1 00:00:04,160 --> 00:00:06,720 Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to the short stuff. I'm Josh and there's Chuck, 2 00:00:06,760 --> 00:00:09,080 Speaker 1: and we're going to talk about flower power. So let's 3 00:00:09,080 --> 00:00:10,160 Speaker 1: start doing that right now. 4 00:00:11,039 --> 00:00:15,960 Speaker 2: Yeah. Kind of specifically the two flower Powers, because there 5 00:00:16,040 --> 00:00:20,799 Speaker 2: was one flower Power movement and the nineteen sixty seven 6 00:00:20,880 --> 00:00:24,920 Speaker 2: specifically into sixty eight that had to do with politics 7 00:00:25,600 --> 00:00:29,479 Speaker 2: and protests, and then there was a second Flower Power 8 00:00:29,560 --> 00:00:33,160 Speaker 2: movement kind of either concurrently or on the heels of that, 9 00:00:33,159 --> 00:00:35,720 Speaker 2: that was a little bit more about like, hey, man, 10 00:00:36,040 --> 00:00:37,760 Speaker 2: like wear this cool shirt and listen to this music. 11 00:00:37,760 --> 00:00:38,720 Speaker 2: We're in San Francisco. 12 00:00:39,080 --> 00:00:41,520 Speaker 1: Yeah, that is a good point, and one more from 13 00:00:41,560 --> 00:00:46,559 Speaker 1: the other. I think the whole thing originally had its 14 00:00:47,200 --> 00:00:51,599 Speaker 1: origin in nineteen sixty five thanks to Alan Ginsberg, who 15 00:00:51,640 --> 00:00:55,760 Speaker 1: would become one of the luminaries. He was, like Neil Cassidy, 16 00:00:55,800 --> 00:01:00,400 Speaker 1: one of those rare beat generation guys who was able 17 00:01:00,400 --> 00:01:03,960 Speaker 1: to kind of make the transition over to hippie and 18 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:07,120 Speaker 1: so he became a luminary of this whole scene the 19 00:01:07,240 --> 00:01:11,400 Speaker 1: very beginning of like the hippie movement in the sixties, 20 00:01:11,880 --> 00:01:14,319 Speaker 1: and so by this time he was already a very 21 00:01:14,360 --> 00:01:18,480 Speaker 1: respected counterculture person. And so when a bunch of Berkeley 22 00:01:18,720 --> 00:01:24,600 Speaker 1: students decided that they were going to protest basically a 23 00:01:24,640 --> 00:01:28,120 Speaker 1: clamp down on political speech on campus. They asked Allen 24 00:01:28,160 --> 00:01:30,559 Speaker 1: Ginsburg if he had any advice for him, and boy 25 00:01:30,680 --> 00:01:31,360 Speaker 1: did he ever. 26 00:01:32,400 --> 00:01:35,080 Speaker 2: Yeah. He wrote a essay to give out to the 27 00:01:35,120 --> 00:01:40,880 Speaker 2: protesters called demonstration or spectacle as example as communication or 28 00:01:41,360 --> 00:01:43,919 Speaker 2: how to make a march slash spectacle. 29 00:01:44,040 --> 00:01:46,200 Speaker 1: And they said what and he said, just read it. 30 00:01:47,520 --> 00:01:50,880 Speaker 2: He's I love Allen Ginsburg, great poet, and he always 31 00:01:50,880 --> 00:01:52,480 Speaker 2: had these kind of funny long titles. 32 00:01:52,200 --> 00:01:57,360 Speaker 1: Like that yeah, or very short like how well, yeah, 33 00:01:57,400 --> 00:02:02,600 Speaker 1: good point, thanks man. So there was a lot to this, 34 00:02:02,760 --> 00:02:05,160 Speaker 1: But the thing that really has to do with our 35 00:02:06,040 --> 00:02:10,240 Speaker 1: episode is that he was searching for a way or 36 00:02:10,840 --> 00:02:14,000 Speaker 1: advising them to look for ways to basically take the 37 00:02:14,040 --> 00:02:17,720 Speaker 1: psychology of war and people who are for war and 38 00:02:18,440 --> 00:02:20,880 Speaker 1: that kind of stuff and just kind of change it. 39 00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:24,600 Speaker 1: Like take this scary thing and this violent thing and 40 00:02:24,720 --> 00:02:26,160 Speaker 1: just turn it on its head. If you're trying to 41 00:02:26,200 --> 00:02:29,800 Speaker 1: protest it, just don't follow its rules of engagement, like 42 00:02:30,040 --> 00:02:30,959 Speaker 1: create your own. 43 00:02:32,520 --> 00:02:34,440 Speaker 2: Yeah. And you know, one of the things that was 44 00:02:34,520 --> 00:02:37,000 Speaker 2: they knew for sure was going to happen at this 45 00:02:37,120 --> 00:02:40,120 Speaker 2: Berkeley protest was the Hell's Angels were going to come 46 00:02:40,160 --> 00:02:44,360 Speaker 2: in to counter protest the protests, or I guess just 47 00:02:44,400 --> 00:02:47,680 Speaker 2: counter protests. And he said kind of like kill him 48 00:02:47,720 --> 00:02:50,120 Speaker 2: with kindness. You know, he didn't actually say the words 49 00:02:50,120 --> 00:02:53,840 Speaker 2: flower power, but he mentioned flowers as what he called 50 00:02:53,840 --> 00:02:58,440 Speaker 2: a visual spectacle, like masses of flowers, a visual spectacle, 51 00:02:58,520 --> 00:03:03,000 Speaker 2: especially concentrate in the front lines. And also little toy 52 00:03:03,040 --> 00:03:08,520 Speaker 2: soldiers and toy guns and candy and little tiny musical 53 00:03:08,520 --> 00:03:11,920 Speaker 2: instruments and to basically just sort of be like, yeah, 54 00:03:12,040 --> 00:03:14,679 Speaker 2: just throw a bunch of like silliness and whimsy at them, 55 00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:17,280 Speaker 2: and these hell's angels aren't know what to do. They 56 00:03:18,080 --> 00:03:19,920 Speaker 2: they might want to beat you up, but they'll probably 57 00:03:20,040 --> 00:03:21,520 Speaker 2: maybe even feel bad trying to. 58 00:03:22,080 --> 00:03:24,920 Speaker 1: Right, So this was really good advice, and that was 59 00:03:24,960 --> 00:03:29,280 Speaker 1: definitely the origin of flower power. And so you can 60 00:03:29,320 --> 00:03:31,760 Speaker 1: make a really good case and it would be totally 61 00:03:31,760 --> 00:03:36,720 Speaker 1: correct that the flower power movement or idea came from 62 00:03:36,920 --> 00:03:41,600 Speaker 1: anti war protests or even before that, free speech protests 63 00:03:41,640 --> 00:03:45,840 Speaker 1: among young liberals and counterculture types, even before there was 64 00:03:45,880 --> 00:03:48,680 Speaker 1: such a thing as hippies like Sonny and Cher were 65 00:03:48,760 --> 00:03:51,200 Speaker 1: just starting to get into this. It was so early, right, 66 00:03:51,920 --> 00:03:55,640 Speaker 1: and so those students at Berkeley were successful. The administration 67 00:03:55,760 --> 00:03:58,520 Speaker 1: at the university was like, fine, say whatever you want, 68 00:03:58,560 --> 00:04:01,120 Speaker 1: we don't care anymore. Just just get off the lawn. 69 00:04:02,120 --> 00:04:04,640 Speaker 1: And then that got parlaid into Okay, well, this is 70 00:04:04,680 --> 00:04:07,360 Speaker 1: a we're creating a movement here, these kids really care 71 00:04:07,400 --> 00:04:10,760 Speaker 1: about stuff. How about we start targeting the Vietnam War. 72 00:04:11,120 --> 00:04:14,920 Speaker 1: And that really quickly easily translated into it. And there 73 00:04:14,960 --> 00:04:18,159 Speaker 1: was a very very famous picture that was essentially the 74 00:04:18,200 --> 00:04:22,200 Speaker 1: culmination of this whole ideal that Alan Ginsburg suggested and 75 00:04:22,240 --> 00:04:25,279 Speaker 1: that those Berkeley students first adopted. And it came in 76 00:04:25,400 --> 00:04:28,400 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty seven, I believe it, with a march on 77 00:04:28,440 --> 00:04:29,039 Speaker 1: the Pentagon. 78 00:04:29,920 --> 00:04:32,320 Speaker 2: Yeah, there were more than one hundred thousand people at 79 00:04:32,320 --> 00:04:37,240 Speaker 2: this march, peaceful protest, and a very very famous picture, 80 00:04:37,279 --> 00:04:39,000 Speaker 2: like you mentioned, was taken by a guy named Bernie 81 00:04:39,040 --> 00:04:44,440 Speaker 2: Boston of the Washington Star when he captured a young guy, 82 00:04:44,600 --> 00:04:49,719 Speaker 2: eighteen year old aspiring actor named George Harris, when twenty 83 00:04:49,760 --> 00:04:53,680 Speaker 2: five hundred Reserve troops with M fourteen machine guns came 84 00:04:53,720 --> 00:04:57,880 Speaker 2: out and surrounded the place, he very calmly walked up 85 00:04:57,920 --> 00:04:59,760 Speaker 2: and stuck a daisy and the end of that gun, 86 00:05:00,520 --> 00:05:04,120 Speaker 2: creating one of the most iconic photos of the nineteen sixties. 87 00:05:04,240 --> 00:05:06,680 Speaker 1: Yeah, it's pretty neat. It's called the flower Power photo. 88 00:05:06,720 --> 00:05:09,479 Speaker 1: It's really great to see. And also his sweater is 89 00:05:09,600 --> 00:05:10,240 Speaker 1: just amazing. 90 00:05:11,279 --> 00:05:11,600 Speaker 2: It is. 91 00:05:12,120 --> 00:05:15,400 Speaker 1: So I say we come back and talk about how 92 00:05:15,400 --> 00:05:19,039 Speaker 1: flower power morphed from that into what we think of 93 00:05:19,080 --> 00:05:19,960 Speaker 1: it today. How about that. 94 00:05:20,600 --> 00:05:59,680 Speaker 2: Let's do it all right, So, now we're in San Francisco. 95 00:06:00,400 --> 00:06:03,960 Speaker 2: The hippie movement is genuinely underway at this point. That's 96 00:06:04,000 --> 00:06:07,520 Speaker 2: the epicenter of it all during one of the mini 97 00:06:07,520 --> 00:06:11,320 Speaker 2: summers of love that we've talked about, and flower powers 98 00:06:11,400 --> 00:06:13,359 Speaker 2: sort of goten morphed a little bit and it wasn't 99 00:06:13,360 --> 00:06:16,680 Speaker 2: so much political protests anymore. It was just like, hey, 100 00:06:16,720 --> 00:06:18,920 Speaker 2: man like violence it in the way you got to 101 00:06:18,960 --> 00:06:22,320 Speaker 2: love your neighbor, you got to just get on board 102 00:06:22,320 --> 00:06:26,280 Speaker 2: with these cool clothes. It became more of sort of 103 00:06:25,680 --> 00:06:32,479 Speaker 2: a cultural even fashion touchstone that had not much to 104 00:06:32,520 --> 00:06:34,960 Speaker 2: do with protest, even though it was still about living 105 00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:36,440 Speaker 2: kind of a groovy, peaceful life. 106 00:06:36,520 --> 00:06:39,320 Speaker 1: It got co opted, and that's a really great way 107 00:06:39,360 --> 00:06:44,120 Speaker 1: to defuse an actual movement is to commercialize it and 108 00:06:44,160 --> 00:06:46,320 Speaker 1: sell it and repackage it to the rest of them 109 00:06:46,520 --> 00:06:50,400 Speaker 1: the America. That's exactly what happened because a lot of 110 00:06:50,400 --> 00:06:53,400 Speaker 1: those hippies were like, yeah, I don't want to hurt anybody. 111 00:06:53,480 --> 00:06:55,080 Speaker 1: I don't want anybody to have to die in war. 112 00:06:55,160 --> 00:06:58,039 Speaker 1: But really I'm kind of here for the chicks and 113 00:06:58,080 --> 00:07:02,080 Speaker 1: the acid. That's really what I'm into. So it was 114 00:07:02,160 --> 00:07:06,520 Speaker 1: kind of easy for it to transition into yeah, just 115 00:07:06,560 --> 00:07:09,320 Speaker 1: a trend, a fashion trend. I mean, it eventually trickled 116 00:07:09,320 --> 00:07:11,520 Speaker 1: down to the Brady kids, for God's sake, that's how 117 00:07:11,560 --> 00:07:15,120 Speaker 1: far away it got from putting flowers into gun barrels 118 00:07:15,160 --> 00:07:19,600 Speaker 1: in protests of Vietnam. And that definitely happened. That transition 119 00:07:19,720 --> 00:07:24,120 Speaker 1: did definitely happen in nineteen sixty seven in San Francisco, 120 00:07:24,680 --> 00:07:27,680 Speaker 1: and this was not lost on anybody who was really 121 00:07:27,720 --> 00:07:30,040 Speaker 1: into this movement at the time. I was really upset 122 00:07:30,400 --> 00:07:34,240 Speaker 1: to see it turn into a commercialized fashion trend. 123 00:07:34,760 --> 00:07:37,240 Speaker 2: Yeah for sure, but that's kind of what happened in 124 00:07:37,320 --> 00:07:42,000 Speaker 2: the hate Ashbury District shop open there called the Psychedelic Shop. 125 00:07:43,760 --> 00:07:48,360 Speaker 2: This is just shortly before ls was criminalized in the 126 00:07:48,440 --> 00:07:51,320 Speaker 2: United States, or at least in California. But at the 127 00:07:51,360 --> 00:07:54,320 Speaker 2: time you could go there and get education on doing 128 00:07:54,360 --> 00:07:56,280 Speaker 2: acid and like how to best do it and by it. 129 00:07:57,080 --> 00:08:00,960 Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it was legal that you just go down the. 130 00:08:00,880 --> 00:08:04,320 Speaker 1: Street to the psychedelic shop and buy some barrel acid. 131 00:08:04,960 --> 00:08:08,600 Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. So it's a it's a fashion thing 132 00:08:08,640 --> 00:08:11,559 Speaker 2: at this point. All the brightly colored sort of tide 133 00:08:11,560 --> 00:08:14,720 Speaker 2: ie stuff and literal like flower print dresses and things 134 00:08:14,840 --> 00:08:17,920 Speaker 2: like that was a It was a group of kids 135 00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:21,200 Speaker 2: kind of casting off finally, like the garments of the 136 00:08:21,280 --> 00:08:24,880 Speaker 2: nineteen fifties of their parents, where you know, women were 137 00:08:25,240 --> 00:08:30,360 Speaker 2: girdles and you know, skirts that weren't very comfortable and 138 00:08:30,400 --> 00:08:33,280 Speaker 2: too tight and too long, and they're like, hey, put 139 00:08:33,280 --> 00:08:37,840 Speaker 2: on this like free flowing linen flower frock and take 140 00:08:37,840 --> 00:08:40,360 Speaker 2: off that bra. Yeah, and tell me how that feels. 141 00:08:40,480 --> 00:08:42,800 Speaker 1: Yeah, and burn it in this fifty five gallon drum 142 00:08:42,880 --> 00:08:44,200 Speaker 1: and we have a fire going. 143 00:08:44,040 --> 00:08:46,160 Speaker 2: In right, which did not happen. 144 00:08:46,920 --> 00:08:49,720 Speaker 1: No, that's awesome that you remembered that, because I had forgotten. 145 00:08:50,920 --> 00:08:53,319 Speaker 1: So there, like I said, there were people who were 146 00:08:53,360 --> 00:08:56,160 Speaker 1: not happy about this transition. They really believed in flower 147 00:08:56,200 --> 00:08:59,480 Speaker 1: power and were kind of bummed that, like like all 148 00:08:59,520 --> 00:09:01,079 Speaker 1: of these people had just kind of come out and 149 00:09:01,120 --> 00:09:04,640 Speaker 1: we're missing the point. So they actually held a funeral 150 00:09:05,160 --> 00:09:09,360 Speaker 1: for the hippie in nineteen sixty seven. It was in 151 00:09:09,480 --> 00:09:14,360 Speaker 1: October nineteen sixty seven. They had a funeral march or 152 00:09:14,440 --> 00:09:18,880 Speaker 1: procession I guess through Hayde Ashbury, and they even burned 153 00:09:18,880 --> 00:09:21,960 Speaker 1: the Psychedelic Shop sign. And I was trying to figure 154 00:09:22,000 --> 00:09:24,320 Speaker 1: outf the Psychedelic Shop's owner would have been like, yeah, 155 00:09:24,440 --> 00:09:26,680 Speaker 1: that's the right thing to do, burn my sign, or 156 00:09:26,720 --> 00:09:29,400 Speaker 1: would have been like, hey, stop burning my sign. I 157 00:09:29,440 --> 00:09:31,600 Speaker 1: can't figure out how that would have gone down, but 158 00:09:32,000 --> 00:09:34,400 Speaker 1: it did go down like that. And also, for anybody 159 00:09:34,440 --> 00:09:37,400 Speaker 1: who's listened to our Biosphere in episode, this is about 160 00:09:37,440 --> 00:09:41,120 Speaker 1: the time when the Synergians probably left for New Mexico. 161 00:09:41,480 --> 00:09:44,960 Speaker 2: Yeah, totally. One guy was pretty happy that it waited 162 00:09:45,040 --> 00:09:48,360 Speaker 2: until later in nineteen sixty seven, at least because a 163 00:09:48,360 --> 00:09:51,480 Speaker 2: guy named Scott McKenzie had a big hit earlier that 164 00:09:51,559 --> 00:09:56,040 Speaker 2: year with the song San Francisco, which we for one 165 00:09:56,080 --> 00:09:58,360 Speaker 2: of our San Francisco shows. I believe it was the 166 00:09:58,360 --> 00:10:01,600 Speaker 2: one at the Palaci Fine Arch years ago. We played 167 00:10:01,600 --> 00:10:04,920 Speaker 2: this song as our walkout song, which was a mistake 168 00:10:05,000 --> 00:10:08,120 Speaker 2: because it's a little too mellow. If you're going to 169 00:10:08,160 --> 00:10:10,760 Speaker 2: San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair. 170 00:10:11,120 --> 00:10:13,079 Speaker 2: So he got that in just under the wire. 171 00:10:13,400 --> 00:10:16,600 Speaker 1: Yeah. Less famously, the next line is or else those 172 00:10:16,679 --> 00:10:20,480 Speaker 1: hippies will mess you up real good. Yeah, but that 173 00:10:20,600 --> 00:10:23,840 Speaker 1: helped kind of spread flower power also to the rest 174 00:10:23,880 --> 00:10:26,360 Speaker 1: of mainstream America because that song was such a big hit. 175 00:10:27,280 --> 00:10:29,960 Speaker 1: All that stuff kind of combined really led to the 176 00:10:30,000 --> 00:10:32,880 Speaker 1: death of flower power and ultimately the image we have 177 00:10:32,960 --> 00:10:36,439 Speaker 1: of it today. But had tip to those kids that 178 00:10:37,240 --> 00:10:40,840 Speaker 1: gave it its original meaning and Alan Getzburg too. 179 00:10:41,679 --> 00:10:44,600 Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, that picture's iconic and I kind of 180 00:10:44,760 --> 00:10:46,600 Speaker 2: take it for granted now because I've seen it so 181 00:10:46,640 --> 00:10:50,280 Speaker 2: many times. But it took a lot of guts for 182 00:10:50,400 --> 00:10:53,000 Speaker 2: that kid, an eighteen year old kid, to walk up 183 00:10:53,000 --> 00:10:55,840 Speaker 2: to a guy with a machine gun and stick a 184 00:10:55,880 --> 00:10:58,280 Speaker 2: flower in that barrel. That was a bold move. 185 00:10:58,440 --> 00:11:01,200 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's a great one to put it. I 186 00:11:01,200 --> 00:11:03,320 Speaker 1: also want to give a hat tip to our former 187 00:11:03,360 --> 00:11:09,520 Speaker 1: colleague and host of Unladylike the podcast, Kristen Conger, who 188 00:11:09,600 --> 00:11:12,840 Speaker 1: wrote this originally for How Stuff Works so many years ago. 189 00:11:13,600 --> 00:11:17,200 Speaker 2: That's right, Congs is great and I miss working with 190 00:11:17,240 --> 00:11:19,080 Speaker 2: her and I miss being in touch with her. This 191 00:11:19,160 --> 00:11:21,560 Speaker 2: made me kind of want to email her and just 192 00:11:21,559 --> 00:11:22,120 Speaker 2: say how you. 193 00:11:22,040 --> 00:11:26,079 Speaker 1: Doing, hey, man. With the spirit of flower Power, compels 194 00:11:26,120 --> 00:11:30,920 Speaker 1: you go ahead and do that chuck. All right, Wait, 195 00:11:30,960 --> 00:11:35,679 Speaker 1: I didn't say short stuff is out. 196 00:11:36,280 --> 00:11:38,600 Speaker 2: Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. 197 00:11:39,080 --> 00:11:42,280 Speaker 1: For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, 198 00:11:42,480 --> 00:11:45,400 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.