A generic hippy
By 1967, the year of the ‘summer of love’, Watts, according to Snyder, had become a full-scale flower child. Now he had long flowing hair, a beard, and various kinds of kimonos, gowns or chasubles. He was never to be seen in trousers, shirts and ties any more.
On January 14 that year, he was central to the famous ‘Be-In’ at Golden Gate Park, the biggest countercultural show so far. Snyder, Ginsberg, Watts and others performed pradakshina, a Hindu rite. Bands performing included later to be legendary figures such as Jefferson Airplane, The Grateful Dead, Big Brother and the Holding Company, and Quicksilver Messenger Service,
That same year he held the ‘Houseboat Sessions’ on the Vallejo with Gary Snyder, Allen Ginsberg and Timothy Leary, a conversation on Zen, Art, Beat and much else. Notes of idealism still sounded, but the Haight Ashbury by the middle of that year, was already becoming debased by the influx of hippies and deadbeats from all over America and the world.
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