The observant among you will have noticed that the California Dreaming series of essays is nearing its conclusion: the book’s subtitle is “The LA Pop Music Scene Of The 60s”, and the most recent essay dealt with a track released in December 1969.

I’ll actually be covering 1970 in the book, but that still only leaves six songs to be covered on the blog — Sharleena by Frank Zappa, Helpless by CSNY, Song To The Siren by Tim Buckley, How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live? by Ry Cooder, and Willin’ by Little Feat.

Once those are done, which I hope will be by the end of next week, I’ll take a week or so away from the blog to finish up the book. I’ll do my usual revisions and so on, but I’ll also be adding a further nine essays. These will be:

Muscle Bustle by Donna Loren
I Got You Babe by Sonny and Cher
River Deep Mountain High by Ike and Tina Turner
The Monterey Pop Festival
Once I Was by Tim Buckley
I Walk On Guilded Splinters by Dr John The Night Tripper
Love Story by Randy Newman
Hot Burrito #1 by The Flying Burrito Brothers
Ladies Of The Canyon by Joni Mitchell

There are various reasons why these haven’t appeared on the blog. In some cases they’re essential parts of the story but I got blocked when writing them and so left them to come back to. In others, like the Joni Mitchell, they’re not very closely tied to the main narrative, but still deserve some recognition in the book. In a couple of cases, I accidentally pasted titles into the wrong place when I put the chapter list together, and only later noticed that, for example, a song from 1964 was in the 1968 part.

There will also be a roughly twenty-page “Where are they now?” section, with very brief (two or three sentence) summaries of the lives of the main players between 1971 and today.

The full contents of the book are:
Moon Dawg
Heart And Soul
Surfin’
409
Golden Gridiron Boy
Surf City
Memories Of El Monte
Be My Baby
Hey Little Cobra
Dead Man’s Curve
Don’t Worry Baby
Muscle Bustle
Little Honda
Mr. Tambourine Man
Guess I’m Dumb
It Ain’t Me Babe
I Got You Babe
Eve of Destruction
California Dreamin’
This Could Be The Night
Barbara Ann
Diddy Wah Diddy
My Little Red Book
Eight Miles High
Take A Giant Step
God Only Knows
Hungry Freaks Daddy
Along Comes Mary
Last Train To Clarksville
Good Vibrations
It Happens Every Time
Plastic People
She Comes In Colors
River Deep Mountain High
For What It’s Worth
So You Want To Be A Rock ‘n’ Roll Star
Happy Together
Creeque Alley
A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You
Windy
My World Fell Down
Pleasant Valley Sunday
Heroes & Villains
Lonely Little Girl
Once I Was
Electricity
Dierent Drum
I Think It’s Going To Rain Today
You Set The Scene
Expecting To Fly
Vine Street
1941
Triad
You Know I’ve Found A Way
I Walk On Guilded Splinters
Hickory Wind
On The Road Again
Daddy’s Song
Laurel And Hardy
Love Story (You And Me)
Do It Again
Everybody’s Talkin’
To Claudia on Thursday
Wichita Lineman
The Old Laughing Lady
You And I
Hot Burrito 1
The Captain’s Fat Theresa Shoes
Never Learn Not To Love
Frownland
Lady-O
Doggone
Ladies Of The Canyon
Sharleena
Helpless
Song To The Siren
How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live?
Willin’
A Very Important Note
Where Are They Now?
Bibliography