DON'T YOU WANT SOMEBODY TO LOVE

Reflections on the
San Francisco Sound

Darby Slick


Sixties' nostalgia fans as well as devotees of rock and roll will delight in this candid, first hand account of the events and the people responsible for the genesis of the "San Francisco Sound".

Through intimate glimpses into the private lives and misadventures of some the '60s music scene's major and most popular players, such as Grace Slick, Jerry Garcia, Bill Graham, Janis Joplin, Tom Donahue, Chet Helms, and Neal Cassady, this book depicts in a casual yet informative way the very beginnings of the Haight Ashbury hippie scene; its roots and causes, its hopes and failures, and its dreams and realities.

We meet the famous characters of the San Francisco music scene at the very moment they achieved their celebrity, and we see them through the eyes of a fully accredited insider. If you were a part of this important epoch in contemporary American history, this book will take you back to that simple time with deja vu clarity. If you missed this seminal era, you will be enthralled by Darby's brutally honest depiction of the 1960s in San Francisco.

"Grace and Darby Slick began The Great Society with endless rehearsals and wild bursts of creation at the start of the Great Rock Revolution in San Francisco in the summer of 1965. They first reached the public with appearances at beginning dances at Longshoreman's Hall, the Fillmore Auditorium, Mother's, the Avalon Ballroom and the Matrix.... The group disbanded in early 1967 (after Grace left The Great Society and joined the Jefferson Airplane, ed.) and never made it on a nationwide basis. However, it did record and it did appear on various shows, and it left a legacy of sound and thought which made a deep impression on the San Francisco rock scene."    Ralph J. Gleason

"Having written Don't You Want Somebody to Love is a real feather in Darby Slick's cap. It became virtually the anthem of a generation and influenced the tone of things to come, ergo the, 'love generation'."    Chet Helms, The Family Dog

Darby Slick, who wrote the song Don't You Want Somebody to Love at around the same time that Grace Slick wrote White Rabbit continues to play music and record. He now lives in Tiburon, California with his wife and two sons.

  • Original cover art by Stanley Mouse
  • 4 page color insert with Great Society / Family Dog Posters
  • 18 black & white photographs of Darby, Grace and friends
  • 4 rare black & white posters of The Great Society with Grace Slick

$15.95, trade paper, 144 pages

ISBN 0-943389-08-9, 8 1/2" x 11"

16" x 22" color poster of cover art, $10.00, $20.00 signed by Mouse

How to Order

Back to SLG Books Catalog