LaFave began school down the road from Wills Point in Mesquite and by Junior High was making music perched behind his Sears & Roebuck drum kit. It was in this landscape that he began to define his sound and soak up a combination of his experiences among authentic songwriters from the tradition of Woody Guthrie. Before leaving Oklahoma for Austin, Jimmy did some independent recording and toured the southwest with the first version of his band Night Tribe.
In an article published in The Austin Chronicle in April 2017, LaFave announced publicly that he was battling myxofibrosarcoma, a rare form of cancer that had been diagnosed one year earlier. After various treatments failed, doctors advised LaFave that there was nothing else the medical profession could provide. During the course of his illness leading up to this announcement, LaFave continued to perform – not cancelling even one show. In addition, he continued to record new songs that he hoped would add to his legacy.
At the time of the public announcement, The Austin Statesman announced that a concert to honor LaFave would be held at the Paramount Theater in Austin, Texas on May 18, 2017. LaFave helped in the selection of friends and musicians who would perform that night. LaFave also selected charities that would benefit from a crowdfunding effort set up in his honor. A crowdfunding effort "Celebrating Jimmy LaFave" was set up via GoFundMe and received about $55,000 in donations.
LaFave died of cancer at his home in Austin, Texas, at the age of 61. His death came just three days after making an appearance at the Paramount Theater tribute show in Austin. According to The Austin Statesman: "A sold-out audience heard artists ranging from Austin artists including Eliza Gilkyson, Slaid Cleaves and Ruthie Foster, plus some from out-of-state including Nashville’s Gretchen Peters, Boston’s Ellis Paul and Woody Guthrie’s granddaughter Sarah Lee Guthrie, primarily playing songs that LaFave wrote or were part of his repertoire."
Within 24 hours, LaFave's death was reported in numerous newspapers throughout Texas and Oklahoma, in The New York Times and as far away as England, where he often performed
He moved to Austin in 1986, where he continued to write songs and to develop his musical ideas. Shortly after arriving he was asked to help launch the songwriter nights at the new performance venue Chicago House. In 1988 he recorded his self–produced tape, Highway Angels...Full Moon Rain, which won the Austin Chronicle Reader’s Poll Tape of the Year Award. This led to a recording contract with a small independent label and allowed LaFave the opportunity to work with Bob Johnston, producer of several of LaFave’s favorite albums including Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde and Nashville Skyline.
His second album, Highway Trance was released in 1994 followed by his third CD, Buffalo Return to the Plains, in 1995.
The grass roots demand and critical acclaim for LaFave’s music, which led to extensive touring in the United States and Europe, was recognized in 1996 when he was asked to tape a performance for the PBS musical series Austin City Limits, and was invited by Nora Guthrie to appear in Cleveland at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame tribute to Woody Guthrie. That same year LaFave won his second consecutive Austin Music Award for Best Singer–Songwriter. His fourth CD, Road Novel, which was released in early 1997, received many glowing reviews. That year he was asked by Nora Guthrie to speak and perform at the induction of Woody Guthrie into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame.
In 2001, LaFave released Texoma, a celebration of the Americana spirit with a heartfelt valentine to the heartland. KGSR Program Director, Jody Denberg called it a “phenomenon.” Denberg said, “the phones lit up immediately after it was added to the playlist, and they stayed lit.” Since the release of Texoma, Jimmy combined his solo dates with the Woody Guthrie tribute tour titled “The Ribbon of Highway – Endless Skyway,” featuring a rotating cast of Americana musicians that has included such notables as Eliza Gilkyson, Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion, Tom Russell and Slaid Cleaves. The two–disc live album Ribbon of Highway Endless Skyway is a collection of the tour’s live performances that features some of Jimmy’s interpretations of Woody Guthrie classics.
Encouraged by his friend, fellow Austin artist Eliza Gilkyson, LaFave signed with indie label Red House records, and in 2005 released Blue Nightfall. This stunningly soulful album was LaFave’s first in 4 years and won him much critical attention. LaFave’s album Cimarron Manifesto finds LaFave taking a more country road, with sweet and mournful songs about life and loss and special guest appearances by Carrie Rodriguez, Ruthie Foster and Kacy Crowley. Following the release of this album, LaFave toured across North America.
San Francisco
Jimmy LaFave Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you're going to San Francisco
You're gonna meet
Some gentle people there
For those who come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there
Gentle people with flowers in their hair
All across the nation
It's a strange vibration
People in motion
There's a whole generation
With a new explanation
People in motion
People in motion
For those who come to San Francisco
Be sure to wear
Some flowers in your hair
Cause if you come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there
The song "San Francisco" by Jimmy LaFave was released in 2001 and has since become a beloved anthem for the cultural revolution of the 1960s. The first two lines of this song are an invitation to those who are planning to travel to San Francisco to wear some flowers in their hair as a symbol of their connection to the counterculture movement. San Francisco was a hub of this movement, and its influence spread throughout the country during the 1960s. The song highlights the idea that San Francisco was the place to be during the summer for love and peace, as it was a gathering place for those who believed in peace, love, and freed thought. The song is also an ode to the "gentle people" of the city who were accepting and welcoming of all the people who came to the city to be a part of the movement.
The song suggests that "it's a strange vibration" that is pulling people to San Francisco. The reference to "people in motion" and "a new explanation" signifies a generational shift in thinking and a rejection of the conservative values of the previous generation. The song is a call to action for people to come and be a part of the counterculture movement, which believed in challenging traditional values and advocating for peace and love.
Overall, the song embodies the overall zeitgeist of the 1960s in America, taking the form of a call to arms to a new generation of Americans to take part in a cultural and societal shift towards love, acceptance, and freedom.
Line by Line Meaning
If you're going to San Francisco
If you're planning on traveling to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
Make sure to adorn yourself with flowers in your hair, as it's a popular hippie fashion statement in this city
If you're going to San Francisco
If you're headed to San Francisco
You're gonna meet
You're highly likely to encounter
Some gentle people there
Some laid-back, peaceful individuals who embody the city's counterculture
For those who come to San Francisco
For people who visit San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there
Summer is a time of free-spirited, open love and acceptance in the city
In the streets of San Francisco
In the city's roads and byways
Gentle people with flowers in their hair
Kind-hearted individuals who wear flower decorations on their hair, symbolizing their connection to the hippie movement
All across the nation
Throughout the country
It's a strange vibration
There's an unusual energy going around
People in motion
Individuals on the move
There's a whole generation
The youth of today
With a new explanation
Who have a novel point of view
People in motion
People constantly on the move
People in motion
Individuals who are always active and busy
For those who come to San Francisco
For visitors to San Francisco
Be sure to wear
Make sure to put on
Some flowers in your hair
A number of floral accessories on your hair
Cause if you come to San Francisco
Because if you decide to visit San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there
You'll experience a summer filled with free love and similar-minded people
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: JOHN EDMUND ANDREW PHILLIPS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind