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The Doors No. Cal. Folk-Rock Festival 1968 Concert Poster CGC-Graded 9.6 (AOR-2.341). ...
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Description
The Doors No. Cal. Folk-Rock Festival 1968 Concert Poster CGC-Graded 9.6 (AOR-2.341). An original first-printing concert poster for a two-day festival at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds in San Jose, CA on Saturday & Sunday, May 18 & 19, 1968. A highly popular poster due to its dominant image of Jim Morrison as the centerpiece, although you have to wonder what the other bands thought of that. Among those other acts were Big Brother & the Holding Company with Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane with Grace Slick and the Animals with Eric Burdon. Also, and not surprisingly, the Grateful Dead played on Saturday as well, probably added too late to make the poster.There were actually three printings of this poster done before the show to advertise this big event, and many consider this the best version. It's the one on thinner stock with sharper image clarity, and then the brighter orange color as opposed to the slightly duller ones.
The weekend festival was held specifically at Family Park in the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds in San Jose, CA, and was produced by Bob Blodgett, although his name doesn't appear on the poster (he added it the following year, the only other Festival he produced).
The Doors closed the entire weekend by performing a one-hour set at 4:30 Sunday afternoon, following Country Joe & the Fish. Accounts have them playing strong but the audience was somewhat sunbaked and weary after two full days of music. However, part of the show was filmed for the Doors documentary Feast of Friends, which was subsequently canceled but eventually released in its full glory on DVD and Blu-ray in 2014.
Other acts advertised on the poster included the Electric Flag (with Al Kooper), the Youngbloods, Country Joe and the Fish, Ravi Shankar's Indian Festival, Kaleidoscope (with future Jackson Browne guitarist David Lindley), and Taj Mahal. The artwork is credited to Carson-Morris Studios of Oakland, across the Bay.
There's another advertisement for the festival, perhaps a newspaper ad, which adds to the line-up the Loading Zone, People, Transatlantic Flash, Smokestack Lightnin', Crome Syrcus, Indian Head Band, the Dirty Blues Band "and many more." It also mentions that Ravi Shankar's group included Shamin Ahmed on sitar and Taranoth Rao on the tabla.
The Airplane certainly had a busy day on Saturday. They had the day shift at this festival, and then played L.A.'s Shrine Auditorium that night, so we presume they flew down rather than make the five-hour drive. According to Craig Fenton's book Take Me to a Circus Tent: The Jefferson Airplane Flight Manual, their set list consisted of, in order: "White Rabbit," "Plastic Fantastic Lover," "Watch Her Ride," "Today," "The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil," "Greasy Heart" performed for the first time ever, "Fat Angel," "Star Track" also for the first time, "Won't You Try/Saturday Afternoon" (perfect for this occasion) and "Somebody to Love."
Note: We feel this poster is actually a Signature-auction item (live auctioneer, catalog placement) that we appraise at being generally worth over $1,000, as evidenced by results in the last couple of years here at Heritage. However, we're including this poster now in our Showcase auctions sometimes because we wanted to satisfy our consignors and offer our customers more than just three chances a year to win one. And of course the CGC grade, or no grading at all, could affect this placement as well. At any rate, good luck!
Measures 14" x 21 ¾" and graded to 9.6 Near Mint Plus by CGC (the Certified Guaranty Company). COA from Heritage Auctions.
Auction Info
2023 September 23 Music Memorabilia & Concert Posters Showcase Auction #41180 (go to Auction Home page)
Auction Dates
September, 2023
23rd
Saturday
Internet/Mail Bids: 26
Lot Tracking Activity: N/A
Page Views: 285
Buyer's Premium per Lot:
25% on the first $300,000 (minimum $49), plus 20% of any amount between $300,000 and $3,000,000, plus 15% of any amount over $3,000,000 per lot.
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