Splatt Gallery
Double click here to add text.
Splatt Gallery's History of Michigan Concert Posters
Volume Eleven - 1975 - Page Thirteen
***********************************************************
A full-page Casablanca Records poster/ad for Parliament’s “Mothership Connection” album, released on December 15, 1975. The album cover design was by the Hollywood graphic studio design company Gribbitt!, who provided the art direction and design for all Casablanca artists (except KISS).
The spaceship was the actual one that was used in the movie “The Day the Earth Stood Still” that George Clinton obtained from a prop store in Los Angeles.
The third single from the album was “Mothership Connection (Star Child)” which brought Bernie Worrell’s arsenal of keyboards, including Minimoog, Wurlitzer electric piano, ARP Pro Soloist and String Ensemble, RMI Electra Piano, Hammond organ, grand piano, Fender Rhodes and clavinet D6 to the forefront and featured the newest members, Fred Wesley and Maceo Parker, straight out of James Brown’s band, and the Brecker brothers, Randy and Michael, to form the funkiest horn section on record.
Parliament - Mothership Connection (Star Child) (1975)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aGnuLXCruc
A collection of picture sleeves for the singles from the “Mothership Connection” album released outside the US.
Promo poster/ad for Parliament’s “Mothership Connection” album, released on December 15, 1975 and quickly accumulating accolades.
Two more full-page Casablanca Records poster/ads for Parliament’s “Mothership Connection” album, released on December 15, 1975.
A full-page ad for Audioland stereo stores in the December 17, 1975 issue of the SUN newspaper in Detroit, Michigan.
A nice full-page record store ad for a sale on Beatles’ albums in the December 17, 1975 issue of the SUN newspaper in Detroit, Michigan.
Definitely one of the best Bob Seger posters of all time, even with the mis-spelling, by Sam Yeates at the Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin Texas on December 19, 1975.
An ad with Ted Nugent opening for Kansas and Blue Oyster Cult in Long Beach, California on December 19, 1975.
A clean red and green Christmas party style poster for the Ohio Players with Parliament Funkadelic at the War Memorial Auditorium in Rochester, New York on December 20, 1975. Parliament’s “Mothership Connection” album had just been released only five days before this show, so the promoters were still referencing “Chocolate City”. On the other hand, the Ohio Players’ “Love Rollercoaster” single was steadily rising on the charts, it would become the #1 single on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the Hot Soul Singles charts.
Ohio Players – Love Rollercoaster (1975)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBkVV9xxCHE
Newspaper ad for REO Speedwagon with Rush at Wings Stadium in Kalamazoo, Michigan on December 27, 1975.
Poster by an unknown artist for Bob Seger opening for Blue Oyster Cult and Mott in Toledo, Ohio on December 27, 1975.
Guitarist Dennis Coffey released his third solo album, that is the third album credited as just Dennis Coffey and not the Dennis Coffey Band, the Dennis Coffey Trio, Dennis Coffey And The Detroit Guitar Band, etcetera. First mentioned in the December 27, 1975 issue of Billboard magazine’s “recommended new LP’s”, where it, like all other reviews, made note of the cover.
The lead cut is called "If You Can't Dance To This You Have No Business Havin' Feet" and there’s a cover of David Bowie’s “Fame”. The album tracks will play in order here:
Dennis Coffey - Finger Lickin Good (album) (1975)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7k36wCi6nM&list=PLYKDNKnSOvGgNeWv3I1gf6noxZGpaEJyb
A Discount Records ad for Ted Nugent’s first solo album with a tie-in to his appearance at Cobo Arena in Detroit, Michigan on December 29, 1975. The lead-off track on the album was an eight-minute crusher called “Stranglehold”, with a guitar solo that has been ranked the 31st greatest guitar solo of all time by Guitar World magazine.
Ted Nugent – Stranglehold (1975)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c3d7QgZr7g
Newspaper ad for Ted Nugent’s at Cobo Arena in Detroit, Michigan on December 29, 1975.
New Year’s Eve, December 31, 1975, at Chances Are in Ann Arbor, Michigan with Radio King.
The second concert at the Silverdome stadium in Pontiac, Michigan was Elvis Presley on New Year’s Eve, December 31, 1975, just twenty-five days after The Who’s inaugural concert. There were fewer tickets sold for Elvis, 60,000 compared to 75,962 for The Who, but with the higher ticket prices Elvis out-grossed The Who, $800,000 compared to $560,000.
It remained Presley’s highest attended and highest grossing concert ever and his first New Year’s Eve show since 1955.
Incidentally, the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans opened the same year.
Elvis Presley – Live in Pontiac, Michigan (12/31/75)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1409&v=JE_B8j8rHXI
They pulled it off once, so why not do it again? In the December 31, 1975 edition of the SUN newspaper they announced their second “Win a Pound of Colombian!” contest, with the winner to be announced on March 31, 1976. Iffy the Dopester approved.
A full-page Motown Records ad in the December 31, 1975 edition of the SUN newspaper in Detroit, Michigan.
A Motown Records poster/full-page ad at the end of 1975, apparently a follow-up to their earlier football-themed “4th Quarter” ad.
Our annual round-up of our ten favorite Michigan rock posters for the year, this is the 1975 crop. It turned out to be a pretty good group, but the fact is that there were not all that many more candidates. The slimmest year so far, roughly half as many as previous years.
These are the ten posters shown above:
Jefferson Starship – East Lansing – May 2, 1975 – artist Hugh Surratt, with Friel
Leslie West – Michigan Palace, Detroit – May 17, 1975 – artist Crow Quill
Joe Walsh & Bob Seger – Muskegon – July 15, 1975 – artist Gary Grimshaw
Electric Light Orchestra – Grand Valley State Colleges – July 25, 1975 – artist unknown
Mojo Boogie Band – Ann Arbor – August 14, 1975 – artist unknown
Marshall Tucker Band – Showcase, Detroit – September 13, 1975 – artist Gary Grimshaw
ZZ Top – Cobo Arena, Detroit – September 24, 1975 – artist unknown
Quicksilver Messenger Service – Showcase, Detroit – October 25, 1975 – artist Gary Grimshaw
Mothers of Invention – Ann Arbor – November 18, 1975 – artist unknown
Salem Witchcraft – Cherry Hill High School – January 15, 1975 – artist unknown
A collection of picture sleeve singles from Suzi Quatro’s first phase of her recording career, from 1973 through 1975. She released three albums and eleven singles, three of which reached #1 and another three which made the Top Ten in various countries around the world, although none of them could even break the Top Fifty in the United States.
A poster of Michael Quatro, with an illegible artist signature, that was likely sold at concerts and possibly by mail. In 1975, Quatro released his third album “In Collaboration With The Gods”, his first under just his name without the Jam Band. Unlike his first two albums, there was no assistance from Ted Nugent or Quatro’s sisters, but guitarist Rick Derringer and “special voices” Flo & Eddie made their cameos.
Michael Quatro - In Collaboration With The Gods (album) (1975)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVOf_-kvNZQ
The 1975 set of CREEM magazine. Only one Michigan artist made the year’s covers, with Alice Cooper in July.
CREEM magazine began their “Stars Cars” feature in the February 1975 issue with Rod Stewart and his Excalibur SS Phaeton. Shown above are the first year’s group:
Rod Stewart - Excalibur SS Phaeton
Tina Turner – Jaguar V12 XKE
Billy Preston – 1958 Bentley
Gregg Allman – 1966 Excalibur Roadster
Grand Funk – 1974 Cadillac limo
Robert Plant - 1948 Chevy Pick-Up
Andy Powell of Wishbone Ash - 1954 Jaguar XK140
Mick Ralphs of Bad Company – 1969 Mustang Mach One Fastback
Jon Lord of Deep Purple – 1955 Gull Wing Mercedes 300SL
Alice Cooper – 1974 Rolls Royce
Peter Criss - 1955 MG
Our annual year-end record round-up of Michigan-related albums, here is the 1975 crop.
There were debut studio albums by Ted Nugent and Alice Cooper, and Bob Seger’s return to the Capitol Records label, setting these three artists on the course of becoming Michigan’s greatest rock exports. The other group that could lay claim to that title, Grand Funk Railroad, released their second live album, but their run of Gold and Platinum albums had come to an end and the group’s demise was on the horizon.
Armen Boladian’s Westbound label released albums by Catfish Hodge, Dennis Coffey, the Fantastic Four’s overlooked masterpiece “Alvin Stone”, Ohio Players and former member Junie Morrison, and two Funkadelic albums including the group’s first greatest hits compilation.
Speaking of greatest hits albums, “Al Green's Greatest Hits” compiled the hits from Green’s six consecutive #1 R&B albums, the collection has been called “one of the best executed 'greatest hits' albums in history”.
In addition to Funkadelic, George Clinton’s other half, Parliament, released two albums, including the earth-shattering “Mothership Connection”.
The Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, released her 22nd studio album, while the Queen of Glam, Suzi Quatro, released her third LP.
Motown, now three and a half years in Los Angeles, continued to have success with its biggest stars, Diana Ross, the Temptations, and Smokey Robinson, who created a new musical genre with his album title “A Quiet Storm”. The Miracles released a tribute to their new hometown with “City of Angels”. The Supremes reformed after a two-year absence, founding member Mary Wilson rejoined with Cindy Birdsong and recruit Scherrie Payne, sister of Freda.
Stevie Wonder was noticeably absent, his first year since 1966 without an album release, and after winning back-to-back "Album of the Year" Grammy awards (which Paul Simon noted in acceptance speech for the 1976 Album of Year, "I'd like to thank Stevie Wonder, who didn't make an album this year").
Norman Whitfield produced two albums by Undisputed Truth, their final Motown work before Whitfield formed his own label, taking the group with him.
Former Motown acts that had opted to remain in Detroit included the Four Tops whose album on ABC/Dunhill had beautiful cover art, and more notably, Hamilton Bohannon who released two albums on the cutting edge of the emerging disco genre.
The Ohio Players continued to have releases on Westbound but it was their Mercury release “Honey” that became their classic. Former Player Junie Morrison released two of his three Westbound solo albums during the year as he continued to work even more closely with George Clinton.
Rare Earth released their eighth studio album, “Back To Earth” their only album with guitarist Paul Warren, who by the way, also contributed to one of the Undisputed Truth albums.
Former Ann Arbor residents Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen released their fifth LP with the sessions chronicled by Geoffrey Stokes’ book “Star-Making Machinery: The Odyssey of an Album”, and Sky King released their one and only album “Secret Sauce”.
And finally, the Dramatics whose roots reached back to Golden World Records in 1965 added two more albums to their expanding discography.
Also released in 1975 was the album “No Man’s Land” by Victor Peraino’s Kingdom Come. Peraino was briefly the original drummer for the band UP, he moved to England where he joined Arthur Brown’s group called Kingdom Come, not as a drummer but as a multi-keyboardist and vocalist. He performed on their final album “Journey”, released in April 1973, which is noted as one of the first records to use a drum machine.
Shortly after, the band dissolved and Peraino returned to Detroit while retaining the band name Kingdom Come. The self-released “No Man’s Land” was the new group’s only album.
Victor Peraino’s Kingdom Come – No Man’s Land (album) (1975)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdDJUr4EudQ
Picture sleeve by an unknown artist “D.L.R.” for the first single by Ray Gunn Faze, the 1975 project by former Virgin Dawn and former New Order guitarist Ray Gunn. We cannot find any audio by the band, but the following quoted lyrics may give you an idea of what the band was all about:
“Punk rock sucks, so does new wave.
I can't stand disco, what's the latest craze?
The Ray Gunn Faze, all over the place.
We dig making money, we get lots of honey,
Man, ain't it funny, what a rock and roll band can do?
Drinking lots of liquor, don't you think it's quicker, what a couple of joints can do?
If they can't stand the smoke, tell 'em it's a joke, as long as the record sells.
can go anywhere they want, just as long as it's not, to a Ray Gunn Faze, Ray Gunn Faze, Ray Gunn Faze rock show!”
One last single from 1975, produced and arranged by Dennis Coffey and Mike Theodore, a cover of David Cassidy’s 1973 hit and a picture sleeve for the Italian release.
C.C. & Company – Day Dreamer (1975)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNld364pTp4
By a rough count, we have documented only 116 Michigan concert posters for the year 1975, a drop by about half from the previous year, as the output of posters continued its steady decline from the record year of 1969.
Gary Grimshaw was back on top with a mere (19) posters, switching places with Hugh Surratt, on top from the year before.
Out of the 116, three dozen were by “an unknown artist”, the best of these are shown above.
Volume Eleven - 1975 - The End
Back to main History page - HERE
A poster/flyer for Myron’s Ballroom in Los Angeles, California with the Dogs appearing on December 18, 1975. Also has Van Halen appearing on Christmas night.
