Wistful over lost dreams at Summer of Love fest

By Adam Tanner

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Some of the biggest musical stars of the 1960s counterculture gathered in San Francisco on Sunday for a concert to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love, yet backstage many voiced disappointment about the era's unfulfilled ideals.

The Summer of Love of 1967 made San Francisco a magnet for youth who wanted to experiment with sex, drugs, rock and roll and an alternative hippie lifestyle.

"We thought, this is it, we're going to change the world, actually we're going to become the Christian world of love," Ray Manzarek, 68, keyboardist for The Doors, told Reuters. "Of course, it didn't happen. Here we are 40 years later and we are still at war."

"It was a great disappointment," said Manzarek, who attended the famed San Francisco January 1967 "Human Be-In," credited with drawing young people to the city, with Doors singer Jim Morrison and other bandmates.

The '60s lived again as Manzarek, Jefferson Starship and other legends performed, thousands of fans donned tie-die shirts and bell bottom pants and the smell of marijuana wafted through the air. Two women wandered through the crowd in Golden Gate Park offering free hugs.

In keeping with the spirit of those times, the concert was free.

'I FEEL BETRAYED'

In the 1960s, many in the counterculture felt they could change the world by removing societal constraints and ending the Vietnam War.