The 50th Anniversary of The Doors’ hit song “Love Street” was celebrated with a ceremonial renaming of a portion of Rothdell Trail on Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles, CA that runs by The Doors’ frontman Jim Morrison’s house.

The event took place in conjunction with the 6th Annual Love Street Festival which celebrates the special historical cultural relevance that Laurel Canyon has upon a particular portion of the music that came out of the 1960’s to the present. The event featured two stages that took turns hosting legendary figures from that era as well as acts that have been influenced by the music that emanated from the Laurel Canyon area.

Among the celebrants was LOVE co-founder Johnny Echols who raised the consciousness of the viewing audience with tunes from the legendary Strip Scene band. The Doors’ members Robbie Krieger and John Densmore along with DJ Jim Ladd and City Council Member David Ryu took part in an official ceremony which featured a placard that proclaims Love Street as an historical place.

It was nice to touch base with Krieger and reminisce about a night we partied together behind Mancini’s in the Valley while he autographed my Morrison Hotel t-shirt. Also providing a rousing performance of The Monkeys’ famous songs was Micky Dolenz and his adoring audience demonstrated why he is a great showman. As Dolenz left the stage it was nice to chat him up about the good old days when he worked at Wallichs Music City where I would go and check out music in their listening booths just to be near him. This period was after Circus Boy, but before The Monkeys TV show as Dolenz pointed out. He was surprised that I remembered and asked me “How do you know that?!”

Laurel Canyon has a history of fostering creative juices and an off-spring to one of the area’s illustrious progeny, Stephen Stills, really surprised this music lover. The young man’s name is Chris Stills and I gotta say that he really did impress me with his mastery of basic rock n’ roll tunes which featured a turquoise guitar that blew my mind and it reminded me of Chuck Berry.

Booths lined Laurel Canyon and among them was “Morrison Hotel’s” famous photographer Henry Diltz who also participated in a special presentation. I did manage to get his autograph on my “Morrison Hotel” t-shirt as well. There also was a booth collecting donations for We Are Laurel Canyon which was this year's designated fundraising organization. We Are Laurel Canyon purchases at risk of being developed properties in order to preserve the open space and wildlife corridor that peacefully exists on Laurel Canyon.

Wilson-Phillips put on a very special performance which featured former Mama’s And The Papa’s singer Michele Phillips. This really was music to my ears and was a bit of ear candy. I’ve always equated their song “Twelve-Thirty” to Laurel Canyon which is probably because Mama Cass Elliott lived under the Country Store. Phillips Is still so stunningly beautiful that I didn’t recognize her and companion Georgianna Steele-Waller had to tell me it was her. I do own a well worn 3 CD set of their hits.

There also was a female Led Zeppelin tribute band called Fem Zeppelin which had A rough start, but got into their Zep groove and really had their audience dancing around.

This isn’t the first dedication of streets that Krieger and Densmore have attended. On January 5, 2018, Morrison Street and Densmore Avenue in Encino, CA were dedicated by City Council Member Paul Koretz which featured Densmore reading selected Morrison works.

This whole event took place by The Country Store on Laurel Canyon which is very near Morrison’s house. The Country Store was immortalized in the “Love Street” song as the verse “I see you live on Love Street. There’s this store where the creatures meet. I wonder what they do in there.”