Image via wikipedia
This canyon begins its North end in the San Fernando Valley and ends at the Pacific Ocean. Throughout its length, it has left its mark on the L.A. rock and roll scene.
Its most famous landmark was probably the Topanga Corral which used to be at 2034 Topanga Cyn. It will be forever remembered as a place were Canned Heat, Spirit and Spanky and Our Gang honed their skills. It is rumored that Jim Morrison wrote Roadhouse Blues
about this place.
Canned Heat Co-founder Alan “Blind Owl” Wilson whose falsetto can be heard in their great hit Going up the Country
died on the hill behind fellow band member Bob Hite’s Topanga Canyon home on Sept. 3, 1970. He was 27.
Neil Young and Crazy Horse’s album cover for Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere was shot in the Canyon. Nobody is sure exactly where that tree is though.
Famous past and current residents include:
Neil Young and Stephen Stills of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Randy California, Mark Andes, Ed Cassidy and Jay Ferguson of Spirit.
Don Felder and Bernie Leadon of The Eagles
John Densmore and Jim Morrison of The Doors
Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac
Colin Hay of Men at Work
Lowell George of Little Feat
Bob Hite and Alan Wilson of Canned Heat
Elaine “Spanky” McFarlane of Spanky and Our Gang
Taj Mahal
Billy Preston
Marvin Gaye
Woody Guthrie
Van Morrison
Joni Mitchell
BEEN MANY A TIME I SPENT MY GOOD TIMES AT THE CORRAL AND PARTYING WITH ROSEMARY BEARS NIECE.THOSE WHO REMEMBER I HAD THE RED STUBAKER AND THE PANHEAD LONG LIVE BEAR
That is cool man, but did you have to yell it? hahah Have a great day! No, really, have a great day. I didn’t mean anything assholish-ly. Mother natures silver seed makes me look for a new home under the sun.
Be well. and just enjoy whatever it is that you enjoy. Cheers friend.
Matthew
I remember the Mc Govern house from living in Topanga with my Granda Kay Hoover, and playing on the firebreak with my Aunts/Uncle Guy, Susan, Shirley.
I was curious if anyone knew my uncle “Danny Tucker ? He hung out with Neil Young and David Briggs. He was also the road manager for the band “Spirit”. He was a Topanga Legend. Resided there from the 60’s all the way until his death in 2015.I would love to hear any stories of him or memories good or bad. I miss his sense of humor and sarcastic remarks.
I knew Danny Tucker and Bobby Morris and Jerry Petrochelli and Louie….
Any stories about my uncle that you would care to share ? (Besides him being a womanizer) lol.
I knew him. He was a friend of my dads. One time my dad asked him if hend Danny said, “ Jonas, they’re only a quarter new”
He was known by locals as “Danny Tucker the Canyon Fucker”. He had a mean attitude but was really a sweet guy underneath. Last time I saw him he was sad, had half his tongue missing from cancer. He wrote songs for Bad Company band.
🐬 Mariah
My daughter Lindsey Oligere lives in the home where Neil Young stayed in the ’70’s . She told me the home was “her heart of gold” because is looks over L.A.; by the way, the Topanga Corral is a short walk down the trail from the home. She and son and husband LOVE IT! By the way, they didn’t even know who Young was until I told them!
What’s the address
I’ll be in topanga next Wednesday
I was there many times but once with Dewey Martin , Janis Joplin was at the pool table and some one stole her purse under the pool table and she FLIPPED OUT SCREAMING Radical language and who she would kill, she was holding a bottle of JD at that moment. I split.
Remember every Wednesday night Taj Mahal would play and if you had a drivers license with a Topanga address you got in for free. Danced many a night away at the Corral. Home birthed my son in the Canyon.
I lived in my RV behind the Topanga Corral and I and my now ex-long time boyfriend G. Donald Massey were hired by the owners Sydney Fish and Sandy Freeman to operate the food concessions in 1978. We offered and prepared American and Mexican cuisine to its patrons and also many fine musical artist’s, including members of house band Canned Heat; Bear especially enjoyed the delicicious homemade style pies that I baked for him. I have many fond memories of this wonderful place and the very special talented people that visited and performed at the Topanga Corral. Patty Davis, daughter of Ronald Reagan occassional had the dance floor to ourselves boogying to song On The Road Again, she nicknamed me Bebop.
I returned to Oregon where I grew up and still live, Canned Heat as I hear from locals here in Douglas County that the band visits and performs occassionaly in summertime in Azalea near Glendale, Oregon, which is very near my home in Quines Creek, maybe I’ll have a chance sometime to say Hi to them! That would be great!! I know that Bear passed away sadly. I remember meeting many other fine performers too like Gary Busey when he played Buddy Holly songs, Get The Knack, Waylon Jennings, etc… I remember Neil Young too hanging out at the bar. Long Tall Sally one of the waitress’s. I had fun playing as an extra in movie called Flatbed Annie & Sweetie Pie – Lady Trucker’s starring Annie Potts and Kim Darby. I was even attacked by two men one day behind the corral where I stayed in my school bus motorhome which I later found out they were the notorious Hillside Strangler’s Angelo Buono and his cousin Kenneth Bianchi; I was luckily able to escape their grasp and survived their attack by running for my life! But for the most part I enjoyed being a part of the management at the Topanga Corral.
Sandy’s wife Stephanie had an exceptional ear when it came to choosing musical artist! Sad that the Corral burned and is now gone. I’ve been employed for many years as an long haul truck driver and have been all over L.A. but not able to get a run into the Canyon! Topanga is a very special place in my heart and memories. Amen
I am dear friends with the current owner and we are rebuilding a replicated version with many a more memories there to come 🙂 god bless you and thank you for sharing your special memories
Big Joe Turner used to play the Corral, too. And during the ’60s, their birthday parties (the Corral’s birthday) were LEGENDARY! Admission was locals only… if whoever was working the door (Hi Marie!) knew you.
Omg..I grew up in woodland hills and went to louisville girls prep school on mulholland…I hated that school and topanga and thecorrall was my freedom..at 14 I was in there partying to neil young and taj mahal and canned heat and all of them…what a great way to grow up!!!….I have lived on maui for 40 years since I graduated and whenever I am in l.a. visiting my family Iwalk or drive by the old spot and can still hear the music and smell the sweet herb smoke and see all of us young , beautiful wild free spirits dancing in the moonlight, laughing as the breezes sift thru the canyon….and in that breath I am 14 again, starry eyed and beautiful and free…aloha nui loa
Thank you for sharing your memory! I was with you for those moments.
AHHHHHHH!! THANKYOU MATTHEW!!!☆♡☆
You are always beautiful to me Marilyn. I am still
here on the Big Island wishing I could laugh with
you. Marty 6400148
Ha, I went to Chaminade 71. Used to drop acid at ‘the hole’ often and hung at a teahouse that I cant remember the name of. Went to many Louisville dances. I live in The Yucatan the past 11 yrs and lived in Oregon b4 here for 30 years. Fallbrook and Saticoy wasn’t doin it for me.
Marilyn my sweet girlfriend, how could it be that I lost touch with you? Please if you receive this get in touch with me!! I just called the grand wailea to try and find you!!
We’re you a friend from Topanga?..I don’t remember a friend named
Anonymous,☆ROCK ON☆
My parents, Sandy & Stephanie (as well as my grandpa Syd), used to own the Topanga Corral. I’ve heard so many amazing stories about the performers that played there. I guess I know where my love for music comes from. Whenever I drive by the vacant lot that the Corral used to sit on, I get a little sad knowing that I’ll never be able to experience it.
Hey You. I want to know more about he stories your parents told. I want a place in the canyon that still feels like the old days.
Linda Ronstadt lived in Old Canyon, rented a house from Mimi & Henry Smith.
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band lived on Basin Drive.
In the 70’s I lived in ‘Hippie Chic’ Topanga Canyon with my old time friend Hugh McDowell the cellist from Electric Light Orchestra. You may remember Hugh’s black 1940’s ‘Funeral Hearse’ dotted with fresh red roses you would see around town and parked at the famous bar. We frequently hung out at ‘The Corral’. Hugh would often join other music artists and jam onstage with them. Being from England, he really enjoyed jamming with american artists like Gary Busey, Leon Russell and Big Joe Turner, to name a few. There were a lot of after parties , sometimes the band members would come back to our place and kick it, jamming till wee hours of the morning . . some great times there for sure, but then, all of the 70’s were AWESOME TIMES!
I’m sure some of you will remember Sandy Richmond, who lived up behind the Corral in a gypsy wagon and – for a while – was the caretaker of a female African lion cub named Kara Jane. (No, this is NOT an acid flashback. I keep those mostly to myself.)
Anyway… Sandy was wonderful, as was the wagon, and the lion. Big Magic in a magical place…
Sandy is my aunt, and just as strange as you remember. We have videos of folks wrestling with Kara Jane, it’s pretty wild.
I didn’t exactly wrestle with Kara Jane, but when I first met her she licked my knee and I noticed that her tongue was bigger than my knee. Then somehow we ended up standing hand to paw, which didn’t last long — as we fell, Sandy said “don’t let her fall on you, she could crush you”. I ended up sitting on the ground with her head in my lap, purring. Another time, she was chained to the tree in front of Sandy’s place, batting a motorcycle helmet around the way a cat plays with a ball. I was headed out the front door to my car, and carelessly cut through part of the circle Kara Jane could reach. Even though she was on the other side of the circle, she knew I was in her zone … I heard galloping behind me and as I turned toward her she plowed into me and I rolled and again ended up with her head in my lap, purring.
Wow, I knew Sandra and Kara Jane, who ended in my lap purring a couple of times–as a full grown 350 lb lioness. When I knew her it wasn’t a gypsy wagon, it was a shack on some Clint Eastwood land, built by her friend “Tennessee” and other people she would put up. Sandra would go down to the valley to clean houses to get money to buy chicken necks and wings (19 cents/lb) to feed Kara Jane. She was an amazing person. The place burned down in ’77 and they put Kara Jane in Pat Judge’s garage in the valley until they could relocate her. She ended up at Tippy Hedren’s animal preserve.
There was an African Lion living in a compound on a property at the cut off going towards the St Park to the right this was 1999, I don’t think I ever found out the name, she was fat and happy and well cared for.
I saw joni Mitchell Neil young and the eagles at the corral in 1971 amazing and hitched through the canyon a thousand times .brekke manor
I Wish we could
All go back in time
And just
DANCE IN THE MOONLIGHT TOGETHER..I really miss
All you BEAUTIFUL FREE SPIRITS♡☆♡