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The
owner of this poster received it free at the Psychedelic
Shop on Haight Street in 1967. They were given to anyone who
asked for one, but they were kept under the counter. You had to know enough
to ask the cashier. That way the people of the neighborhood could get
them, instead of the tourists (who had discovered the Haight by 1967).
The poster is for a concert staged by Chet
Helms' Family Dog Productions, which was Bill
Graham's only real competition in presenting concerts for the
San Francisco psychedelic scene. Unusual in that it actually shows the
group who's gig it advertises. Most of them were artistic creations that
was at best only tagentally related to the concert. The band depicted
is the Charlatans.
They never garnered the fame of groups like the JEFFERSON
AIRPLANE or the GRATEFUL
DEAD, but they predated them all, being the first to crystalize the
new psychedelic San Francisco sound and the sartorial style of vintage
clothes and beat boots. Group member Dan
Hicks (second from the left in photo) went on to great success
in the '70s with his group DAN HICKS AND THE HOT LICKS. Group member George
Hunter (seated on the steps) went on to fame as a graphic designer,
(he did QUICKSILVER MESSENGER SERVICE's Happy Trails Lp cover, for example)
using the vintage style he displays here, an early example of what became
a trendy vintage graphic style. RICK
GRIFFIN, former surfer cartoonist turned psychedelic illustrator,
did the illustration work on this. He went on to do several posters and
album covers for the GRATEFUL DEAD, along with comics for
ZAP Comics, which was started by R.
CRUMB. Photo is credited to Herb
Greene. Second-billed group SPARROW
later evolved into STEPPENWOLF, who wrote and recorded the classic rock
hit "BORN
TO BE WILD." Third billed group, CANNED
HEAT, went on to have hits in the seventies with songs "GOING
UP THE COUNTRY," etc.
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