Page 26 - AAA Magazine – AAA Ohio Auto Club – September 2019

“They hadn’t really discovered themselves yet,” said Dylan. “It’s really in this moment – 1965/1966 – that that happened in Laurel Canyon.”
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Music artists today share their music with other artists through online sound files and thumb drives. Back then, though, singers and songwriters just showed up at one another’s homes
to show off a new song or just jam. A lot of cross-pollination of music was happening.
The Beach Boys’ “Pet Sounds” album, for example, was a significant influence in the making of The Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album.
“I believe this was all friendly competition,” said Dylan. “But they were blowing each other’s minds. I think they were just trying to keep up with one another.”
The place itself – L.A. – made perfect sense for such a monumental change in music. As Dylan explained, while the City of Angels might have lost much of its early luster, back then it must have been a magical place where you could do anything; where anything was possible. There were the beaches, forever summer days, pretty people and Hollywood glamour.
Most importantly, several major recording studios and record labels had set up shop there: Western Studios, Capitol Studios, Sunset Sound, Gold Star, RCA Studio, Columbia and United Western.
All of these ingredients worked together to form the perfect pot of music soup.
“They wrote great songs,” said Dylan. “These people were architects and masters of harmony. Brian Wilson and John Phillips – both – if you’re going to call anybody in music brilliant, you’d have to give those two people that tag.
“I don’t think that the idea that you could fake it until
you make it had
really emerged yet. I think they had
to learn their instruments; learn how to write songs.
I think they really studied that craft. Being on records was an honor.”
That’s not always the case today.
Said Dylan, “I wish people would pay more attention to their songs. Not that songs have to be important. That’s not it at all. But just transferring some kind of image and something that is provoking into a song. Right now we have a lot of bands going into studios without songs and just jamming for hours and just hoping one pops out. These people, you couldn’t go into the studio without a good song. I think that’s still the way you should be doing it.”
Tom Petty fans will be thrilled to know “Echo In The Canyon” is dedicated to him. Dylan’s interview with Petty for the film proved to be the legendary rocker’s last on-camera interview before his death on Oct. 2, 2017.
“He was a great inspiration to me,” said Dylan. “He was so magically touched by that music as a teenager. And he was a very generous person. I’ve known him quite a while, and it seems fitting that it be dedicated
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