The document summarizes the emergence of modern rock music in San Francisco in the late 1960s. Key developments included the rise of album-oriented rock (AOR) formats featuring bands like the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane on FM radio. The psychedelic rock scene in San Francisco was driven by the counterculture of the time, popularization of LSD, and venues like the Fillmore West. Festivals like Monterey Pop in 1967 helped launch the careers of many San Francisco-based bands and attracted major record label interest.

1. Road To Modern Rock:
San Francisco
1967 Album Oriented Rock (AOR)
Terms: Acid Rock, Hard Rock, Heavy
Metal
Guitar Distortion: Maybe an Attempt To
Emulate Early Blues Artists + Broken
Equipment

2. San Francisco
Characteristics: Aggressive Instrumental
Sound, Guitar Distortion, Short Blues Riffs
as Song Structure,
Blues Shouter Becomes Blues Screamer,
Extended Jams (Guitar Heroes), Drummers
More Aggressive, Satanic Imagery

3. San Francisco
AM Radio Gives Way To FM
FCC Rule in 1965: More Than 50% of FM
Content Must Be Original
Tom Donahue (1967) Began Broadcasting
8PM- Midnight on KMPX, Played Hendrix,
Grateful Dead, etc.
Moved the Format To LA, Format Spread

4. San Francisco
Counterculture: Beatniks, Hippies
Viet Nam War Began Drafting in 1965
Anti-War Protests on Campuses
1968 Chicago Democratic Convention Riot
1970 Kent State Massacre
Burning Draft Cards & Canada

5. San Francisco
Civil Rights Movement
Assassinations:President Kennedy (1963)
Medgar Evers (1963), Malcolm X (1965), Dr.
Martin Luther King (1968), Robert Kennedy
(1968)
Riots in African-American Neighboorhoods:
Newark, Detroit, Watts

6. San Francisco: The Scene
Drugs: Pot & LSD
Harvard - Timothy Leary “Turn On, Tune
In , Drop Out”
CIA LSD Experiments in San Francisco,
w/George White
Ken Kesey (One Flew Over The Cuckoos
Nest) 1959 LSD Experiments at VA

7. San Francisco: The Scene
Kesey Brings LSD to Parties (Acid Tests)
the Merry Pranksters, (Further)
Favorite band was The Warlocks (Grateful
Dead)
Trips Festival (1966) Longshoremen’s Hall,
produced by Bill Graham

8. San Francisco: The Scene
1950s Beat Generation Writers (Beatniks)
Young Drop Outs Flocked to SF and
Labeled Hippies by Local Newspaper
Haight-Ashbury District of SF
Term Psychedelic Applied to the Music
Music Venues:The Filmore West & Avalon
Grew Out of the Acid Tests

9. San Francisco
Monterey Pop Festival 1967 Launched
Local Talent
Record Labels Attended and Signed Many
Groups
Many Bands Had Folk Roots

10. San Francisco: Grateful Dead
Grateful Dead (Acoustic: Mother McCree’s
Uptown Jug Champions; Electrified:
Warlocks.
House Band for Acid Tests
First Jam Band
Fan Called Dead Heads Followed the Band
to all Performances

11. San Francisco: Dead
Stereotypical Dead Head: VW Bus, Paisley
clothes, Pot, Earn Money Selling Incense
Fans Encouraged to Record Concerts and
Trade Tapes
Cult Status, But Not Mainstream
Commercial Success
Disbanded After Jerry Garcia’s Death 1996

12. San Francisco: Jefferson Airplane
A Folk Rock Group, First One Signed After
Monterey
Singer Grace Slick
Big Hits: White Rabbit (Reference to Alice
in Wonderland), Somebody To Love
Many Personnel Changes Led To Dispute
Over Name Rights Resulting In Jefferson
Starship

13. San Francisco: Janis Joplin
Joplin (Texas) Added to Big Brother and
the Holding Company
Great Emotional Female Blues Singer Style
Image: Hard Living/ Drinking Red Hot
Mama
Heroin Overdose 1970
Hits: Piece Of My Heart, Summertime, Me
& Bobby McGee

14. San Francisco: Usually Omitted
Blue Cheer: Managed by Owsley, the Acid
Chemist. Early Metal Band
Santana: Latin Rock Band Led by Carlos
Santana
Sly & The Family Stone: Sound Was Funk,
Ethos was Hippie/Interracial
Credence Clearwater Revival: John
Foggerty, Swamp Rock

15. Other California Acid Bands
Iron Butterfly: In-A-Gadda-da-Vida Built
on Heavy Riff
Steppenwolf: Born To Be Wild, (“Heavy
Metal Thunder”)
The Doors: Jim Morrison Lead Singer
(1971) Poetic Lyrics, Many Hits: Light My
Fire. Arrests at Concerts (Boston & Miami)