It’s Cole Porter’s Anything Goes Friday and I couldn’t have found a more appropriate topic.
“If you are going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair. If you are going to San Francisco, you’re going to meet some gentle people there…”
We’ve all heard this song one time or another in the course of our life. Scott McKenzie sang this tune that was written for him by John Phillips from the Mamas & the Papas. It was written to promote the Monterey Arts Festival. The tune quickly climbed to number one on the hit charts.
I don’t understand how can this song from 1967, released many years before I was born, makes me cry every single time I hear it? Yes, I used to live in San Francisco for many years, and although I am now in Miami, I like to think of it as a “temporary” situation. My home will always be San Francisco, and I will make it back there soon enough.
But the reason why this song gets under my skin is not because I miss San Francisco, but because it makes me long for a time I never had. I miss the years I was never part of. The 60’s.
Just like the song says….
“All across the nation, such a strange vibration.
People in motion…
There’s a new generation, with a new explanation
People in motion, people in motion.”
Wow. The Summer of Love, people in motion…the world was changing – young people everywhere were getting together and changing the world – and um, taking lots of drugs (some of them), while doing it. They were exploring, searching, looking for a better way… I wonder if they knew how they were changing things, I wonder if they were aware.
Here’s a video of the song that’s playing on my computer today…almost on loop. Enjoy.
San Francisco (Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair)
