[Item #5206] Original Concert Poster: Bo Diddley, Quicksilver Messenger Service ("Voice of Music," July 28-30, 1966). Bo Diddley, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Stanley Mouse, Alton Kelley.
Original Concert Poster: Bo Diddley, Quicksilver Messenger Service ("Voice of Music," July 28-30, 1966)

Original Concert Poster: Bo Diddley, Quicksilver Messenger Service ("Voice of Music," July 28-30, 1966)

San Francisco, CA: Family Dog Productions, 1966. First Edition, Second Printing. Single Sheet. A poster (appx. 14&1/8" x 19&3/4") announcing a concert with performances headlined by Bo Diddley, along with the Quicksilver Messenger Service, during July 28-30, 1966 at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco. The acclaimed American artist Stanley Mouse (b. Stanley George Miller, 1940) created the artwork & graphics reproduced here, in collaboration with the iconic American poster & album cover artist Alton Kelley (1940-2008, known as "Kelley"), working together as Mouse Studios, & "-Mouse Studios-" in facsimile hand-lettering bordered by dashes is found just to the right of lower part of image showing Mouse & Kelley's rendition of the famous old RCA Victor "His Master's Voice" recording logo (see image). Also credited for "Lights" is Bill Ham, among the foremost pioneers of the psychedelic light shows so exemplary of these early "acid rock" happenings, & who, as with Mouse, is still active as of this writing. According to the Talmudic scholarship we have studied regarding this poster (which is similar in its depth to our underground comix from this period), this copy is a second printing, with "No. 18-2" & "1967 (c) Family Dog Productions 639 Gough St., San Francisco, Calif. 94102" fine-printed at lower margin. King, FD-18-RP-2, pgs. 63-64. This concert, as noted above, took place in July of 1966, and we conclude that this poster is not quite contemporaneous with the concert & was "a reprint" (per King) from the following year. King notes: "The central image is the lettering below which is yet another "borrowed" famous advertising logo. This time Mouse and Kelley appropriated the RCA dog listening to the old Victrola. They did not include the product slogan "His Master's Voice." The lettering is drawn so that it appears to be the sound emerging from the horn of the Victrola." (pg. 64) Thus King has titled this poster "Voice of Music." Another fascinating & groovy relic of the early psychedelic era that would come to full fruition the following year (after the concert itself, that is, see above) during the "Summer of Love," in its penultimately rarest, near-contemporary form. From the collection of Dion Wright (b. 1937), a most respected & prolific artiste & sculptor who was at the center of the scene that produced this & the many other collectible posters that symbolize a legendary time & place. In our much-experienced estimation, this poster is in relatively fine condition with just a touch of rubbing mostly to lower margin, edges & corners with red, orange images & lettering on a light brown background (the vast majority of image is quite very fine, all-but-pristine); a bit of wear & some tiny bumps, creases at edges & corners; a total of seven very small-to-tiny areas with loss of light brown surface paper, miniscule loss of small red letters (were it not for this latter point, we would deem this poster to be very fine). This item is too delicate to be rolled & must be shipped flat to assure no damage, therefore extra shipping costs will be required. Fine. [Item #5206]

Price: $110.00