Haight Ashbury in the sixties

[moshmartyr]

great footage, thanks for posting

[sqweezel]

Nothing is more annoying than a know it all, preachy hippie. It's sad to see that the us against them mentality is still prevalent today. The hippie answer turned out to be worse than what they were against. The drug culture is a dismail failure. The hippies have become merely another hypocritical and decadent segment of society. These are the same naive fools that helped to elect a phony like Obama. Save the planet is the rallying cry of fascism. Total control and total slavery. Thanks guys.

[zokon53]

@sqweezel LOL!!! you sound like FOX NEWS! aaahahaha* also your argument isn't Logical, it's clearly just rhetoric and ad hominem, you need to go back to some good old fashioned reasoning *here let me help you...

Premise1: If A = B, Premise2: and B = C Logical connection: Then (apply principle of equivalence) Conclusion: A = C ....thanks, but no thanks, leave your Haterisms under the bridge with the rest of the trolls.

[magical70s]

brunswick street in melbourne, australia. is similar to this street....not nearly as to the depth/intensity of haight astbury, but it's really the nucleus the of northern innercity places to hang

[chickenwretch]

what's the end result? what we've got today; uncertainty and drug addiction

[rasputin63]

That guy's rant at 4:59 is such a crock of shit. These kids come from American affluence, not poverty. The passage of time has shown that the hippies (ultimately) wanted to live expensively and sybaritically.

[zokon53]

@rasputin63 yer kind of on yer own planet, he didn't say anything about hippies coming from poverty he's talking about the ontology and direction of our civilization, he's describing system disequilibrium ... also, the opinion you expressed after wards is obviously not of your own making I've heard that regurgitation over and over, think for your self* if you dis-agree look through the other comments and see for your self, yer not necessarily wrong but your making big sweeping assumptions

[myshilohranch]

Very well done documentary ... not just clips from other films. Truth.

[IExposeMormonism]

There was General WasteMoreLand, and Hershey Bar covered with buttons. Free concerts with Big Brother and the Holding Co, Grateful Dead. Quick Silver, 13th St Elevator, Jefferson Airplane. A pound of Mex was $50. It had a moment and it was gone before the Haight st riots of ''69.

[IExposeMormonism]

@IExposeMormonism And I meant to say, the guy around 6:00 minutes sums it up best

[magical70s]

@IExposeMormonismi wonder who the guy (@ 6.00mins) is on about that existentialist talk. is it marty from jefferson airplane?????? just curious..... anyone know?

[MyAccount4TrollingU]

Wow, a well spoken black man with a job and high standards. That's pretty rare.

[Khultan]

@MyAccount4TrollingU Your little boxed world view is noted.

[lostindiancamp]

Ever noticed how so many of these runaway hippies came from wealthy families? When this movement was over they went back to their rich parents, went to college and a lot are now very wealthy themselves from having really good jobs because they were able to go to college. A lot are still hippies at heart.

[mars10115]

Lady at 2.37 is a wise one>

[Khultan]

@mars10115  Yes, I agree.

[jrg8008]

A lot of people don't realize that many of the hippies came from wealthy families. Like the guy at 3:35 who says he came from a family that gave him more money that he could ever hope to spend.

Sure, when you come from that kind of background - which, most importantly, you can always go back to fairly easily - it's easy wiling your days away smoking weed. Nothing against weed, but working people simply cannot afford to do that.

Also, I wanna smoke what the guy at 5:00 was smoking, lolz.

[gronlaf]

"would you pose for me"......intro to 60's porn

[ggreenwood4]

No we did NOT SELL OUT! We did help educate America & end the Vietnam War. I live in the Haight for a long time. It was a beautiful time! We could use a revival like that again!

[tiberiousss]

Whats really funny about the hippie movement is the kids eventually did grow up and assimilated into society. They became the very people they hated. Life is strange. However their culture also assimilated into our society as well. Their influence on our society can be felt today 40 plus years later. Before the movement living with ones Girlfriend just didn't happen in the 50's and 60's. After the movement it became common place as we see today, people think nothing of it.

[leighnassau]

i see a lot of parrells between now and the 60's, things like civil unrest , fashion, a war that nobody beleives in except polititions and the military, music (tho nowhere near as good in my opinion) and strangly enough, my parents, who still brought me up like it WAS the 60's for better or worse , incidentally the music i listened to when i was young in the 80's was soul, tamala motown , rock and roll and the beatles. I guess i am a modern day hip(ie) guy and yes, peace V now more than eva !

[lukyganesh]

@leighnassau yee. same wavelength man

[nihonjohnny]

On April 5, 1967, the Gray Line Bus Company began a San Francisco Haight-Ashbury District "Hippie Hop" tour similiar to the North Beach "Beatnik" bus tour earlier that decade.

[BishopGarnier]

May be today, in Tunisia, Algeria, Egyptia ...

Freedom and democraty

[bobbitcat]

They were sucked into the ideal to drop out of college and tune into a world that wasn't real. The very thing people need is love and freedom. The very thing the hippies fought against was the system as we know it, sadly bought in the age of the corperate. All the hippies I knew were white and came from a middle class background. Its interesting that alot of the so called activist preachers with the likes of Timothy Leary, Jack kerouac and many more wackos indoctrinating kids with lies.

[blessiththechily]

back in the early 60s with the whole LSD thing, it made us want to rebel against our elders and the traditional conservitave ways of the 1950s (my teen years).... is it so strange that our children rebel against us? all of us young adults in the 60s started the idea of thinking for ourselves and rebelling from "the man" except now some of us have become that dictatorlike parent that they themselves wanted to get away from..... are you one of them?(withinyouwithoutyoufadeo­ut)

[footinbothworlds]

Yeaaaaaaah like wow man thats soooooooo groooovey brothers and sisters we are love lets get to be one again yeeeeeaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[HelterSkelterForum]

Where good ppl like Abigail Folger volunteered, only to be murdered by those she tried to help.

[lambchopxoxo]

its a basic need that people have to connect with each other. i think the hippies did a lot of that.

[GeorgeVreelandHill]

Time for a new counterculture.

The anti-establishment of the 1960's was right.

The government was and is wrong.

George Vreeland Hill

[dannyhood66]

That guy blows me away at the end of this..I dont know why?. What he's saying is over 40 years ago? ''Yet it has an effect'' that hits me every time i hear it?

[dahliafully]

the haight is all about profit now. rents are too high, not the people.

perhaps other cities can welcome future kids who have interest in something other than profit at all costs. love is where one profits.

[prophetdude2]

@dahliafully yea man. It's all different.

You go around there and the kids are happy or colorful.

Everyone there is walking around, thinking they're better than everybody else, wearing all black and pretending as though there doing something productive

"neo-hippies"

it's awful now.

[SeattleLA]

The vast majority of the committed hippies, became social workers, educators, environmentalists, etc., for their whole careers. I lived through the era, and visited SF many times in the mid 60s to early 70s, although I was a little young. I since, have done vast research on all of it, and conducted many interviews. I met the Doctor, 1981. (Timothy Leary)

[landis444]

Hippies are filthy dirty and stink like BO. Disgusting . An outrage. UnAmerican. God bless the USA. USA...... USA...... USA

[hoboboxerjoe]

@thirdpositionist. it must really suck to have as much hate in your heart as you do. You poor old fool.

[xwsftassell]

I prefer bus-drivers to hippies. Bus-drivers are admirable people.

[ImJulieee]

I think it's time for a Haight revival, I'm there.

[kriegerjosie]

This is sooo true!!!! even today in 2010 !!!!

[RoyaIIioness]

The hippies sold-out hard

[zokon53]

@RoyaIIioness the establishment appropriated commodified and sold a corrupted,un-maintainable,and self destructive version of the existing culture to the mainstream which made those already involved fictionalized, a less real, version of what the culture was, the politics of love were the most important so in reality they were the ones to be sold out by having their ideals and ideologies subverted and diffused, turning a culture of love into a fashion a fad a thing to be consumed and discarded

[RoyaIIioness]

@zokon53 Maybe so but that doesn't change the fact that they still sold out. If their movement and belief system was so strong and that dedicated it shouldn't have mattered how the mainstream viewed them and packed it to the masses.

[RoyaIIioness]

@RoyaIIioness *packaged

[zokon53]

@RoyaIIioness let me put it another way the movement became bigger than the originators could maintain

[zokon53]

a lot of um left the Haight and kept migrating and are still very active in various struggles to this day where as those that joined later saw it primarily as a new fashion style, so when the fad faded yes they put on a suit an said yea beads and flowers that's kids stuff but they did exactly what was intended by those that sold it to them

[zokon53]

they consumed discarded and discredited the movement being that the feelings and movements of the every day mainstream "hippie" is what people saw and understood as being that of all hippies the fashion/art/cultural ideas that followed directly juxtaposed it's self with the "natural" "back to the land" current and became focused on the modernist machine and plastic "future" trend making those still attached but not really connected to the movement feel passe'...

[RoyaIIioness]

@zokon53 Fair enough

[zokon53]

@RoyaIIioness but if you dis agree that's fine too brother, I can dig it, no disrespect vibes here*

Blessings

[mangokillah92]

@RoyaIIioness

some did some didnt

[xwaystranger]

@RoyaIIioness A large number of the young Hippies were from Wealthy Families. They were able to travel the globe, pass out dollar bills for free, and indulge like crazy. Most of them never told the other people how rich they were. They were part of the Fall. They later went home to inherit more money, and reveal their true nature. Today these people are called Trustafarians. You still see them at any expensive gathering, wearing their dreads and pretending to be like them poor folks.

[xwaystranger]

@RoyaIIioness First of all, most of those Hippies came from very elite rich families. After all their trips to India and exotic world stops, they all returned to what they always had been....rich people.

[TJWhitewolf]

the last line of the video pretty much sums it up: we're told we're free, but we have to PAY for it. People's kids are dying overseas for "freedom" that we have to pay for. It really IS insane to a sane mind.

[clintonearlwalker]

This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius!

[jsilence418]

fredgm did this really happen or was it just the acid? cmon.

[xerinx24]

this is why i love ling in san francisco.

[thedarkesthole]

Buick Riviera, you are scary because a.) you can't spell "scary", b.) you obviously get off on things like "buick riviera"s, and c.) You fear things you dont understand. You are the scariest thing on this entire fucking planet, and its people like you everywhere that allow us to be at war.

[gittahfiend]

all across the nation,it's a strange vibration,People in motion.people in motion.

[56BUICKRiviera]

Hippies were scarey because they were on drugs.

[gnartotheextreme]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

[prophetdude2]

uh, not really....

[naturewoman28]

Groovy!

[mrswolls]

far out

[Irondo11]

I remember when George Harrison and Patti Boyd visited The Haight in '67. They were justifiably disgusted with what they found there...

[FredGM]

I didn't know that George and Patty were in town until I nearly bumped into both on the sidewalk! What a shock seeing a Beatle! What a bigger hock seeing the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in person!

[Irondo11]

The short-haired guys asking for money "give a hippie...," are transplant imposters on summer break having sex with anyone, especially really young stoned runaway girls...puke on them.

[Emimilykity]

the hippies had a reason. dont screw with the hippies man!

[flakbac]

whatever happened to the original acid boys was it too many john and yoko lyrics that pushed them over the edge

[aarfeld]

Unfortunately there was also a cat living down there in the Haight named Charles Manson who preyed on the weakest, most vunerable minds for recruits into his murderous cult. The downside yang to the hippies ying. it was bound to happen among this breath of innocence and it did in many other ways as well. Before the decade was out this subculture was well on the way to destruction because of the introduction of hard drugs into the neighborhood.

[TMKchld]

I miss the protests...we've become too complacent.

[myshilohranch]

@TMKchld A giant AMEN to THAT!!!  Our generation has become WAY too complacent. We need to once again stand up to "the man" ... before he takes away ALL our rights, sells all of our land, kills off all our wildlife, pollutes all our waters, decimates all our natural resources and legislates us into a nation of soylent green fraidy-cats!.

[TMKchld]

@myshilohranch GREAT to see such spirit...it restores my faith.

[myshilohranch]

@TMKchld The question is, HOW do we motivate people these days???!!! Do us oldsters have to get out there and show them how it is done??!! Perhaps it IS time ...

btw: the greedy few that are running our country ... were never "hippies," they NEVER "got it." We need to call them out and dress them down again. TMKchild: never give up ... never back down!

[TMKchld]

@myshilohranch I agree...Bush was an Absolute Nightmare & Twice!!!!??? My son is active & Assures me that the youth is less conservative than it appears to be...(I guess we had to begin with out children)...nice to "chat", by the way.

[Sanfranchester]

The scene never died, it transmuted, shifted elsewhere and resurfaced here and there even today..The spiritual side of rock is at pastlands in distant day San Fran, (check my channel too) the spiritual yearnings of the San Fran scene is at the foundations of the modern muse tribes, and its a shame the london-la-new york darkside has dragged rock culture into the bland dumb downed grey zone of bleached white entertainment and avant debauchchicanery

[moonrendelle]

Hippies arent dirty, thier cool and groovy people. lets bring em back here in the 21st and a half century! LOL!!

[aarfeld]

Oh, moonrendelle, they never went away--you just have to know where to look for them. Hippie is a permanent, ongoing subculture within western society. It's there if you're looking.

[moonrendelle]

Willie brown Jr and Gavin newsom screwed up the haight and San francisco,

especially taking away the "Haight Asbury food program that used to be on Waller street (near cole)

Capitalism, dont play that game.

[moonrendelle]

These times will happen again in the next decade .

[eartant]

I certainly hope so, this decade sucked. I about put a gun to my head on several occasions.

[mountain19]

hey the gov. brought out the LSD to see the effects thinking of the penal gland then. hey staring at goats? gay bomb? this sick gov. tries all crap so far like shit in the fan. this time????????

free is not free right here.

[thoomoo]

I like the philosophy of the bus driver at the start of the film-the world would genuinely be a better place if more people thought like that

[paisleybabee]

@thoomoo I like that too,wise words friend :)

[atfatw]

around 1971 when the haight fell apart black criminals would come over from fillmore VFW and attack folk if they could not get at hippy. you could get knifed for a bag of groceries

[billoakesattablthree]

A time of questioning among the young but it was real soul searching - I remember as a child I was never afraid of the hippies. I use to ride my bike all over dallas and never was afraid , the hippies were good to kids , I didn't even know what a perv was. I think the late 60s and early 70s was a period marked by caring for one's fellow man and violence against one another was the exception. I was too young to serve in vietnam so my memmories of that period are very good.

[deliciousmorton]

i love drugs.

[CKBBontabeachbum]

and , they love you !

[zokon53]

a mirror is needed*

[DirkjeA]

Best reply you could give this narrowminded ignorant sheep.

[ANEWWORLD2012]

2012 the song (Hary Loco) with words of MICHAEL BOWEN !

[Thejustin09]

that last segment is genius

[folkrockm14]

best generation that ever lived

[BetterDoYourHomeWork]

I have always been SO blown away by the history, and EVERYTHING that has happened in the Haight. It's a REALLY beautiful thing.

[MagicDexter68]

Can You Get Lsd On The Streets In Haight Ashbury??

[celticlofts]

If you like the hippy thing there's a fest called WIld Magic coming up in September in Bloomington IN at at place called Lothlorien.. Wild time and wild weekend..

[ashleyisasweatervest]

Love footage/commentary like this!

[imflyinn]

Yeah I just got back in San Fran a couple of days ago best trip of my life so far...the haight was my favorite, even though there is many more tourists, but you can still find the beautiful people

[imflyinn]

you have no idea how much I want to be there..

[MARSICCHIA]

I ve been last year,i'm italian, now is totally different..nothing to compare :(

[Saxxx0n]

Yeah it doesn't look like that anymore. I went there for a few months and slept in golden gate park and bueana vista. But there are still beautiful people there as someone stated before. I wouldn't trade it for the world.

[SSxMisfiT]

Dont mean to be a Debby Downer but could you imagine tripping on some cidny and have an earthquake hit?

The worst trip possible.

[luv2bud]

The cat speaking at the end was like a modern-day prophet. And his words ring as true today as they did then. "You're free, and you gotta pay for it." You have to go overseas and kill people and die for your freedom. America is as schizophrenic as ever. Turn on, tune in, and drop out, baby. I kin dig it. Groove on, space cowboy.

[herbienbrian]

I agree compleatly. Every one around me, my parents, my friends, my girl friend, all of them say I was born in the wrong era. If this was a perfect world, I would be standing on the hate right now in 67.

[richellec83]

yeah, and plastic surgery? did u think of "mondern technology" douchebag

[olivermania]

lol

[oneloveyadda]

people are just people...they have there way i have mine

[imflyinn]

can anyone tell me where this footage is from, a movie perhaps?

[bobbie9965]

If only people today would be so kind people today suck they are mean cruel and to judgemental ...WISH IT WAS THE 60S

[Supertzar999]

@bobbie9965 I'm pretty sure people were mean, cruel and judgemental then too. Having been to Haight Ashbury in recent years, it hasn't changed much from this video except for the technology, the Gap and Amoeba music.

[gronlaf]

@Supertzar999 of course they were, that is what caused the movement of the 60's the kids were fed up with the lies and hypocracy of the older generations.

[dickheadmann112]

"They have their ways, and I have mine."

Wise old bus driver

[acerb45666555]

5:21 .....what he said could have been said today. the worlds as fucked as ever!

[kyle23454]

obvisouley the entire point of this video is wasted on you...... condradulations

[leerroy234]

Im going there this summer =D

[theegyptianlover]

the birth of so many new things

[kingkongpingpongdong]

Schizophrenic plague.

[asahobby]

It was just a great time and for just one moment in time happiness was there.

I just didn't take it all so seriously like when Leary said that Toon In Turn on shit he or noone said what was an alternative

to survival Panhandling? This was the same generation that voted for Bush and sold out later.

[slingblade65]

The 60's were overrated-all it brought was a whiny crybaby generation that brought along the liberal use of drugs. As far as Haight Ashbury, idiots today like to glorify it like it was some sort of Utopia. By 68, it was a total drugged out shithole

[anticorpration]

I was 13 in 1967 and loved that time. I wore a small painted flower on my face to school. We didn't have to worry about our schoolmates bringing guns or knives to school, no metal detectors in schools. We could ride the buses and trains at 13 without anyone trying to do something to us or being afraid. Sad to think that 40 years in the FUTURE, things are worse today - some progression, huh?

[pixistik1687]

i never really had any of those problems- my high school had no metal detectors, i didn't ride the bus but if i had i would have fel safe, i wasn't really scared anything bad would happen. i graduated high school in 2006.

i think it just depends on wheree you're from.

[laur8520]

Definitely true. Where I go to school, everything's chill. We curse way too much though -.-

[richellec83]

ur a kid thats y. if u knew whats goin on the world around u, u would be scared. no neighborhood is "SAFE". i could go on and on about y u feel the way u do. but most of the reason y is b/c ur "seeing what u want to see".

[richellec83]

exactly

[Zobor111]

I hope for another revolt like the 60s again. We very much need it.

[Markthompson123]

@Zobor111 its happening

[Netinterspace]

@Zobor111 There was one in the the 80's/90's, Summer of Love '89. Another one would be good too!

[thespeez]

@Zobor111 - I agree; however it can NOT be based on socialism! While the hippies of the '60s understood that society needed to change, they didn't understand economics and the movement got infiltrated by many toxic ideas! Oh, and when I say 'no' to socialism, I'm NOT describing the vision brought on by Ray-gun either. What that SOB believed in was corporate welfare. Of course I think there were forces keeping him in check...like the Bushs!!!

[ThePretzelHead]

The bus driver was Jesus and nobody knew. He was shy that life.

Couldn't get the band together that life.

Just couldn't find Jon the Baptist that life.

That's all. So he just drove a bus that life.

But he'll drive all of us next life.

Thanks Bus Driver. And you too Zokon

[tresgatosinsf]

Jesus Cristo...they're still coming here....

[ondiras]

why does everyone wants to live then and there? if you dont have the courage to change yourself and your life NOW you wouldnt had it then - and there (if this sentence makes sense).

[NavinJohnson90]

Lmao, this place has not changed a bit.

[dinobam]

Looking back on it, they definitely had the right idea. Life as we now know it, sucks!

[madassfranki]

"i've never seen a hippie before, can you direct me to a hippie please" hahaha

i love the sixties!

<3!

peace!

[aeroshine]

Bus driver nailed it !!

[Sgtpsoto]

I must admit , truly,,, that was the best time of my life I was a hippie before I went to Nam ,when I got back I still felt the same,but things were changing,and still are those days were wonderful ,full of love and caring , for one another, but all good things come to an end ,, today is all about heavy drugs that kill ,gangbanging, hate, racism killing gangsta music,asshole cops who think they own this world, and all the lies in gov. whoa ,, dude ... sorry i was getting carried away

[belia1313]

Now its crack heads and rap and danger.......Long for the days of the Hippies and oneness of all!!!!!

[EricandDish]

My favorite part is one minute into the video in which it showed that young woman wearing those bug eyed glasses (a la Audrey Hepburn in "Two For the Road" released that year) while the last part with that psychiatrist is a real chiller considering that everything that was going wrong in the late 60's is happening again now and it's even worse (he hit it on the head with his "Eisenhower America and then this" comment with 'this' referring to the Kennedy assassination.

[looklux]

the 1960's fucking rocked! the best of times..sooo much better then than right now...don't you think?

[snapdragonabs]

I completely agree...I wish I had lived in those times. :)

[madassfranki]

hell yeah!

i wish i lived then!

;D

[yortsandthat]

@looklux Bollocks.Only the rich had it good.

[ozrics62]

i bet they are all middle class sell outs,

fucking sold out for money it gets you in the end abi r i p

[kelsirae13]

Freedom

Love

Free spirits

Soft drugs

Who wouldn't want that?

[slackercultparade]

it was the whole leaving society, freedom and liberation of the times, where you could do anything you want, despite the harsh realities and dangers. nowadays there's no more of that. it's just the harsh realities.

that's why most people wish they could go back, or make it happen again.

[dicek18]

because man everyone was gathered together for the common goal of bettering society. they were the only generation of people who were able to stop a war. besides, youll find all of that bad shit anywhere. the only difference was that at least people cared about each other back then and nobody was on their own

[ilybooboostewart]

what makes people wish they could've lived back then is the love they shared. you didnt have to care back then. youd love, be loved, and do whatever the hell you wanted. you could completely feel as high as you wanted any time you wanted and have millions of bands being the voice of the people..

atleast thats my opinion :)

[HIPandiDONTmeanHOP]

ALL OF THE ABOVE!!! FUCKIN A MAN RIGHT ON!!! ESPECIALLY MURDER!!! GROOVY AND RIGHTEOUS BROTHER YEAH!!! Boy i wish we still had all those wonderful things today...

[awsmuser]

wish i coulda lived back then

[antinegative007]

Man, is it youtube or did they have really sucky digital cameras back then?

[simonwells61]

at 0.52. Have a look closely. Is that Charlie Manson?!

[antinegative007]

Is that how he looked back then? I think he did the Brown Acid

[pghpa611]

What you see tells us who you are... What I see is who I am ... This is the generation that changed the world Revoloution in the streets of America Fighting to stop The Vietnam War Fighting to preserve the planet , cean the air, clean the water... Human Rights Civil Rights Equal Rights Ammendment So what have you done lately??? Easy to criticize what you perceive BUT... Your perception was wrong The World Is A Better Place thanks to a generation that believed in a dream

[daytriper6996]

I was born in 81 and everydayI wish that I could go back in time and live here. I love it.

[Jaws5510]

Amazing. It's interesting to see how so much has changed, yet not that much at all.

[smilingladybird]

fantastic.. thank you so much for posting :)

[tlcompanion]

Great vid...