Maybe that’s not totally accurate, but it is 40 years since the Summer of Love exploded in tie-dye colours at the intersection of Haight and Ashbury in San Francisco. On Sunday a concert featuring musical survivors like Ray Manzarek from the Doors and Jefferson Airplane rocked San Fran’s Golden Gate Park in memory of the halcyon days that were infused with incense and rebellion.
In Haight-Ashbury itself it’s certainly not a hotbed of hippiedom any more. On my trip there in 2003, the biggest store on the block was The Gap, and peace signs were displayed in shop windows mainly as a commercial ruse to get tourists to buy psychedelic Jimi Hendrix posters. You’re better off to head down the hill to the grungier Lower Haight and have a few microbrews at the wonderful Toronado.
The San Francisco Chronicle (naturally…) has been running a few stories on the orginal Summer of Love this week, and if you believe the values and aspirations have a place in the 21st-century, the SOL2007 Project has loads of ideas to kick start your own Summer of Love.
Just don’t tell those guys in the White House OK?
Thanks to davegolden on Flickr for the pic from last Sunday’s gig.