In Search of the Lost Chord: 1967 and the Hippie Idea

In Search of the Lost Chord is Danny Goldberg's unique eyewitness history of these epochal twelve months, which saw the flowering of the Haight-Ashbury hippie community in San Francisco, the release of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper and debut albums from The Doors, The Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. It was the year of the Summer of Love and LSD; the Monterey Pop Festival; Muhammad Ali's conviction for draft avoidance and Martin Luther King Jr's public opposition to the war in Vietnam; Black Power; the Six-Day War and Che Guevara's murder. Exhaustively researched and informed by interviews including Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary and Gil Scott-Heron (one of Goldberg's high school classmates), In Search of the Lost Chord is a refreshing new analysis of the era and provides a unique perspective on how and why the legacy of 1967 lives on today.

About the Author :
Danny Goldberg is an author and rock music industry veteran. He is president of Gold Village Entertainment, whose clients include Steve Earle and The Hives. Previously, he was president of Gold Mountain Entertainment (Nirvana, Bonnie Raitt), chairman of Warner Bros. Records, president of Atlantic Records, and vice president of Led Zeppelin's Swan Song Records. He was also Zeppelin's publicist in the early 70s and had his first break reporting on Woodstock for Billboard Magazine in 1969. He lives in New York City.

Review :
Hippie 101-a kaleidoscopic snapshot of the Big Bang fifty years ago, three parts social and musical history, one part personal memoir, a sweeping overview that also manages to be up close and personal. Bravo. Danny Goldberg has done something I would not have thought possible: with diligent research, sharp prose, a clear mind, and an open heart, he has rescued a period of history from the clichés that had previously defined it. This extraordinary book transports us back to a 'moment' when, as Goldberg writes,the phrase '"peace and love" was not meant or taken ironically.' Beginning at sixteen, Goldberg was a participant in the rise and cresting of the hippie movement, the hippie ideal, which has been trivialized and disparaged in later decades. He cuts through the obfuscation and recreates the sense of magic, wonder, intimacy, and community that was in the air and you could breathe it in. If you want to know, or remember, what it was like to be alive and part of that historic wave, I can think of no better guide than In Search of the Lost Chord. In a time of the harshest dissonance, Danny Goldberg's In Search of the Lost Chord arrives like soma from a heaven that is still up there if you look hard enough. One the great gambits of the rightist culture has been to paint the 1960s, and the hippie movement in particular, as some stammering, slothful stoner movie. As an eyewitness, I can testify it was much, much more. Danny Goldberg's highly informative missive from that long, strange trip not only reminds veterans of the glorious possibilities of the age but also serves as an excellent primer to onward generations. Goldberg plunges into a thorough, panoramic account of the culture, politics, media, music and mores of the year to demolish the idea that it was trivial. He has researched and interviewed widely - his section on underground newspapers is impressively detailed - and he's been there with many of the principals through all these years. Some of the stories, like the development and popularization of LSD and the saga of the Monterey Pop Festival, have been told before (though readers may be surprised to learn that psychedelic music's launchpad was a Nevada dive called the Red Dog Saloon). But Goldberg's deep purchase on his subject and his storytelling ease make it fresh. Goldberg is fascinating on the origins of political activism, from the Cold War peace movement and the fallout from the Korean War. Goldberg brings a personal passion that itself illustrates the lasting resonance of the hippie era. At the core of Goldberg's readable, entertainingly anecdotal book is a chronicle and summary of what the Sixties cultural moment has left posterity. Goldberg has created a detailed insight into an important snapshot of our history whilst also banishing the popular cliché of the hippie movement... In Search of the Lost Chord is also a timely reminder that people power does indeed have an effect and that change is always possible.