Youngbloods; Sparrow; Sons of Champlin; Hillyard, Roger; Kelley, Alton; Mouse, Stanley; van Meter, Ben

Original Concert Poster: Youngbloods, Sparrow, Sons of Champlin (December 16-17, 1966)

San Francisco, CA: Family Dog Productions, 1966. First Edition, Second or Third Printing. Single Sheet. A poster (Appx. 14" x 20") announcing a "Dance Concert" with performances headlined by the Youngbloods, along with Sparrow & the Sons of Champlin, during December 16-17 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 noted American poster & album cover artist Alton Kelley (1940-2008, known as "Kelley"), & "Mouse Studio (logo)" in facsimile hand-lettering & illustration is found just below the Native American figure's tomahawk, inside the lower right area of oval decorated border (see image). Also credited on this poster for "Lights" are Roger Hillyard & Ben van Meter. Hillyard (b. 1942) was highly involved with the exemplary psychedelic light shows of this era, later became the proprietor of a popular coffee shop & most lately a practicing resident of a Zen Buddhist center- all in San Francisco. Van Meter ((b. 1941) was also a major light show producer & noted experimental filmmaker at this time, & still engages in cutting-edge creativity as of this writing. According to (in this case particularly) Talmudic scholarship we have consulted regarding this poster (which is similar in its depth to our underground comix of this period), this copy is either a second or third printing, with "No. 39" printed at lower margin near right corner, & a "medium" blue color along with black, red & yellow. The third printing shows a blue color that is slightly lighter than the second printing. King, FD-39-RP-2 or -3, pg. 93. In a lengthy Talmudic passage, King explains that this slight blue color variation is the only difference between the second & third printings, & that the only way to determine which is which is to visually compare copies of both. As we only have this one specimen, we therefore cannot determine whether it is a second or third printing- only that the blue here is certainly of a "medium" hue. King also notes that the two printings were done one-right-after-the-other, & so are all-but-concurrent. (pg. 94) King writes: "The central image is an Indian with a Mohawk and a tomahawk in his hand. This poster represents an interesting design shift for Mouse! Studios in that there was no frame to the image which extended up to the edge of the paper. One of the stated intents of psychedelic poster art was to simulate the psychedelic experience (which) did not include white borders around things...as a general rule, so eliminating the white border made a more genuinely psychedelic effect possible." (pg. 93) A bold, riveting relic of the earlier hippie era that would soon come to full fruition the following year during the "Summer of Love," in its second-or-third rarest near-contemporary form. From the collection of Dion Wright (b. 1937), a most respected artiste & sculptor who was at the center of the scene that produced this & the many other collectible posters that symbolize a legendary time & place (see Wright's memoir, Tempus Fugitive, item No. 5008). In our eagle-(if sore-) eyed estimation, this poster is in relatively very fine condition with only a few tiny bumps at edges & corners. The recto image (which as noted takes up the entire surface without margins) appears to us to be substantially mint. This item is too delicate to be rolled & must be shipped flat to assure no damage, so extra shipping costs will be required. Very Fine. [Item #5427]

Price: $110.00