Joan Didion interviewed The Grateful Dead in 1967, before they became music icons.

Joan Didion's 1967 'Slouching Towards Bethlehem' laid the hippie counterculture bare

Didion wrote a detailed account of living alongside hippies in San Francisco's Haight Ashbury area in the 1960s. Beyond their style and politics, Didion uncovered chaos, with one particularly shocking interview of a 5-year-old on LSD. Her stories challenged the movement's message of freedom and utopia in California.

Jay Blakesberg is the Grateful Dead's longtime photographer

Jay Blakesberg sold his first photos of the Grateful Dead in 1978 to his hometown paper in New Jersey. 50 years later, he's still shooting the various incarnations of the band, acting as the band's visual historian.

The Beat movement started in San Francisco, but quickly moved beyond it

This documentary features interviews with Beat writers Diane di Prima and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, reflecting on their arrival in San Francisco and the explosion of Beat culture in the city and beyond. “It’s not a generation,” di Prima says, reading one of her verses, “it’s a state of mind.”

A Grateful Dead online bulletin board system inspired the early internet and counted some of tech's biggest names, like Apple's Steve Wozniak, as users.

The Grateful Dead pioneered a massive 3-story, 75-ton, 600-speaker sound system that revolutionized live audio in the early 1970s.

Read a 1984 interview with Dolly Parton, conducted by artist Andy Warhol.

Dylan's raucous 1976 tour was one piece of an ongoing reinvention

In the mid-70s, Dylan assembled a ragtag group of musicians and poets—including Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, and Allen Ginsberg—he called the Rolling Thunder Revue. Rather than playing stadiums in major markets, they played smaller venues in smaller cities for a more intimate experience. The tour yielded some of the most exuberant versions of Dylan songs, captured in this 1976 performance in Fort Collins, which originally aired on NBC as “Hard Rain.”

Revisiting the milieu of the Greenwich Village music scene

Few neighborhoods of the world stand out as more productive of a robust music scene than New York City's Greenwich Village, the bohemian launchpad of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, and other folk artists of the 1960s and '70s. Expert David Browne discusses why it became so significant in this episode of "Sound Opinions."

The first song delivered by a podcast was the Grateful Dead's 'Truckin.''

Joan Didion's Friendsgivings had famous guests and massive home-cooked meals

The influential writer enjoyed cooking for large groups, which included novelists Philip Roth, Edna O'Brien, and Nora Ephron.

The Beat Generation inspired significant parts of 1960s counterculture

The Beat Generation championed the transformative power of psychedelics, rebelled against the post-war social order, and called for more radical politics. With a strong foothold in San Francisco, it's no surprise these themes were carried over to the city's 1960s counterculture, informing the larger national hippie movement.

Joan Didion's 1975 commencement speech at UCR encouraged graduates to think outside of themselves

Filled with many widely circulated quotes, the talk addresses people's tendency to focus only on their personal ideologies and perceptions of the world. Didion advocates for being an active participant in the world, rather than existing only in our own bubbles.

The Beat Generation, explained

The Beat Generation challenged societal norms in the 1950s by embracing experimental writing and tackling taboo topics like drug use, spirituality, and nonconformity. Figures like Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and Diane di Prima sparked a cultural movement that rejected traditional literary forms and explored the hidden struggles of American life.

Listen to Woody Guthrie's 1940 concept album about agricultural and economic destruction, 'Dust Bowl Ballads.'

Watch a 1965 press conference with Bob Dylan where he mocks the media's focus on celebrity.

The Six Gallery, and San Francisco at large, helped the Beats grow

The Six Gallery was located in the “Harlem of the West,” where jazz musicians, filmmakers, painters and poets experimented with no regard for commercial success. “If Ginsberg had broken new ground,” historian Rebecca Solnit writes, “the Six had made it possible to go public with it.”

Steinbeck's novel 'The Grapes of Wrath' was inspired by a series of newspaper reports he wrote about migrant farm workers.

A bootleg video of a 1966 conversation between Bob Dylan and John Lennon has long been a cryptic text for the artists' superfans.

Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, and Neal Cassady were early Beats

Works like Ginsberg’s "Howl" and Kerouac’s "On the Road" redefined literature, inspiring countercultural movements for several decades.

Watch a conservative icon interview Allen Ginsberg, a figurehead of the Beat Generation.

Judee Sill's admirers hear a legend gone before her prime

The singer-songwriter released only two albums in her lifetime: 1971's self-titled and 1973's "Heart Food." Critics and contemporaries (including Graham Nash and David Crosby) praised both, though they were commercial flops. She died of a drug overdose in 1979 and had grown so obscure by then that no obituary was published. In the early 2000s, her recordings were reissued and found a new generation of fans.

In 1984, Bob Dylan reimagined himself as the front man of a punk band for a performance on David Letterman's late-night talk show.

Stephen King's basement inspired a Ramones classic

The horror writer was a fan of the band and invited them to his home in Maine. While hanging out in the basement, Dee Dee Ramone, the band's bassist, stole away with a copy of King's "Pet Sematary" and wrote a song about it. The song appeared in the film adaptation of the book, which began shooting a month later.

Watch a 2008 interview with Gloria Steinem, a leading voice in second-wave feminism.

A legendary rock writer ranks the greatest girl group records

Greil Marcus is considered one of the greatest American rock writers of all time, providing a literary legitimacy to rock ‘n’ roll when it was still considered mere pop culture. This 1975 essay on the great girl group records is the perfect example, offering a thought-provoking analysis of the era’s definitive singles.

The Shaggs weren't good musicians, but they still made a classic

In 1969, the three sisters recorded "Philosophy of the World"; only 100 copies were publicly distributed. The record became a cult classic thanks to its strange backstory (their father forced them into playing music) and the band's amateurism. Critic Lester Bangs wrote, "They can't play a lick! But mainly they got the right attitude, which is all rock'n'roll's ever been about from day one."

A lost Jack Kerouac story was discovered in the belongings of a gunned-down mob boss

The unpublished "The Holy, Beat, and Crazy Next Thing" was found in the belongings of Paul Castellano, who was murdered in 1985. It's unclear why Castellano had it, though an heir says it was originally in the collection of a "noted San Francisco-based poet...who received it directly from the author."

Death, early innovators of punk, were unknown for decades

The band of three brothers from Detroit recorded a 1974 demo that predicted the punk explosion that would arrive just a few years later with the Ramones and the Sex Pistols. But the band, Death, were complete unknowns until collectors rediscovered their music in the 2000s.

In 1966, Dylan was in a motorcycle accident

At the height of his popularity, Bob Dylan disappeared. The press reported it was due to a near-fatal motorcycle accident, though specifics were never provided. When he returned some time later, with a new album and sound, Dylan fans treated the accident as a pivotal moment in the legendary artist's career. But there's ample proof the accident never happened and, at its core, was little more than a cover story for a burnt-out rock star.

'Frank Sinatra Has a Cold' is one of the seminal works of New Journalism

The profile broke with convention by focusing on the story of pursuing the story rather than one that celebrated the subject. Vanity Fair called it "the greatest literary-nonfiction story of the 20th century." (Some users may experience a paywall.)

Allen Ginsberg debuted his poem 'Howl' at San Francisco's Six Gallery in 1955, kicking off the nationwide interest in the Beat Generation.

The Beatles' visit with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi helped inspire Western interest in Eastern spirituality

The Fab Four met with the guru—the creator of Transcendental Meditation—in 1968 in Rishikesh, India. The band's George Harrison and his wife had been interested in Indian culture for several years, but the meeting with Maharishi signified a meeting of Western popular culture with Eastern spirituality that would inspire the rising hippie movement.

The news feature that broke grunge

The Sub Pop label paid for journalist Everett True, then writing for Melody Maker, to fly to the sleepy northwestern city to check out the scene, which was breeding a curious mix of punk rock and heavy metal. The gambit worked. "The most vibrant, kicking music scene encompassed in one city for at least 10 years," Everett wrote.

Listen to Bruce Springsteen's first band, the Castiles, which he joined when he was still a teenager.

The Ramones' debut album went gold 38 years after its release.

Clive Davis was responsible for signing influential artists and superstars, including Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen, and Alicia Keys.

An early Sly and the Family Stone live recording was discovered in 2002

A live recording of the legendary funk band in 1967—shortly before their mainstream breakthrough—was found in 2002 by two of the band's unofficial archivists. However, the full recording, "The First Family: Live at Winchester Cathedral 1967," wasn't released until 2025.

Gay Talese's 1966 Frank Sinatra profile was written without an interview with Sinatra

After numerous rejections from Sinatra, Esquire, and writer Gay Talese continued to pursue the profile, gathering information from observing Sinatra and interviewing friends and fans of his. Readers (and future writers) admired the way Talese captured the many layers of Sinatra’s personality from his generosity to his short temper.

‘The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved’ signaled the birth of Gonzo Journalism

The 1970 essay opens with a crude conversation between Hunter S. Thompson, the author, and a man at an airport bar. Thompson’s first-person account places him as an active participant. Instead of focusing on the race itself, Thompson paints vivid details of his experience with the hedonistic scene surrounding it.

Watch Johnny Cash’s 1969 concert at San Quentin

Johnny Cash is one of the most recognizable names in country music, but by the 1960s, he was also a rock icon. Part of that status was due to his outlaw identity and willingness to play for true outsiders. This documentary from one of his most famous performances shows why.

Watch an early performance by Bruce Springsteen at a Greenwich Village coffeehouse in 1972.

Bob Dylan considered Woody Guthrie a foundational influence, a sentiment he immortalized in his 1962 recording 'Song to Woody.'

Fifty backstage photos of musicians in the 1970s

Elton John, James Brown, Cher, Diana Ross, and many others all have famous photos seen multiple times on album covers, iconic images from events, and more. Rare is the unseen backstage photo of the greats, lounging or rocking out or, like Bo Diddley, frying up some chicken pre-show at the Garden. Peruse this incredible collection of candid shots of 1970s stars waiting in the wings to come on stage.

The Beat Generation was a 'beaten down', jazz-influenced American literary movement

The movement, which rose to prominence in the 1950s, was primarily composed of poets challenging orthodoxies of post-war American literature and society. Figurehead Allen Ginsberg and his long poem "Howl" represented a rallying cry for a burgeoning counterculture.

Bob Dylan wrote and recorded songs that later became hits when they were covered by artists like Jimi Hendrix, Adele, and Guns N' Roses.

The Beats also influenced the imagery of the 1960s

First editions of Burroughs’s "The Naked Lunch," Kerouac’s "The Dharma Bums," and Ferlinghetti’s "A Coney Island of the Mind" were just as notable for their text as they were for their design, which anticipated the psychedelic imagery of 1960s countercultural touchstones like Ken Kesey, Andy Warhol, and R. Crumb.

Watch a definitive girl group documentary

The 1983 documentary "Girl Groups: The Story of a Sound" features archival footage of some of the Shirelles, the Ronettes, the Shangri-Las, and more alongside interviews with the performers and songwriters. It's a fascinating look back at the music, told by the people who pioneered it.

Watch Mike Wallace's fascinating interview with Salvador Dalí

In 1958, Salvador Dalí spoke in a TV interview with legendary journalist Mike Wallace about genius, the subconscious, weakness, old age, luxury, religion, and dreams, among a range of other topics. During this candid conversation, Dalí challenged American audiences to consider death and mortality. Watch the discussion here.

Listen to Gay Talese read from ‘Frank Sinatra Has a Cold’

The writer revisits his 1966 profile on Frank Sinatra, one of the most popular magazine stories ever written. The story uncovered aspects of Sinatra’s life previously unknown to most people, such as having a personal staff of 75 people, including one person to take care of his hairpieces.

Jean-Paul Sartre was amazed by American jazz

The French philosopher wrote about a 1947 trip to a New York jazz club as a transcendent experience, describing the magic of the relationship between performer and audience: "You shout, they shriek, they whistle, they are possessed, you are possessed."