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Splatt Gallery's History of Michigan Concert Posters
Volume Seven - 1971 - Page Five
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Fantastic poster by an unknown artist, for the Frut, at the Woodward High School gym, March 25, 1971, with a rare photo of the band, although it looks suspiciously like the Grateful Dead.
Frut – I Love You Baby (But You Don’t Dress Cool) (1971)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCPG5Q2Uz0w
Tour itinerary for Canned Heat with John Lee Hooker, kicking off at the Eastown Theater in Detroit, Michigan on March 26, 1971.
Poster for Alice Cooper, “the heaviest rock group in North America”, at the Memorial University of Newfoundland in Newfoundland, Canada, March 26-27, 1971.
The Canterbury House in Ann Arbor, Michigan continued to book quality shows, such as Pearls Before Swine for four nights, March 26-29, 1971. That same weekend saw a performance by the Motor City Mutants, playing at the South Quad on March 27th. Legend has it that their debut performance was in January 1971 at the Union Ballroom in Ann Arbor where they dissected road kill that they’d found on the I-94 freeway on the way to the gig.
Band founder, guitarist Jerome Youngman grew up in Kalamazoo, Michigan where he started a high school band in 1967 called Super Jerome’s Magic Band, performing at Kalamazoo College and at the Crazy Horse club. After a near-fatal car crash in 1969, Youngman moved to Amsterdam to recuperate, returning in 1970 with his plan to start the Mutants.
Motor City Mutants original band members were Mutant Bob Tremain on electric piano, Julius Rodgers on drums, James Graves on vocals, Don Klos on bass guitar, Tom Morwatts and Youngman on guitars.
The date is incorrect on this poster for BB King at the Fountain Street Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the actual date was Saturday, March 27, 1971.
A Motown Records ad in the March 27, 1971 issue of Billboard Magazine for their Black Forum label which released spoken word albums of civil rights speeches, winning a Grammy Award for their first release, a speech by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The label lasted for a couple years, yielding a total of eight releases.
More cringe-worthy ad copy from the major record labels, from Warner/Reprise in the March 27, 1971 issue of Billboard Magazine advertising the single “Eighteen” by Alice Cooper, among other picks of the litter.
The back cover of the March 27, 1971 issue of Billboard magazine promoting the third album by Bloodrock. The artwork, also used as the album cover art, was designed by producer Terry Knight.
Third poster/handbill in the “Shaper” series by artist Chad Hines, for the Palladium in Birmingham, Michigan, March 27, 1971. Bands were Cactus, Sunday Funnies, and the UP.
A full-page ad for Parliament-Funkadelic in the March 27, 1971 “8th Annual Campus Attractions” special issue of Billboard magazine.
A nice full-page ad for Rare Earth in the March 27, 1971 “8th Annual Campus Attractions” special issue of Billboard magazine.
Three movie posters for the film “Mad Dogs & Englishmen”, including one from Japan, for the documentary of Joe Cocker’s 1970 tour, which was released on March 29, 1971. Detroiters are proud of the fact that the tour kicked off in the Motor City, at the Eastown Theater on March 20-21, 1970. We don’t know if any footage was shot that night, or if it was, if it ended up in the movie.
The phrase “Mad Dogs & Englishmen” is a British colloquialism for very hot weather which comes from a 1931 song by Noel Coward, which you can hear here:
Noel Coward – Mad Dogs & Englishmen (live TV performance) (1955)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2YvYiWtovM
Fourth poster/handbill in the “Shaper” series by artist Chad Hines, for the Palladium in Birmingham, Michigan, March 31, 1971, for an Acoustical Festival with Ted Lucas, Johnathan Round, Ron Coden, and others.
Poster/flyer by Collins for a Wednesday night show at the Grande Ballroom with Jagged Edge, Salvage with Dallas Hodge, Stonefront, and Walpurgis “Doing Their Rock Opera” on March 31, 1971.
Previously all we had of this poster was a grainy image of a grainy thumbnail, less than an inch in size, which at the time, we remarked that was the perfectly apt portal into one of the strangest Michigan music stories. A show that is missing from the Concert Database, on March 31, 1971, with Jagged Edge, Salvage, Stonefront, and “doing their rock opera”, the band Walpurgis.
Walpurgis was the band behind the legendary 1974 album "Phantom's Divine Comedy" and the enigmatic singer/songwriter Arthur Pendragon. There is no better authority on the complex history of “the Phantom” than writer R.D. Francis, who has written two books and numerous articles on the subject. You can find him at his Facebook page here - https://www.facebook.com/rdfranciswriter/
The Walpurgis set from this Grande Ballroom show was recorded and released as a CD several years ago. Although we no longer have the link to the full album, the link below will put you on the trail of most, if not all, of the set.
Walpurgis – Live at the Grande Ballroom, Detroit, Michigan (3/31/71)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_PRQ4ENXJM&list=PL5B22C3C69215C162
The cover art of the CD of Walpurgis live at the Grande Ballroom on March 31, 1971.
Full-page poster/ad for Commander Cody & his Lost Planet Airmen with illustration by Chris Frayne (Ozone) with tour dates starting on March 31, 1971.
A really nice poster by Chris Frayne (Ozone) for his brother George’s band Commander Cody & his Lost Planet Airmen. The bottom panel is the same as was used for a tour ad that had tour dates starting on March 31, 1971.
A nice full-page illustration of Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen in the April 1971 issue of Organ magazine, in San Francisco, California.
Detroit finds its place in the DC Universe in the April 1971 issue of Aquaman comic book.
An ad for the Funkadelic single “You And Your Folks, Me And My Folks”, released in April 1971, in advance of the “Maggot Brain” album.
Funkadelic - You And Your Folks, Me And My Folks (1971)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsbmvoVpMfc
Following up on the all-Michigan bands show the previous December, promoters in Atlanta, Georgia put together a “Detroit II” show with Alice Cooper, Ted Nugent & the Amboy Dukes, and Brownsville Station, April 1, 1971. A show preview in The Great Speckled Bird newspaper lamented that Bob Seger would not be returning, and lamented even more over the fact that the Amboy Dukes were.
Newspaper ad and low quality image of the color poster for “Detroit II” in Atlanta, Georgia put together a “Detroit II” show with Alice Cooper, Ted Nugent & the Amboy Dukes, and Brownsville Station, April 1, 1971.
An April Fool’s Day joke by poster artist Dennis Garascia, for a show that never happened, April 1-2, 1971.
A full-page “Motown Chart-Busters” ad (color added) in the April 2, 1971 issue of the British music magazine Blues & Soul.
Poster by Bone(?) for Alice Cooper at the Curtis Hixon Hall in Tampa, Florida, April 2, 1971.
A Reprise Records ad, with illustration by John van Hamersveld, that could be used as a tour blank, from April 1971, which could have been used for the shows by the Kinks at the Eastown Theater in Detroit, Michigan, April 2-3, 1971.
The Kinks – Lola (1970)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LemG0cvc4oU
Call it divine providence, but after months of trying to find the track that goes with this poster, here, on Easter morning, it pops right up. Della Reese’s cover of “Troublemaker” was listed as a Top 60 Pop Pick in the April 3, 1971 issue of Billboard magazine. One of a number of songs that posited Jesus as a hippie that cropped up in the late sixties, it appears that the track was first recorded by Lee Hazlewood in 1969.
Willie Nelson recorded the song as the title track for an album that was recorded in 1973 during the time of Nelson’s move to Austin, Texas and his transition between record labels. Having left RCA, Nelson recorded the album for Atlantic Records, but Atlantic decided to not branch into country music and the album release was cancelled. Nelson then signed with Columbia Records, which gave him total creative control, and after the rousing success of “Red Headed Stranger” in 1975, Nelson finally released his “Troublemaker” album in September 1976.
Billboard described their Top 60 Pop Pick of Reese’s record as, “By far the most commercial outing by the stylist in some time, this wild piece of rock ballad material with a powerhouse lyric line has it to bring her through Top 40 and Hot 100, hot and heavy.” The prediction failed however, the song managed to make #110 in Cash Box, but never dented the Billboard charts, and until today could not be found on YouTube, but glory hallelujah, it has risen!
Della Reese – The Troublemaker (1971)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lH3eI9HhL18
Della Reese was one of Detroit’s most prolific recording artists, twenty-five of her albums from 1956 to 1970 are shown above. Around 1969, Reese transitioned into an acting career, finding her greatest successes in television roles and appearances.
Motown singer Martha Reeves cites Reese as a major influence, and says she named her group the Vandellas after Van Dyke Street in Detroit and Della Reese.
Cover of the April 1971 issue of the Ann Arbor Argus by Dave Baker. Nice incorporation of the masthead to match the gardening theme of the issue.
“Dope-O-Scope” was a column that began in the very first issue of the Detroit Sun newspaper back in April 1967. The column was initially intended to “try to keep you informed on the latest bust news around the city and around the world”, but it would also report on current supply and prices, “Weed prices are about back to normal again, lids running about $20.”
Over time, the section became just a flat-out price guide. “Lids of weed = $15 to $20, Pounds of weed = $125 - $175, Hash = $6 to $6 per gram, Oz of Hash = $80 and up, LSD = $1 to $2”, Mescaline = $1 to $2 a hit, $50 to $75 a hundred, $500 to $700 a thousand.”
There was some confusion over lids vs ounces, some claimed they were the same, but lids were definitely smaller. When weed first began being smuggled up from Mexico, it was measured in metric units, by kilograms (or keys). There were 50 lids to a kilo, so a lid would be 20 grams. As American consumers were often confused by metric units, the standard measures became pounds and ounces (an Oh-Zee) (28 grams). With a general price of $20 an ounce, a half would be a dime bag ($10) and a quarter would be a nickel bag ($5).
When The Sun fizzled out and folded by the end of 1969, the column eventually began appearing in the Ann Arbor Argus. This penultimate example from the April 1971 issue of the Argus is the peak of the column, possibly inspired by The Chicago Seed’s “Dope” column which had become beautiful elaborate full-page works of art.
The Dope-O-Scope page from the December 1970 issue of the Ann Arbor Argus, with examples of the column headings over the years, including the very first one from the Issue #1 of the Sun in April 1967 (dark brown strip).
Out of all of the underground newspapers in the country, the Chicago Seed was consistently the most beautiful and definitely the most colorful. If we weren’t doing the history of rock posters of our beloved hometown of Detroit, we would be doing the project about Chicago.
Artists such as Skip Williamson, Jay Lynch, Dan Clyne, Lester Dore (Wanderoo), Karl-Heinz Meschbach, Hobo Graphics, Filth Studios, Harry Dewar, and others deserve the kind of documentation that we’re doing with our Michigan artists.
This is a collection of the Dope page from issues of the Seed in 1971.
We don’t know what it was, but all of a sudden, waterbed stores started popping up all over the metro-Detroit in early 1971. There was Salty Dog Waterbed Co., Float-A-Bye Waterbeds, Wave of the Future, Floating Fantasy, The Water Closet, Neptune’s Nest, House of Waterbeds, and the generically named The Waterbed Stores with seven locations. Some general boutiques like Albatross added waterbeds to their line of goods, and if that wasn’t enough, you could also buy from out of state by mail order from places like New Wave Waterbed, Undulator Waterbeds, and Mail-A-Bed.
The sudden waterbed craze wasn’t only in Detroit, waterbed ads saturated all of the underground press, from San Francisco to Los Angeles, to Austin, Texas, Atlanta, Georgia, Seattle, Washington, and everywhere else.
We mentioned earlier that Stanley Mouse took a two-year break from making posters and moved to Toronto where he incongruously worked in a waterbed store. Seeing the waterbed explosion that happened in early 1971, he was possibly on to something.
This ad, from the February 18, 1971 issue of The Fifth Estate, for the generically named Waterbed Store has his mouse signature on the bottom.
Altered version of Stanley Mouse’s ad for The Waterbed Store for the “Women’s Issue” of The Fifth Estate, March 4, 1971.
Artist Dennis Preston also found work in the waterbed business, with his ads for Rebirth Waterbeds in East Lansing, Michigan.
The fifth poster/handbill in the “Shaper” series by artist Chad Hines, for the Palladium in Birmingham, Michigan with Catfish, Dick Wagner’s Frost & Friends and a mis-spelled REO Speedwagon in their first Michigan appearance on April 3, 1971.
A rock concert on The Diag on the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor, April 3, 1971, to help re-elect Mayor Harris. The seldom-seen band, Rang Tang Tiger Show may have taken their name from this 1927 musical.
An ad for Ted Nugent & the Amboy Dukes at The Place in Miami, Florida, April 3-4, 1971.
Second poster/ad by the unknown artist with the distinct swooping “R” signature, with appears to be R. Wagner, for the Butterfield Blues Band at MSU Auditorium in East Lansing, Michigan, April 5, 1971.
Poster/ads by Doug Huston (left) and Hugh Surratt (right), for the Butterfield Blues Band at MSU Auditorium in East Lansing, Michigan, April 5, 1971.
Poster for Alice Cooper with Brownsville Station in Montgomery, Alabama on April 6, 1971.
A cool poster for a non-database show at the Palladium in Birmingham, Michigan, April 7, 1971. The database has a show with nearly the same line-up as on April 3rd, that one had Buddy Miles, Mutzie, and Ormandy, this one is nearly the same, but with SRC in place of Mutzie.
Unusual for the time, the artist Mary Partridge signed and numbered this piece.
Ad for an appearance by Abbie Hoffman at the MSU Auditorium in East Lansing, Michigan, April 7, 1971. The appearance was later cancelled.
Poster with Commander Cody & his Lost Planet Airmen at a Hip Groover’s Bash in Mill Valley, California on April 8, 1971.
The British band Badfinger made their third visit to Michigan and they made the most of it, playing five shows over the course of a week, performing in Muskegon at the L.C. Walker Arena, April 5, 1971, followed by this show with the poster for Midland High School, April 9, 1971, then over to the Birmingham Palladium the following night (poster in our next post), then out to the Sherwood Forest in Davidson the next night, and finally wrapping up with a show at the Eastown Theater in Detroit, April 13. Local opening bands were Third Power and Sunday Funnies.
Badfinger – Baby Blue (1971)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkA7xQb6uPk
Package travel deals, particularly around Spring Break, were commonly advertised in campus newspapers, and no doubt, on posters around the schools. The University of Wisconsin, who hold this piece in their collection, credit the artist as Gary Grimshaw and cite the year as 1971.
Gary Grimshaw art for the Spring Break travel posters, without the accompanying text, circa 1971.
We haven’t been able to place a date on this Gary Grimshaw student travel poster from Ann Arbor, Michigan, so we’ll put it here with the one from Wisconsin.
Poster and ads for a show at the Cleveland Arena in Cleveland, Ohio on April 9, 1971 with Jethro Tull, Procol Harum; Curved Air, and Cactus featuring Jim McCarty and Rusty Day. Jethro Tull may have been replaced by the Steve Miller Band.
Volume Seven - 1971 - continues - HERE
