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| Summer of Love: 40 Years Later |
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Posted by CN Staff on May 20, 2007 at 14:59:03 PT By Joel Selvin, Chronicle Senior Pop Music Critic Source: San Francisco Chronicle 
San Francisco, CA -- By the time the fabled Summer of Love hit San Francisco 40 years ago, the party was already over in the Haight-Ashbury. Yet the mythology of that summer in 1967 has never disappeared. The San Francisco hippie, dancing in Golden Gate Park with long hair flowing, has become as much of an enduring American archetype as the gunfighters and cowboys who roamed the Wild West. More importantly, the rise of '60s counterculture has had a significant impact on our culture today. The Summer of Love resonates in strip mall yoga classes, pop music, visual art, fashion, attitudes toward drugs, the personal computer revolution, and the current mad dash toward the greening of America. While some of the counterculture's dreams came true, others, particularly the movement's idealistic politics, evaporated like the sweet-smelling pot smoke that saturated the air that summer. "If you look at all the political agendas of the 1960s, they basically failed," says actor Peter Coyote, who belonged to a Haight-Ashbury commune called the Diggers in the late '60s. "We didn't end capitalism. We didn't end imperialism. We didn't end racism. Yeah, the war ended. But if you look at the cultural agendas, they all worked." "It was sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, and those were all fun," says social satirist Paul Krassner. "But at the core of the counterculture was a spiritual revolution." In the weeks leading up to the end of the 1967 school year, while many of the more forward-thinking of the Haight community left town to continue their social experiments elsewhere, San Francisco braced for an anticipated onslaught of more than 100,000 young transients for a psychedelic circus in Haight-Ashbury. "The Invasion of the Flower Children" announced one Chronicle headline. Snipped: Complete Article: http://tinyurl.com/2bswjx Photos and Videos: http://tinyurl.com/ysogxn Summer of Love: 40 Years Later: http://www.sfgate.com/summeroflove/ Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA) Related Article: Hippies Were Right All Along - We Knew That CannabisNews -- Cannabis Archives Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
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| Comment #15 posted by FoM on May 23, 2007 at 06:00:29 PT |
| Readers SFC: Recall the Summer of Love http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=5&entry_id=16754 [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #14 posted by FoM on May 23, 2007 at 05:52:39 PT |
| http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/qws/ff/qr?sort=rank&o=10&term=summer+of+love&Submit=S [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #13 posted by FoM on May 22, 2007 at 20:21:04 PT |
| Stick introduced me to the Moody Blues back when we met. Their music will always hold a special place in my heart. Hope, I really do like Peter Coyote. He was in the documentary about the Summer of Love. He wasn't at all judgmental but analytical. There were too many people. San Francisco wasn't ready for all the people. But in 69 Woodstock worked for 3 days with about a half a million people. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #12 posted by afterburner on May 22, 2007 at 20:10:06 PT |
| I saw them live in Toronto shortly after John Lennon's assassination. Their body language showed that they were nervous, but they still put on a good show. My wife and I also frequented Yorkville, near the University of Toronto, a couple of years after the Summer of Love. We heard Steppenwolf and other bands at our favorite club, the Penny Farthing. We had heard John Lennon (Plastic Ono Band), The Doors, and many others at the Rock and Roll Revival in Varsity Stadium near the University of Toronto too. http://beatles.ncf.ca/live_peace_in_toronto_p1.html It was a magical time, full of hope and wonder. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #11 posted by Hope on May 22, 2007 at 20:07:11 PT |
| When we were looking at all the Rainbow information last year, I think, when Museman was going to the Gathering, I linked somehow through some of that to his writings and I enjoyed them and thought at the time that you would, too...but just never got around to mentioning it. Museman...I haven't forgotten your novel...I haven't had much reading time lately...but I'm getting back to it. I'd like to have it in print so I could carry it around with me. I have a fully size PC and not a laptop...so I have to read it here. I haven't forgotten it, though...I'm anxious to get time to sit down and read the rest of it. You do weave an exciting tale. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #10 posted by FoM on May 22, 2007 at 19:22:56 PT |
| I was listening the Moody Blues today. I love the Moody Blues. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #9 posted by afterburner on May 22, 2007 at 18:53:31 PT |
| CN ON: T.O's Summer Of Love, Toronto Star, (21 May 2007)
http://www.mapinc.org/newstcl/v07/n629/a05.html?176 "The summer of '67 -- it was love, love, love. Whatever happened to love? ... Where is love? Where did it go?" Moody Blues - Lost In A Lost World Lyrics http://tinyurl.com/2hqsyo Moody Blues - Isn`t Life Strange Lyrics http://tinyurl.com/yno8se Moody Blues - Is This Heaven Lyrics http://www.asklyrics.com/display/Moody_blues/Is_this_heaven_Lyrics/216319.htm "I want to be there when The age of love is come again" [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #8 posted by FoM on May 21, 2007 at 12:05:18 PT |
| It sounds like Canada has a lot planned. Enjoy! [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #7 posted by FoM on May 21, 2007 at 12:01:15 PT |
| Hope, I really like him. Do you get world link tv? I've seen him on that channel a couple of times. He is a humble man and he has a good perspective on how things were and how things are now. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #6 posted by Hope on May 21, 2007 at 08:38:49 PT |
| I had that, even in Texas. The flowing skirts...., beautiful shawls, the head wraps. I loved to weave fresh blooming honeysuckle vines into my long hair and arrange it up. It was a cool time. No doubt. Now, I "know better". :0) I'd probably worry about chiggers in the honeysuckle. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #5 posted by Hope on May 21, 2007 at 08:33:05 PT |
| Reading his stories about his life as a digger and a commune hippie have been very interesting. He lived the life. You would really enjoy them, FoM. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #4 posted by Hope on May 21, 2007 at 08:30:10 PT |
| My baby was born two minutes after midnight of the first day of 1967. I jumped the gun and didn't get to the festival. There were a lot of people pregnant and having baby boys in the late sixties. I was worried about a future war. They used to say that when a lot of boys were born it meant a bad war about twenty years down the line. Big Valley was a popular TV show of the era. Lots' of Heaths, Jareds, and Audras born. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #3 posted by afterburner on May 21, 2007 at 07:44:23 PT |
| We are celebrating the so-called May 2-4 weekend early in Canada this weekend. Today is the holiday in order to give us the first long weekend of the unofficial start of summer. May 24th was Queen Victoria's birthday. Hence, the Victoria Day holiday. Little Steven's Underground Garage last night was dedicated to the legacy of Bob Dylan in honor of his birthday on May 24th. Much Bob Dylan music and covers of his songs were played. And, of course, the famous story of how Bob Dylan met the Beatles and they enjoyed 'marijuana' joints and laughed together, courtesy of Al Aronowitz. The Love You Make http://expectingrain.com/dok/int/theloveyoumake.html Bromell, Tomorrow Never Knows, excerpt http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/075532.html News & Features | The go-between http://tinyurl.com/2um5fo JOHN LENNON DREAMSITE: AL ARONOWITZ http://www.johnlennon.it/al_aronowitz_eng.htm [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #2 posted by potpal on May 21, 2007 at 04:14:46 PT |
| I wonder how many 40 year old people are a direct result? Out and about last night and the band where I found myself was banging out some Jimmy Hendrix as if it were yesterday. Couldn't help but think that that would be like Jimmy Hendrix playing ragtime in 1968. 60s music certainly has staying power. Guess it will die with us boomers. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #1 posted by FoM on May 20, 2007 at 16:06:29 PT |
| SFC: Country Joe McDonald: http://tinyurl.com/23ozrz Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die Rag Video: http://tinyurl.com/236by5 [ Post Comment ] |
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