Retired piano technician Bruce Lloyd Kates, who was born and raised in Los Angeles, wrote a song to underscore how special the hodgepodge of sprawl really is. “Lonesome for LA” is an ode to LA.
“I went into a lot of homes, and met people of every sort and was able to get to know about their lives,” he says. “I’m just very rooted here. If I go somewhere, whether it be Paris or Quebec, it only takes me about a day or so before I feel that pull to go back to my home.”
The 77 year old calls his style of writing and composing "Neo-Tin Pan Alley" because it harkens back to a bygone era.
“LA is not an easy place to write about because, in contrast to other big cities, there isn't a central core idea. What are you going to write about — Pershing Square?” he says. “So my central core idea is simply my nostalgia.”