1967 and the Summer of Love
Excerpt from The Psychedelic Rock Files

As 1967 dawned, San Francisco played host to the first Human Be-In. This event was a gathering of some 10 - 20,000 individuals in peaceful co-existence on a warm January day. It was a beautiful scene that inspired the community to believe nothing was impossible if you put your mind to it. The word had been spread throughout the Bay area that this “gathering of the tribes” would take place at the Golden Gate Park and while the event was scheduled to begin at 1pm, people began arriving in the early morning hours and by mid-day the park was packed. The event featured a variety of bands, poets and artists all gathered to send a peaceful message of coexistence. This message of harmony was directed at both the Haight-Ashbury hippies and the more radical Berkeley group. In simple terms the Berkeley crowd felt the hippies were too superficial, to interested in just taking drugs and listening to music, while the Haight-Ashbury group were nervous of the radical political stance taken by the Berkeley crowd. Both groups distrusted the other and while the day ended well the hoped for union never came about. All in attendance were treated to poetry readings from the likes of Michael McClure, Alan Ginsberg and Gary Snyder along with the music of all the popular local bands such as the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Big Brother and Jefferson Airplane. Word of the success of the Human Be-In spread across the country like wildfire, and soon that word touched down in counter-culture communities on other continents overseas. San Francisco and Haight-Ashbury became a magnet to all those looking for a different lifestyle or hope of change in their lives. 

In England the police were cracking down, raiding the offices of the International Times removing every stitch of paper in hopes of finding something incriminating. The raid led to an appeal-benefit billed as the 14 Hour Technicolor Dream, an event similar to the Mime Troupe appeals staged in San Francisco. The all-night rave was held in April 1967 at the Alexandra Palace featuring a veritable who’s who of the psychedelic music scene. Inside the cavernous building two stages were erected, one at either end along with the largest array of lights and sound system yet seen in Britain. Close to 10,000 people showed up including John Lennon and Paul McCartney. For many the event was the climax of the growing underground scene.

In amongst everything else going on in Los Angeles there were a number of interesting psychedelic things happening. The Beach Boys, in particular Brian Wilson was working on psychedelic songs such as “Good Vibrations” and “Heroes and Villains” both of which were going to be a part of the ill fated Smile project. The Byrds and Love were playing weeklong stints at local clubs and other bands such as the Association, the Electric Prunes, Peanut Butter Conspiracy, West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, Kaleidoscope and Strawberry Alarm Clock came along for the ride. The Strawberry Alarm Clock even provided a number one hit with “Incense and Peppermints”. Nineteen sixty-seven was the year that the Monkees hit it big on television and in their own way spread the look and feel of psychedelia to millions of teenyboppers across North America. And clubs like the Whisky A Go Go, Brave New World and the Kaleidoscope with its circular revolving stage provided the opportunity for live gigs. The Doors and the Monterey Pop Festival were not far off.