Origin

In order to understand the amazing music of bands like The Grateful Dead, Buffalo Springfield or Jefferson Airplane and the role they played in shapping not just the culture of California but all of American society, you must first look at where they started from. There can be no denying that all of these bands have extremely close roots to what has been labeled the "hippie" movement which made its home on Haight and Ashbury street in San Francisco California; fueled by an angry youth generation which feels its identity is being oppressed and has just witnessed the failure of the Vietnam war. the young people of america began to congregate and present their alternative life style. Love-in's became the key form of public protest for this movement, like minded individuals who believed in peace and love over profit would gather and share their ideas with each other. Love-in's were very effective at bringing "hippies" together but ended up becoming a zoo where suit and tie style families would come and gawk at the "crazy hippies". A larger platform was need in order to present ideas as bold as theirs to a nation so firmly against drastic social change. One of the most inspirational members of this movement is of course Ken Kesey. Kesey was one of the first people to be given LSD by the government as a test to see its affects on the human brain in 1963 known as project MKULTRA. Amazed and astonished by what he felt, Kesey set up parties called the Kool-aid acid tests where people would come and all try LSD together, the most common band seen at these parties were the Warlocks, later known as The Grateful Dead. Their music was extremely unique because it was a new style of protest that proved to be much more effective at grabbing national spotlight and was a more comfortable way for mainstream America to hear the voices and ideas of the younger generation.