Here’s a song that does a great job capturing the Laurel Canyon folk-rock vibe of the mid-60s. The song is “Twelve-Thirty (Young Girls Are Coming to the Canyon)” by the Mamas & the Papas, and it’s today’s classic song of the day.
“Twelve-Thirty (Young Girls Are Coming to the Canyon)” was written by Papa John Phillips shortly after he and the band had moved from New York City to Southern California in 1965. Released as a single in August of 1967, it peaked at #20 on the Billboard Hot 100; it was their second-to-last big hit, the last one being 1968’s “Dream a Little Dream of Me” (which was really a Cass Elliott solo record).
The Canyon mentioned in the song is, of course, Laurel Canyon, a mountainous neighborhood in Los Angeles’ Hollywood Hills area. Its proximity to Hollywood made it the home of many movie stars over the years, including Erroll Flynn, James Dean, Marlon Brando, Robert Mitchum, and Natalie Wood. Then, in the 1960s and 1970s, Laurel Canyon became ground zero for all sorts of counterculture activity, including but not limited to the burgeoning rock/pop/folk music scene. Many famous musicians lived there at one time or another, including Brian Wilson, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Carole King, James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, and, of course, John and Michelle Phillips.
I love “Twelve-Thirty” for its pristine vocal harmonies and for its place- and period-specific lyrical observations. Some interpret the lyrics to reflect the young groupies who would spend the night with one of the many show biz types who lived in the Canyon, and their walking home past Papa John’s house the next morning. Could be:
Young girls are coming to the canyon
And in the mornings I can see them walking
I can no longer keep my blinds drawn
And I can’t keep myself from talking
And, for your viewing pleasure, here are the Mamas & the Papas performing “Twelve-Thirty (Young Girls Are Coming to the Canyon)” on the September 24, 1967, episode of The Ed Sullivan Show. It was one of their last televised appearances as a group (and repeated on Ed’s June 22, 1968 show).
