LA MUSIC SITES: MOTOWN, FOX LOT, HOUSE OF BLUES

A quartet of Follow the Sound videos from my YouTube channel.

This summer I have been based of Los Angeles working on a feature film, a documentary and a book. It’s been busy so I haven’t written many essays since the spring. But I have slipped away from my gigs to visit a few important LA music landmarks. Three of the sites I traveled to are on once vibrant Sunset Boulevard, a place now of broken dreams and closed, demolished or repurposed offices and studios. The first Hollywood home of Motown Records, Marvin Gaye’s private studio and what was once the location of the House of Blues are throwbacks to an era of trailblazing music, exclusive parties and cocaine fueled glamour.

The last site in this quartet of videos is still very much in business. It’s Stage 1 and 2 on the Fox Lot in Century City where the soundtrack to thousands of movies have been recorded since, at least, the 1940s. There are posters on the wall for ‘The Sound of Music,’ ‘The King and I,’ and ‘Love Me Tender.’ In the hallway outside black and white pix of Louis Armstrong, Barbra Streisand and Dione Warwick singing in that very sound stage hang lovingly on the walls. You can literally feel the sweet scent of creativity hanging in the air. Disney owns the space. Hoping they don’t tear it down and turn it into condos (I’m not optimistic.)

Hope you enjoy these snap shots from a time when these shrines shined and life giving music filled them.