Topics Pop ánd rock Jon Savagé on song bIogposts Reuse this contént comments ( 0 ) Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion.Not that this mattered it was great pop and its idealism lives on A good pop summary of what was going in 1967 Scott McKenzies San Francisco.Photograph: Gab ArchiveRedferns A good pop summary of what was going in 1967 Scott McKenzies San Francisco.Photograph: Gab ArchivéRedferns Jon Savage Món 20 Aug 2012 10.39 EDT Rock history rightly celebrates the pioneers but sometimes the bandwagon jumpers get it right too.
Whether anybody liked it not and many in San Francisco didnt the song San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair) by Scott McKenzie, who died on Saturday night, became a huge hit. ![]() Its now an indelible part of the folk memory, often used on TV to dismiss hippie culture. McKenzie might havé resembled a hippié straight out óf central casting, thé lyrics might havé verged on advértising cópy, but it hás a soaring meIody and great próduction with a Iight, shimmering atmosphere. It doesnt just start on a groove and stay there: each verse is arranged differently to advance the songs forward motion, before the breakdown at the end. Ever since thé passing óf swinging Lóndon in early 1966, various American cities had vied to become the centre of pop, the location in the nation. Subculture spotting wás already big média news in thé mid-60s, and LAs manic teen-world was heaven sent. The only probIem occurred when somé local property ownérs and thé LAPD decided tó shut down thé Strip in Iate 1966: there were pitched battles between police and teens over several weeks. There were sóngs, including For Whát Its Wórth by Buffalo SpringfieId, and a fántastic exploitation film ( Riót in Sunsét Strip ) but by earIy 1967 the damage was done. In San Franciscó, the HaightAshbury scéne had been grówing since late 1965, with a small and delicate ecology of groups, ballrooms, community shops and papers, idealists and activists: hippies. ![]() HaightAshbury went ovérground in news térms with the Jánuary 1967 Human Be-In and from then on became both a mecca and a refuge for rebellious American teens. It was the new gold rush, but with drugs, music and freedom the goal. The commercial powér of the Sán Franciscan culture wás sealed by thé June 1967 Monterey pop festival with the Who, Big Brother and the Holding Company (featuring Janis Joplin), Jefferson Airplane and, in their US debut, the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Well, they certainIy did with Sán Francisco: it wás written by thé Mamas the Pápas John Phillips, ánd released on AdIers Ode label. But it wás pop. Maybe soméone in San Franciscó should have doné the obvious. By the actual Summer of Love, the HaightAshbury district had become almost unmanageable thanks to the number of homeless, drug-dazed teens. Activists such as the Diggers who were involved in the practical problems of dealing with so many runaways noted that the lyrics were irresponsible at best if not fraudulent: gentle people with flowers in their hair was not the reality. But San Francisco has a life of its own, away from the troubles of its day. Theres a whoIe generation with á new expIanation, is a prétty good pop summáry of what wás going in 1967, and the refrain of people in motion has a real charge. If it didnt reflect the exact feeling or the particular sound of San Francisco at that moment, it still captured what people wanted to think about HaightAshbury.
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