Modern-day San Francisco:

Shaped by the Memorable Era of the Hippies

How has the famous Californian city of San Francisco been influenced by it's historic role as the center of the counterculture movement in the 1960s?

Alexa Plonka
12/11/15

“I hear the old hippies, Floating in and out of long hair, Like limousines in The fog that is San Francisco,” wrote poet Paul Landry. With such an influential history, the famous city has been forever changed by the hippies’ counterculture. San Francisco could arguably be the greatest center of the 1960s counterculture movement as it embodied every aspect of the hippies including their origin, lifestyle, drug culture, music, and was the locations of key historical events, therefore shaping the famous city into what it is today.

San Francisco in the 1960s

The origin behind the counter culture movement of the 60s was a group of writers and collection of various literary works known as the beats. In 1952 John Clellen Holmes introduced the beats, a few years after it began, as he wrote about them in the New York Times article, This is the Beat Generation, saying, “Its’ members have an instinctive individuality, needing no bohemianism or imposed eccentricity to express it. Brought up during the collective bad circumstances of a dreary depression, weaned during the collective uprooting of a global war, they distrust collectivity.” The beat generation was characterized by a group of writers who wrote about their dissatisfaction with society and rebelled against its norms during the 50s. Writers such as Jack Kerouac “glorified the drifter, the rebel who resisted the temptation to conform. The poems of Allen Ginsberg denounced materialism and middle class morality and celebrated the satisfactions of marijuana, eastern mystical religions, and homosexual love” (Dudley 181). The work of these writers as well as many others, including Gary Snyder and William Burroughs, brought about new beliefs that served as the inspiration behind the emergence of counterculture. Many of the writers attributed to the beats are also associated with San Francisco as they had eventually ended up there together, as well as the historic city holds many links to them whether it was where they lived, traveled or published works in. For example Jack Kerouac wrote the famous book On the Road, “a dazzling piece of writing for all its rough edged” (Santes), partially in San Francisco as he traveled all over.

The new beliefs presented by the beats influenced the lifestyle of the hippies in the sixties. Most commonly arising from the white middle class, supporters of the counterculture movement would possess a carefree, non-conformist lifestyle. This involved abandoning their previous lives or careers solely in the pursuit of happiness, similar to the lifestyle described in various writings of the beats. Hippies generally lived together in groups where they would share possessions and responsibilities, known as communes. A well-known, prime location for hippies all over the US was a San Francisco commune called Haight-Ashbury. It gained attention as it was exposed on a national level through television reports and articles. One CBS new report on Haight-Ashbury described the lifestyle of the hippies living there. Members from the famous band The Grateful Dead were amongst the hippies featured as they were interviewed during the news report describing the primary goal of the hippie movement as “a peaceful planet […] to live an uncluttered life, a simple life.” Along with famous musicians like the Grateful dead, Haight-Ashbury became home to “philosophers, artists (such Alton Kelley), poets (such as Allen Cohen), apartment-dwellers, panhandlers, and even future CEOs of companies such as Pepsi, the Gap, Smith-Hawken, Lotus, and Rolling Stone magazine” (Bove).

As Haight-Ashbury’s population of hippies grew, so did its accessibility of recreational drugs. With an attitude of “if it feels good, do it,” drug use during the 1960s became a major trend amongst hippies. The drug culture of that time primarily consisted of mind-altering drugs such as LSD and marijuana. Although marijuana consumption has existed long before the 60s, it took major popularity amongst hippies due to how glorified the drug was by the past beat writers as they wrote about their experiences and claimed to be inspired by it. Inversely, LSD had not existed much in the past, as it was discovered during a time when world war II had ended and new medications were being studied and discovered. The new drug became known for expanding one's consciousness and hallucinations as people like psychologists Timothy Leary and Ken Kasey studied the drug and began encouraging it for personal use. During this era Leary was also associated with the brotherhood of eternal love in California, the nation's largest producers of LSD at the time. “The Feds claimed that nearly 50% of all the acid sold in the United States during the late 1960s and early 1970s was produced by the Brotherhood” (Walston). With the largest supplier of LSD being located in the same state, it's not shocking that San Francisco was very involved in drug culture during the 60s.

Not only did San Francisco embody the origin, lifestyle, and drug culture of the counterculture movement, but it also embodied the music of the time as many of the most famous and influential artists of the era lived or performed there. The 1960s supporters of the counterculture movement gravitated to a new, upcoming style of rock music as
famous San Francisco bands such as The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Santana, The Beau Brummels, and Big Brother and the Holding Company, along with a multitude of others dominated the 60s. These musical groups, were “bands under this psychedelic umbrella […] that created events as much as they created music” (Strodder 273). It was bands like these that brought about a new era of guitar-based music and held events in the area therefore attracting hippies from all over. The music scene of the time was new as it was described as “the artists’ willingness to let the jam continue in loose live performances that seemed to go on forever, mostly ignoring the radio-friendly 3-minute running times of previous rock hits. The music had mystical properties. And instead of singing about cars and boy-meets-girl drama, social and political narratives were plentiful in the lyrics” (Hartlaub). The trend of this style psychedelic, folk and rock music brought about allowed artists such as Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and The Beatles to find success.

Resulting from the thriving music scene in San Francisco arose one of the most historic events in the history of the counterculture movement, The Human Be-In. in 1967 the hippie movement experienced a period known as “The Summer of Love.” Hippies from all over flooded into the city as they were inspired by Scott McKenzie’s song, SanFrancisco, where he sang “If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear flowers in your hair… if you're going to San Francisco, summertime will be a love-in there.” Approximately 100,000 hippies from all over traveled to the city during that summer. Centered in Haight-Ashbury, those in attendance witnessed ‘"a gathering of tribes," [...] the event featured several rock bands, beatnik poets such as Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Michael McClure, and the LSD evangelist Tim Leary” (Selvin)

Modern-Day San Francisco

Additionally, the immensely influential San Francisco bands of the 60s changed music forever with their style in terms of what their music had been written about and the genre of it. Modern-day artists such as Pink use songwriting as a way to convey a political view, similar to those of the 60s. Another reason our music industry was influenced was that the artists of the 60s were able to to be successful singing about whatever issues and topics they wanted. Whereas in the past artists had been typically known for only receiving attention when they sung about a major issue. This new freedom to sing about whatever you please and find success has changed music ever since.

The city of San Francisco was also shaped by the lifestyle and drug culture of the 60s. The lifestyle of the hippies was embodied by the famous area, Haight Ashbury. Once a famous hippie commune, the area within San Francisco is comprised of colorful victorian homes that many people have turned into restaurants and boutiques. Carly Schwartz described the modern scene within the city saying in a Huffington Post article, saying, “Live guitar music still warbles from street corners, tie-dyed t-shirts are hawked by the handful, the smell of pot permanently wafts, colorful peace signs adorn windows of businesses like the Red Victorian Bed & Breakfast -- institutions better suited to an earlier time.” In this way the town still possesses a sense of embodiment to the counterculture movement. As mentioned in the article, “the smell of pot permanently wafts,” some could argue the reasoning for this is the legalization of marijuana for medical use in California. Less than half of the states allow some use of marijuana, but given california's history with the popularity of drugs in the 60s, it is no surprise that it is one of those states.

Therefore the famous Californian city of San Francisco is one of few places that still possesses many aspects of the 1960s counterculture movement. Through its vibrant history, the city has allowed its past to shape what it is today. The influence arises from characteristics of the movement such as the presence of hippie lifestyle still present in Haight-Ashbury, as well as the beat museum representing the origin of the movement as a whole. In addition, the drug emphasize of the hippies is still somewhat present by the legalization of marijuana for those with medical prescription. Lastly the city’s history of famous counterculture bands has influenced many artists in the large, powerful music industry today. Famous speaker and anthropologist of the 60s, Margaret Mead, put this everlasting influence of the short-lived popularity of counterculture into words by saying, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”

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