Rimshot
Hi Rain, 
I like the following bands from up there.  Some great musicians also came from the 60's.
 
Jefferson Airplane
Grateful Dead
Journey
Logos
Santana
Quicksilver
Big Brother & The Holding Company
Blue Cheer
Bonnie Raitt
Steve Miller Band
Counting Crows
Country Joe and the Fish
Creedence Clearwater
Green Day
Metallica (from L.A.)
Tower of Power
The Doobie Brothers
John Lee Hooker
 
I am not sure what a hippie is anymore but I sure loved these bands!

Though I respect most of them, I can't really say I enjoy their music in most case. Long, trippy jam in particular just aren't my thing in most cases. Hendrix would be an exception. Zeppelin sometimes.
 
To be perfectly clear, again, I'm not putting them down, but I've always been more into clarity, focus and concision. I feel it's okay to go on for explorations and experimentations, but I prefer when that stuff is done away from the spotlight and the results are organized into something a bit more concise. But I get that some people are into that, and that's alright.
 
Plus, I tend to favour hard hitting or very dark music, so anything that's like the sonic equivalent of a tie-dye shirt won't work for me.
 
John Lee Hooker and Metallica are quite okay in my book though. And tons of other bands. As a teenager, the Bay Area was like a sacred land to us.
 
 

Well, I actually lived in San Francisco in 1968. 1967 was the Summer of Love. 1968 was the Summer of Man You Should Have Been Here Last Year. The flowers in the hair had been largely replaced by hopeless drug addicts and the crash pads had all been reupholstered and rented out to the gentry. By then Hippies were already a dying breed, so if you can find any actually alive in San Francisco today, they are probably like the costumed inhabitants of Colonial Williamsburg, performers paid to entertain the tourists. I was shopping in the Haight Ashbury neighborhood last July, and aside from finding an impressive collection of poorly made Tibetan trinkets, and bongs priced at over a grand it was not impressive. I did not see anyone who looked like a hippy who was not clearly an un-medicated schizophrenic, but you may have better luck.
 
As for music, you may have a point. I did attend a concert during my residence in 1968 at the Fillmore Auditorium with several hundred heavily medicated spectators and an even more heavily medicated band called The Grateful Dead, who managed to sustain one of the songs they had recorded on an album to a duration of well over twenty minutes at a deafening volume by the simple expedient of playing the refrain over and over endlessly. So if you found the albums from those groups self indulgent and undisciplined, well man, you should have been there in 1967.

rsp@odyssey.net
What....wait....what's that last part?

Nothing about hookers and blow. It's ok
 
Rain, SF isn't that city any more. It's just like any other city, full of people trying to get somewhere ten minutes ago.
It's a gorgeous city, as cities go, and it worth taking a moment or two to soak it in.
It is where my West coast starts. That ends at Port Angeles, WA.
If you have time, ride the BART to Oakland. Sit in the first car, behind the cab. There's nothing special in Oakland, but it's kind of a rush when you feel your ears pressurize, and realize you are on a train traveling 90 mph through a tunnel under the ocean.
Take-offs from SF are way cool. Side-by-side, and if you are luck enough to be on the right side of the plane, it is awesome.
Have a good trip. I think you might like the place after all.

#12  Good One. 

My friend Tim moved to the US in the late '80's and moved around a lot in the 12 years he was there..Chicago, LA, Michigan..he still counts SF as his favourite place to live. He's no hippie

slartabartfast
...1967 was the Summer of Love. 1968 was the Summer of Man You Should Have Been Here Last Year. 
 

Good one. 
 
One minor correction from earlier...Bruce Lee is from Seattle, not San Francisco. His grave is a tourist destination, along with Hendrix's grave and the garage where Cobain blew his brains out.
 
What we don't have, AFAIK, is any tribute to the greatest artist to come from Seattle, Bing Crosby. Crosby was the godfather of home recording, having financed the Ampex startup and personally delivering the world's first multi-track recorder to his pal Les Paul. Paul and his wife went on to have dozens of top ten hits, most of which were recorded in his kitchen. 
 
I don't get the smoking pot and playing guitar reference. Nowadays it's smoking pot and vegging out in front of the TV watching reality shows. I prefer the old convention, and do my best to keep the tradition alive.

It's a great city with great scenery and history. When I was in my 20's I used to try and make it there for New Years. The clubs on Market St. had just about everything a young deviant rock and roller could ask for. It's got a cultural diversity that's up there with the worlds great cities. You'll enjoy it.
 
Randy

 
I watched a documentary series about the streets of San Francisco once.
 
As I recall, it wasn't much good. I certainly didn't find out much about the hardcore they used, or even the average depth of the tarmac.

slartabartfast
Well, I actually lived in San Francisco in 1968. 1967 was the Summer of Love. 1968 was the Summer of Man You Should Have Been Here Last Year. The flowers in the hair had been largely replaced by hopeless drug addicts and the crash pads had all been reupholstered and rented out to the gentry. By then Hippies were already a dying breed, so if you can find any actually alive in San Francisco today, they are probably like the costumed inhabitants of Colonial Williamsburg, performers paid to entertain the tourists. I was shopping in the Haight Ashbury neighborhood last July, and aside from finding an impressive collection of poorly made Tibetan trinkets, and bongs priced at over a grand it was not impressive. I did not see anyone who looked like a hippy who was not clearly an un-medicated schizophrenic, but you may have better luck.
 
As for music, you may have a point. I did attend a concert during my residence in 1968 at the Fillmore Auditorium with several hundred heavily medicated spectators and an even more heavily medicated band called The Grateful Dead, who managed to sustain one of the songs they had recorded on an album to a duration of well over twenty minutes at a deafening volume by the simple expedient of playing the refrain over and over endlessly. So if you found the albums from those groups self indulgent and undisciplined, well man, you should have been there in 1967.

Do you remember a place called "Lou's Swinging Den"? I believe it was on Haight but my memory is fuzzy. People on the street hawking the Berkeley Barb, hanging out asking for stuff. None of it would have been the same without Owsley Stanley.
Of course 1967 didn't get to GA until 1970... but still, "...every town must have a place where phony hippies meet; psychedelic dungeons popping up on every street, go... to... San Fran.. Cis.. cooo. How I love you, how I love you, how I love Frisco".
 
J

bitflipper

slartabartfast
...1967 was the Summer of Love. 1968 was the Summer of Man You Should Have Been Here Last Year. 
 

Good one. 
 
One minor correction from earlier...Bruce Lee is from Seattle, not San Francisco. His grave is a tourist destination, along with Hendrix's grave and the garage where Cobain blew his brains out.
 
What we don't have, AFAIK, is any tribute to the greatest artist to come from Seattle, Bing Crosby. Crosby was the godfather of home recording, having financed the Ampex startup and personally delivering the world's first multi-track recorder to his pal Les Paul. Paul and his wife went on to have dozens of top ten hits, most of which were recorded in his kitchen. 
 
I don't get the smoking pot and playing guitar reference. Nowadays it's smoking pot and vegging out in front of the TV watching reality shows. I prefer the old convention, and do my best to keep the tradition alive.

Yeah, Seattle is probably more significant, as is L.A. - but since he was born in San Francisco, one would think that they could have capitalized on that.
 
I don't think we're likely to visit Seattle anytime soon, but L.A. isn't unlikely.