If you're like me and haven't been paying attention, the San Francisco flowers in your hair guy died

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Got the new (print edition) Rolling Stone today.

Had no idea Summer of Love One Hit Wunderkind Scott McKenzie died.

R.I.P., buddy...it was ONE hit, but an INDELIBLE and EMBLEMATIC one.

Scott McKenzie, Singer Known for ‘San Francisco,’ Dies at 73



From left, Denny Doherty, Michelle Gilliam, Scott McKenzie, Cass Elliott and John Phillips in London in October 1967.
By LESLIE KAUFMAN
Published: August 20, 2012

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/21/arts/music/scott-mckenzie-singer-known-for-san-francisco-dies-at-73.html

Scott McKenzie, who performed the 1967 ballad “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair),” which became a defining hit for the counterculture generation and helped draw tens of thousands to the Haight-Ashbury district for the Summer of Love, died on Saturday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 73.

The cause was unknown, said Dr. Frank Snyder, one of his physicians. A Web site devoted to Mr. McKenzie said that he had been ill for several weeks and that he suffered from Guillain-Barré syndrome, a disorder that causes the immune system to attack the nervous system.

“San Francisco” was written by John Phillips, a founder of the Mamas and the Papas, who had been a friend of Mr. McKenzie’s since high school. The two started a band called the Journeymen, which recorded several albums in the 1960s.

“San Francisco” hit a nerve with people looking to protest what they saw as an unjust social order, and it rocketed to No. 4 on the pop charts.

[marzipanni]

1. I heard on the radio news early one morning that he had died

I always liked that song since I flew out to San Francisco from Massachusetts for the first time to visit my cousins in 1967, when I was 16, so it reminds me of those times.
So many of the musicians I listened to over the years, if they made it this far, are in their seventies or close to it.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

2. I moved to California in 1972 when I was 17...

...so the soundtrack of my first one to two years here was a lot of "Motown / Philly" stuff like "Me & Mrs. Jones" & "Show & Tell," plus classic rock from Rod Stewart & Faces, Alice Cooper, plus the "Flo & Eddie" edition of Frank Zappa's band.

The whole "Summer of Love" thing, in 1967, was HUGE in my circle of friends. We listened to ALL of that music in basements, surrounded by posters and black lights and burning incense and...it's funny now, but at the time, we just threw ourselves into the whole thing, heart and soul, head first.

[zen_bohemian]

3. RIP....one of my favorite songs :)

n/m

[Denninmi]

4. Here's a contemporary song about San Francisco I really like

Train:

[monmouth]

5. McKenzie Phillips was named after him...n/t