Photograph by Eric Haller: https://www.flickr.com/photos/haller/2431942503

Encore Presentation: Songs of Laurel Canyon

I'm taking the month of July off from making new episodes of A Symposium of Popular Songs and taking the opportunity to replay some of my favorite episodes from last year. Here's…

Michial Farmer

July 27, 2026

I’m taking the month of July off from making new episodes of A Symposium of Popular Songs and taking the opportunity to replay some of my favorite episodes from last year. Here’s the one I did the most research for: an episode in honor of my wife’s [redacted] birthday, 16 March, featuring music from the Laurel Canyon scene of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Send your song recommendations to symposiumofsongs@gmail.com, and I’ll be back with a new episode next week!

0:00
The Mamas and the Papas, “Twelve Thirty” (The Papas and the Mamas, 1968)
5:30
Reading: Michael Walker, Laurel Canyon
8:59
The Byrds, “Mr. Tambourine Man” (Mr. Tambourine Man, 1965)
11:25
The Flying Burrito Bros., “Hot Burrito #2” (The Gilded Palace of Sin, 1969)
14:53
Reading: Michael Walker, Laurel Canyon
19:22
The Mothers of Invention, “Hungry Freaks, Daddy” (Freak Out!, 1966)
22:48
Buffalo Springfield, “Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Sing” (Buffalo Springfield, 1966)
26:48
Reading: Michael Walker, Laurel Canyon
29:54
Carole King, “It’s Too Late” (Tapestry, 1971)
33:41
James Taylor, “You Can Close Your Eyes” (Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon, 1971)
37:46
Reading: Michael Walker, Laurel Canyon
42:32
Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, “Our House” (Déjà vu, 1970)
45:27
Joni Mitchell, “My Old Man” (Blue, 1971)
49:48
Reading: Michael Walker, Laurel Canyon
53:30
Beach Boys, “Never Learn Not to Love” (20/20, 1969)
55:51
Eagles, “Take It Easy” (Eagles, 1972)
59:48
Reading: Michael Walker, Laurel Canyon
1:04:18
Jackson Browne, “Cocaine” (Running on Empty, 1977)
1:08:37
Joni Mitchell, “Blue” (Blue, 1971)
1:13:47
John Phillips, “April Anne” (John Phillips, 1970)

Michial Farmer

Michial Farmer is a poet, essayist, and history teacher. He is the author of Imagination and Idealism in John Updike’s Fiction (Camden House, 2017) and the translator of Gabriel Marcel’s Thirst (Cluny, 2021). He lives in Atlanta.