Jefferson Airplane:
A Deep Dive

Summer of Love music series

In 1967, the year of the Summer of Love, Jefferson Airplane was the San Francisco hippie community’s best known band. Their release that year of “Surrealistic Pillow” rocketed them to international fame, and they would go on to play all the major 1960s rock festivals: Monterey Pop, Woodstock and the ill-fated Altamont.

This 90-minute Zoom presentation includes video at two of those events as well as at San Francisco’s Fillmore Auditorium and on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. We’ll talk about their roots in folk music and how a key personnel change spurred them to great success. In just 5 years, they released 5 classic albums and were harbingers of what came to be called “The San Francisco Sound.”

Click here to see a list of the audio and video clips I’ll play as well as other program source materials.

The Odyssey of Big Brother & The Holding Company

Summer of Love music series

As Mick Jagger is to the Rolling Stones and Freddy Mercury is to Queen, Janis Joplin is to Big Brother and The Holding Company. Like Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison, Joplin is one of the giants of the 60’s music scene. But Big Brother and The Holding Company were far more than a Janis Joplin backup band. The iconic combination of Big Brother’s wailing guitars with Janis Joplin’s heart-wrenching vocals created a unique and mind blowing listening experience.

San Francisco City Guides tour leader Chip Isaac will explore the story behind this ground breaking band and the pressures it faced as Janis Joplin’s star rose. Along the way you will see video of some of the group’s performances, including their triumph at the Monterey Pop Festival.

Rockin’ in the Fillmore with Bill Graham

Summer of Love music series

Impresario Bill Graham was crucial to establishing San Francisco as the epicenter for the psychedelic rock music sounds of Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead, Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin and many others.

Graham was truly a self-made man, surviving the Holocaust and coming to the US as an orphan child. We'll talk about his beginnings in the SF hippie scene and his emergence as a rock promoter using the Fillmore Auditorium, Winterland and other venues. The presentation will include videos of Graham describing the scene and some of the top bands he hosted.

Click here to see source materials used in this presentation.

The Grateful Dead Then and Now

Summer of Love music series

We discuss the evolution of this classic Summer of Love band and enjoy clips of performances at San Francisco's Winterland, The Fillmore Auditorium and other venues. We'll also see an excerpt of the CBS News documentary "The Hippy Temptation," narrated by Harry Reasoner. Spoiler alert: he was not a fan.

Click here to see a list of the video clips I’ll play as well as other program source materials.

Classic Rock Posters of the 1960s

Summer of Love music series

The folk-rock music of mid-1960s San Francisco included an exciting visual counterpoint: the trippy designs used to advertise musical lineups at The Fillmore and other local venues. The posters themselves became a celebrated art form, and the era is remembered not just for its psychedelic sounds but for these fascinating and often confounding images, too.

Russ Bertetta attended some of the historic shows they advertised and later collected posters of the era. He will join Rodney Paul to discuss the Big 5, a group of artists whose distinctive designs defined the genre. We'll see video of the top-billed musicians and watch excerpts of interviews with the artists. We'll also talk about some contemporary artists who follow in their footsteps.

This was a program on Zoom given on the first Wednesday each month at 7:30pm. Each show spotlights different section of the BayTrail, Ridge Trail and other Bay Area public spaces. Click here to access the Bay Area Trails Confidential archive page.

SFMOMA Tours

These tours are currently not being offered.

These were public tours offered by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.  They vary in length and cover different floors and special exhibitions.  The museum suspended these tours in March 2020 due to COVID. It is unclear when they will resume or the role I will play

SF Opera Backstage Tours

These tours are not currently being offered

These tours were held infrequently and generally coincided with the Opera’s fall and summer schedule.  The tour lasts one hour and requires a reservation and the purchase of a ticket for $20 (with discounts available to Opera donors).
More information…