Times Archives - Page 3 of 3 - The Golden Age of Rock

At the turn of the 20th century, the Haight Ashbury district grew as an upper middle class suburb. It’s streets were lined with large Victorian homes tucked in to small city sized parcels. Just a few years earlier, it had been farmland and sand when the Haight Street Cable Railroad connected Haight Ashbury to to downtown San Francisco.

By the time of the great depression, the Haight Ashbury district area had already peaked as automobiles opened up the suburbs. World War II brought a need for low cost housing. Many of the large old homes were divided into apartments or boarding houses, and the neighborhood was deteriorating. By the 50’s, lack of maintenance and the exodus of the middle class left the Haight in rough shape with lots of vacant apartments…just the type of low cost rents that attracted struggling musicians.

San Francisco already had a large arts community and a reputation for being a bit wild. The low cost rentals in the neiighborhood of the intersection of Haight Street and Ashbury Street intersection were a magnet for musicians. It was home for a number of important psychedelic rock performers and groups of the mid-1960s, including the Jefferson Airplane, The Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin, who all lived a short distance from the famous intersection.

Nearby are two large parks, Buena Vista and Golden Gate, which served as a haven for the homeless and added to the drug culture. Druggies and maijuanna use were so prevalent that, by ‘67 it was jokingly called “Hashbury”.

Combine these conditions with the leftovers of the beat Generation (Beatnicks), and the Haight became the birthplace of the Hippie movement.

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Many famous 60s rock musicians lived in Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco, during the countercultural movement of the 1960s. They include Janis Joplin, Jerry Garcia, Jimi Hendrix, Grace Slick, Jefferson Airplane, The Grateful Dead, The Mamas & The Papas, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and Big Brother and the Holding Company.

Haight-Ashbury was known for its bohemian culture. It was a center for the hippie movement, attracting many musicians and artists who sought to escape the constraints of mainstream society.

Today, Haight Ashbury is back in style. Many of the old victorians have been fixed up. Rents are sky high, and the streets are lined with upper end boutiques and cafes. And the famous corner of Haight and Asbury streets is home to a busy Ben and Jerry’s.

The Golden Age of Rock began with Beatniks and ended with Hippies. For most of the older generation, they were one and the same….dirty unwashed scum, but we know better. It was only some of the hippies that were dirty and unwashed … just kidding.

The label Beatnik grew from the Beat Generation, a label created by Jack Kerouac in the late 40s. The Beat part of the name, of course, came from the beat of the music, the stereotypical beatnik was into bongo drums and jazz. With the launch of Sputnik, the Russian satellite that beat the U.S. into space, the “nik” got tacked on to replace Generation and form a simpler label, Beatnik.

The trademark Beatnik look for men included goatees and berets, for women it was black leotards and long straight hair. This, of course, upset much of the middle class establishment and was considered rebellious.

man strumming guitar in clothing typical of hippies — 1960s hippie

Sometime during the 60s, a separate counterculture arose that was labeled the Hip Generation or Hippies. Although some Beatniks became Hippies, the groups were culturally separate. Where the beats were known for “playing it cool” and keeping a low profile, the hippies became known for “being cool” and displaying their individuality. The key though, was that while Beatniks were into jazz, Hippies were heavy duty into Rock.

Along with the association with Rock music, Hippies were generally anti-establishment, anti-war, and anti-establishment, traits that didn’t win them too many friends from adult middle-class America. Although many took political action by dropping out of the mainstream, others became highly politicized and active in the Peace Movement and the historical 1968 Democratic Convention.

The Hippie world grew around three major metropolitan areas, all of them also music centers. On the East coast, New York’s Greenwich Village was the early center of Folk Music and Coffee Shops. On the West Coast, both Los Angeles an San Francisco grew major Hippie communities. The Los Angeles scene centered around Venice and its coffeehouses, San Francisco around it’s famous Haight-Ashbury neighborhood and the Summer of Love.

The Golden Age of Rock

All about Rock and Roll, aka Rock n' Roll, or just plain Rock.

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The Corner of Haight Ashbury

Top Musicians and Groups

Beatniks and Hippies