Barney Hoskyns

San Francisco was the center of the hippie universe. The scene there began in 1964 when hundreds of small groups of friends found a common bond in the taking of LSD, or "acid." At the center of the acid movement was the author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey, whose group of Merry Pranksters toured the country high on LSD in a wildly painted bus.

By 1965, novice rock promoters were bringing thousands of like-minded individuals together at giant psychedelic "Acid Tests" where hundreds of people would take LSD (which was still legal) and dance the night away to the music of Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, and other groups. The counterculture scene that began in San Francisco soon spread across America and even around the globe, leaving the legacy of the sixties with a colorful...