Some of the most prominent agents of change in the counterculture — that is, musicians — were also fans of JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. The Beatles tried to buy the rights to books in the hopes of making a movie starring themselves. In Los Angeles, Laurel Canyon and neighbouring Topanga Canyon became hotbeds of Tolkien fervour during the late 1960s, many pointed to the novelist’s love for trees and hatred of the ugly side of industrialism as proof of their simpatico outlook. Other elements of Tolkien’s work were also mirrored in Laurel Canyon as the idyllic community changed after the Manson murders, shifting from the hub of the hippie free love dream into a dark Sauronesque acid tinged nightmare.