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Splatt Gallery's History of Michigan Music Posters
Volume Ten - 1974 - Page Five
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With our main area of interest being concert posters, we have, for the most part, deliberately avoided the thousands upon thousands of pop art, personality, blacklight, political, sex, drugs, and humor posters that were all extremely popular and sold in the millions. However, this Aretha Franklin “Queen of Soul” poster, that was published in 1974 is a real stand-out. In addition to the blacklight colors, it is also “flocked” which is the addition of black fibers that give the poster a velvet felt-like feel and a darker, no-glare black that gives a greater contrast to the colors than is possible with black ink.
The poster was made by “Woody Products” with a signature “Carty” in the artwork, and a Brooklyn, New York address and phone number. We found a couple of other posters by the same artist, which are shown below.
Two more posters by “Woody Products” with a signature “Carty” in the artwork, and a Brooklyn, New York address and phone number, a 1974 Muhammad Ali and a 1973 Jackson 5.
Born and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Deniz Tek moved to Australia in 1972 to attend medical school. Tek did complete his medical degree, but at the same time, shortly after arriving, he decided to start a rock and roll band. The band was called Screaming White Hot Razor Blades, then briefly, Cunning Stunt, and finally TV Jones.
Living in the town of Wollongong, the band became notorious for refusing to play the hits of the day, preferring to cover the Stooges, UP, Alice Cooper, early Stones and Velvet Underground, their stage act incorporated exploding lightbulbs and TV sets, and their sets devolved into all night jams, described as “exhortations of violence, insanity, and for some, full ecstatic ritual that drove kids to behave like Moroccan hill tribesmen on the night of the festival of Pan, when Bou Jeloud actually comes to the village”. Somehow they also managed to run afoul of both the police and local criminals simultaneously.
They decided to try their luck in the larger, more cosmopolitan city of Sidney, where they found some gigs, but by and large, the music business establishment rejected them, “the way a dog would vomit poisoned meat”. The rest of the band blamed Tek for their lack of success, and wanting to adopt a more commercial sound, they kicked him out of the band.
Tek’s roommate Rob Younger was the vocalist in a band called The Rats, which had just dissolved, the two of them decided to form the band Radio Birdman.
Tapes of a few songs by TV Jones, recorded in Sidney in March 1974, were discovered many years later. Some of them turned out not to be TV Jones, but early Radio Birdman demos, however, we believe this track is the band:
TV Jones - Monday Morning Gunk (1974)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE6SnJDTxnI
Iggy appeared on the cover of CREEM magazine for his fourth time, and as the CREEM Mate of the Month center-fold for the first time, in the April 1974 issue.
Iggy Pop was the second “CREEM Mate of the Month”, appearing in the April 1974 issue of CREEM magazine.
One more full-page color photo of Iggy in the April 1974 issue of CREEM magazine. Photo by Neal Preston.
A full-page illustration of Commander Cody & his Lost Planet Airmen by Wes Goodwin the April 1974 issue of CREEM magazine.
A Discount Records ad by Jive Comix, aka Ted Echterling, in the April 1974 issue of The Spectacle newspaper in East Lansing, Michigan.
An ad by Dennis Preston for a t-shirt sale at the Sounds & Diversions store in the April 1974 issue of The Spectacle newspaper in East Lansing, Michigan.
We’ve had a number of “Weird Michigan Rock Tales”, from the Paul McCartney death hoax, to the fake Zombies, and the March 1974 release of an album entitled “Phantom’s Divine Comedy Part 1” is one of the best of them.
Due to the vocals, sung by Ted Pearson of the band Walpurgis (whom we’ve seen on a number of posters, as well as those with their previous band name, Madrigal), rumors began to circulate that the recording was of the late Jim Morrison of The Doors. Capitol Records, who had released the album, didn’t market it as blatantly as taking out a full-page ad in Billboard magazine, but they knew it was to their advantage to let the rumor help sell the record, and they remained coy, neither affirming or denying the rumors, until rival Elektra Records, who owned the rights to Morrison’s recordings, along with the surviving members of The Doors took steps to squelch them, which pretty much put an end to the sales and any interest in the record. It became forgotten until bootleggers in Europe in the late 1990’s re-released the album, which is actually quite good on its own merits, and re-ignited, and cultivated new mysteries surrounding the album and the actual group behind it.
But there is SO much more to this story, enough in fact that author RD Francis wrote not just one, but two books that take an incredibly deep dive into the whole story. We highly recommend both of them, which can be found here:
https://www.amazon.com/R.D-Francis/e/B07GH3WH7T/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1
We will have more related tales coming, as Ted Pearson changes his name to Arthur Pendragon and later forms a band of the same name, and as the other members of Madrigal/Walpurgis scatter throughout the scene. And we do have for you, the full “Phantom’s Divine Comedy Part 1” album for your enjoyment.
Phantom’s Divine Comedy - Phantom’s Divine Comedy Part 1 (album) (1974)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0wijDxY3rk
A series of ads by the artist Jive Comix for Discount Records and Highland Appliances in East Lansing, Michigan in March/April 1974.
Poster for Grand Funk in Tampa, Florida on March 30, 1974, with photo by Lynn Goldsmith. The image and layout was also used as the "tour blank" poster.
A poster for Commander Cody & his Lost Planet Airmen on tour with the New Riders of the Purple Sage, in Cotati, California on March 30, 1974.
Poster by an unknown artist for Rare Earth with Rory Gallagher at Notre Dame University in South Bend, Indiana on March 31, 1974.
One more from the photo session of Iggy for the cover shot of the April 1974 issue of CREEM magazine.
On March 30, 1974, the Alice Cooper band kicked off the first of a five-show tour of Brazil, with two shows in Sao Paulo and three in Rio de Janeiro. The first show at the Anhembi Parque, in a massive indoor hangar, set a record for the largest indoor audience at a rock concert, with an estimated audience of 150,000 people. The final show on April 6, 1974 was the last ever concert by the original band. (Some sources list seven shows in the tour, with the date of the last-ever show as April 8, 1974.)
Gary Grimshaw poster for the “Reefer Referendum” and the Hash Bash in Ann Arbor, Michigan, April 1, 1974.
A second poster for the Third Annual Hash Bash using the Gary Grimshaw illustration.
Larry Behnke poster for the Third Annual Hash Bash in Ann Arbor, Michigan, April 1, 1974.
People magazine, which would become the most highly-read magazine in America, premiered on February 25, 1974. The first issue had a cover date of March 4, 1974 and a cover photo of actress Mia Farrow. The founding editorial team included editors, writers, and photographers from Life magazine, which had ceased publication just 13 months earlier.
The first Michigan personality to appear on the cover was Gerald Ford, on the magazine’s fifth issue, cover dated April 1, 1974. Ford had been the Vice President of the United States for four months at the time, having replaced Richard Nixon’s VP Spiro Agnew who had resigned amid scandal.
Alice Cooper was also on the cover of People magazine #5, by name as “The Jekyll and Hyde of glitter rock”.
Later in the year, by this time President of the United States for three months, Ford was featured on the cover of the November 1974 issue of National Lampoon magazine. He was the only president to come from Michigan and the only president never elected as either president or vice president.
Ad for The Stables in East Lansing, Michigan with an appearance by Les McCann, April 1-6, 1974.
Dennis Preston poster for Freddie Cannon and Rock & the Sharks at Shirley’s Swinger Lounge in Detroit, Michigan, April 1-2, 1974. Detroiters will recognize the location as the famous "Nine Mile & Mack" from the commercial for Roy O'Brien's Ford dealership and the jingle by The Gaylords
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa0WsxWACuc
The California band Spirit performed back-to-back Michigan shows, with The Brewery in East Lansing, April 1, 1974, and the Alibi East in Mount Pleasant, April 2nd.
An ad for Richards in Atlanta, Georgia with a parade of Michigan artists passing through, with John Lee Hooker, April 1-6, 1974, Bob Seger, April 8-10, Bob Seger again, April 11-13, and Ted Nugent & the Amboy Dukes, April 18-20. And Zardoz.
A pair of ads for Sly & the Family Stone at the Syria Mosque in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on April 2, 1974. The one on the left looks like it could have been from a poster, the one on the right makes the two opening acts from Michigan, the Funkadelic Parliaments and Rare Earth, look like the headliners. The “Funkadelic Parliaments” is also a bit backwards. Odd depictions of Sly, both in the illustration and the photograph.
A rather striking poster with Brownsville Station opening for Johnny Winter and Black Oak Arkansas in Portland, Oregon on April 2. 1974. Brownsville had been touring with Winter for four weeks up to that point. Six nights later, they would finish their stint with a “hometown show” opening for Winter at Cobo Arena in Detroit on April 8th.
Discount Records ad with an artist signature “Crawling King Snake” with the announcement of an appearance by Jim Stafford at the McDonel Kiva in East Lansing, Michigan, April 4-6, 1974. Stafford’s newly released first album yielded four hit singles, including “Spiders & Snakes”, “My Girl Bill”, “Wildwood Weed”, and “Swamp Witch”.
Jim Stafford – Swamp Witch (1974)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIuUrIln8Ao
The world at large may have gotten their first glimpse of Jake “The Shaker” Woods on the back cover of the January 25, 1974 edition of the Ann Arbor SUN newspaper, where he was presented as “the SUN’s No. 1 salesperson”, noting that he could sell 100 copies of the paper in about three hours, earning $10 in the process.
In the April 4, 1974 issue, the SUN ran an interview with Shakin’ Jake Wood, in which it was revealed that he lived in Saginaw, Michigan, taking care of his 88 years old mother, and came to Ann Arbor every week by hitchhiking.
“I started hitchhiking when I was five years old, 48 now, been on the road 43 years. I been in Mount Pleasant, Ypsilanti, Bay City, I been in 38 states and I loves it all. I been in 39 states, ain’t bad, is it? Can you imagine I was five years old when I first got out on that highway? I had a suitcase, a little bag, a suit and a bow tie, that’s what I wear, I do my thing. I got my own style.
“The story of my life is I started up from nothin’ and worked my way up. Shoveled snow, washed cars, sold papers, anything to make it. People doubted me but I knowed I was going to make it. When I finally got that feelin’ for the music, my blood got up, my veins got all warm and I knowed I was ready. I didn’t have no choice at all. So I said the Devil and got me a 39-cent guitar. Hey, you realize that I started out with a 39-cent guitar?
“And now I got thirteen. I been playing this guitar for three years now, gravy train, and I can’t quit cause it’s in my blood. See, when you get the feelin’ you got to get on it, man, you got to get yourself together with that feelin’. That’s the way.
“I went to bed one night and I went to sleep. I woke up, and that thing kept bothering me. I knowed right then that I was ready, cause the Lord told me, he answered my prayer. He said you’re goin’ to get up in the morning and go get a guitar. So I did, and I went out in front of Cunningham’s Drug Store, on Genesse in Saginaw, and I never forgot that feelin’. Now I’m the man of the hour and I can’t turn back.”
Wood also treated the interviewer to a little ditty:
“Well, sing about the hippies, wicked, wicked,
The wicked girl cries, they hold their girlfriend’s hands,
Their girlfriend drops tears, sheds tears in her eyes,
Forget her dreams and bring her back to me, baby.
It’s nice to meet hippies, I loves ‘em.”
Flyer by an unknown artist for the band Wildwood at St. Bede’s Teen Center in Lathrup Village, Michigan, April 5, 1974.
Poster by an unknown artist for a Blues Extravaganza at the Toledo Sports Arena in Toledo, Ohio, April 5, 1974.
Newspaper ad that is even better, if only it had been in color.
Dave Leone at Diversified Management came up with idea of “guitar battles” pitting Ted Nugent against Mike Pinera of Cactus, or Frank Marino of Mahogany Rush, and ex-MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer. Starting in March 1974, the battles came to Michigan, with an ad by an unknown artist, at the Michigan Palace in Detroit, April 5, 1974. According to Kramer’s book, Kramer’s Kreamers at this point included bassist Tim Shafe and drummer Melvin Davis. After the guitar battle tour, the band added Bob Schultz on vocals and keyboards and changed their name to Radiation.
Poster by Doug Huston, (who made some great posters for Grandmothers’ before it became The Brewery), for a movie showing at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, April 5-6, 1974.
Schedule by an unknown artist for The Underground in Ypsilanti, Michigan, April 5-21, 1974, with Straight Light, Skin Deep, and Apple Core.
There was a celebration in Ann Arbor, Michigan when the $5 weed law was re-instituted again by a vote of the people, neighboring Ypsilanti did the same. Cover of the April 5, 1974 issue of the Ann Arbor Sun newspaper, and insert cartoon, both by Gary Kell.
Anti-fast-food cartoon by Gary Kell from the April 5, 1974 issue of the Ann Arbor Sun newspaper. We like the sound effect.
An ad for WWWW-FM radio in Detroit, Michigan, from the April 5, 1974 issue of the Ann Arbor Sun newspaper, one of the last usages of the current logo, a flashy new one coming up.
The Ann Arbor Sun newspaper reported in its April 5, 1974 issue that the Primo Showbar in Ann Arbor, Michigan had closed down. A short, but productive, nine month run that had produced at least 265 shows. This collection of handbills and posters were all by Gary Grimshaw, who also created the venues’ classic logo, and many of the band logos that appeared on them.
Newspaper ad for the McCoy Tyner Quartet at the Strata Gallery in Detroit, Michigan, April 5-6, 1974, which appears to have been the last known shows at the venue. Tyner, best known for his work with John Coltrane, passed away yesterday, March 6, 2020, at age 81. He was also the inspiration for the singer of the MC5 to change his name from Robert Derminer to Rob Tyner.
Poster by an unknown artist DeGrys (?) of Rainbow Press for a Zenta Thanksgiving Bash at Carpenter Hall in Ypsilanti, (or Ypsi-toke-ee) Michigan, April 6, 1974, with the Rockets, the Vipers, and all the beer you can drink.
Still capitalizing on the streaking fad, an ad for Universe at the Lansing Ice Arena, April 6, 1974.
The first concert poster by Richard Kelley while still a junior in high school in Toledo, Ohio, for a show by the English band Genesis at the University of Toledo, April 6, 1974. Kelley will later move to Grand Rapids, Michigan and we are looking forward to seeing many more of his posters to come.
A die-cut poster with the distinctive “racing guitar” logo of the California Jam that was held in Ontario, California on April 6, 1974. Michigan band Rare Earth opened the show that included Earth, Wind & Fire, the Eagles, Seals & Crofts, Black Oak Arkansas, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Emerson, Lake & Palmer.
Attended by 300,000 to 400,000 people, the festival set records for largest PAID attendance, and the largest and loudest sound system ever assembled. Festival sponsor ABC television taped several portions of the show for later broadcasts on their “In Concert” TV series, and the show was simulcast by KLOS-FM radio in Los Angeles, so subsequently most of the performances became the source of many bootlegs, and a few authorized releases as well.
It was also the only time that Keith Emerson’s spinning piano trick was captured on video. We have two of the live tracks by favorite sons Rare Earth, and the clip of Emerson’s piano trick, which is a must-see.
Keith Emerson – Spinning Piano Trick live at California Jam (04/06/74)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSm5IQFaTZA
Rare Earth – I Just Want to Celebrate (live at California Jam) (04/06/74)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5LIDNbFadU
Rare Earth – Big Brother (live at California Jam) (04/06/74)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wne6z05rWH4
A second poster and newspaper ad for the California Jam in Ontario, California on April 6, 1974.
An epic day in the history of Detroit rock and roll, April 7, 1974, with the sixth annual WABX Kite-In on Belle Isle, followed by a benefit concert for the expenses of said Kite-In at the Michigan Palace, featuring the first Michigan appearance of the band KISS, along with Aerosmith, Michael Fennelly, and the Mojo Boogie Band. WABX radio broadcast the live show, leading to the two bootlegs we’ll have in the following posts – stay tuned.
But before we get to those, here is a song recorded that night by Michael Fennelly, formerly with the band Crabby Appleton. It kicks ass.
Michael Fennelly - Lane Changer (live in Detroit) (4/7/74)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA73Xkip1DE
Aerosmith’s first show at the Michigan Palace in Detroit, April 7, 1974. There are two erroneous prior shows – from the Dennis Loren poster for the New York Dolls show on September 22, 1973, Aerosmith is on the poster, but eyewitnesses say Aerosmith did not perform, and a listing in the database for January 7, 1974, but this is an error from a bootleg that should be April 7, not January.
The April 7, 1974 show was broadcast on WABX-FM radio in Detroit, which due to its good sound and killer performance became the source of numerous bootleg issues, these bootlegs have a variety of erroneous dates, including January 7, as mentioned above, and also as April 4 or April 14, and even July 1 (which would the European date format of January 7), but they all come from this April 7, 1974 show.
Aerosmith – Live at the Michigan Palace in Detroit (4/7/74)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n96Ipnpcx7I
When KISS made their first Michigan performance, they had already released their first album and had appeared on TV, but most of the Detroit audience at the Michigan Palace, April 7, 1974, had little idea what to expect beyond the glitter make-up.
WABX DJ Mark Parenteau, recalls, “…for the first song the audience just sat there and watched them. But the second song or third song was “Firehouse,” and Gene Simmons breathed fire, and the place went out of their minds in full Detroit fashion. Suddenly they were deep into it and on their feet and it was all about Kiss for a long time.”
Earlier, we mentioned that Aerosmith played an incredible twelve to fourteen shows in Michigan in 1974, but KISS even tops that, with sixteen Michigan shows in 1974.
In addition to the Aerosmith bootleg from this night, the KISS performance was also bootlegged from the WABX-FM radio broadcast.
Kiss – Live at the Michigan Palace in Detroit (4/7/74)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PffwctweXE
The financial sheet for the WABX Kite-In Benefit at the Michigan Palace in Detroit, Michigan, April 7, 1974, showing that with the bands having played for free, the event turned a nice profit for the Belle Isle fund.
The Ann Arbor Sun newspaper also reported that Casablanca Records had manufactured 10,000 KISS kites that were never distributed as the Kite-In was officially cancelled due to rain, although some 25,000 people showed up anyways. Wonder whatever happened to those kites?
Record company ad for Johnny Winter’s “Saints & Sinners” album, with tour dates that include a show at Cobo Arena in Detroit, Michigan on April 8, 1974 (last show on the list). Brownsville Station opened the show.
An ad for Cobo Arena in Detroit, Michigan with Brownsville Station opening for Johnny Winter on April 8, 1974, with the upcoming return of Grand Funk Railroad on April 25th.
Poster/ads by Hugh Surratt for The Temptations at MSU Auditorium in East Lansing, Michigan, April 8, 1974.
A collection of ads for Ted Nugent & the Amboy Dukes at The Brewery in East Lansing, Michigan on April 8, 1974. A review of the show, written by Dave DiMartino, was headlined, “Nugent’s quips better than Duke’s music”, and although that might not be saying much, DiMartino’s point was not that the music sucked but that Nugent “is incredibly funny…because when you come right down to it, anybody that can talk like Nugent has to be an alright guy”. DiMartino went on to recount such hilarious jokes such as telling a young lady to come onstage and “talk to the mike, (then, pointing to the leather strands hanging between his legs), Now meet Mike”.
An ad, superimposed with the logo of the Ace Trucking Company, a comedy group from Chicago co-founded by the late great Fred Willard, for a six night gig at The Stables in East Lansing, Michigan, April 8-13, 1974.
A couple of years ago, the Redford Theater presented a screening of the movie “Best In Show” with an in-person appearance by Fred Willard. We took a copy of the Ace Trucking Company’s only album, a 1970 self-titled release on RCA Records, for Willard to sign. It had the desired effect, as he held it in his hands and asked, “Where did you ever find this?”
Volume Ten - 1974 - continues - HERE
A story in a Brazilian newspaper about Alice Cooper's short tour of the country, not known at the time, but the last-ever shows by the original Alice Cooper band.
Poster for the movie “Foxy Brown” starring Pam Grier released on April 5, 1974, with the soundtrack composed and performed by Motown’s Willie Hutch.
