Psychedelic San Francisco, The Era, Music, Art, Scene, Hippiedom etc.

[CalEden]

3 hours ago, fforest said:

Great collection of posters....

I am just curious, what would a average first print and 2nd print poster would be valued at?.....

I am glad people had the foresight to save these posters...A lot of great artwork in them.... 

fforest, it all depends on the demand/availability and condition of the poster. There are some posters the 4th prints are going for thousands of dollars. Even today you can buy some first print posters in mint condition that were printed in 1966 for less $100.00. There are some first print posters going for well above $30,000. 

I have almost complete ticket set for the Last Waltz. I'm missing the Sunday ticket, the day they filmed the movie. The Sunday ticket goes for around $5,000.

I do have a complete ticket set for Woodstock.

 

Edited November 13, 2021 by CalEden

[CalEden]

1 hour ago, maipenrai said:

I really envy you guys that were able to be on hand for the rock scene in those days - I missed the whole 60's hippy scene by only a few years and growing up in a remote corner of Canada, I did not have access to the entertainment that those in the big cities enjoyed but we sure did enjoy the records...

Don't feel bad I've never been to the Fillmore, Winterland or The Avalon Ballroom.  Monterey Pop happened almost in my backyard. I was stupid enough to tell my mother where I was going, she forbid me from going and I obeyed.

[lazarus]

7 hours ago, maipenrai said:

I really envy you guys that were able to be on hand for the rock scene in those days - I missed the whole 60's hippy scene by only a few years and growing up in a remote corner of Canada, I did not have access to the entertainment that those in the big cities enjoyed but we sure did enjoy the records...

I was a little young to be a full participant in the Summer of Love in '67...do remember going to the Haight Ashbury with my folks. It was the 'thing to do' in San Francisco back then. Basically was a 'free range' kid from about '68 on; played a lot in Golden Gate Park in the late 60s & early 70s. Still do today. Used to walk through the Haight, go to the 'head' shops, etc. First big concerts around '74. Lots of nights at Winterland, Cow Palace, etc., Days on the Green, Golden Gate Park. Favorite shows included Santana, Grateful Dead, Rolling Stones, Boz Skaggs, Robin Trower, Jefferson Starship, Journey, Tower of Power. There were a number of smaller venues with great music, too. Many layers of music in those days.

 

Edited November 13, 2021 by lazarus

[Yessongs]

Wow, outstanding thread for sure and thanks to Cal Eden and Lazarus for a trip down memory lane.

I will report back in a while, have gone to alot of those shows at Winterland for sure, as I look back on it, without question, some of the best times of my life seeing these bands as a teenager.

I am still "high" from the second hand "pot" I inhaled there LOL!  I am probably not alone. 

Took this gal to see The Doobie Brothers, Frampton and Reo Speedwagon there...she hated it...I kid you not. Nice gal but she was a "Jehovah's Witness"  That religion was not into the scene at Winterland..........believe me.

[maipenrai]

14 hours ago, CalEden said:

Don't feel bad I've never been to the Fillmore, Winterland or The Avalon Ballroom.  Monterey Pop happened almost in my backyard. I was stupid enough to tell my mother where I was going, she forbid me from going and I obeyed.

I had  this done to me by my own mother - the group Chilliwack had just become quite popular in Canada and they were going to visit our town, playing a concert in our high school auditorium, and of course we kids were all really excited about this - a famous national rock band visiting our remote town! I was only about 14  then and was still being dragged out by my parents for weekend camping and I'd already been told that we were going to leave Saturday morning for an overnight visit to a local lake - no real problem, I thought, since the concert was on Friday night. When I told my mom that I wanted to go the first thing she asked, of course, was "How much is that going to cost?" I replied that the tickets were $8. On Friday afternoon after school I was informed by my dear mother  that she and Dad had changed their minds and were leaving to go camping on Friday night instead. Well, I was devastated and felt even worse later when my buddies all told me what a great show it had been, but I think the part of the whole thing that pisses me off the most is that I firmly believe that my mother did this not because she thought I was too young for the show, or that it would be a bad influence, but simply because she thought the tickets cost too much - that's how cheap my parents could be. 

[nampla69]

I feel alive seeing this thread ...WOW man .... (can we still say that ?)

I was a few years too young for the 60s but by the 70s saw so many of those bands and was a mad Dead Head followed them all over the UK when Pigpen was still alive etc and just before Working Mans Dead. they would play for 4.5 hours at times ..

that era ...the Byrds - CJ Fish - Airplane - Quicksilver - Allmans ---- Santana - Joplin - Beefheart ....so many ..

We had Hawkwind and the Pink Fairies so  .... OK you guys won some of the best music ever made on this planet.

[Lemondropkid]

3 hours ago, Yessongs said:

Wow, outstanding thread for sure and thanks to Cal Eden and Lazarus for a trip down memory lane.

I will report back in a while, have gone to alot of those shows at Winterland for sure, as I look back on it, without question, some of the best times of my life seeing these bands as a teenager.

I am still "high" from the second hand "pot" I inhaled there LOL!  I am probably not alone. 

Took this gal to see The Doobie Brothers, Frampton and Reo Speedwagon there...she hated it...I kid you not. Nice gal but she was a "Jehovah's Witness"  That religion was not into the scene at Winterland..........believe me.

Brilliant photo, aside from old Pepsi logo, would be hard to date it.

[Glasseye]

21 hours ago, CalEden said:

 

 

Tremendous album !

[lazarus]

From the interweb...

"One of the most notorious "Posters From The Past" is this great looking piece that was designed by the artist named Gut, who was one of the Hells Angels and a friend of the Grateful Dead.

It was 55 years ago on this date (for one night only), that Big Brother and the Holding Company along with the Merry Pranksters performed and participated in a dance/party/concert at the Hells Angels first event at Sokol Hall here in San Francisco. While the Grateful Dead are not listed on this poster, according to information that I have researched, they did play here.

This poster has been printed two times. As of late, an original first printing has gone up dramatically in value..."

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=2001656056658752&set=a.159077927583250

 

[lazarus]

From the interweb...

"The last installment of the three Pink Floyd posters with this "Poster From The Past". The artist Nicholas Kouninos created this piece with the central image of a very stylized, long haired, robed figure of a man holding out an egg toward a very stylized figure of what resembles a bird. The intention of the artist was his interpretation of the wizard Gandalf from J.R.R. Tolkins's Lord of the Rings. This really is quite a strikingly cool poster!

It was 54 years ago back in 1967, that Procol Harum, Pink Floyd, and H.P. Lovecraft, began their three nights of Dance/concerts at The Fillmore Auditorium on the 9th and finishing up on the 10th-11th at the Winterland Arena, here in San Francisco. Light show provided by the eluminescence of Holy See. This is BG Fillmore poster number #92 in the old series and was printed only one time. .."

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1999321176892240&set=pcb.1999321276892230

 

[lazarus]

another one of mine...

[CalEden]

2 hours ago, lazarus said:

another one of mine...

Wow, I don't recall ever seeing this poster before. Can you give me a little background on the poster, like concert date, poster artist, poster number and promoter (s/b Bill Graham/Winterland)? 

The Hells Angels held a lot of concerts during the 60's. Often these posters show up in auctions.  

Edited November 14, 2021 by CalEden

[CalEden]

Who Do You Love? (1973 B&W) - Quicksilver Messenger Service at Winterland.

 

YouTube would not allow embedding of this video.

https://youtu.be/olnbwZxjcbI

Edited November 14, 2021 by CalEden

[CalEden]

 

[CalEden]

 

[lazarus]

28 minutes ago, CalEden said:

Wow, I don't recall ever seeing this poster before. Can you give me a little background on the poster, like concert date, poster artist, poster number and promoter (s/b Bill Graham/Winterland)? 

The Hells Angels held a lot of concerts during the 60's. Often these posters show up in auctions.  

It's a rare one. See description here:

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/grateful-dead-winterland-poster-david-1923053892

"A super Rare David Singer Poster for Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane October 4th and 5th 1970. Janis Joplin passed on 10/4/70. The show on the 5th was dedicated to Janis. This poster is a 1st and only printing and was produced in a small number run. Associates of Bill Graham had broken from him and produced a handful of shows. The heading on the poster is Winterland Presents..."

More info:

http://deadsources.blogspot.com/2013/06/october-4-5-1970-winterland-sf.html

https://www.oicvintage.com/store-5/grateful-dead-jefferson-airplane-handbill-1970-oct-4-winterland-david-singer/

https://concerts.fandom.com/wiki/October_4-5,_1970_Winterland,_San_Francisco_CA

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/1970-grateful-dead-jefferson-airplane-winterland-485-c-34c41cca40
 

Dead set:

https://gratefuldeadoftheday.com/10-04-1970

[lazarus]

 

[CalEden]

 

 

 

Summer Of Love Look Back: The SF Oracle, Newspaper Of The Counterculture

Photo of Richard Kuczynski's collection of San Francisco Oracle newspapers. | Photo: Alisa Scerrato/Hoodline

By Alisa Scerrato - Published on June 12, 2017.

San FranciscoUpper Haight

As the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love draws near, we're running a series of stories that look back at some of the people and places most associated with the countercultural movement.

As part of our Summer of Love 50th anniversary series, we are flashing back to the San Francisco Oracle, the underground newspaper known for weaving spirituality, poetry and progressive ideas with psychedelic imagery in the mid to late sixties.

The publication was only distributed for about two years (from September 1966 to January 1968), but it became well-known around the world for its countercultural vision and unique form during the social and political movements of the time. 

The San Francisco Oracle was founded and edited by poet Allen Cohen, who was inspired by Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" to drive from New York to San Francisco. After Cohen arrived in North Beach, he got in on the Beat poet scene, developing friendships with Gary Snyder, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, and other artists before going to the Upper Haight, where the '60s counterculture was taking shape.

Photo of Cohen (right) via Allen Cohen

In September 1966, Cohen produced the newspaper’s first issue, called "P.O. Frisco," out of a storefront on Frederick Street. It was printed in black-and-white and featured local Beat writer and playwright Michael McClure, along with a review of his controversial play, "The Beard." The issue also advocated for LSD guru Timothy Leary’s message to “turn on, tune in, drop out."

The second issue of the newspaper was produced out of offices behind the Print Mint on Haight St., but once the publication developed a need for more space, the Oracle later moved to larger offices at 1371 Haight (near Masonic), where it was open 24 hours a day. 

"Another session with Timothy Leary."

The first “truly psychedelic issue” of the Oracle was the "Human Be-In" (January 1967, issue 5), which marked a sharp increase in readership. It had a color front cover designed by Stanley Mouse, Alton Kelley and Michael Bowen that announced “The Gathering of the Tribes" in Golden Gate Park. The event was an influential precursor to the Summer of Love, and credited with introducing the word "psychedelic" to suburbanites. 

The worker-owned cooperative saw its heyday when Cohen and art director Michael Bowen were at the helm. They guided the Oracle to experiment with printing techniques using a four-unit offset press, which allowed the publication to create ornate, colorful images of mandalas, pyramids and other psychedelic designs.

San Francisco Oracle, #7 featured an interview with Alan Watts, Timothy Leary, Gary Snyder and Allen Ginsberg. 

The interview was accompanied by a colorful psychedelic image. 

At a Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council meeting on June 8th, longtime Haight area resident Arthur Round spoke about his experiences as a staff member at the Oracle in the '60s. He described how the newspaper's color artist Hetti McGee would stand in front of the giant presses, squirting colored ink onto the rollers with ketchup bottles.

“She would put cedar or patchouli oils in the ink so that when issue number six came out, it smelled different than other issues," he recalled. He added that if customers ordered bundles of newspapers, they would emit a strong scent of whatever oil was used on that day.

We also reached out to Richard Kuczynski, a collector of San Francisco vintage postcards, advertisements and mailers, who owns almost an entire collection of San Francisco Oracle newspapers, in addition to the Haight Ashbury Maverick, another newspaper created on the Haight around that time.

Kuczynski, who has lived in San Francisco since the mid-seventies, told us that “the world of journalism was changed by those 12 newspapers that were issued on the Haight.”

“Issues three through nine were the best ones because they gave you the entire visual impact,” he said, calling the the Oracle's evolving color scheme “amazing.”

Kuczynski said that he collects the newspapers because he likes to travel back through history as he reads them. “What the San Francisco Oracle did in a very short span of time changed the world,” he said.

San Francisco Oracle display at the de Young Museum's Summer of Love exhibit. 

Throughout the summer, the entire collection of the Oracle's cover artwork can be explored at the de Young Museum’s Summer of Love exhibit, which will run through August 20th.

 

 

[CalEden]

49 minutes ago, lazarus said:

It's a rare one. See description here:

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/grateful-dead-winterland-poster-david-1923053892

"A super Rare David Singer Poster for Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane October 4th and 5th 1970. Janis Joplin passed on 10/4/70. The show on the 5th was dedicated to Janis. This poster is a 1st and only printing and was produced in a small number run. Associates of Bill Graham had broken from him and produced a handful of shows. The heading on the poster is Winterland Presents..."

More info:

http://deadsources.blogspot.com/2013/06/october-4-5-1970-winterland-sf.html

https://www.oicvintage.com/store-5/grateful-dead-jefferson-airplane-handbill-1970-oct-4-winterland-david-singer/

https://concerts.fandom.com/wiki/October_4-5,_1970_Winterland,_San_Francisco_CA

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/1970-grateful-dead-jefferson-airplane-winterland-485-c-34c41cca40
 

Dead set:

https://gratefuldeadoftheday.com/10-04-1970

Thanks, great info!

[Yessongs]

   Not to bore you all to death but, Winterland was certainly a piece of my concert/musical history growing up here in the bay area. Remember Bill Graham ( the promoter) well, always kept us fans aware of what was going on musically here locally. 

I have seen 21 Concerts there since 1974, last one being 1978. I have 2 friends who are still around, that I went to most of these shows there with. When we get together, Winterland always seems to be brought up. Yep, how in god’s name did we survive at those shows is beyond me sometimes. Post and Steiner Street in San Francisco was where the arena was. Of course back in the day, most of the shows there were “ general admission” some were not, but most were. I always wanted to be close to the stage for the best pics. Oh man I thought I was a “hot shot” photographer back then. I had my “Minolta SRT 101” with my “Vivitar” 18-135 MM lens. Of course as most of you probably know, when you are down on the main floor, not much room to work. 

The trick back then was to be able to get a roll of 36 Kodak Ektachrome film loaded into your camera, and then after those 36 shots were taken, be able to unlock your camera, take that roll out, then be able to load the next 36 in! Talk about some trying times on the floor there. Especially when Back Sabbath and Ozzy are rocking the audience from side to side and a semi “mosh pit” is going on around you. “ I AM IRON MAN” LOL!  How we sat there outside that arena from 8:00am to 6:00pm until they finally opened the doors was a trip I tell you. If you can imagine San Francisco in the 70’s in that area well……people smoking pot, doing bong hits, hiding it all from the local Police, hiding it from the local security guys outside. How many times did we walk down the street, take a piss at the local gas station, hit Jack-in the-Box and come back and sit again for hours? God only knows? No cell phones, I PAD or anything. 

Now once you did get inside, that was another experience. There are just things that are etched in the memory banks forever. The guy in the bathroom playing “3 card monty” and the “red ball” under the cup taking all of the “stoners” money! Or the guy wanting to sell you “Thai stick” I kid you not….I remember several times guys telling us “This ain’t like regular pot” Yeah Ok. 

Then the concert itself, remember a few things that just are in my mind and the vivid memories that are still with me today,

Roger Daltrey/ The Who….That guy would swing that microphone out above all of our heads on the main floor, seems like it was 20 yards out, then he would pull that microphone back in with one simple tug……..he never missed! 

Steve Hackett/Genesis….He played his solo on “Firth of Fifth” I swear to god to this day, I felt like my entire body had come off that floor like 2 feet straight up in the air……it was that loud and clean. He also shared his “Heineken” with a lovely girl in front of the stage, she put her cup up to him and he poured her a little. 

Ozzy Osborne/Black Sabbath…When they came out, he had like this “Laser” rifle he was shooting at all of us in the audience. 

The Tubes…New Years Eve 1975, they had a NYE costume contest, we were right in the front. This one gal comes waltzing out stark naked, the only thing she did was throw some glitter on her “Coochie” and it stuck like glue right in the  “promise land” Fee Waybill and the rest of the band members liked her the best! 

Good lord, thanks for the memories Winterland..some pics from various shows there. 

Great posters Cal Eden….great times back then huh?

These were the actual shows I saw at Winterland....I may be getting a bit older, but luckily my memory is still intact.

 

  

 

[Yessongs]

And a few pics....

[CalEden]

My primary collection criteria (not cast in stone though) is Bill Graham and Family Dog Posters vintage 60's.

Along with the posters where printed other marketing media based on the poster art, such as postcards (sent to members of their mailing list), Handbills (given out at concerts promoting future concerts) and even the tickets were based on the poster. For concert tickets that had multiple days each day would be of only two color printings (black and a single primary color varying for each day.

Another interesting concert promotion I was able to purchase along with the poster, was an envelope and invitation for the Rolling Stones (see if you can find it). 

During the Sixties, the Concert tickets cost from $2.50 to $7.50 (the larger amount being for New Years Eve that went all night and included breakfast at 5:00 AM). Can you imagine seeing The Doors in a small venue for a mere $3.00. Throw in a tab of Orange Sunshine and your evening only cost about $6.00!

Postcards and Handbills etc. 

The 2 Peace Sign double postcards are signed by Bonnie Maclean RIP (below). She started working for Bill Graham and was so good with the Chalkboard Art listing future concerts, she became one of Bill Grahams poster Artist. Prior to this she had become Bill Grahams love interest. 

If anybody has the Sunday ticket for The Band primary color yellow/gold I may be interested.

 

I believe this poster was made out album cover photos?

 

 

 

[CalEden]

1 hour ago, Yessongs said:

And a few pics....

Your photos reminded me how tight men wore their pants in crotch area then. Kind of a male version of Ball/Dick Toe. My Mom used to ask me why I was showing everything with my tight pants?

[lazarus]

From the interweb...

"...It was 53 years ago on this day back in 1968, that Ten Years After, Country Weather and Sun Ra, played for four nights of dance/concerts at the Fillmore West, lights by Brotherhood of Light. This is BG poster number #145 in the old series and was printed only one time."

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=2003098469847844&set=gm.2059444877590686

[Glasseye]

 

Been So Long - one of my Fav's....

 

 

Edited November 15, 2021 by Glasseye