A-list bands like Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Country Joe and The Fish, Santana and Steve Miller Band are among the best known and most successful examples of the San Francisco Sound of rock in the '60s.
Just beneath that tier were the likes of Moby Grape, Beau Brummels, Youngbloods, Blue Cheer and Quicksilver Messenger Service who got enough national exposure to still be familiar names.
Then there were the dozens of bands who never had the notoriety, but who were part and parcel of developing and sustaining The San Francisco Sound.
Sopwith Camel
One Way Records
Syndicate Of Sound
Sundazed Music
The List Goes On
Great Society was fronted by Grace Slick before she moved to Jefferson Airplane. Solo artists like Janis Joplin (Big Brother and The Holding Company) and Tracy Nelson (Mother Earth) became better known than the bands they emerged from. The Warlocks became Grateful Dead. The Tikis were unknown outside the Bay Area, but recorded a national hit single, "59th Street Bridge Song" in 1967, using the name Harper's Bazaar.And then there were the bands who never got a record deal, never had a hit single, never broke through: The Vejtables, Notes From The Underground, Savage Resurrection, Country Weather, Luther Pendragon, and Mourning Reign are just a few of those who nonetheless have a lasting place in the history of the San Francisco Sound.
