---
product_id: 46655385
title: "California Dreaming: The LA Pop Music Scene and the 60s"
brand: "andrew hickey"
price: "€ 51.61"
currency: EUR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 11
url: https://www.desertcart.pt/products/46655385-california-dreaming-the-la-pop-music-scene-and-the-60s
store_origin: PT
region: Portugal
---

# California Dreaming: The LA Pop Music Scene and the 60s

**Brand:** andrew hickey
**Price:** € 51.61
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

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- **What is this?** California Dreaming: The LA Pop Music Scene and the 60s by andrew hickey
- **How much does it cost?** € 51.61 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.pt](https://www.desertcart.pt/products/46655385-california-dreaming-the-la-pop-music-scene-and-the-60s)

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## Description

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## Images

![California Dreaming: The LA Pop Music Scene and the 60s - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/517q4R6MT4L.jpg)
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## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    A Life's Work - Brilliant Writing and Truly Original Insights
  

*by A***L on Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2019*

There are so many books that go over the same ground of the 60s in LA, Laurel Canyon, the wrecking crew, Neil meets Stephen in Hearst on Sunset, and so forth - and given the comprehensive, annotated, fact-checked work by biographers and historians like Johnny Rogan (whose Byrds, vols. 1 and 2 are exhaustively detailed beyond any journalistic or scholarly requirements) so I approached this new work by William Hickey with caution.  Hickey has a different take on the era and the music. He identifies key songs - often ideosyncratic choices from obscure groups and albums (groups like the Millennium, Fraternity of Man, and lesser known works by Love, Zappa, Dr. John, Nilson, Byrds), oddball hits (Pleasant Valley Sunday, Windy, Drag City, Creque Alley), and pivotal pieces that often get lost in the shuffle (Willin', Siren's Song, Ladies of the Canyon, Dolphin's Song) . What's different here is that each essay includes the usual public domain info (e.g., who dislikes whom, who was inebriated and replaced by the Wrecking Crew, who threatened whom with guns and lawsuits) - but also includes detailed review of the session players/union lists, which yields some new information on who actually played on these.  He also digs up some new unpublished information about song content (about the three women portrayed in Ladies of the Canyon, and where their lives led now), some interesting portraits of key creative and influential artists who were lost from history (the brilliant songwriter Ruthann Friedman - surprising how much of this seemed to pivot around Hollywood High School - and producers and musicians Curt Boettcher, Gary Usher).  As someone who grew up in LA in the period, hung out and heard a lot of this music, knew and heard about friends of friends, etc.,  these stories were, for once, done accurately and respectfully, some concern for both fidelity to the truth while acknowledging which artists and sources might have been less than reliable.  Also - far better than the usual tabloid drug and groupies stuff - Hickey also directly acknowledges who and which of these artists were unreconstructed chauvinists, misogynists and crims - offers synoptic critical views on the sexism and racism of the period -  and doesn't either disguise or obsessively dwell upon the matter.  But then there's the icing on the cake: Hickey's analysis and discussion of lyrics is sharp and incisive, not unnecessarily literary (no more English profs on Dylan please), and his explication of song structure is accurate, astute and quite accessible to the non-musician reader.  His analysis, for instance, of the bass doo-wop vocal melody (by, variously Mike Love, Bruce Johnston and Jan Berry) and it's relationship to Brian Wilson's comping left hand keyboard playing is insightful.  His breakdown of Wilson's unusual use of tag line/hook openings (Hey Little Cobra, Shut Down), followed by unusual verse/chorus structures.  His description of Jimmy Webb and Wilson's usual chord and song structures, and his breakdown of Dr. John's weird and brilliant approach to composition are great.  Throughout he highlights individual moments of brilliant musicianship that are largely unheralded or have gone unnoticed (Ry Cooder's slide lead on the demo of Willin', Peter Tork's piano break on Pleasant Valley Sunday, Snoopy Philster's harpsichord and Jai Canterelli's flute on 'She Comes in Colors',  Larry Ramos' doubled vocal and guitar on 'Windy'), and the work of some of the session players who weren't acknowledged parts of the vaunted Wrecking Crew but turn up everywhere: Jim Gordon, Larry Taylor, Jim Fielder, and the whole Mothers ensemble.  As a musician, I actually will go back and rethink some of these approaches to songwriting and production now, and I'm going back to listen to some obscure cuts that I missed having.  As a reader and fan - thanks to Hickey for his life's work - it is well written, accessible, never boring and truly idiosyncratic.  My only lament, as a regular at a lot of these clubs from 1966-1970 - that he didn't include the David Lindley/Chris Darrow Kalidoscope mob, who with the various incarnations of the Dirt Band were easily as influential as Love, Stone Ponies and Buckley in early LA folk rock.  The book concludes with a reprise of bioblurbs and, sadly and predictably, the majority of these artists died way before their time.  Thank you for this extraordinary work - these self described 'essays' stand with some of the very best rock journalism from 60s and 70s era Rolling Stone, Cream and others.  Hickey never takes his eye of the main game: the songs.

### ⭐⭐ 2.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    Badly Needed an Editor
  

*by D***A on Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2023*

This is a low budget self published book that should have had an editor.  It is a series of 3 - 4 page "chapters" with no coherence.  It is not an overview of the LA pop music scene of the 60s, as described, but a narrow look at a handful of bands, probably the author's favorite bands.  Many important bands of the time are ignored.  There is scant mention of the live LA music scene and no information on the record companies and radio stations that were crucial to molding the music scene. There are many blank pages but zero photographs.  A much better book about the subject is Riot on Sunset Strip by Domenic Priore.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    Strange mix
  

*by B***E on Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2020*

I'm a big Beach Boys fan, and have been so since 1964 -- yeah, I'm OLD. But some of the groups author Andrew Hickey chooses to write about are barely blips on the overall 60's California landscape's radar screen. I have an extensive BB library, so am not missing much by having him only moderately cover them. And he DID treat them with admiration and respect.I think, for me, a better book was "Everybody HAD An Ocean" by William McKeen. Less of a trivia-pursuit, "bet you've never heard of THIS rare group" approach. McKeen's viewpoint is "Hey, there were ALL these great groups in one place at this point in time, and there was a LOT of 'cross-pollination' that went on that you might not know about."

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*Product available on Desertcart Portugal*
*Store origin: PT*
*Last updated: 2026-03-18*