The Troubadour

The Troubadour opened in 1957 on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood and became the central venue of the Los Angeles singer-songwriter movement that shaped American popular music through the late 1960s and into the 1970s. James Taylor played early shows here. Carole King tested material here before recording Tapestry. Jackson Browne built his reputation at the Troubadour in the years before his national break. Linda Ronstadt, the Eagles, Joni Mitchell, and a generation of artists who would define the decade used the club as a proving ground — the room that determined, with some authority, which of them was ready.

On August 25, 1970, Elton John played his American debut at the Troubadour to a room full of critics and music industry figures who left convinced they'd seen something historic. The show has been cited ever since as one of the greatest debut performances in rock music: Leon Russell attended, Gordon Lightfoot attended, Neil Diamond attended. Elton and Bernie Taupin had been working together for two years by that point but were unknown in America, and the Troubadour appearance changed everything within a week. Reviews ran the following morning in the Los Angeles Times and across the wire services; the albums followed.

John Lennon spent part of his "Lost Weekend" — the 18 months he lived in Los Angeles with May Pang from 1973 to 1975 — in the neighbourhood around the Troubadour. He was photographed drunk at the club with Harry Nilsson on the night he was reportedly ejected for heckling the Smothers Brothers during their set. The Troubadour is still operating at the same address, capacity around 400, still booking the kind of shows that determine which artists are ready for the next level.