San Francisco Bay Area’s historic role in music is its link to the 1960s counterculture moment, which produced some of the most influential groups in the music industry. Music and the live performances of folk singers like Bob Dylan and Janis Joplin inspired many to embrace the hippie movement, but it was the arrival of live bands that drew countless supporters of the movement coming from across different states.
While outdoor live concerts were not yet part of the music scene during the era, the free performances of the emerging psychedelic, blues and folk bands gave birth to legendary musicians regarded as the most influential in the history of American music.
The following groups were the most popular rock bands that drew more than a hundred thousand youths of the hippie generation to Haight-Ashbury in the summer of 1967, which came to be known as the “Summer of Love.”
Jefferson Airplane
This San Francisco band was formed by singer-songwriter and former model Grace Slick, is well known for being the first of the “Summer of Love” psychedelic rock bands that gained commercial success worldwide.
Even as the group signed a contract with then major recording company RCA, their music still contained the anti-government narratives that made Jefferson Airplane a huge favorite of the era’s counterculture movement. After a splintering of the group transpired in 1972, Slick and other original members regrouped as Jefferson Starship in 1974
Grateful Dead
Formed in Palo Alto, California by members Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir), and Ron “Pigpen” McKernan. The Grateful Dead pioneered the “jam band” as their performances are best remembered for the lengthy instrumental jams.
The group’s brand of music was a fusion of folk, rock, jazz, country, blues, gospel and psychedelic rock , which spread throughout the world not by way of record deals but through live concert performances.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Originally known as John Fogerty and The Blue Velvets that originated in El Cerrito, California, they arrived at San Francisco’s music scene as the Credence Clearwater Revival band.
CCR is regarded as one of the most influential artists produced by San Francisco’s 60s counterculture history, as the musicians expressed their anti-government sentiments by way of rock music incorporated the elements of southern rock, swamp rock, country rock and blues rock.
San Francisco “The Bay Area” Still a Strong Source of Influence in American Culture
San Francisco and the neighboring counties are more popular known today as the Bay Area, where the transformative influences of the 60s counterculture created an environment full of diversities.
People coming from different cultures found different opportunities from the diverse Bay Area industries, they decided to make the region their home. While tourism is still the major source of income, a host of manufacturing and industrial businesses, from garments, to food processing, electronics, shipbuilding, aerospace and technology, have become major sources of economic opportunities.
The Bay Area welcomes entrepreneurs of all shapes and sizes that even providers of towing services have become vital elements in Northern California’s business ecosystem. Apparently, the city and different counties have become the central hub for many California businesses, which denotes that vehicles of all sizes including heavy duty industrial equipment come and go. Traffic regulation orders are strictly imposed by Bay Area authorities, to which even providers of heavy duty towing services must stand ready at a moment’s notice to provide roadside assistance or to clear out road obstructions.
Indeed the Bay Area has come a long way from its major role in the 60s counterculture movement to becoming the first region in America to send out towing trucks to provide roadside assistance. The transformation helped change the perception about towing companies, which back in the 60s were mostly involved in predatory towing.