ABSTRACT
Out in San Francisco, a group of musicians, supported and inspired by a growing counterculture community, was giving birth to a musical style destined to become one of American rock's most creative and culturally exotic. This chapter focuses on six of the era's most popular bands—Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and the Holding Company (featuring Janis Joplin), Country Joe and the Fish, the Grateful Dead, and two later arrivals, Creedence Clearwater Revival and Santana—and the cultural milieu in which their music was created. In December 1965 Airplane became the first of the new groups to land a major-label contract, signing with RCA Records. The one vehicle that brought the San Francisco music scene to national attention via AM radio airplay was Jefferson Airplane's second album, Surrealistic Pillow, released in February 1967. It is difficult to separate the impact of San Francisco music from the impacts of the counterculture values it transmitted.
