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Splatt Gallery's History of Michigan Music Posters
Volume Ten - 1974 - Page Twenty
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Our annual selection of our ten favorite Michigan rock posters of the year, for 1974.
- Chubby Checker at the Rock & Roll Farm in Wayne, January 22 – artist Mike Brady
- Bob Seger at The Brewery in East Lansing, February 18 – artist Terry O’Connor
- Frank Zappa at Grand Valley State Colleges in Allendale, April 19 – artist Dome Productions
- New Riders & Commander Cody at Masonic in Detroit, May 12 – artist Chris Frayne (Ozone)
- Northside Drive-In, first US show by Rush, in Lansing, May 18 – artist Kosmic Kowboy
- New York Dolls & Kiss at the IMA Auditorium in Flint, June 12 – artist Crow Quill
- Rainbow Room in the Shelby Hotel in Detroit, June 19-22 – artist R.W. Kelly
- Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival, September 6-8 – artist Gary Kell
- Wild Wednesday at Sherwood Forest in Davison, June 26 – artist Dennis Preston
- Aerosmith at Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor, November 22 – artist Crow Quill
Some of our most astute readers may have noticed that our “ten favorites” posters for 1974, was missing, for the first time since 1966, any posters by Gary Grimshaw. Unlike the previous eight years, his work in 1974 was hardly his usually prolific output, we have been able to find only three proper concert posters and those were all in the first two months of the year, Seals & Crofts, Duke Ellington, and Gato Barbieri, all in Ann Arbor.
The February 8, 1974 edition of the Ann Arbor SUN newspaper was the last one to have Grimshaw’s name included as part of the paper’s staff. He popped up in April with a Reefer Referendum poster, but there was nothing after that until the poster for the Michigan Opera Theatre appeared in October.
We have totaled just over (20) pieces for 1974, which is a bit misleading since at least (4) of them were the Sunday Free Concerts from the 1973 template.
Gary Grimshaw, missing in action in 1974, whereabouts and activities unknown.
We have documented just over 200 Michigan concert posters for the year 1974, almost a 30% decrease from the previous year, and the beginning of a steady decline for the upcoming next four years.
In spite of this, a number of new artists emerged over the year, including Barbara Weinberg, Crow Quill, John Benson, Richard Kelley, Gary Kell, J.W. Kelly, and Overton Loyd.
About 80 of the pieces were by “an unknown artist”, some of which are shown above.
A final wrap on the year 1974 in Michigan rock and roll.
Nineteen seventy-four was the year that the New York band, formerly known as Wicked Lester, who had spent the previous year clubbing around NYC as the new glitter band called KISS, stepped out across the United States, finding a hospitable audience in Michigan where they performed no less than fifteen times in the state, which would have been a record number of shows by a touring band in Michigan in a single year, except for the fact that the Boston band Aerosmith actually topped that, with at least seventeen Michigan shows in 1974, a record that we believe still stands.
Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention had their peak year of Michigan shows, with seven of them during the year that the band was also celebrating their ten-year anniversary. David Bowie performed eight shows in Michigan in 1974, boosted by a six-night stand at the Michigan Palace in Detroit in October.
Elvis Presley was still a big deal, returning to Michigan after a two-year absence, to perform two shows, five days apart, at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit, but his peak year will come in 1977.
Suzi Quatro broke out as an international star, with #1 hit singles around the world, although all outside the United States. She had a hero’s welcome in Detroit when she kicked off her first US tour with three shows in her old hometown. She will have her biggest US audiences next year, in 1975, when she will be the opening act for Alice Cooper’s “Welcome to My Nightmare” tour.
Ann Arbor, Michigan continued its prominence in national marijuana politics, with its five-dollar fines, the third annual Hash Bash, and at the end of the year, an audacious contest by the Ann Arbor SUN newspaper with a sweepstakes to win a pound of pot, the winner will be announced in January 1975.
Dave Leone of Diversified Management Agency came up with the concept of the “Guitar Battle of the Century” shows, booking shows around the country that pitted Ted Nugent & the Amboy Dukes against Mike Pinera of Cactus, or Frank Marino of Mahogany Rush, and occasionally, for comic relief, former MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer. We never got a final count on the dozens of these battles, but they extended from March through, at least, October.
And finally, Iggy Pop started his solo career face-down in the seedy streets of Los Angeles, the Stooges had come to their ignoble demise in 1974, but then again, so did Richard Nixon’s presidency.
Volume Ten - 1974 - The End
Return to main History Page - HERE
A collection of Bob Seger picture sleeve singles from 1966 through 1974, prior to the big break-through, including Bob Seger & the Last Heard, the Bob Seger System, and Bob Seger solo.
The four quarterly issues of Tribe magazine from 1974 and four albums released in 1974, by Marcus Bellgrave, Harold McKinney, Phil Ranelin, and a re-issue of "Message From the Tribe".
The Chairmen of the Board released their fourth album on the Invictus label in 1974, sounding decidedly like Funkadelic due to the participation of Funk Mob members Billy "Bass" Nelson, Eddie Hazel, and Bernie Worrell.
Chairmen of the Board – Life & Death (1974)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVFUr66Xk1c
Brothers David and Jad Fair, from Coldwater, Michigan, formed the band Half Japanese in 1974. A few demo tapes were recorded on cassette in this formative year, but official releases will have to wait until 1977.
Nineteen-Seventy-Four was another prolific year for Detroit guitarist Dennis Coffey. He performed on records by Martha Reeves, Johnny Mathis, Boz Scaggs, Ringo Starr, Popcorn Wylie, Quincy Jones, David Ruffin, Eddie Kendricks, Lonette, and two film soundtracks. In addition, he released his second album under his own name.
Dennis Coffey - Outrageous (The Mind Excursion) (1974)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlRkADI04S0
John Lee Hooker released his 45th album in 1974, “Free Beer and Chicken”.
Our annual round-up of Michigan, and Michigan-related, albums, for 1974.
Although it wouldn’t be released until 1976, “Metallic K.O.” by Iggy & the Stooges documented the band’s final live show, at the Michigan Palace in Detroit on February 9, 1974. A live album by Commander Cody & his Lost Planet Airmen was recorded at one of the band’s adopted homes, the Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin, Texas, and the success of Marvin Gaye’s live album, recorded during one of the first shows in his comeback tour, may have been the cure to his notorious stage fright.
Grand Funk, Ted Nugent & the Amboy Dukes, and Suzi Quatro each released two albums during the year, and with the first Parliament album in four years, we had both a Parliament album and a Funkadelic album in the same year, for the first time again in four years.
Debut albums were released by Boogie Woogie Red and Ann Arbor’s Whiz Kids, their first and only. Martha Reeves released her first solo album, and in one of the strangest chapters of Michigan music, the Phantom released his one and only album, the ironically titled “Divine Comedy Part 1”.
Stevie Wonder and Bob Seger each continued to get better and better, with Wonder’s 19th release and Seger’s 7th, as so named. Frijid Pink released their fourth, and final, album, and the eighth, and final, album by the original Alice Cooper band was their “Greatest Hits” compilation.
Our annual round-up of the year’s CREEM magazines, here is the 1974 crop. Two issues had Michigan artists for the cover shot, Iggy Pop in April and Alice Cooper in August.
We found this kicking around, it appears that an issue of Lightworks magazine was planning a Gary Grimshaw article, we have a copy of a Grimshaw’s letter of printing instructions to the publisher which is dated October 3, 1994.
Not to get too far ahead of ourselves, what we find to be of interest is that it is titled “Posters Ann Arbor 1971-74”, indicating that Grimshaw considered his poster work in 1974 to be the end of an era of some sort. He produced only around twenty posters in 1974, a sharp drop from his unprecedented 100 posters in 1973.
Nineteen-seventy-four was a peak year for front cover art on the Ann Arbor SUN newspapers, with arresting visuals and gorgeous colors. Gary Grimshaw left the staff early in the year, but his place was taken by another Gary, the very capable Gary Kell. Chris Frayne and Barbara Weinberg remained, having both joined during 1973, but it was also the elevation of Weinberg to become the paper’s Art Director that seems to have been the catalyst.
A collection of artwork by Gary Kell in the 1974 issues of the Ann Arbor SUN newspaper
A collection of artwork by Gary Kell in the 1974 issues of the Ann Arbor SUN newspaper
