this:

Hi,

Wow ... never EVER thought of it that way ... since the "Hippie" era for me, was a lot of SF stuff more than anything else, and many bands over there fit the bill ... however, only one of them, SANTANA, used a few more Latin/American folks and players than the other bands, and that worked really well in California with is very HIGH percentage of Latino folks, which made a huge difference ... specially in Southern California.

People have a rather amusing and weird view of me as a "hippie" and I was not one ... I never even had my first joint until late 1971 when we moved to Santa Barbara ... but when I got there, smoking a joint, and having long hair was a HUGE FAD ... and it meant nothing at all ... compared to Madison, WI (with its 50K students at UW), which was a very hip place, and these things were taken a bit more seriously and it showed in the music choices and many concerts ... not to mention that I did not enjoy what the National Guard and the ______ folks did to the students and employees (including me!), during the Kent State days, at the Rathskeller when feeling out someone was a huge embarrassment and it was worse for the women ... and many of us looked at each other and we just got the feeling that something bad was also about to happen! 

But California's "laissez-faire" about it all ... not hip at all ... and felt like that one song we all hated because it really hurt SF and the far out places! And many of these folks were there to just get laid and get stoned ... the music was not valuable and for the most part ignored, and later it showed up and then some ... in that one place ... where ... someone even died, and Marty Balin got his face smashed!

Hip/Hippie? Was long gone, and it was a massive illusion!

But all the art and music and literature will live forever! And I'm very glad to be a part of that!

My parents were Hippies. I grew up in Oakland, just a bridge away from SF. the interior of my parents' living room looked just like the cover of "Abraxas"