The
Counterculture
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Janis
Joplin
and
Big
Brother
and
The
Holding
Company,
Lagunitas,
California,
1967.
Joplin's
gritty,
full-throttle
blues-rock
style
offered
a
new,
liberating
image
for
women
in
the
world
of
rock
music. |
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Unconventional
appearance,
music,
drugs,
communitarian
experiments,
and
sexual
liberation
were
hallmarks
of
the
sixties
counterculture,
most
of
whose
members
were
white,
middle-class
young
Americans.
To
some
Americans,
these
attributes
reflected
American
ideals
of
free
speech,
equality,
and
pursuit
of
happiness.
Other
people
saw
the
counterculture
as
self-indulgent,
pointlessly
rebellious,
unpatriotic,
and
destructive
of
America's
moral
order.
Authorities
banned
the
psychedelic
drug
LSD,
restricted
political
gatherings,
and
tried
to
enforce
bans
on
what
they
considered
obscenity
in
books,
music,
theater,
and
other
media.
Parents
argued
with
their
children
and
worried
about
their
safety.
Some
adults
accepted
elements
of
the
counterculture,
while
others
became
estranged
from
sons
and
daughters.
In
1967
Lisa
and
Tom
Law
moved
to
San
Francisco,
joining
thousands
of
young
people
flocking
to
the
Haight-Ashbury
district.
The
counterculture
lifestyle
integrated
many
of
the
ideals
and
indulgences
of
the
time:
peace,
love,
harmony,
music,
mysticism,
and
religions
outside
the
Judeo-Christian
tradition.
Meditation,
yoga,
and
psychedelic
drugs
were
embraced
as
routes
to
expanding
one's
consciousness.
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The
"Freak-Out"
show,
Los
Angeles,
1965.
Rock
music,
colorful
light
shows,
performance
artists,
and
mind-altering
drugs
characterized
the
psychedelic
dance
parties
of
the
sixties
held
in
large
halls
in
Los
Angeles
and
San
Francisco. |
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A
concert
in
the
Panhandle,
Golden
Gate
Park,
San
Francisco,
1967
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The
Haight-Ashbury section of San Francisco, 1967. Students, hippies,
musicians, and artists gravitated toward the community's inexpensive
housing and festive atmosphere.
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Hell's
Angels
motorcycle
club
members,
the
Panhandle
in
Golden
Gate
Park,
San
Francisco,
1967.
While
some
people
admired
the
Hell's
Angels'
audacious
style,
its
members
had
an
uneven
and
sometimes
violent
relationship
with
people
in
the
counterculture.
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Musician
in
the
Panhandle,
San
Francisco,
1967 |
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"Summer
of
Love,"
the
Panhandle,
San
Francisco,
1967 |
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San
Francisco,
1967 |
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Easter
Sunday
Love-In,
Malibu
Canyon,
California,
1968.
This
was
a
celebration
of
the
counterculture
movement. |
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Suzuki-Roshi,
a
Buddhist
teacher,
at
the
Human
Be-In,
Golden
Gate
Park,
San
Francisco,
January
14,
1967.
Also
known
as
"A
Gathering
of
the
Tribes,"
the
Human
Be-In
was
an
effort
to
promote
positive
interactions
among
different
groups
in
society. |
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Poet
Allen
Ginsberg,
Human
Be-In
festival,
Golden
Gate
Park,
San
Francisco,
1967.
Ginsberg,
known
for
his
poem
Howl,
lived
and
symbolized
the
bohemian
ideals
of
the
Beat
Generation
of
the
1950s
and
embraced
the
counterculture
of
the
sixties.
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It [the
counterculture] was an attempt to rebel against the values our
parents had pushed on us. We were trying to get back to touching
and relating and living.
-Lisa
Law, 1985
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Monterey
International
Pop
Festival,
Monterey,
California,
1967.
Monterey
Pop
was
one
of
the
first
large
outdoor
rock
festivals
in
the
1960s.
Lisa
and
Tom
Law
sheltered
people
who
were
having
difficult
psychedelic
drug
experiences
in
their
"Trip
Tent."
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Timothy
Leary,
the
Harvard-trained
psychologist
who
coined
the
phrase
"Turn
On,
Tune
In,
Drop
Out,"
at
the
Human
Be-In,
San
Francisco,
1967 |
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