Various Artists – Love Is the Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-1970 – Rhino [$64.98]

San Francisco in the late ’60s is one of the most highly mythologized places and times in rock history, and not without reason. The area spawned at least a half dozen top-tier bands, and figures like Jerry Garcia, Sly Stone, Janis Joplin, and Grace Slick became icons. Steve Miller wound up being one of the biggest pop acts of the ’70s, and Carlos Santana, of all people, found a new life as a collaborator with younger pop figures in the late ’90s, a role which he continues to play. The Dead soldiered on in various permutations after Garcia’s death 12 years ago, and they remain one of the biggest moneymaking groups in the industry. But it’s the music these folks recorded in the late ’60s that serves as their legacy, and some of their best work can be found on Love Is the Song We Sing. For the first time, the musical and attitudinal highs and lows of the Bay Area scene are on full, accurate, and coherent display. Forty years was a long time to wait.