Hollywood Eden
Electric Guitars, Fast Cars, and the Myth of the California Paradise
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
“Hollywood Eden brings the lost humanity of the record business vividly back to life … [Selvin’s] style is blunt, unpretentious and brisk; he knows how to move things along entertainingly … Songs about surfboards and convertibles had turned quaint, but in this book, their coolness is restored.” — New York Times
From surf music to hot-rod records to the sunny pop of the Beach Boys, Jan & Dean, the Byrds, and the Mama’s & the Papa’s, Hollywood Eden captures the fresh blossom of a young generation who came together in the epic spring of the 1960s to invent the myth of the California Paradise.
Central to the story is a group of sun-kissed teens from the University High School class of 1959 — a class that included Jan & Dean, Nancy Sinatra, and future members of the Beach Boys — who came of age in Los Angeles at the dawn of a new golden era when anything seemed possible. These were the people who invented the idea of modern California for the rest of the world.
But their own private struggles belied the paradise portrayed in their music. What began as a light-hearted frolic under sunny skies ended up crashing down to earth just a few short but action-packed years later as, one by one, each met their destinies head-on. A rock ’n’ roll opera loaded with violence, deceit, intrigue, low comedy, and high drama, Hollywood Eden tells the story of a group of young artists and musicians who bumped heads, crashed cars, and ultimately flew too close to the sun.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
The music scenes of 1960s Southern California are the stuff of legend, but there have already been a tonne of great books about the hippie-era Laurel Canyon vibe. So journalist Joel Selvin turns his focus to the decade’s first half—when good-time hits from All-American acts like the Beach Boys, Jan and Dean, and Nancy Sinatra made L.A. seem like the hippest city on earth. Of course, it wasn’t all cheeseburgers and surfboards, and Selvin doesn’t flinch from the darkness that bubbled just under the surface. Like how mercurial Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson’s anxiety and perfectionism resulted in groundbreaking albums like Pet Sounds and a life-shattering breakdown. Or how John Phillips of the Mamas & the Papas punished his wife Michelle and bandmate Denny Doherty by writing hit songs about their affair—and making them sing them every night. An empathetic story of reckless aspirations and plunging depths, Hollywood Eden will forever change how you hear oldies radio.
