SAN FRANCISCO — The Summer of Love in 1967 marked a turning point in rock and roll history: It introduced America to the exciting new sounds coming out of San Francisco’s local music scene.
There was the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Big Brother and the Holding Company, which launched Janis Joplin’s career, and Country Joe and the Fish, another signature band of the era.
The Associated Press talked to members of these bands to discuss their memories of that legendary summer and how it shaped their careers and influenced their lives. Here’s what they said:
Bob Weir, 69. Grateful Dead, guitarist, vocals: n On how that summer shaped his life: “We were sort of forced into a divorce from what we’ll call the straight culture. They had a war going on that, number one, didn’t look good to us, and then even worse, boded quite ill for us. If I had fallen to the draft, I probably wouldn’t be here now. So what the straight culture had to offer for us, for me, was death. In our culture, in the Summer of Love, I had the life that I’ve lived to this day to look forward to.”