge that would be necessary to really distinguish between what is accurate here and what is not. McGowan seems to believe in every juicy rumor that comes along, regardless of whether or not it has been confirmed. Still, in spite of his seemingly unwarranted assumptions and his annoying writing style, his work is compelling reading. If nothing else, McGowan introduced me to the role of Vito Paulekas and his freakers, and increased my understanding of the connections between Hendrix and the Monkees, two of my all-time favorites. It is fun to think about Hendrix staying at Peter Tork’s house in the Canyon, and the two of them along with others jamming, while various naked groupies lounge around the pool.
A truly outstanding series! Very well researched, with lots of up front disclaimers when something could not be verified. Gives the material much needed credibility.
David’s writing has a light (mildly snarky) touch with dollops of irony and humor, thank God. Otherwise the material would be too depressingly dark to deal with.
Although I’m grateful to know the truth about how massive media manipulation (music, movies and TV) has degraded our culture, that insight has kinda ruined 60’s and 70’s entertainment for me. It all seems so creepy now. It’s like an assault on innocence.
It is stunning, the rank depravity of the people we grew up listening to (I was born in ’60, like your Dad, so we’re talking about the soundtrack to our childhood). I almost feel sorry for them; no one gets out of here alive and they’re gonna have to reckon with all the suffering they’ve caused. Can’t get away from karma.
One omission (intentional?) that David surely knew about is the issue of satanic ritual abuse, passed down through generations of families, which seems to infect the entertainment bloodlines the most. Also he mentioned the church of satan only a couple of times without going into it. Gives the impression the demonic element isn’t as prevalent and pernicious as it really is.
One last thing: I really wish I could unsee the Dahlia pics just saying.
PS: Thank you, Alissa, for keeping your father’s work alive!
Just finished the book, a great read! RIP Dave
Interesting reading, thank you.
I lived at 8330 Lookout Mtn. Ave. for 20yrs. and I believe there was a fire there in the late ’50s….hmmm. The home once belonged to Victoria Jackson, actor from SNL, etc. My x-wife still gets mail addressed to V.Jackson. Any other famous people live at my old address?
Cheers, C.Jones
Thank you for opening my eyes to how snippets of things I had come across over the years connected. I was in grade school when the Beatles came out and captured so much attention. By high school I was glued to the radio and enjoyed the fruits of most of the bands mentioned here. Naively I thought the bands started out like a lot of the local bands did here in the Midwest as kids playing first in a garage until being discovered in local bars.
This level of research is much appreciated, as well as the humor.
This was an entertaining and eye opening dive into a pool of parallels between entertainment, politics, and the elite. Mr. McGowan’s humor and research acumen, kept me enthralled. Thank you for sharing!
Many thanks to Alissa for keeping these blogs available. I have had a super time reading through the LC ones, and am now going to track down the book to read about the Punks, which is closer to my era.