Bob Weir isn't one to wax poetic about the Summer of Love

[Kanada Kev]

Grateful Dead co-founder and guitarist Bob Weir isn't one to wax poetic about the Summer of Love in San Francisco.

Love's 40th anniversary

By Jim Harrington

MEDIANEWS STAFF

For everything, there is a season.

And for love, it was the summer of 1967. Or, at least, that's what folks were told -- and that's what many believed. That's why thousands of young men and women, known to the world as hippies or flower children, descended on San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district for months of fun, live music and mind-altering substances. That time came to be known as the Summer of Love.

Some indeed came looking for love, the kind where all people -- regardless of race, political affiliation or economic status -- would accept one another as true brothers and sisters. Forty years later, that dream still sounds pretty good. Yet the reality was closer to a nightmare for many who lived in the Bay Area before that summer.

Surprisingly, one person who doesn't have such warm memories is Bob Weir, who -- as a founding member of the Grateful Dead -- was one of Haight-Ashbury's premier attractions.

When asked what he first thinks of when he hears a reference to the Summer of Love, he says, "It was time to get out of the city."

The Summer of Love "was not all that great," the 59-year-old vocalist-guitarist said during a recent interview at his home of 35 years in Mill Valley. "The summer before was wonderful."

Looking beyond the cultural implications, many thought of the Summer of Love as the ultimate party. But, like most good parties, it soon grew crowded. And some folks clearly weren't on the guest list.

Drawn by intense media coverage, the Haight was bombarded by an estimated 100,000 new arrivals that summer. They included a fair share of teen runaways, con artists, thieves and drug dealers, who together would irrevocably change the essence of the neighborhood, which quickly became a place cops looked to for an easy drug bust.

Many locals felt pushed out. The neighborhood's most famous residents, the Grateful Dead, hightailed it to Marin County soon after a well-publicized drug bust at the band's house at 710 Ashbury in late '67.

Still, the summer of '67 would be romanticized as nothing short of a revolution. Indeed, change was in the air, blowing through big cities including London and New York as well as college campuses across the nation. San Francisco, however, was the focal point.

Great experiment

Some saw the whole thing as a great human experiment, an attempt to create a gentler, more enlightened society, one that would value flowers over firearms and poetry over possessions. That was the dream. The reality, as Weir points out, was less lovely.

But why let reality get in the way of a good story? Let's, for the moment, focus on the positive elements that sprang from the Summer of Love. The season gave birth to, or helped solidify, several key movements, including free speech, gay rights and civil rights.

Those are some of the reasons why many people will be celebrating the 40th anniversary of San Francisco's most famous season for most of this year.

A highlight will likely be the recently announced Summer of Love celebration concert on Sept. 2 in Golden Gate Park. The lineup has yet to be set -- but there should be no shortage of willing participants. Organizers will host a launch party for the event Wednesday in San Francisco.

Don't expect Weir to be there waving a heart-shaped Summer of Love banner. He'll be busy that night fronting his current band, Ratdog, at the most hallowed of all '60s venues, the Fillmore. Plus, 40th anniversary or not, the Summer of Love feels pretty distant these days to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee.

"It's back there a ways," Weir says. "Other stuff that proceeded that seems a little closer. I don't know. Stuff gets mixed up."

Well, let's clear things up a bit. Weir, whether or not he wants the credit, is at least partially responsible for there having been a Summer of Love. One of the biggest draws to Northern California during that time was the live music scene, of which the Grateful Dead was arguably the most significant member.

Dead ahead

Ironically, for a band forever linked with San Francisco, the Grateful Dead got its start on the Peninsula. There are several jumping off points for the story, but, for our purposes, it makes sense to begin in 1963 -- New Year's Eve 1963, to be exact.

That's when young Weir, just 16, was strolling through Palo Alto and heard some acoustic tunes ringing from Dana Morgan's Music Store. He followed the sound and found Jerry Garcia, who would become his musical mentor. Today, it's hard for him to fathom what he'd be doing now if he hadn't hooked up with Garcia that night.

"I have no idea," says Weir, who attended several schools on the Peninsula. "I know I would probably still be doing music. It's all I've ever wanted to do since I was 8 or 9."

Weir and Garcia became fast friends and, along with bassist Phil Lesh, drummer Bill Kreutzmann and vocalist-keyboardist Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, formed a band in 1965 that would later take the name Grateful Dead.

Influenced by a huge array of musical styles, the group sounded vastly different from everything else in the music business. The Dead would find an audience for its eclectic mix when it began performing at author Ken Kesey's famed acid tests.

Along with the likes of Jefferson Airplane and Quicksilver Messenger Service, the Dead pioneered a style of music that would become known as the "San Francisco sound." In turn, the band helped usher in the psychedelic era and indirectly influence everyone from the Beach Boys to the Beatles.

The Dead was the de facto house band for San Francisco's psychedelic period. Notably, the group performed at the Human Be-In -- which drew more than 20,000 flower children to Golden Gate Park in January 1967 and is widely considered to be the kickoff to the Summer of Love.

Five months after the Be-In set things in motion, the Dead also performed at the year's most famous concert, the Monterey Pop Festival. That event brought some 200,000 music fans to the Monterey County Fairgrounds to see a dizzying array of talents, including Jefferson Airplane, Otis Redding, the Who and the Jimi Hendrix Experience.

Two years later, the Dead was on hand for both the apex of the Summer of Love movement (Woodstock) and its nadir (the tragic Altamont Free Concert, where the Dead didn't take the stage).

After the Love

The Dead, of course, would far outlive the Summer of Love and become one of the most successful touring acts of all time.

The band kept right on truckin' until its hesitant bandleader, Garcia, died in 1995.

All of the surviving band members, however, have remained active in the music business. Weir still sees a lot of old Deadheads when he's out on the road with Ratdog. But it's not all familiar faces.

"There's a huge influx of 19- to 24-year-olds in our crowd now," he says. "That's great to see, because we are hitting a new generation."

Write Oakland Tribune music editor Jim Harrington at jharrington@angnewspapers.com. Read Harrington's Concert Blog at www.insidebayarea.com/music. This is the first in an occasional series of stories about the people and events of the Summer of Love, which turns 40 this year.

FOR MORE INFO

• To find out more about the Summer of Love 40th anniversary celebration, visit www.2b1records.com/summeroflove40th.

• For details on Bob Weir and Ratdog's show at the Fillmore, visit www.livenation.com.

[StoneMtn]

I've known people to go over to that house on Haight, to look around. The last time I had friends go there was about 10 years ago, but at that time the long-time resident of the house was this rasta. Apparently, he figured out that if people came to his door to look around, on the basis that they were fans of this old band that used to live there, he would do well to let them in; as he discovered he was invariably "rewarded" when he did so.

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

The Summer of Love "was not all that great," the 59-year-old vocalist-guitarist said during a recent interview at his home of 35 years in Mill Valley. "The summer before was wonderful."

Isn't that always the way. Kinda like seeing something once eye-catching and new now on the rack at Wal-Mart.

[Hal Johnson]

Its like Air-Walk shoes. I remember when they were the shit! Now you buy them at payless.

[Hux]

uh...Kev, you have persmission to post this??

:::calls Weir's legal team, anticipates legal action:::

[Hal Johnson]

Didnt Niel Young say the same thing about Woodstock?

[Hux]

=

[Kanada Kev]

ROFLMAO ... Great picture comparison :)

[Kanada Kev]

uh...Kev, you have persmission to post this??

:::calls Weir's legal team, anticipates legal action:::

Weir's cool about it ... however, Jerry is mentioned, so I gotta watch out for the EWK [Evil Widow Koons]! C U Next Tuesday, Debb.

Later . . .

Kanada Kev =8)

[MoMack]

Anybody want to buy 2 tix for Bobby in Rochester?