All language subtitles for San.Francisco.Sounds.A.Place.in.Time.S01E01.eng

[soft music plays]

[birds chirping]

♪ ♪

[Victor] San Francisco.

It was remarkable, you know.

♪ ♪

I couldn't have scripted it
any better.

And this is a script
I never would have imagined.

Posters, art,

anything that I could do
with a poster,

I did with a poster.

♪ ♪

Big Brother
and the Holding Company.

Janis,

Grateful Dead,

Steve Miller.

♪ ♪

The posters were being shown
in the neighborhood.

♪ ♪

San Francisco's a little town.

It could only have
happened here.

["Somebody to Love" playing]

[Jefferson Airplane]
♪ When the truth is found ♪

♪ To be lies ♪

♪ And all the joy ♪

♪ Within you dies ♪

♪ Don't you want
Somebody to love ♪

♪ Don't you need
Somebody to love ♪

♪ Wouldn't you love
Somebody to love ♪

♪ You better find
Somebody to love ♪

♪ Love, love ♪

♪ ♪

♪ When the garden flowers ♪

♪ Baby, are dead, yes ♪

♪ And your mind, your mind ♪

♪ Is so full of red ♪

♪ Don't you want
Somebody to love ♪

♪ Don't you need
Somebody to love ♪

♪ Wouldn't you love
Somebody to love ♪

♪ You better find
Somebody to love ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Tears are running down ♪

♪ They're all running
Down your breast ♪

♪ ♪

♪ And your friends, baby ♪

♪ They treat you
Like a guest ♪

♪ Don't you want
Somebody to love ♪

♪ Don't you need
Somebody to love ♪

♪ Wouldn't you love
Somebody to love ♪

♪ You better find somebody ♪

♪ To love ♪

♪ ♪

[radio tuning]

[Steve Miller Band]
♪ I got to turn it ♪

♪ Turn it round ♪

♪ Somebody somewhere help me ♪

[woman]
♪ Somebody somewhere help me ♪

That's from Steve Miller.
And welcome

on KSAN
in San Francisco.

[laughs]

I grew up in the Bay Area.

I was the first female
disc jockey on the West Coast.

San Francisco has always been
and always will be

a great source for an
incredible diversity of music.

["White Rabbit" playing]

I remember walking
down the street

past the Grateful Dead house
on Ashbury.

And you could hear music
of different kinds

coming from different rooms.

Phil Lesh would have
classical music going on.

[classical music plays]

Pigpen would have blues
coming out of his.

[blues music plays]

There would be bluegrass
from the living room

-with Jerry Garcia.
-[bluegrass music plays]

San Francisco was always
such a cultural hub.

You're having influences
from all different places.

The beatniks had been
in San Francisco

and the Allen Ginsbergs
and the City Lights bookstore

and the jazz musicians.

And the folk music.

[Steve] All of that culture
was already

pretty much embedded
in San Francisco.

And then you dropped LSD
in the middle of that,

it expanded everything
by a huge factor.

So San Francisco is the place

where the Renaissance
is gonna happen.

♪ ♪

[Jorma] When the San Francisco
thing started

in the early to middle '60s,

that was before
the term "hippie"

had really surfaced.

It was just
a bunch of folks that

were creative and did stuff.

♪ ♪

It was very inviting
to creative people

on a lot of levels back then.

It just seemed
like a magical place,

sort of at the edge
of the Earth there.

♪ ♪

[Lucy] You know,
it's kind of like

the pied piper or something.

[laughs]
People just all

simultaneously
picked up and said,

"Well, let's go
to San Francisco."

There was something
in the air.

There was a kind of freedom
and different energy.

I was part of the scene
playing folk songs

at a coffee gallery
and getting free beers.

Almost a professional musician.
[laughs]

It was Monday night,
and I was sitting at the bar.

And I heard... rah!

[Janis]
♪ I been rocking and reeling ♪

♪ Lord, as long as I can be ♪

♪ Lord, that man I love ♪

♪ Trying to make a fool
Out of me ♪

♪ Lord, I'm leaving... ♪

Holy shit.
What's that?

[Janis]
♪ I'm leaving this morning ♪

♪ I'm leaving ♪

♪ I'm trying to find
A man of my own... ♪

I didn't see her,
I heard her,

which made me go into the room.

I didn't know who she was,

[Janis scatting]

♪ Lord, I'm leaving... ♪

[Peter] That was
probably '63 or '64.

That's where I first
saw Janis.

I was a folk singer
and sang blues, mostly,

country blues, old-time blues.

♪ I'm trying to find
A man of my own... ♪

[Jorma] The first week
I was in California,

I met Janis Joplin
and Jerry Garcia,

[Jerry]
We all played the same clubs,

all the people
who were at the fringe.

[Paul] There was
this nice little nexus

of music and strange people.

[Jorma] Everybody
just really shared the joy

of playing music.

[Dusty]
Everybody was experimenting.

Everybody was trying
to figure out

where they wanted to go.

And nobody was thinking
about hit records.

Nobody was thinking
about recording.

[Alton] Nobody knew
who the Grateful Dead were.

Nobody knew
the Jefferson Airplane.

Nobody knew The Charlatans.

Nobody knew anybody.

["Alabama Bound" playing]

[James] The Charlatans
were one of the first bands

in San Francisco.

[Richard]
San Francisco is Victorian

and it is Edwardian.

And so we started
to pick up

the clothing from that era.

We were into the look.

We fashioned ourselves
as rock stars

before we even played a gig.

[George] We didn't want
to be identified

with the British groups,

so we decided to be American.

[Ben] The Charlatans,
they were true pioneers.

They were the first ones
to think of a flyer

or a handbill or a poster

to advertise themselves.

[Alton]
And that poster was the seed.

It started everything
for everybody.

It's really
an important piece.

[Stanley] I saw it
when I got to San Francisco.

And I went, I can do that.
[laughs]

And so I just jumped in.

What was happening
when I got there was,

they were having parties

and had bands
at the parties.

And the parties got bigger
and bigger and bigger.

And so they finally had
to rent a hall.

["Baby Won't You Tell Me"
playing]

[Ben] The Charlatans,
they were not,

by any means, acid rock.

But they were kind of part
of that emerging scene.

[man] ♪ Hey, now, baby
Won't you tell me ♪

♪ What you trying to do... ♪

[Alton] That was the very
first dance in the city,

October 16, 1965.

About 400 or 500 people
showed.

[man]
♪ What you trying to do... ♪

[Jorma] That was a big deal.

San Francisco in those days,

you needed a license
to have dancing.

And to say it was
an eye-opener

is an understatement.

[Alton] That night was
such a revelation.

Everybody was kind of walking
around with their mouths open.

Where did these freaks
come from?

I thought me and my friends
were the only guys around.

♪ ♪

[Dusty] Dan Hicks
of The Charlatans

lived in a really big commune

way down the hill
from the Haight-Ashbury,

which originally had been,
like, a Russian neighborhood.

There was
the Russian Tea Room,

best pierogies
I've ever had in my life.

That was the neighborhood
where we had

these huge Victorian houses
that everybody could live in.

[soft music plays]

It wasn't so much
that things started there

as much as it was
an opportunity

for people to get together

to decide where they wanted
to go musically.

[Ben] And the house
at 1090 Page Street

was putting on
these jam sessions,

charging 50¢
for people to come and hear

whatever band dropped by.

[Peter] On Wednesday nights,
people from the neighborhood

would come in and jam.

We had an open-door policy.

Doors were unlocked.

The whole experience
of that scene

was community.

[Sam] I was walking
down Page Street one day

and I heard an old folk blues
on an acoustic guitar,

and it just sounded
really good.

[Peter] I was in
a top-story room practicing.

Sam Andrew heard me playing
out of the window

and came
and introduced himself.

And at those jam sessions,
we were the house band.

That was like the beginning of

Big Brother
and the Holding Company

from 1090 Page Street.

[Jerry] 1090 Page, amazing.

Here we are talking
about 1090 Page.

We went down there
and jammed at times.

The common denominator
down in the scene

I was living in
in Palo Alto

was the idea
of electric music.

It's band music.
You play it with other people.

And you can have
all different backgrounds

work out well in the music,

since it was formless,
in a certain way.

I could come into it
from bluegrass music,

somebody else
from straight folk music,

from rock and roll,
and from classical music.

Lots of different elements.

We had Pigpen in the band.

And he was this guy
from Palo Alto whose father

had been a blues disc jockey.

For him,
the blues was very natural.

He played harmonica
and he sang really well.

[Bob]
As that rock and roll band

called The Warlocks
got more popular,

we became the Grateful Dead.

We started to develop
a real loose

improvisational
sort of style of playing.

["I Know You Rider" playing]

[Jerry] And we got good.

Six nights a week,
five sets a night,

we just did it
and did it and did it.

♪ ♪

We were young enough
to love it.

We made enough so we could
quit our day jobs, you know.

That was what we did.

That happened immediately.

♪ ♪

[Marty] I had this idea
that there was

a new music coming around,

and I realized
that the quickest way

I could make money
in those days was,

every time I sang,
somebody would pay me.

So I decided
to put a band together.

[Paul] Marty just came up
and asked, "Hey, do you want

to start a band?"
To a total stranger.

I just said, "Sure, why not?"

It seemed to be the thing
to do at the time.

And we got to know each
other's stuff and liked it.

[Marty] We got together
at Paul's house and went over

some ideas. While we're there,
coming down the stairs,

just the coolest-looking guy.
I said, "Who is that?"

Paul said, "That's
Jorma Kaukonen, guitar player."

I said, "That's the guy
we should get

for our lead guitar."

He says, "Oh, he's too good."

[Jorma] I was busy
seeking my authentic soul

and all this kind of stuff.

I wasn't sure
rock and roll was authentic.

But I went up
and I played with them.

And... it's very seductive.

In the beginning,
Jefferson Airplane

was a bona fide
folk rock band.

Electric guitar,
we didn't do that yet.

[Paul] Signe was in
the folk scene like all of us.

She had worked at the club
where I met Marty.

She had a great strength
and power

to her voice-- low, moving.
It was beautiful.

[Jorma] When we decided
to look for a bass player,

I thought, Jack Casady.

He was a childhood buddy.

[Jack] So I arrive out
in California,

my first airplane flight,

started rehearsing
with the band.

-["Let Me In" playing]
-[Marty] We started to play,

and the guy was
just phenomenal,

just what I was
looking for--

a guy who would just play
his bass and be himself.

♪ ♪

But I told him, I said,
"Hey, man, you can play

"the bass, but you got
to change your look."

You look like
an Okefenokee guy."

[Jack laughs]
I had the dweeb look

with horn-rimmed glasses.

[Jefferson Airplane]
♪ I don't want to be ♪

♪ Told by you what to do... ♪

[Jack] In San Francisco,
I found myself

in an atmosphere,
it was absolutely crazy.

Everybody came from a different
direction creatively.

[Paul] More often,
the things that worked best

were the things
that just came upon us.

And we just dove in headfirst.

[Marty] One day,
I see this kid,

and he's glowing
like Buddha, Skip Spence.

So beautiful.

And I just walked up to him.

I said,
"Hey, you're my drummer."

Skip thought I was nuts.

He said, "I'm not a drummer.
I'm a guitar player."

I gave him two sticks. I said,
"Here, take these sticks.

Go home. Practice awhile.
Give it a try, you know?"

And he gave it a try,
and he was great.

[Paul] There was
a glowing power to him

that was undeniable.

He translated that
into drums for us.

But there was no place
to play in town.

So I said we should probably
try to do our own club.

And Marty knew some dentists
who wanted to get laid

and convinced them
that they should build a club

and they could get laid.
[laughs]

So we built the Matrix
around that.

We owned, like,
a quarter of the club.

And it all worked out,
very little planning.

We became semi-famous within
the small circle of the town

at that point.

[Grace] I was a model at
I. Magnin's in San Francisco.

Floor model, which means
you walk around all day.

Ah, it's stiff.

It's boring.

My husband at the time
was Jerry Slick.

That's where I got the name.

It's a real name--
weird but real.

We went to see a group
called Jefferson Airplane

at a place called the Matrix.

[Jefferson Airplane]
♪ This is my life ♪

♪ ♪

♪ I'm satisfied... ♪

[Grace] I saw them
and I thought, "I can do that."

My mother was a singer--
stupidity of youth.

"I can do that.
That looks like a lot more fun"

So that's what I did,
stopped modeling.

♪ ♪

[Jefferson Airplane]
♪ Let me be satisfied ♪

♪ This is my life... ♪

[Grace] Jerry Slick
and his brother Darby

and I and a couple more guys

formed a group
called The Great Society...

[man] The Great Society there
for a set this evening.

[Grace] ...making fun
of Lyndon Johnson's thing.

- [man laughs]
- ["That's How It Is" playing]

[The Great Society]
♪ Well, I hear shouting ♪

♪ And crowds are cheering ♪

♪ There's so much
Laughter... ♪

[Grace] None of us
were any good.

[laughs]

It was fun.

But we wrote our own songs.

And the DJ
"Big Daddy" Tom Donahue,

he heard us.

Tom, who had been
on KYA, top 40,

a major personality
around town,

was working on creating
his own record label,

Autumn Records.

He was just trying
to find some new

and interesting talent,
trying to capture

the general attitude

of what was going on
in San Francisco.

[Grace] He got Sly Stone

to come and help us
as a producer.

We recorded at Golden Gate
in San Francisco,

a fairly small studio.

[upbeat rock music plays]

Now, we were really
pretty lame musicians.

♪ ♪

[Sly] You blew it.

Hey, man, forget it.

[man] OK, somebody go up,
take 11.

[mellow rock music plays]

[Sly] That was bad, bad.

They were not
quite professional enough

for Sly's standards.

And Sly pretty much ran around
and played everybody's parts

because he couldn't stand
what he was hearing. [laughs]

[Grace] At one point,
he just stopped the thing

and said,
"Look, I'll do this."

Sly Stone can play any
instrument you hand him well.

Sly Stone, Sylvester Stewart,
was a genius musician.

[Dusty] Tom Donahue recorded
him on Autumn Records.

And the first record
was "Buttermilk."

And all it was
was an instrumental

with Sly going,
"I want a glass of buttermilk."

[Sly]
♪ Buttermilk ♪

[funky music plays]

[laughs]

[Ben] And then from there...

-[radio tuning]
-...he got onto the radio.

[Sly]
♪ Playing records is my game ♪

[Ben] Great personality,
witty, fast.

[Dusty] He came on and he playd
great soul and R&B.

He was a DJ like none other.

He would create
his own jingles,

sometimes on the spot
with a visiting musician,

and just did whatever
the hell he wanted.

It was wonderful to hear.

It was like the beginning
of free form radio.

[Sly] ♪ A little bit different
Every night ♪

♪ Always out of sight ♪

[Dave] Before I was
their drummer, I went to see

Big Brother
and The Holding Company.

[funky music plays]

Everyone in the room
was drawn to the stage

like a magnet.

What's coming out
of the amplifier

is nothing like you've
ever heard in a rock band.

♪ ♪

It just blew my mind.

[Peter] It's not
what they call serious music.

Even though you spent
a lot of time working on it,

if you take it too seriously,

you're gonna lose all the fun
that you get when you play it.

♪ ♪

[Dave] James Gurley's guitar
was the predominant sound

of Big Brother
and the Holding Company.

♪ ♪

[Peter] He had a very crazy
style of playing--

all over the guitar neck,

kind of like
the Coltrane on guitar.

♪ ♪

[James] James was
an Old Testament prophet

come back
and joining the apocalypse.

He was this visionary,
totally instinctive player.

Never had a guitar lesson
in his life.

And I was, like,
an 18th-century classicist.

When it came time
for a structured,

beautiful, melodic line,
I would play.

And very often,
we would do both of them

together at the same time.

♪ ♪

[James] It was just no limits.
We didn't look at anything

as out-of-bounds--

pieces of Bach or Beethoven
or whatever, just mix it up.

We didn't keep
to any strict categories.

We didn't play strict blues.

We didn't play strict
rock and roll or strict jazz.

We mixed elements of all
of those things together

into this
homogeneous thing that

became psychedelic music.

[psychedelic music plays]

♪ ♪

[Bob] We kept hearing
about these strange happenings

up in La Honda, up in
the hills above Palo Alto,

centering around the author
Ken Kesey's house.

[Jerry] We got invited,
actually, to one of

these parties.
We went down, and we plugged

all our stuff in and played
for about a minute.

♪ ♪

And then we all freaked out.
[laughs]

But we made a good impression
on everybody in that minute.

♪ ♪

They stunk.
But when you're on acid,

who gives a shit?

I mean, a garbage pail
rolling down a flight of stairs

sounds like a symphony
when you're on acid.

[upbeat music plays]

♪ ♪

[Jerry]
We had an opportunity to visit

highly experimental places

under the influence
of highly experimental chemicas

before a highly experimental
audience, you know?

It was ideal.

♪ ♪

[Bob] You could play a line
that you were used to playing

and you would hear it
differently

and other people
would hear it differently.

Because everything was
new-sounding

and felt
and looked new to us,

we started jumping over
whatever brink we could find

and seeing what was out there.

♪ ♪

[Jerry] During the course
of the acid test, there was

this one guy I remember,
who came in

with a suit,
looking real straight.

Later on in the evening,
you see him, his coat's gone.

The next one after that,
he's got a sweatshirt

and some Levi's, you know.
And then the next one

after that,
he's got a funny hat.

And you see
this metamorphosis going on

from week to week
that was just--

oh, it was really neat.

And then the Trips Festival
was just amazing

because we weren't
the headliners, the event was.

♪ ♪

In the middle
of total madness,

here's this guy running around

with some illusion of order
with a clipboard,

looking straight as can be.

[Bill] At the beginning,
it was a very cliquish thing.

Bill, you know, fine,
but he's a...

businessman
and doesn't dress

the way we dress
and doesn't wear the clothing,

doesn't do
the social things we do.

[interviewer] Bill,
you were born in Berlin.

-[Bill] Yes.
-Those awful years,

the beginning of the Nazis
in Germany...

...what do you recall
of those years, anything?

Were you much too young?

No, I've never--

I've never known
what to do about that.

From the day that
I came here--I was 11--

I have total amnesia
for the first nine years

of my life.
I remember nothing.

What happened
to your mother?

My mother went
in the camps in '43.

After I arrived
here in America,

this Jewish couple
came from the Bronx

and took me
into their home.

The first few months
that I spent here,

I got my head kicked in
pretty good

'cause I had this accent
when I spoke English.

I changed my name.
I wanted to be...

What was
your name?

...an American.
Grajonca.

-Wolfgang Grajonca.
-[interviewer] Hmm.

Which is a much nicer name
than Bill Graham, but I--

Kind of sorry
you changed it?

Very much so.

By the time I was 16,

it cost me $48 a month
to pay into the family.

That was my foster,
my agreement, my contract.

So there was always
the entrepreneurial thoughts

of, how do I make money
to do this?

You were in Korea,

court-martialed
a couple of times

and won
the Bronze Star.

That seems to be
a little inconsistent.

Just an angry
but good soldier, I guess.

Yeah.

[Bill]
I drove to San Francisco

not knowing
what am I gonna be someday.

But when I came out here,
like everybody else,

I couldn't believe
what was here.

I thought this was the
special place on this planet.

[bell clanging]

[people singing indistinctly]

[Peter] If you're
an artist of any kind,

you want to change
people's lives, I think.

You can do that by example

by the kind of life
you lead, in other words,

showing-- saying, saying,
I live this kind of life.

It's a viable alternative.
Or you can do it in your work.

Or you can do both.
That's what we do.

Oh, they're so square
down there.

[Peter] I had been
an actor in college.

And I stumbled into the
San Francisco Mime Troupe,

this vibrant troupe
rewriting 17th-century

Italian masked
commedia dell'arte

for political currency,
modern events.

[man] Money must be spent.

It thrives on trade.

After all, William,
that's the secret

of how this nation's made.

[Peter] We became
the darlings of the left.

And the audience
was eating it up.

It was the romantic height of
a young revolutionary artist.

[Bill] Love the theater,
political satire.

And I went to work for
the San Francisco Mime Troupe.

[Peter] Bill Graham was
the manager of the Mime Troupe.

And he was formidable,
incredible energy.

[Bill] I got very much
involved with doing

free shows in the park.
I talked to the law.

I'd run the business
of the Mime Troupe.

And one day, we were
in Golden Gate Park.

We took
commedia dell'arte plays

and changed it
into police brutality

and civil rights
and fuck you,

piss on this, shit this,
fuck that.

["Outlaw Blues" playing]

♪ ♪

We got arrested in the park
for using four-letter language.

[whistle blows]

[The Great Society] ♪ Ain't it
Hard when you stumble ♪

♪ Land in some
Muddy lagoon... ♪

[Peter] The mime troupe
didn't get a permit.

We just said,
"It's a park, what the hell?"

They wanted to see
our scripts.

What do you mean?
We're not gonna do that.

♪ ♪

[The Great Society] ♪ Now
When it's nine below zero ♪

♪ And three o'clock
In the afternoon... ♪

[Bill] We needed money
for our legal fees

to defend our rights
in the park.

And I said,
"Let's have a fundraiser."

November 6, '65,
I invited Jefferson Airplane.

It was the first time I saw

the undercurrent
of San Francisco.

We raised $4,200.
The place was jammed.

And it was so successful,
people just called and said,

"I heard about this party.
When is the next one?"

[The Great Society]
♪ I love him just the same... ♪

[Bill] So many people couldn't
get into our little loft.

I was running around town
looking for a larger place.

Somebody suggested, at the
corner of Fillmore and Geary,

the ballroom called
the Fillmore Auditorium.

I went to see it.

And it was run by a gentleman
named Charlie Sullivan.

He was running
R&B shows there.

And I rented it
from him for a night.

[mellow music plays]

You have a poster
there, is that--

Yes, it's a poster
somebody gave to me.

-It looked pretty good.
-[man] I did.

Jefferson Airplane,
John Handy Quintet,

and Sam Thomas

and The Mystery Trend
and The Great Society

are all playing
at Fillmore Auditorium

Friday, December 10th.

And I would like to go
if I could.

[laughter]

["It's No Secret" playing]

♪ It's no secret ♪

♪ How strong my love is
For you ♪

♪ It's no secret ♪

♪ When I tell you
What I'm gonna do ♪

♪ 'Cause I love you
Yes, I love you ♪

♪ It's no secret... ♪

[Bill] It was obvious to me
that there was

this tidal wave of desire
from the audience

to express itself.

The show wasn't just a stage.

They came in to see the act
on the stage and then

turned to one another:
"You want to dance?

"Do you want to make love?
Do you want to talk?"

[The Great Society]
♪ It's no secret ♪

[Bill] There was an openness.

♪ When you got me jumping
Up and down... ♪

[Bill] These people all had
something in common.

They were all doves.
They all really believed

in be and let be.

[The Great Society]
♪ I love you ♪

♪ Yes, I love you, yeah ♪

♪ It's no secret ♪

[Chet] I went to the second
Mime Troupe benefit

at the Fillmore. And it's
the first time I met Bill.

I let him know that we were
interested in promoting shows.

Bill was saying,
"Well, you know, the lease

on this place is only,
like, 500 bucks a month."

We made a handshake deal
that night

to come in
on alternate weekends.

So we did four shows with Bill
at the Fillmore Auditorium.

[Bill] With each show,

the handwriting
was on the wall.

It was as if life
filled out the form

of how I could express myself.

Big fucking deal.

How many times have
I lost my temper in public

and I read about
the vicious things I've done?

[Ben] Bill Graham had
a forceful, explosive temper.

He was a tough,
tough negotiator,

a businessman prone
to yell and scream

in person or, famously,
on the phone.

Just slam
the phone down once he

was finished with his points.

At first, he and Chet
were gonna share weekends.

After about three weeks,
Bill Graham

had another enlightenment
and realized

there was no reason
for letting this other guy

have the other weekend.

So then Chet
had to find a place.

And he found the Avalon.

[somber music plays]

♪ ♪

[Chet] I loved that hall.
I loved the sprung dance floor.

If you got 300 or 400 people
dancing at one time,

the floor would rise to meet
you and lift you even higher.

It was quite a marvelous room.

We had shows continuously
for about three years.

Each show was designed
to create a unique atmosphere,

a certain thematic resonance
to send you on a trip,

as it were.

[psychedelic music plays]

♪ ♪

[Bill] I made up
the light show at the Avalon.

Food oil, alcohol,
Windex, water,

and food coloring,
mostly what I used.

♪ ♪

I projected from the balcony
down close

to the end of the room
where the stage was.

♪ ♪

The first weekend,
I spent the day

stapling white plastic
behind the stage.

♪ ♪

Then we had the whole wall.

And at that point,
the whole room became the show.

♪ ♪

And the people dancing
were all in the light show.

So it became
a kinetic painting.

[Grateful Dead]
♪ If only I could ♪

♪ Be less blind ♪

♪ ♪

♪ If only I knew
What to find... ♪

[Bill] All of my work
has been spontaneous.

But it had
a compositional coherence.

[Grateful Dead]
♪ Bending my mind... ♪

[Bill] Like music,
you had a period of time.

And it only existed
while it was happening.

The viewer had to be there
at the same time

the painter was making it.

♪ ♪

♪ The friendly stranger
Calls my name ♪

♪ He only wants me
For his game ♪

[man] The group is known
as the Grateful Dead.

They sing "The Mindbenders."

♪ I'll bend his mind ♪

♪ Everywhere
And all of the time ♪

♪ It's bending my mind ♪

[Chet] What has happened
here in San Francisco,

large groups of people
are gathered together.

They want to do their thing.

The way I produced shows

came out of my own
unique upbringing.

I was raised
in a fundamentalist

Christian family.

Watching my grandfather,
who built and promoted

little churches all over Texas
and Missouri and Arkansas,

in many ways, it was
like being backstage.

I was aware of the stagecraft.

At the peak of the Avalon,
in many ways,

this was my church
and my flock.

It was the way I wanted
to express myself.

And I learned canvasing
from my uncles,

who were printers.

I was a printer's devil
as a kid.

I cleaned up and set type
in the shop.

Once I lost my faith
in evangelism,

I had this promotional skill
and this background.

And I originally worked
with Wes Wilson

on our earliest posters.

[Victor] Wes Wilson,
he was working in a print shop

where some of the first
Family Dog posters

were printed.

Saw them
and he started doing them...

[upbeat music plays]

...working with Chet Helms.

♪ ♪

Then Mouse shows up.

He teams up with Kelly.

[Stanley] Kelly and I were
standing in front

of my studio
on a sunny day.

Across the street,
this guy is walking.

And he looks exactly like
the Zig-Zag man,

the logo, Zig-Zag papers
for smoking pot.

Kelly and I said, "We've got
to do this Zig-Zag poster now."

Inspiration was everywhere.

[Victor] I saw
that poster on the wall.

And I just about
fell into the street

because it was so logical.

Come to this event.
Smoke dope.

♪ ♪

[Stanley] We were breaking
all kinds of norms.

And it was really fun
doing it.

We did the Zig-Zag poster.

And then Kelly and I
followed it up

with another poster together
for the Grateful Dead.

We were looking for something
that would fit the band.

So we went to the library.

They had wonderful books.

We came across
The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám.

We opened up the book

and we saw this skull
and roses image

and said, "Wow,
that has Grateful Dead

written all over it."

Skulls and roses?

Grateful Dead.

That poster became
the starting block

for all the Grateful Dead's
later albums.

♪ ♪

I said, "Holy shit.
I can do that."

Seven years of college,
fine art,

all the rules out the window.

All the new rules came in.

Now I can bring my bat and ball
and play with the other boys.

And I did.

We were the big five,
including Rick Griffin.

The posters were easy
to roll up, put them in a tube,

ship them to New York,
to Italy.

They showed up in China.

[Ben] In many cases,
the poster artists

were more famous
than all the different bands.

The posters ultimately
advertised the scene,

added to the mystery
of San Francisco.

♪ ♪

[man] I may as well do this
without counting off.

[band tuning]

[Dave] The band's
rehearsing every day.

We're rehearsing in
a firehouse that Stanley Mouse,

the poster artist,
is living in on Henry Street,

sort of between the Castro
and the Haight.

And it's just four guys.

[Peter] We liked the bands
that had female vocalists.

Jefferson Airplane
had Signe Anderson

and The Great Society
had Grace Slick.

So we wanted
a female vocalist.

Chet says, "Janis Joplin,

do you know who she is?"
And I said, "Yeah."

And he said, "Well,
I think I can get her out here"

[Dave] Chet brought her to
a rehearsal at the firehouse.

["Down On Me" playing]

♪ Well, down on me ♪

♪ Yeah ♪

♪ Looks like everybody
In this whole round world ♪

♪ ♪

♪ They're down on me... ♪

[Peter] There was a knock
at the door

and there's two cops
standing outside:

"We've gotten reports
there was a woman

that's screaming in here."

"Oh, that's just Janis.

It's OK."
[laughs]

♪ ♪

♪ They're down on me... ♪

[Sam] We played so loud,

she had to kind of swim
to the top of that.

♪ Well, down on me ♪

♪ Yeah, yeah ♪

♪ Looks like everybody
In this whole round world ♪

♪ ♪

♪ They're down on me... ♪

[Peter] We had
only two amplifiers.

So we would plug in
a PA into one

and then my bass
in channel two.

♪ ♪

The other unit played guitars.

Wasn't really a good system.

But with Janis,
worked out fine.

♪ ♪

♪ Yes, they're down on me ♪

♪ Well, down on me ♪

♪ Yeah... ♪

[Peter] We knew
just from that first day

that she was a member
of the group.

♪ They're down on me ♪

[Country Joe] I was there
at the Avalon ballroom

when Janis Joplin performed

with Big Brother
and The Holding Company.

We were on the bill together.

[mellow rock music plays]

When she performed
that night, she was

just another player
in an extremely far-out

art psychedelic
rock and roll band.

Janis brought to them
a fusion of blues.

[Dave] When Janis joined

Big Brother
and the Holding Company,

that was the beginning

of change of focus.

[Sam] Singers need to know
where the verse

and where the bridge is
and all that.

Immediately, they begin
to organize the music

and shape it.

All of a sudden, we had to have
beginnings and endings

and transitions.

[man]
People who influenced you.

-[Janis] Yeah.
-[man] Big Mama Thornton.

[Janis] She's fantastic.
We've played with her twice.

[man]
You and she sing together?

[Janis] Not at the same--
I wouldn't get on

the same stage with her.
She'd kill me.

No, but we have played
on the same bill.

You know, and I was
absolutely terrified.

[laughs] But it was
really a thrill for me.

[man] Why do you like
Mama Thornton's

"Ball and Chain," for example?

[Janis] We heard it one night,
we went and saw her at

the Both/And Club
in San Francisco.

[Peter] We had heard
that she was gonna be

performing at the
Both/And Club on Divisadero.

It's a jazz club
close to 1090 Page Street.

And occasionally, they'd
have blues artists there.

["Ball 'n' Chain" playing]

♪ And then you find out
Your heart ♪

♪ Will be like mine ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Whoa, wrapped up just like
That old ball and chain... ♪

[Janis] I heard that tune
and I just really loved it.

[Big Mama Thornton]
♪ Whoa, yeah ♪

♪ Hey, hey, oh, baby ♪

[Peter] And so we went
backstage and said,

"Would you mind? I mean,
we'd like to record it."

She said,
"Well, who are you guys?"

We said,
"Well, we're Big Brother

"and the Holding Company.
We play at

"at the Fillmore and Avalon."

I think we're gonna
change it a little bit."

She said, "Well, OK,
just don't fuck it up."

["Ball 'n' Chain" playing]

♪ All right, come on
Come on ♪

♪ And you say, oh, whoa ♪

♪ Honey, this can't be ♪

♪ No, this can't be in vain ♪

♪ Daddy, Daddy
And I say, no, no, no ♪

♪ Oh, baby ♪

♪ And I say, oh, whoa ♪

♪ Tell me why ♪

♪ Well, tell me why ♪

♪ Honey, tell me why love
Is like ♪

♪ Well, it's like a ball and ♪

♪ And a chain ♪

♪ ♪

[Jack] We were one of the
early bands in San Francisco

to get a record contract,
go down to Los Angeles,

set up in Studio A
where Frank Sinatra

had set up,
and get to play our music.

[Jefferson Airplane]
♪ Well, she's riding ♪

♪ On the air
So easy in the sky... ♪

♪ ♪

[Jack] Signe made
our first album with us.

[Jefferson Airplane] ♪ I'm
Rooted like a tree here... ♪

[Jack] She had a smooth
lower-timbre voice

that fitted in
with Paul's harmonies a lot.

♪ ♪

We liked three-part harmony.

[Jefferson Airplane]
♪ And the only way to fly ♪

♪ Was to die ♪

♪ Yes, I am ♪

♪ Yes, I am ♪

[Jorma] So the record came out.
We were actually starting to be

a professional band.

We had a bunch
of gigs coming up.

But Skip Spence dropped acid
and went to Mexico.

[Marty]
Well, you don't miss a gig.

That's my philosophy.

You miss a gig, you're out.

So Spencer Dryden became
the drummer after that.

[Jorma] And that was pretty
much the last I saw of Skip

until he surfaced
in Moby Grape later.

[Pat] I had a friend
who I played with

in a band in high school.
And one day, he calls me up.

He goes, "Pat,
you got to hear this record."

He put it on, and it was
the first Moby Grape album.

[Moby Grape]
♪ Listen, my friends ♪

♪ Listen, my friends... ♪

[Pat] He goes,
"I think it's the best

"San Francisco band
of all of them."

What do you think?"

I go, "I think you're right."

[Moby Grape]
♪ Listen, my friends ♪

-♪ You thought never but ♪
-♪ Listen, my friends ♪

♪ I'm yours forever ♪

[Pat] I was head over heels
for the San Francisco music.

I loved Jerry Garcia.

I loved Jorma Kaukonen.

I love Barry Melton.

But there probably
wasn't a better

rock and roll guitar player
than Jerry Miller.

He blew my mind.

♪ ♪

[Jerry] The first time
we got together,

the sparks come off of us,
bing, bang, boom,

there it was.

I played most
of the lead guitar.

Peter was a finger picker,
excellent finger picker.

And Skippy played
just wonderful rhythm.

[Ben] Skip Spence was
the original drummer

for the Airplane.

And then he was fired

and moved over
to form Moby Grape.

And there, the drumming went
to Don Stevenson.

So that left Skip
playing guitar,

which he did very well.

[Jerry] We all sang.

We all wrote.

We were all young
and handsome.

And we thought, hell,
there's no end

to the possibilities here.

[Ben] Moby Grape,
they were so good,

most knowledgeable people
thought

that they could have been
superstars.

[Moby Grape]
♪ Eight-oh-five ♪

[Jerry]
I had just left my wife.

She was gonna go back
to Tacoma on the bus.

Didn't have no time
right then for wives.

So I was driving
my '50 Olds Rocket 88.

[Don] Crossing over
the Golden Gate Bridge,

and Jerry looks at me,

and he goes,
"What time is it, man?"

And I went, "It's 8:05."

And he goes,
that sounds like a song.

[Moby Grape]
♪ Eight-oh-five... ♪

[Jerry] ♪ Eight-oh-five,
I guess you're leaving ♪

[Moby Grape] ♪ I guess
You're leaving, goodbye ♪

They were signed
to a major label, Columbia.

And they were produced
by a superb talent

named David Rubinson.

[Don] David Rubinson
was our producer.

And he knew music.

[Moby Grape]
♪ I hear someone's ♪

♪ Been a-telling you... ♪

[Don] Columbia, they really,
really promoted us.

They wanted us to be
the next Beatles.

[Moby Grape]
♪ And now you're saying ♪

♪ You can't groove behind... ♪

[Ben] The first album
was so good

that the excitable boys
at Columbia Records said,

"Let's do something
that's never been done before."

[Don] Some A&R guy goes,
"Hey, I got an idea.

We're gonna put out
five singles at the same time."

[Moby Grape]
♪ Who you been talking to... ♪

[Jerry]
That was really insane.

But we were not businessmen.
We were musicians.

[Moby Grape] ♪ Hey, babe
You oughta know by now... ♪

[Ben] Anybody
who becomes successful,

becomes commercial,
and becomes a person

with some reputation
or notoriety

becomes also highly suspect.

[Don] Our reputation
turned out to be kind of

like a--like a hype band.

Nobody's ever done that again.

♪ ♪

[Jorma] Everybody that's
played in the band with me,

knows how hard is it
to keep a band together

more than a half an hour.

Signe was becoming
an adult.

She was pregnant,
gonna have a kid.

And it became apparent to her
that this was not a lifestyle

conducive to raising kids.

But it was imperative
in Kantner's worldview

that we had a female voice
in the band.

And so we went to see
The Great Society

'cause we watched
each other play all the time.

[The Great Society]
♪ Never thought ♪

♪ That it could be... ♪

[Jorma] Grace had a sound.

And she was really something.

[The Great Society]
♪ Never thought that... ♪

[Jorma] Not just her voice
but her stage persona,

it was special.

[Marty] "Grace," I said,
"is a good singer,

but she's got her own band
and it's a hit band."

Jack said, "Well, hey,
it won't hurt to ask."

[Grace] I was up
in the balcony

at the Avalon Ballroom,

watching the crowd down below.

Great Society was breaking up
'cause the guys

were gonna go study in India,

which was very popular
at the time.

Jack Casady came up
to talk for a while.

"What do you think
about singing with Airplane?"

Trying to be cool, I said,
"Yeah, that might work."

[Steve]
The Jefferson Airplane,

they had a big ceremony
at the Fillmore.

[cheers and applause]

[Steve] They said goodbye
to their lead singer

and then they
introduced Grace Slick

and gave both women
big things of flowers.

I was standing there going,
"What is this?"

Took me quite a while
to figure out San Francisco

was a social phenomenon

more than
a musical phenomenon.

It was like
a whole different thing

than Chicago.

I maneuvered my way backstage,

and there was
Paul Butterfield.

Immediately
weaseled my way up

on the stage
with Butterfield...

[Paul] ♪ I was
Born in Chicago In 1941... ♪

[Steve] ...and announced
who I was and that

I was bringing my band,
which I didn't have,

to San Francisco.

Got a big cheer.

After the gig, I borrowed
five bucks from Butterfield

'cause I was flat broke.

I drove over to Berkeley,
parked in the woods,

and spent the night
in my truck,

where I lived
for the next five months.

[upbeat music plays]

We were just putting
our band together.

Started working
in the Matrix nightclub.

♪ I should have
Quit you, baby ♪

♪ ♪

♪ A long time ago... ♪

I was already working
with electronic music.

But when I got
to San Francisco,

that's where you
could really play it.

♪ Should've split for Mexico ♪

♪ ♪

We had our club act together.

We knew
how to entertain people,

whereas a lot
of the San Francisco bands

would play a tune
and then stand around

and talk or do nothing
for 15 minutes.

Everybody in every
San Francisco band

just seemed like this amateur

pretending to know
what they were doing.

[Grace] We didn't have
the idea of,

"Oh, boy, we're gonna be
rock and roll stars."

The business of being a star

was looked down on because
that's the Hollywood machine.

That's the straight
people's things.

[Steve] Eventually, our crisp,
hard edges got soft.

And then their soft edges
got a little harder.

We all sort of
moved towards each other.

And watching it all develop
was always cool.

[Grace] My songs were not
very radio-friendly.

But when I was
in The Great Society,

I wrote a song at parents.

They said, "Why are you
taking these drugs?

Why are you doing this?"
I said, "Really?

Why did you read me
those books?"

When we were little,
they read us Wizard of Oz.

They fall down
in a field of opium poppies

and suddenly,
they can see the Emerald City.

Alice in Wonderland,
who takes

five different drugs
in that book.

If you drink this,
you'll get high.

If you eat this,
you'll get small.

She's talking
to a hookah-smoking caterpillar

who's sitting
on top of a mushroom.

Now, they didn't happen
to notice that, I guess.

But their whole generation
was based on alcohol.

They weren't paying attention.
[laughs]

So I was writing that song

back at
what we considered adults.

[Jefferson Airplane]
♪ One pill makes you larger ♪

♪ And one pill
Makes you small ♪

♪ And the ones
That Mother gives you ♪

♪ Don't do anything at all ♪

♪ Go ask Alice ♪

♪ When she's ten feet tall ♪

["White Rabbit" playing]

[Jack] To me,
it was just kind of natural

to start the song out
with that lick

and do it with a triplet
with my fingers

as if it was
the snare in "Bolero."

[Grace] I loved his bass

and, of course,
flamenco music.

[Jack] That was
really the beginning

of a great relationship

where we'd all just work
at rehearsal

and see what
we could come up with.

[Jefferson Airplane]
♪ And the White Knight ♪

♪ Is talking backwards ♪

♪ And the Red Queen's
Off with her head ♪

♪ Remember ♪

♪ What the dormouse said ♪

♪ Feed your head ♪

♪ Feed your head ♪

[cheers and applause]

[Paul] "White Rabbit" was
like shining light

on positive things.
It was a celebration

of the whole community,
what we were doing.

Feed your head,
and that means everything

from education, reading

to drugs
to social experimentation

to sexual experimentation.

Older people worry.

They see the way
you're dressed.

They hear your music.

They don't understand it.

Do parents have anything
to worry about?

I think so.

Their children are
doing things that

they didn't do
and they don't understand.

[Dusty] We were a community
unto ourselves.

The Free Store
if you needed clothes.

Free clinic if there was
something wrong with you.

The drugstore,
which actually was

a really great place to eat,

where a lot of people
hung out.

[Peter] We were creating

an imaginarily workable
alternative

of people living
their own authentic lives.

We used to regard ourselves
as outlaws.

You were either a citizen,
or you were an outlaw.

I have no idea who came up
with the word "hippies."

But it stuck.

And as the hippies
started to move in,

we kind of took over.

All of a sudden,
what had been the pierogi shop

became a head shop.

[Jerry] Somebody put in
The Psychedelic Shop.

You'd get prism glasses,
weird stuff.

And the clothes
started coming in.

[Moby Grape]
♪ Hey, Grandma ♪

[Jerry]
Hey, Grandma, you're so young.

It was about all the ladies
in San Francisco

that dressed
with those bargain clothes.

My grandma,
she thought it was about her.

And she was so proud.
I wasn't gonna tell her,

"No, Grammy,
that's not about you."

[Moby Grape]
♪ Looking good ♪

[Jerry]
1966 was pretty perfect.

Haight-Ashbury was quaint.

I mean, you could get
one of those nice Victorians

and put your band in there.

The prices were right.

[Dusty] And the panhandle,
which is this long strip

of park parallel
to Haight Street,

a lot of people
lived off of that.

On the weekends,
we would open up the windows

and listen to see
who was tuning up.

Oh, yeah, that sounds
like the Dead,

or, oh, yeah, that sounds
like Quicksilver.

[man] Check, one, two, two.

[upbeat music plays]

[Dusty] They knew that when
they played at the Fillmore,

we would go to the Fillmore
and pay to see them.

But it was also cool that they
were playing in the panhandle

and giving back
to the community.

♪ I ain't going back
To Logan ♪

♪ ♪

[Ben] Looming over all of this
discovery and joy and music

was the specter of this war,
Southeast Asia, Vietnam.

The shroud of death
loomed over all of us.

Friends who were over there
were getting killed.

[Country Joe]
People got drafted.

You have to remember that.

Every male had to have thoughts

about the military.

I know I did.

[people clamoring]

I wrote a song
about a year ago.

It's called
"Fixing to Die Rag."

["Fixing to Die Rag" playing]

♪ And it's one, two, three
What are we fighting for ♪

♪ Don't ask me
I don't give a damn ♪

♪ Next stop is Vietnam ♪

♪ And it's five, six, seven
Open up the pearly gates ♪

♪ Yeah, there ain't no time
To wonder why ♪

♪ Whoopee
We're all gonna die ♪

[Ben] 'Cause of roots
as a folk musician,

Country Joe was among
the first of the local bands

to address the war.

[Steve] They were really
for real, those guys.

They were always trying
to push you over the edge

into some political stew.

[groaning]
I don't know, man.

The '60s were exploding
all around us.

-[crowd chanting]
-The anti-war movement.

And you talk about
the beautiful America.

[Ben] Civil rights.

[people screaming]

Black Panther strikes.

Equality for women.

Legalization of marijuana.

In Berkeley, it was
much more serious and political.

Change the world,
change the system.

In San Francisco, it was,
"Hey, man, have a great time.

Let's not march.
Let's dance."

And by 1967,
it was those two things

that gelled in the community
and into the music.

[mellow music plays]

♪ ♪

At the beginning of '67,

on a beautiful day in January,

25,000 to 30,000 people
gathered

all over the polo fields
in Golden Gate Park.

[Paul] And they have it
being in the park.

People were expecting, like,
a couple hundred people.

And all of a sudden,
there was, like, 20,000 people.

Whoa.

[Grace] There were a number
of things that we were trying

to promote
as fun as possible.

Instead of killing people,
suggesting, how about this?

Why don't we try that?

A purposeful push
for positive interaction.

[Stanley] It was called
the Gathering of the Tribes.

[Jefferson Airplane] ♪ Nothing
But an electric sign... ♪

[Stanley] People were coming
from all over the Bay Area.

The invitation was,
you bring your tribe,

you bring your flag,
and join us.

And then the music starts

and people get into the event,

and pretty soon,
they've laid their flag down.

Pretty soon,
everybody's dancing.

Pretty soon, it's just
all one thing, one tribe.

[Peter] The Human Be-In,
I thought it was bullshit

up until I stepped foot in it.

It was mind-blowing.

All of a sudden,
it seemed like

a cultural movement.

[Jerry] We're all those people
who are the weird ones,

you know.

And it was all of a sudden,
you discovered

all these people
who were like you.

And that was
the neat part about it.

[Bill] It was just
an amalgamation

of what the scene was about
at that time.

Allen Ginsberg was there,

Janis and the
Quicksilver Messenger Service

and the Jefferson Airplane.

[Ben] Even the bands
were not a big, big deal.

The big deal was
that we were here.

This was happening
in front of us.

And that you look
left and right,

and there were people
of all kinds, all colors,

trying to soak in
and live life.

The vibe that was around
that entire day

made everything seem
like we were gonna be able

to accomplish
all of the dreams

that we had been having.

It was one of those days
when you thought,

everything is possible.

[Bill] In the middle
of the afternoon,

a parachutist came down
over the park,

just throwing flowers
at random.

It was just
an amateur paratrooper decided

to come in and join the party.

[Dusty] The Human Be-In was
one of the last times

we were all able to get
together as a community

where we weren't
being influenced

by the outside world.

[Ben] Right after
the Human Be-In,

the national media really took
notice of San Francisco

for the first time.

[man 1] The aggressive
determination of hippies

to start a new society
has made its mark

upon San Francisco's
Haight-Ashbury.

[man 2] In Haight-Ashbury,
doors are for

letting people in,
not keeping them out.

[man 3] This is the house
of a popular local band.

They call themselves
the Grateful Dead.

Warren Wallace asked them
what they thought

the hippie movement was
trying to accomplish.

What we're thinking about
is a peaceful planet.

We're not thinking
about revolution

or war or any of that.

That's not what we want.

We would all like
to be able to live

a simple life,
a good life, you know?

And, like, think about moving
the whole human race

ahead a step or a few steps.

[somber music plays]

♪ ♪

[Richard] I just remember
all of us getting together

there at the Dead's house
on Ashbury.

♪ ♪

The Charlatans,

Big Brother
and the Holding Company,

Quicksilver Messenger Service,

Jefferson Airplane,

and the Grateful Dead.

We're just all hanging out.

It's all the five bands.

We just finally ended up
walking down to the park.

♪ ♪

That was pretty much
the bands in the beginning.

♪ ♪

But The Charlatans,
we were the first.

And everybody else
is starting to pass us

and get these good
record deals.

It was just frustrating.

The Charlatans
weren't invited

to the Monterey Pop Festival.

[Ben]
The bands of San Francisco

got a lot of attention
from the Monterey Pop Festival.

Ears perked up,
and it exploded.

["Hope" playing]
♪ All I ever wanted to do ♪

♪ Was love you ♪

♪ ♪

♪ And maybe hope
You could love me too ♪

♪ ♪

[David] Monterey put
an exclamation point

on the whole scene.

It was pretty amazing.

♪ ♪

-[cheers and applause]
-We played on the afternoon

of the first day,
and then the rest of the time,

I got to watch
all these people.

Pretty much
everybody I knew played.

[Ben] Monterey was set up
by The Mamas & the Papas

to showcase, primarily,
their own friends...

Well, this is John Phillips
of The Mamas & Papas.

[Ben] ...top 40 hitmakers,
and a contingent from Europe.

And at first, the Airplane,
the Grateful Dead,

and Big Brother
were resistant.

And they're gonna make
a movie of this?

Oh, God, we don't want
to be in a movie.

[Dave] Before every band
went on, they said,

"Oh, we're gonna film this.

Sign this release."

♪ I'm gonna buy
A Mercury and cruise ♪

♪ Up and down the road ♪

[Dave] A lot
of the San Francisco bands

wouldn't do it.
I'm not saying

they weren't filmed secretly.
Some of them were.

♪ Cruising round
In that Mercury '49 ♪

♪ I'm gonna buy me
A Mercury ♪

♪ Cruise it
Up and down the road ♪

[Steve] Film crews coming in
and filming all this stuff.

And I thought, "Hey, wait
a minute, that's all bullshit.

I don't have to do
any of that."

There was a lot of tension
between LA and San Francisco.

But it was a really cool thing

because there were acts
from all over.

It was really diverse.

[Paul] From Ravi Shankar

to the Mike Bloomfield,
Electric Flag kind of band

to Otis Redding and the Who,

all of those people
on one stage

was a very broad palette
in which to work.

["Somebody to Love" playing]

♪ When the truth is found ♪

♪ To be lies ♪

♪ All the joy
Within you dies ♪

♪ Don't you want
Somebody to love ♪

♪ Don't you need
Somebody to love ♪

♪ Wouldn't you love
Somebody to love ♪

♪ You better find
Somebody to love ♪

♪ Love ♪

[Jorma]
Grace was newly in the band.

We were just starting
to flex our wings.

I mean, it was exciting
for us on so many levels.

♪ ♪

It was the first festival
that dignified rock and roll.

It was a big deal.

[cheers and applause]

[Marty] It was just
the dream, you know?

Monterey was just
a dream life for me.

It was great to be there
right there at the moment

it was happening.

[cheers and applause]

[rock music playing]

♪ ♪

[Country Joe] I went there,
and Owsley had

just invented this new drug

called STP,

little orange pill.

And he said, "Do you want one?
And I said, "Well,

give me one and a half 'cause
I want to make sure it works."

♪ ♪

I lived in a Monet painting,
like Water Lilies,

for about a week, actually.

♪ ♪

I was there in the audience
when Jimmy Hendrix

was humping his amplifier.

I thought,
"Wow, this is entertainment."

I'd never seen a guy
do anything like that.

And then
with the lighter fluid,

set it on fire.

Watching that, tripping on
this STP stuff, that was fun.

♪ ♪

It was crazy and fun.

But we had to work really hard
to buy a guitar.

So I couldn't believe
they were destroying things.

[Jack] Coming out of the
purest folk and jazz world,

your instrument was
your sacred temple.

When that happened,
there was a frozen moment

out there in the audience.

Everybody looked
at each other to see,

what's going on now?
The music has sort of

taken a left turn
off in another direction.

That night captured
everybody's attention.

It was a psychedelic event.

[psychedelic music plays]

♪ ♪

[Dave] No one ever talks
about the nest under the fest.

There was a lot of people
there looking

to sign bands, make deals.

♪ ♪

[Steve]
The record companies,

they were ambitious
and greedy.

And they came in
with the idea that they

were just gonna buy
anything and everything.

♪ ♪

Out of all
the San Francisco groups

that I met in the early days
at the Matrix,

I never thought that Big Brothr
and the Holding Company

and Janis Joplin would become
this big hit that they did.

You know,
and it's pretty amazing.

["Ball 'n' Chain" playing]

♪ Sitting down by my window ♪

♪ Just looking out
At the rain... ♪

♪ ♪

Mama Cass,
she's watching Janis.

[Janis]
♪ Mm, oh ♪

♪ Sitting down by my window ♪

♪ Just looking out
At the rain... ♪

Well, she's seeing her,
and she's a singer.

♪ And I want somebody
To tell me, come on ♪

♪ Tell me why
Oh, tell me why ♪

♪ Oh, baby, tell me why love ♪

♪ Honey, why love is like ♪

♪ Well, it's like a ball and ♪

♪ And a chain ♪

♪ ♪

[cheers and applause]

♪ ♪

[Grace] We were
just as awed as Cass

when she saw Janis Joplin.

Just, wow.

[cheers and applause]

[Peter] That was the beginning
of the end of our relationship

with Janis.

[Dave] The writing was
on the wall

that Janis was
gonna quit the band.

[indistinct chatter, laughter]

[Steve] Toward the end
of the festival,

you could see
the vibe changed.

Like, when the Mamas & Papas
were on the stage,

the entire backstage area was
closed off, locked off,

and everybody was kicked out.

It was like, really,
what the hell

just happened here?

You could see the difference

between the looseness
of San Francisco

and the control of LA.

That was the end
of The Mamas & the Papas.

That was the end
of The Mamas & the Papas.

The only thing he had
after that...

♪ When you go to San Francisco♪

♪ Be sure to wear flowers
In your hair ♪

Sucks.

What's the matter with you,
you fucking tourist.

Don't you know better
than that?

Anyway.

[Ben] The Monterey Pop Festival
and national media

made it so that
a lot of kids

were anxious to find out

what was going on
in this crazy city.

♪ ♪

[Peter] After
the Monterey Pop Festival,

I started seeing
the very friendly scene

that I had been part of,

particularly
in Haight-Ashbury,

starting to change.

[man] The hippies
is often a strange world

in which they live in.

They take many trips.

And the trip
of the hippies

is generally
an unusual one.

And marijuana, of course,
with LSD is being used.

["Today" playing]

♪ ♪

[Jefferson Airplane] ♪ Today
I feel like pleasing you ♪

♪ More than before ♪

♪ Today I know
What I want to do ♪

♪ But I don't know what for ♪

♪ To be living for you
Is all I

♪ Want to do ♪

♪ To be loving you ♪

♪ It'll all be there
When my dreams come true ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Today everything you want
I swear ♪

♪ It all will come true ♪

♪ Today I realize how much ♪

♪ I'm in love with you ♪

♪ With you standing here ♪

♪ I could tell the world
What it means to love ♪

♪ ♪

♪ To go on from here
I can't use words ♪

♪ But it don't say enough ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Please, please
Listen to me ♪

♪ It's taken so long
To come true ♪

♪ And it's all for you ♪

♪ All for you ♪