Pow-Wow: A Gathering of the Tribes 1967 Human Be-In Event Poster (AOR-2.215). ...

Description

Pow-Wow: A Gathering of the Tribes 1967 Human Be-In Event Poster (AOR-2.215). An original vintage first-printing concert/event poster for one of the most important gatherings in S.F. rock history: the Human Be-In, which took place on a perfect, beautiful day on Saturday afternoon, January 14, 1967 at San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. This poster was famously designed by Rick Griffin.

Anyone and everyone in 1960's San Francisco was at this event, which is why Griffin's artwork simply says "All San Francisco Rock Bands." So you had the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Sir Douglas Quintet, the Loading Zone, Country Joe & the Fish, the Charlatans and others performing. Only Big Brother & the Holding Company w/Janis did not make it to the event. The Dead, btw, played "Morning Dew" for the first time ever. A supremely desirable poster by one of the masters of S.F. psychedelic concert-poster art, and a must-have for any serious collector of same.

To many, this event - referred to locally as just "the Be-In" - kicked off the Summer of Love. Ten to twenty thousand people gathered in the Polo Fields for the free happening, and by all accounts, it came off beautifully, without a hitch. Even the Hell's Angels played peacemakers. In a way, this event put hippies in the national spotlight for the first time. Jerry Garcia told Rolling Stone magazine in 1970, "The first really pure event was the Be-In, the first time that the whole 'head scene' was out in force. It was publicized through completely underground channels - posters, word of mouth and that sort of thing." This was even before the birth of FM rock radio, so posters were an essential means of getting the word out.

The luminaries, hipsters, poets and others advertised on the poster include East-Coast LSD advocates Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (the future Ram Dass), Beat Generation poets Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Michael McClure, Gary Snyder and Lenore Kandel, counterculture activist Jerry Rubin, comedian and civil rights activists Dick Gregory and Robert Baker, and even "Buddah" was on the bill.

Measures 14 ¼" x 22 1/2" and grades to Very Good condition, with a couple of light finger bends and uneven toning in the top portion above the artwork. From the David Swartz Concert Poster Collection. COA from Heritage Auctions.

Literature: See Grushkin, Paul, The Art of Rock - Posters from Presley to Punk, Abbeville Press, New York, 1987, p.197 (illus.).

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