1967: A Complete Rock Music History of the Summer of Love is groovy. Really groovy. An adult-sized “picture book” about a seminal point in history, it’s big, it’s beautiful, and every hippie past and present should own a copy.
Admittedly, I am paying special attention to the 50th anniversary of one of the greatest moments in music because I am going to San Francisco with flowers in my hair in about three weeks, but that has not colored my view of this psychedelic trip.This is a great work.
Harvey Kubernik has put together a graphically sensational, beautifully narrated, jam-packed encyclopedia of everything that happened during those 12 months that changed the world. It’s great eye candy, but it’s so much more. You can flip through it and enjoy the photographs and the fantastic graphics on each and every page, or you can sit down and read the narration or even the eyewitness accounts. Or you can do both, as I did.
If I were to hand a book to today’s youth about the 1960s, this would be it. Kubernik has left no stone, Rolling or otherwise, unturned (or Door closed) in his coverage. Any and every band that made its mark, from England to the States, from white to black, from hip to not so hip – they’re all mentioned in some form or fashion. Current events are sprinkled in with references to, of course, LSD and the Vietnam War, but also the rise of FM radio, headphones, record stores, and the invention of the 8-track cassette and player. THIS is history.
There’s something happening here, in this visual feast that tells the story of a time that can never be replicated. 1967 has earned a permanent spot on my coffee table, right next to The Haight. Now, where’s those flowers?