James Brown, B.B. King 1971 "Battle of the Kings" Concert Poster....

Description

James Brown, B.B. King 1971 "Battle of the Kings" Concert Poster. An original cardboard window card advertising an amazing line-up of talent playing in Chicago, Illinois near the end of 1971: "The King of Soul," James Brown; "The King of the Blues," B.B. King; prolific hit-makers Bobby "Blue" Bland and Tyrone Davis; and Top-10 R&B recording stars Walter Jackson and Little Johnny Taylor. The Whispers were originally scheduled, but were scratched in favor of Jackson.

It's a bit staggering to think of these two titans, Brown and King, sharing a stage on the same evening. They were both monsters in their genre, so this must've sold out pretty quickly and the audience really got their money's worth. And students of R&B would also be in awe at Bobby Bland holding the third position; this is just a spectacular line-up.

The timing of this poster finds James at his white-hottest, and in transition from soul to funk. His two most recent singles had both gone to #1 R&B: "Hot Pants" and "Make It Funky." In fact, eight of JB's last nine singles on King Records had been Top 10 R&B hits, so he was on fire.

B.B. King was a road warrior and not driven by singles, so it's interesting to note that he put five of them on the Billboard R&B chart this year. But forget singles: 1971 was the year B.B. released his best-selling album ever, Live in Cook County Jail, recorded the previous summer. Based on that success, his classic Live at the Regal re-entered the charts this year as well.

As for Bobby "Blue" Bland, well... did you know that he used to be B.B. King's driver and valet? That's right, but he went on to his own hall-of-fame career with 25 Top 10 R&B hits from the 50's through the 70's, including the evergreen (and Grateful Dead favorite) "Turn on Your Love Light."

Tyrone Davis would have 14 R&B top-tenners himself, and Walter Jackson would create the R&B hit version of "Feelings" a few years later. And Little Johnny Taylor (not to be confused with the "Who's Making Love" Johnny Taylor) had just this moment released his own Top 10 R&B single, "Everybody Knows About My Good Thing."

The ticket-buying locations really help add flavor to this 50-year-old board: Ticketron Outlets, Sears, Montgomery Wards and the local Sugar Shack.

This board comes from a small stash of original Chicago concert posters that have the slight appearance of fantasy posters, but are most definitely originals printed before the shows to sell tickets. These may have been printed by Tribune Show Print, which was located just a couple hundred miles to the southeast of Chicago. Tribune printed a lot of legitimate advertising posters like this in the 60's and 70's before they got into making the fantasy merchandising posters (still prolific to this day).

Measures 14" x 22 ¼" and grades to Very Good condition with writing in the bottom portion, toning through the top portion, thumbsoiling in various spots, and various ink smears in the upper portion. COA from Heritage Auctions.

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