Wish I Was There in my 20′s
San Francisco in the 1960′s
Let me offer this caveat: I don’t listen to Jam bands. I don’t own a hacky sack, have dreads or carry around a satchel. I don’t even smoke weed anymore.
However, to be a birth witness to whatever it was that was happening at the time must have been amazing. I’m not a historian or documentarian. This isn’t an exercise in chronology. The Flower Power movement never really intrigued me other than its effect on Vietnam. BUT when thinking about this era, I’ve realized that many of my critical influences/interests were spawned from here. To be in my 20′s to see all this subversion as it was occurring would have been phenomenal:
“Psychedelia” was being created…the whole genre. It’s arguable that Owsley Stanley is fully responsible for that, since he was manufacturing the best LSD ever…and it was legal (until 1966)!
Anton Levay was introducing Satan to pop culture…
Kenneth Anger was revolutionizing art house cinema…
The Underground Comix movement had begun…
…and pushed to a whole new level once Robert Crumb arrived in 1967…
And let’s not forget that The Grateful Dead/ Warlocks were just getting off the ground!
Now, I’m not a Dead fan…but can you imagine seeing them when they were first playing dingy bars and parties? That’s like seeing Black Sabbath in Birmingham, The Ramones at CBGB’s or Nirvana in Aberdeen.
Unfortunately, the culture was eventually packaged at the mall and mythologized by our parents who weren’t really there. Regardless, this was one of the greatest counter-cultural movements ever. Whatever you were into: art, music, politics, philosophy, sex, debauchery, literature or just plain partying your face off — San Francisco was your Renaissance.
Like every other trendsetting city, there are the posers and followers that show up and transform the scene into parody. In the the few years before that TIME LIFE ARTICLE came out, SF was the coolest place in the world.
I’ve been going back and forth in my head for that last few months on whether being in your 20′s living in San Francisco during the 60′s was cooler than Downtown NYC in the 80′s. Today SF won.
By the nature of this blog, I know your answer, but lets get it going in the comments:
- Cornbluth
July 17th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
Those Kenneth Anger sets (vol. 1 & 2) that were released awhile back seriously blew my mind. I kept having to revert to the notes and keep repeating to myself the year they were made in order to put them in perspective. *WAY* ahead of his time…
July 17th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
That LIFE cover is pretty fucking awesome.
July 17th, 2009 at 10:18 pm
We stay keepin’ it weird out here in the Sucker Free!
July 18th, 2009 at 11:41 pm
I’d rather be at the Factory with Warhol and The Velvet Underground.
Butttt Anton Levay was pretty cool.
May 1st, 2011 at 3:24 pm
I am particularly interested in that photo right after the Life Magazine cover; I came across it googling Owsley. Is Owsley in it? One night, at Winterland, he was there with helpers. I have always remembered them wearing wolf heads. They were walking around with hand-fulls of White Lightning and everyone was very, very high. I always figured somebody must have photos of that night.
The picture of Hopper is pretty cool too;(he’s with a friend of mine’s sister; Daria.)
With metta,
DE