Dec 012008
So what have we learned? What happened to the dream of the ’60s San Francisco scene?
- The idealistic, revolutionary Jefferson Airplane boarded a Starship and infiltrated the inner workings of M.A.N. Incorporated through a quartet of ’70s AM easy listening hits and, eventually, a couple of early ’80s Corporate Rock anthems.
- Two members of the jazz-inspired Santana left to form Journey.
- Carlos Santana replaced his once-musicially ambitious bandmates to form his own version of Journey.
- The Dead, without changing much of anything, scored a Top 10 hit before Jerry kicked.
The burnout was inevitable, but of all rock scenes, who would have thought Haight-Asbury would turn into a bedrock of Winner Rock?
Mr. Mod, you’re right about what happened to the ’60s San Francisco scene. I would also add that the only bands from that time & place that have any critical cache these days were those that were on the fringes such as Sly & The Family Stone, The Flamin’ Groovies, CCR & The Beau Brummels. I know that at least I prefer listening to those bands more than the Dead or Airplane/Starship. I was also thinking about another vaunted music scene which was the Liverpool beat boom of the early 60s. Besides the Beatles, the only possible major group to come out of that scene was the Searchers.
Finally, to get back to the subject in hand, in my Web wanderings, I stumbled upon a website that contained the photos of one Charles W. Cushman, from his travels around the US & Europe from 1938 to 1969. Here’s the main website link:
http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/cushman/
Among these photos were ones that he took in Haight-Asbury in 1967, including this one which exudes the peace, love ‘n good vibes of the Summer ‘o Love generation:
http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/cushman/results/detail.do?query=year%3A1967&page=1&pagesize=20&display=thumbcap&action=browse&pnum=P15562
Now here’s where I put my choice for the song, “Money Changes Everything”.
I’m not exactly sure what you mean by “critical cache” but what about Moby Grape? I thought that their first album is very well regarded (maybe even more so today than when it came out because I thought is was considered to be a bit slick or over the top when it came out).
I’m not a critic but it’s my choice for the best debut album ever, and no I’m not forgetting “My Aim Is True” or “Marquee Moon.”
In some ways, the San Francisco scene has never changed all that much; just who was in it changed, and how big it was/is. Go to San Francisco now and there is still plenty of sign of counterculture communities, although it’s significantly more hidden under a layer of corporate culture than it used to be. But there’s still more counterculture stuff to be found in SF than in any other city in the U.S.
But to a significant degree, rock and roll isn’t part of it anymore. Yeah, it was about the money, and also about how rock and roll itself changed in the 70s. I mean, it was a cash cow earlier too of course, but it wasn’t corporatized to the same degree until later. Our friend Don Felder makes this point in his bio regarding the buy-out of David Geffen.
Punk, alt-rock etc have been in various degrees attempts to create new countercultures, and sometimes have been successful, at least to a certain extent. But rock’s relation to the corporate culture/counterculture problem is too ambiguous, always. To the extent that anything called rock even exists much anymore.
Does anyone remember the details of the Jefferson Starship/Starbuck’s partnership from a few years back? Starbucks is genuine Counterculture Coffee.