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• Belltown saved to Lettering Geniuses

One of several scores from Saturday's Rock Poster Society show at the Cannery in San Francisco. This is a postcard version of a poster created by Rick Griffin and Alton Kelley for a series of August, 1968 shows at the Fillmore West in San Francisco. Griffin did the lettering (he was a freakin' god), Kelley did the collage in the center. The art for the poster was supposed to be for a show at the Avalon, but the folks ran that venue were apparently running out of dough, so Griffin and Kelley took their project to Bill Graham across town.

Just look at the music that was happening at the Fillmore West that month. It's not just the headliners (The Who, Creedence, the Dead, Quicksilver) but even the supporting acts are amazing. The Who get support from James Cotton and Magic Sam, to nail home the point that this British band (and many others) owed a serious debt to Mississippi Delta/Chicago bluesmen. A few nights later, John Fogarty and Creedence, along with hometown favorites It's a Beautiful Day, get bluesman Albert Collins to open the show for them. Collins stuck around for three nights with the Grateful Dead and Kaleidoscope (featuring the great David Lindley on guitar), then Quicksilver got to headline a bill with Cold Blood as the opener (Lydia Pense is still an amazing singer) and Spooky Tooth on the bill.

The back of the card in interesting because the shows it lists at the top were eventually advertised on a Lee Conklin poster whose central image of a roaring lion became Santana's first album cover.