The King and Queen of Monterey Pop

Nico and Brian Jones were the reigning King and Queen of the Monterey Pop Festival, which ran from June 16 to June 18, 1967. Brian and Nico actually first met two years before when she recorded her first single "I'm Not Saying"/"The Last Mile." She became part of the Warhol crowd soon after, and The Velvet Underground & Nico had just been released when she appeared at the festival with Rolling Stones star Brian Jones, who had just split with Anita Pallenberg. Their stars couldn't have crossed at a better time, and Blonde on Blonde mk 2 made quite an impression at the Monterey Pop. They hung out with people like then-newbie Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, the Mamas and the Papas, and Dennis Hopper. They dressed fabulously, Nico in pre-punk black from head to toe topped with a scarf and sunglasses, and Brian, ever flamboyant, wore white pants with a psychedelically patterned jacket lined in fur, with colorful scarves and necklaces underneath. He must be wearing some sort of heel, as they appear to be the same height but she was 4 inches taller than he. One reviewer named Brian the "unofficial 'king' of the festival." Well deserved, I say.

"If You're Going To San Francisco...

... be sure to wear some flowers in your hair..." - John Phillips, "San Francisco"

San Francisco was THE place to be from 1965-1970, particularly in '67 -the Summer of Love- where it was the center of the hippie revolution. The revolution all started with the first human "be-in"-- a gathering of hippies in January, and that summer they converged into a crowd of around 100,000 to the city. They had psychoactive drugs, free love, and some amazing music, straight from the nearby Monterey Pop Festival: the Byrds, Janis Joplin with Big Brother and Holding Company, Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, and many more from what is known as the "San Francisco Sound." Even the British visited-- George and Pattie Harrison (Beatle and model) dropped in to see the LSD capital of the world, and Brian Jones (Rolling Stones) was at Monterey with Nico. The Summer of Love ended officially in October with the "Death of the Hippie" ceremony, but the Flower Children live on.

(Photos from: Charles W. Cushman, Summer of Love Gallery, and Hippie Life.)