Even as a nerdy kid growing up in the 1960s, I was a pretty big fan of English blues rock band The Animals, as well as their later psychedelic/progressive rock incarnation Eric Burdon and the Animals, which in addition to Burdon consisted of Vic Briggs, John Weider, Barry Jenkins, and Danny McCulloch. One of my favorite songs from their latter period is “San Franciscan Nights“. In those days, I lived in Santa Clara, a mid-sized city located approximately 45 miles south of San Francisco. And though I was only 13 when the song came out during the so-called “Summer of Love” in 1967, and still too young to really relate with the hippies who’d become a major cultural force in the city by then, the song still strongly resonated with me.

Furthermore, in addition to already being a huge music lover, by the age of 13 I’d also become a serious weather geek. I religiously watched the evening weather reports on TV and read every weather report in the newspaper, and learned about the complex and variable Bay Area microclimates, where during summer it was not uncommon for some inland locations to be as much as 30-35 degrees warmer than the coast, including San Francisco, which is known for its cool, frequently foggy weather. As Mark Twain once purportedly quipped (though he never actually said it), “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.” My point is, it was rather intriguing and even romantic that Eric Burdon would sing the praises of a warm night in San Francisco, which almost never happen. But when they do, they’re really quite magical.

The band wrote “San Franciscan Nights” as a protest song against the Vietnam War, although the lyrics also speak to several elements of the Summer of Love, which was broadly defined as a major social phenomenon that took place in San Francisco during the summer of 1967, in which as many as 100,000 mostly young people, hippies (sometimes referred to as flower children), beatniks, and 60s counterculture figures converged in the city’s Haight-Ashbury district and Golden Gate Park. Essentially, the Summer of Love encompassed hippie culture, spiritual awakening, hallucinogenic drugs, anti-war sentiment, and free love, including a strong interest in Indian religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism.

The song opens with a brief musical parody of the Dragnet theme, accompanied by a spoken word dedication by Burdon “to the city and people of San Francisco, who may not know it but they are beautiful and so is their city“. He then urges European residents to “save up all your bread and fly Trans Love Airways to San Francisco, U.S.A.,” so that they’ll maybe “understand the song“, assuring them “It will be worth it, if not for the sake of this song, but for the sake of your own peace of mind“.

“San Franciscan Nights” then transitions into a lovely melodic song, featuring a mellow bass line, a gentle repetitive drum beat and intricate guitar chords, punctuated with what I’m guessing is a sweet mandolin in the choruses. I’ve always loved Burdon’s deep baritone vocals, which are often powerful and sometimes even menacing on many of their songs, but here they sound warm and comforting as he sings of happenings on a warm San Franciscan night, including hallucinogenic images of a strobe light’s beam creating dreams, walls and minds moving and angels singing, cultural icons like blue jeans and Harley Davidsons, and references to a cop’s face filled with hate on a street called “Love”, with an appeal to both young and old cops to just feel all right.

Strobe light’s beam, creates dreams
Walls move, minds do too
On a warm San Franciscan night

Old child, young child
Feel all right
On a warm San Franciscan night

Angels sing, leather wings
Jeans of blue, Harley Davidson’s too
On a warm San Franciscan night

Old angel, young angel
Feel all right
On a warm San Franciscan night

I wasn’t born there
Perhaps I’ll die there
There’s no place left to go
San Francisco

Cops face is filled with hate
Heavens above
He’s on a street called “Love”
When will they ever learn?
Old cop, young cop
Feel all right
On a warm San Franciscan night

The children are cool
They don’t raise fools
It’s an American dream
Includes Indians too

The song was included on their 1967 album Winds of Change, and was a sizable hit, reaching #1 in Canada, #7 in the UK and New Zealand, and #9 on the Billboard Hot 100.

And here’s a live performance of the song on an unidentified TV show, with Burdon’s live singing backed by what sounds like a pre-recorded instrumental track: