Dagelijks archief: dinsdag 5 juni 2007

summer of love [ 2 ]

40 jaar geleden was San Francisco het hippiecentrum van de wereld
en de Haight-Ashbury (Hashbury) was ground zero
Haight-Asbury
San Francisco and the Haight gained a reputation as the center of illegal drug culture and rock and roll lifestyles soon after, especially with the use of marijuana and LSD and other hallucinogenic drugs. By 1967, the neighborhood’s fame chiefly rested on the fact that it became the haven for a number of important psychedelic rock performers and groups of the mid-1960s. Acts like Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin all lived a short distance from the famous intersection. They not only immortalized the scene in song, but also knew many within the community as friends and family.
 
The fabric of the neighborhood was forever altered in 1967 during the Summer of Love, much to the dismay of many residents. Psychedelic rock music was entering the mainstream, and received more and more commercial radio airplay. The song “San Francisco”
Be Sure to Wear Flowers
in Your Hair

became a hit single. The Monterey Pop Festival in June further cemented the status of psychedelic music as a part of mainstream culture and elevated local Haight bands such as Big Brother and the Holding Company and Jefferson Airplane to national stardom. A July 7th Time Magazine cover story on “The Hippies: Philosophy of a Subculture”, an August CBS News television report on “The Hippie Temptation”[1] and other major media interest in the hippie subculture exposed the Haight-Ashbury district to enormous national attention and popularized the movement across the country and around the world. Thousands of disaffected youth migrated to the Haight-Ashbury district, including many runaway teenagers, irrevocably altering the social structure of the neighborhood. The Diggers, a local “community anarchist” group famous for its street theatre and for providing free food to residents every day, held a “Death of the Hippie” parade as the new residents poured in.
 
Bron: en.wikipedia.org

Pink Floyd 1967
een piepjonge Pink Floyd in 1967
een van de eerste psychedelische bands
met linksboven Syd Barrett
( foto: wolfgangsvault )

De San Francisco Chronicle publiceerde afgelopen maand een serie van vier delen:
The Summer of Love, 40 Years Later