“San Francisco” by Scott Mckenzie.
Why? Precisely because it is one of the most hauntingly beautiful of those idealistic songs of the late 60’s (see sidebar) that evoked a blissful world of peace and love and expanded minds and harmony and spiritual connectedness… just waiting for a new generation to reach out and embrace it.
San Francisco became a magnet for those idealists, young girls and boys running away from home, hitch-hiking West. They gravitated to Haight-Ashbury. And for a short time, it did seem magical, at least from the inside. I expect most people today would readily expect the crash, the invasion of drug dealers and pimps, the poverty, the waste, and the sadness. Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair…
There should be a “Fair and Tender Ladies” for San Francisco, for Haight- Ashbury. “They’re like a star on a cloudy morning / first they’ll appear, and then they’re gone”.
Or, more poignantly: “You made me believe… that the sun rose in the west.” Wear your flowers in your hair.
I wish they hadn’t faded the song out quickly at the end of the recording. This lush, enveloping vibe just suddenly pulls away, leaving you chilled and disappointed. Yes, just as the hopes of a utopian world of peace, joy, and understanding was abruptly shattered by Kent State, Nixon, and Viet Nam.
Can you take the ’60’s? I lived through it– a child, really– and, in retrospect, I ask myself how we were able to absorb such a wild swing of expectations, from the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King Jr., Robert Kennedy, Chicago and the Democratic Convention, Nixon….
The Highest Hopes:
All You Need is Love (Beatles)
Good Vibrations (Beach Boys)
San Francisco (Scott MacKenzie)
Woodstock (Joni Mitchell)
What the World Needs Now (
Get Together (
Okay, the real saddest song ever written: Kilkelly Ireland.