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Summer Of Love Music
It wasn’t about the commercialism or the exploitation. The “Summer of Love” was about change. For the people who were there it was about openly displaying their emotions.
It was about rebellion against the establishment, the Vietnam War, racial inequality and a counterculture that embraced an alternative lifestyle. It was about long hair, finding new ways of self-expression, psychedelic music and brightly colored clothing, communal living, free sex, love and drugs; especially LSD and cannabis. But, mostly it was about the music.
Here is what seminal hippie spokesman Abbie Hoffman had to say about the era:
“We are here to make a better world.
No amount of rationalization or blaming can preempt the moment of choice each of us brings to our situation here on this planet. The lesson of the 60’s is that people who cared enough to do right could change history.
We didn’t end racism but we ended legal segregation.
We ended the idea that you could send half-a-million soldiers around the world to fight a war that people do not support.
We ended the idea that women are second-class citizens.
We made the environment an issue that couldn’t be avoided.
The big battles that we won cannot be reversed. We were young, self-righteous, reckless, hypocritical, brave, silly, headstrong and scared half to death.
And we were right.”
During the summer of 1967, more than 100,000 young people from all around the world gathered to San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district and to its nearby communities to join in the hippie experience.
The throngs of people convened to the area for free love, poetry readings, theater, speeches and music festivals. The music was new because it threw away the notion that a song should fit onto a 45 rpm record and receive national airplay to be popular. Musicians were allowed to have large elements of improvisational jams and whole albums became the focus of a group’s recording. It also utilized the stereo effect, with different instruments being heard in different speakers, allowing for a new musical and heightened musical experience.
In June of 1967, the “Summer of Love” began at the Monterey Pop Festival where more than 30,000 people gathered to hear music by the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Otis Redding, Country Joe & the Fish, the Byrds, the Who and Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin. Other notable performers included the Association, Simon and Garfunkel, Johnny Rivers and Ravi Shankar. They were joined by other musical acts such as the Blues Project, Buffalo Springfield, Moby Grape, Electric Flag, the Animals, Quicksilver Messenger Service, the Steve Miller Band, the Mamas and the Papas and many others.
In fact, John Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas penned a song dedicated to promoting the Monterey Pop Festival. Eloquently sung by Scott McKenzie, “San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair),” became an instant hit, peaking at #1 in the UK and #4 in the US. Here is the powerful message:
"If you're going to San Francisco,
be sure to wear some flowers in your hair...
If you're going to San Francisco,
You're gonna meet some gentle people there."
But, it may have been that commercialism that worked against the whole reason for being there. The hippie scene in San Francisco soon changed, instead of becoming psychedelic by life style; it became permissible to buy the ‘flower child’ lifestyle. Soon the innocence of the belief that there was inherent goodness in all people left and the young people to become prey to crooks, con-men and parasites-in time the whole scene became very seedy. Overcrowding, homelessness, hunger, drug problems and crime overtook the once serene Haight-Ashbury district. Furthermore, many young students who flocked to the area simply left to go back to college, leaving the worst behind.
On October 6, 1967, some of the remaining hippies in the area staged a mock funeral, “The Death of the Hippie,” in hopes of bringing an end to the whole scene; simply stating, don’t come, it’s over.
But there was so much good that developed from this amazing gathering of the masses. “Flower children” were returning home and with them brought new ideas, ideals, behaviors and styles of fashion. Some of those who were part of the movement went on to become an integral and important part of society, bringing with them a renewed hope in the human race, new racial beliefs, the Women’s Movement and the Green Movement. And we always have the incredible music for the Summer of Love.
Summer Of Love Records and Summer Of Love CDs
Find all kinds of rare, hard to find and out-of-print Summer Of Love records and Summer Of Love CDs on MusicStack.
Association
Johnny Rivers
Animals
Simon and Garfunkel
Canned Heat
Big Brother and the Holding Company
Country Joe and the Fish
Butterfield Blues Band
Electric Flag
Quicksilver Messenger Service
Steve Miller Band
Moby Grape
Byrds
Jefferson Airplane
Booker T. & the M.G.s
Otis Redding
Big Brother and the Holding Company
Janis Joplin
Buffalo Springfield
Who
Grateful Dead
Jimi Hendrix Experience
Scott McKenzie
Mamas and the Papas
Summer Of Love Websites
The Summer Of Love We are here to make a better world.
Summer of Love and Woodstock Throughout the 60s many counterculture events increased the movement's notoriety, but two in particular, the Summer of Love and Woodstock, epitomized the spirit of the protests
Summer of Love The Summer of Love refers to the summer of 1967, when as many as 100,000 people converged on the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco, creating a phenomenon of cultural and political rebellion.
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