The scene did not sprout up overnight like some magical mushroom. Before it reached its peak vitality in 1966 and 1967, the LA pop scene had been growing slowly for a decade. In its earliest days, Jan and Dean were the biggest stars, though their corny white-bread harmonies hardly indicated how radically innovative the scene would become. So they function as a historically relevant yet artistically unlikely reference point for author Joel Selvin to discuss the earliest days of the LA pop scene in his new book Hollywood Eden. While Jan and Dean are the book’s main focus, Selvin branches off to discuss fellow scene-makers such as the Beach Boys, the Mamas and the Papas, producers Phil Spector and Terry Melcher, and creepy hustler Kim Fowley. Although Selvin never really figures out how to thread Nancy Sinatra into the overarching narrator, he devotes chapters to her too.
Because Hollywood Eden covers a lot of history over a somewhat scanty word count— and because he halts the discussion just as the scene starts to mature with the formations of the Mamas and the Papas and the Byrds and Brian Wilson’s creation of “Good Vibrations”—the book feels like an extended prologue. The focus on an act as lightweight as Jan and Dean would be a detriment if their story wasn’t so interesting. With its budding geniuses, multitudinous romantic melodramas, con men, drugs, tragedies, and sunshine, Hollywood Eden is never less than interesting. However, further reading is required to learn the complete story of why LA was so important to sixties rock.
