Scott McKenzie, who sang the ballad "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)," has died at the age of 73.
Mr. McKenzie's composition couldn't surpass in popularity either of the top two San Francisco songs, "I Left My Heart" or "San Francisco (Open Your Golden Gate)" but over the years has exhibited remarkable staying power. Derided for its fairy-tale simplicity when it was released in 1967, "San Francisco" evokes the dawning of the Age of Aquarius and ignores the darker aspects of the Sixties, for example, Indochina, ghetto riots, and assassinations.
The former, I suppose, are the memories that we aging Baby Boomers wish to hold on to. R.I.P.
[Update: another page to add to the San Francisco songbook is Otis Redding's Sitting on the Dock of the Bay. I hadn't realized until now that the lyric is "I left my home in Georgia, headed for the 'Frisco bay." I had always heard crystal bay. Today's word: mondegreen.]
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