Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Otis Redding, The Who 1967 Monterey Pop Festival Poster Graded 9.8 (AOR-3.5). ...

Description

THE RETURN OF A POP-CULTURE POSTER ICON IN 9.8

Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Otis Redding, The Who 1967 Monterey Pop Festival Poster Graded 9.8 (AOR-3.5). An original standard-sized Monterey Pop concert poster designed by Tom Wilkes and printed on silver foil stock, to both advertise and be sold at the seminal three-day festival on June 16-18, 1967. This specimen has been graded to an eye-popping 9.8 Near Mint/Mint by CGC (the Certified Guaranty Company). Heritage didn't have a 9.8 last year; it's been since November 2022 for that high a grade, and that 9.8 pulled down a breathtaking $30,000.

Many music fans and historians consider this to likely be the greatest weekend in rock-music history, even eclipsing Woodstock two years later. Officially kicking off the Summer of Love, the weekend's talent line-up was simply stunning, most notably for launching the careers of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Otis Redding, all of whom put on spellbinding performances. The long weekend also featured performances by the Grateful Dead, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, the Mamas and the Papas, Eric Burdon and the Animals, Buffalo Springfield, Simon & Garfunkel, the Butterfield Blues Band, Quicksilver Messenger Service, The Byrds and even sitarist extraordinaire Ravi Shankar. And we've left out a good number of others. It was all captured in a theatrical motion picture by D.A. Pennebaker, immortalizing the weekend forever. Poster measures 12 1/4" by 21 3/8" and grades to 9.8. COA from Heritage Auctions.

Literature: See Grushkin, Paul, The Art of Rock: Posters from Presley to Punk, Abbeville Press, New York, 1987, p.258 (illus.).

More Information: Jefferson Airplane's Grace Slick recalled this festival fondly in her autobiography, Somebody to Love? (Grand Central Publishing, 1999, written with Andrea Cagan):

"Outdoor concerts are common now, but when Monterey Pop happened, I'd never seen anything like it. Produced by Lou Adler and The Mamas and the Papas, it's the only festival I can think of that was excellent in every way. The [absence of] Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones was the only element I missed at Monterey Pop; the rest of it was perfect.

"In the beautiful setting of the Carmel coast, the audience area was on a large, grassy lawn surrounded by cypress and pine trees. Unlike most summer concerts where the sun shone down mercilessly, here the big tree branches broke up the light into soft beams, making everything look like a Disney version of Sherwood Forest. In back of the trees, around the perimeter of the seating space, were about 30 small booths, individually decorated with colored silks and cottons and hand-painted banners, showing off every kind of original creation - from one-of-a-kind boots and belts to framed paintings by amateur artists. Even the stalls selling food and concert items were quaint and uninfected by corporate logos and pitchmen.

"The musical line-up boasted an all-inclusive representation of 'new' music. Black, white, East, West, rock, blues, instrumental, pop and folk - the three-day list of performers was nothing but headliners. We all combined to create a peaceful and extraordinary offering; even the police cruisers had orchids on their antennas. I felt lucky to be there, observing one of the great examples of human celebration."


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