"Waking Up From The Hashbury Dream"

They came from all over, the migration of '67
to Haight Ashbury in search of the new,
away from the world their parents had created
from the ashes of a time gone askew.
They wanted a world where all could live together
and for a time it seemed to be so,
The Airplane took off, and Big Brother landed,
bringing a sound to San Francisco.

Music, the freedom that was denied before them
"all you need is love", The Beatles had said,
an age of aquarius took shape that summer
live at the fillmore, The Grateful Dead.
"tune in, turn on, drop out", the new revolution
Timothy Leary spoke from the be-in floor,
Joan Baez urged girls "say yes to boys who say no"
to the draft and the horrors of war.

Owsley's acid opened minds to a new awareness
the magic bus came riding into the town,
of love and peace, all of the flower children
celebrated the new community they'd found.
In the beginning there were mimes and Merry Pranksters,
by '70 there'd be Charles Manson and rage,
while King had a dream, and Bobbie K had a vision,
someone pulled a trigger and turned the page.

Non-violent protest demonstrations took form
finally the boys were coming home from 'nam
But more were sent right back out to Cambodia
by the brilliance of Nixon and old Uncle Sam.
On college campuses soon all was in chaos,
National Guard killed 4 in Ohio state
while the world outside the new hippie gathering
pretended everything was great.

Abby Hoffman gave a cause to the activists,
while Grace Slick showed the Black Panthers sign,
The Chicago 8, the Oakland 7, both were deep sixed,
so much for a revolution this time.
Still music and love continued to flourish
sweeping 'cross nation to Woodstock unaware
until the throng came packing to see the circus
"look at the bums with flowers in their hair."

At Altamont Speedway, a free concert took place
Marty Balin knocked unconscious mid song,
while Hell's Angel's beat a black man to a cruel death,
the band was ordered to play on.
The seasons of love had now become brutal
in another year both Joplin and Hendrix would pass
from this psychedelic world into the next one
the end of an age would come at last.

In the summer of love a dream was born,
but it became corrupted along the way
media and consumerism came sweeping like vultures
to make profit from the city by the bay.
and while the alternative press tried to print the truth
the world screamed it was drugs and sex
for the reason that the utopia was dying
to leave the new youth culture a wreck.

One october in a coffin they lay "the hippie" to rest
a symbolic gesture to show it was done
the end of an innocence, let's all go home now
we'll never see this again under the sun.
They came from all over, the migration of '67
within a few years they abandoned the scene
yet for a moment there was a brief flash of beauty
before waking up from the Hashbury dream.