Season of the Witch Playlist - Music from the 60's, 70's and 80's!

The years between 1965 and 1985 were a tumultuous and often dark time in San Francisco history.  In this year's One City One Book selection, Season of the Witch, author David Talbot uses a backdrop of local music to delve deep into the heart of this extraordinary era of social and political unrest.

From Santana and Jefferson Airplane's appearance at the late 1960's Altamont Free Concert where a young African-American male was murdered, to punk rocker Jello Biafra's mayoral bid shortly after the assassinations of both Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone, local music provided an unsentimental soundtrack.

The Art, Music & Recreation Center of the San Francisco Public Library is delighted to display some of our collection's ephemera and book images of the music that is featured in this remarkable publication. Inspired by the author's "playlist", materials culled include everything from rock posters that are on loan from the San Francisco History Center, to newspaper clippings that are stored in our department's vertical files. Images will be on display in the glass display cases on both sides of the Fourth Floor elevator lobby until January 28, 2016.

The hyperlinks below will lead you to our catalog showing the Library's holdings for an artist.

Season of the Witch Playlist: The David Talbot's Best Songs Recorded by San Francisco Bands, 1965-1985


The Ace of Cups - "Circles”

The Beau Brummels -“Just a Little,” “Laugh Laugh, ”“Sometime at Night”

Big Brother and theHolding Company  - “Call on Me,” "Combination of the Two,” “Farewell Song,” “Piece of My Heart”

Creedence ClearwaterRevival  - “As Long as I Can See the Light,” “Fortunate Son,” “Walk on the Water”

The Dead Kennedys  - “Holiday in Cambodia”

The Flamin’ Groovies  - “Shake Some Action,” “Slow Death”

The Grateful Dead  - “Box of Rain,” “The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion),” “New Speedway Boogie,” “Ripple,” “Uncle John’s Band”

The Great Society - “Grimly Forming,” “Trieulogy”

The JeffersonAirplane - “It’s No Secret,” “Lather,” “Law Man.” “Somebody to Love,” “Today,” “White Rabbit”

Jorma Kaukonen - “Genesis”

Lee Michaels - “Heighty Hi,” “What Now America”

Moby Grape - “8:05,” “Going Nowhere,” “I Am Not Willing,” “Naked, If I Want To,” “Omaha,” “Sitting by the Window”

The Mojo Men - “Sit Down, I Think I Love You”

Romeo Void - “Never Say Never”

Santana - “Samba Pa Ti”

Skip Spence - “Diana”

Tracy Nelson and Mother Earth - “Down So Low,” “Seven Bridges Road”

Translator - “Everywhere That I’m Not”

The Vejtables - “I Still Love You”

The Youngbloods - “Darkness, Darkness,” “Get Together”

West of Center: Art and the Counterculture Experiment in America, 1965-1977

In her foreword to West of Center, Lucy Lippard describes the 1960s and 1970s as a time of passion and ideals.  While the book is about art movements across the Western half of the United States, San Francisco, which she describes as "the pulsing heart of the counterculture," occupies a prominent position in this book.

The books editors, Elissa Auther and Adam Lerner, contrast the experimentalism of the West Coast with the New York avant garde: "[T]he counterculture was a movement centered largely in the American West... San Francisco became its hub, serving as an alternative to New York as a site of creative activity."

The counterculture found its impetus for experiment in the various social and political movements of the time.  This aesthetic approach was closely association with movements for social change like The Farm, The Diggers, the Black Panthers, Los Siete de la Raza and others.  It also fostered individual personal transformation and heightening individual consciousness.


West of Center is divided into 20 chapters written by different authrs arranged by four themes: "Communal Encounters," "Handmade Worlds," Cultural Politics" and "Altered Consciousness."  Each of the chapter is beautifully illustrated and is well documented.

Chapters focusing on the San Francisco Bay Area include:

"Collective Movement: Anna and Lawrence Halprin's Joint Workshops" by Eva J. Friedberg

"The Farm by the Freeway" by Jana Blankenship

"San Francisco Video Collectives and the Counterculture" by Deanne Pytlinsk

"Handmade Worlds -- Handmade Genders: Queer Costuming in San Francisco circa 1970" by Julia Bryan-Wilson

"Paper Walls: Political Posters in an Age of Mass Media" by Tom Wilson

"The Print Culture of Yolanda M. López" by  Karen Mary Davalos

"The Countercultural 'Indian': Visualizing Retribalization at the Human Be-in" by Mark Watson

"The Revolution will be Visualized: Black Panther Artist Emory Douglas" by Colette Gaiter

"Signifying the Ineffable: Rock Poster Art and Psychedelic counterculture in San Francisco" Scott B. Montgomery.


West of Center: Art and the Counterculture Experiment in America, 1965-1977, edited by Elissa Auther and Adam Lerner, editors (University of Minnesota Press; Published in cooperation with the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, 2012).

Conceptual Elegance: The Art of Jason Munn

Benn Gibbard, by Jason Munn

Jason Munn got his start as a graphic artist in the Bay Area doing posters for local bands and venues under the name Small Stakes. Over the last 10 years his work has grown in popularity and scope. He now works under his own name and concentrates on posters, and design and illustration commissions. His clients include such musicians as Mark Kozelek, the Books, and Stars. He has also done work for Wired Magazine, Best Made Co. and SFMOMA. His trademark is conceptually rich yet simple designs.

Jason has generously donated twelve of his posters made in 2011 to the Art and Music Center’s Poster Collection. These can be seen in a display on the 4th floor that runs through March 31st.

Reading list:

The Small Stakes: Music Posters by Jason Munn; foreword by Nicholas Harmer (Chronicle Books, 2010).

Do-It-Together Screen Printing by John Isaacson (Microcosm Pub., 2007) includes a profile of Jason Munn.

1000 Music Graphics: A Compilation of Packaging, Posters, and other Sound Solutions by Stoltze Design (Rockport, 2010) also includes Jason Munn's work.

High Volume: Rock Art From The Chuck Sperry Archive and Firehouse Goldenvoice Poster Series

High Volume: Rock Art From The Chuck Sperry Archive and Firehouse Goldenvoice Poster Series will be on display on the 4th floor in the Art, Music and Recreation Center from October 7 through January 6, 2012.

An auburn-haired songstress holds a fawn. Shocking magenta hair falls to the shoulders of a blue nude strapped with artillery. A 1950s-model cop car rests peacefully at the bottom of the sea, washed in blues and purples revealing a silent white angel. Each outstanding print on display represents a prominent rock band. Each was created by Chuck Sperry.

In early 2011, Chuck Sperry, San Francisco artist and co-owner of Firehouse Kustom Rockart Company, made an unprecedented donation to the Library's Art, Music and Recreation Department of over one-hundred limited edition, hand-printed rock art posters. Officially entitled The Chuck Sperry Archive, this collection comprehensively documents the Goldenvoice Music Series (at the Regency and Warfield Theaters) from 2008 to present, as well as selected Firehouse productivity related to the cultural-life of San Francisco.

This collection is exciting in both use of color and variety of content. Each silkscreen print is comprised of up to sixteen colors, applied as individual layers. The pieces reference styles ranging from Japanese nishiki-e, Austrian Expressionism, 1960s psychedelia, to the provocative punk poster tradition of Sperry’s youth. Musicians such as Neko Case, Danzig, Bad Religion, Nick Cave, Sound Garden and The Black Keys are represented, as are a talented group of Bay Area graphic artists (Ron Donovan, Alex Fischer, Gregg Gordon, Dave Hunter, Alan Hynes, Scott Johnson, Dennis Loren, Chris Shaw, Frank Zio, and Zoltron) who contributed to the Firehouse Goldenvoice Poster series under the art direction of Chuck Sperry.



An opening reception will be held on Thursday, October 20th from 6-7 p.m. in the Latino/Hispanic Room A & B.

Related reading:

Eyesore: Recent Litter from the Firehouse Kustom Rockart Company by Chuck Sperry & Ron Donovan (Coniglio Editore, 2002).

Poster Display - Rock Silkscreen Prints by Lil Tuffy

image source: GigPosters.com

The rock posters currently on display were donated to the San Francisco Public Library Poster Collection by graphic artist Terrence "Lil Tuffy" Ryan. Most of these works are limited edition, hand-pulled silkscreen prints representing Bay Area music venues and/or Bay Area musicians. The exhibit includes local musicians Chuck Prophet, Digital Underground, The Music Lovers, Cari Lee and the Saddle-ites, Loop Station, Griddle, Magic Christian, Bhi Bhiman, and Tom Heyman among others.

Lil Tuffy’s public biography is brief. After completing studies at Carnegie Mellon University in 1994, he relocated and set up studio in San Francisco where he has specialized in music-related design for over a decade. His reputation now extends beyond the Bay Area clubs, to international shows and large music festivals, such as Reeperbahn Festival, Noise Pop and Bumpershoot.

The Art, Music and Recreation Department attempts to archive the culture of our City. To meet that end, we welcome donations of San Francisco-related music posters, flyers and ephemera. If you have materials you would like to donate, please speak to a librarian at the reference desk.

If you are interested in learning more about the silk-screening process, the Library of Congress Subject Heading to use for searching the SFPL catalog is "Screen Process Printing."

When you visit our department, you can also view the related displays: The Art of Rock - Graphic Sound in the 60's and Punk Graphics.

The Art of Rock - Graphic Sound in the 60's and Punk Graphics

The Art, Music and Recreation Center is presenting two small exhibits, Graphic Sounds In The 60's and Punk Graphics, through the end of November. These exhibits, consisting of images from our book collection, are located in a wall display case on the South wall opposite the atrium on the Fourth Floor of the Main Library.

Graphic Sound in the 60's

In the 1960’s San Francisco became home to a generation of people looking for a different way of life than those of their parents. They were known as hippies and valued free spirit, peace and harmony, and often alternative states of consciousness achieved by using hallucinogenic drugs. The music in San Francisco during this time was a reflection of this awareness. And in response, the posters promoting the musical groups took on a psychedelic edge. Art Nouveau images and Edwardian lettering provided inspiration as well. Many of these shows happened at the Avalon Ballroom and the Fillmore Auditorium. Five of the best known poster artists, Stanley Mouse, Alton Kelley, Victor Moscoso, Rick Griffin and Wes Wilson, became known as “The Big Five.”

Stanley Mouse and Alton Kelley provided the images for many of the most popular rock artists of the 60’s; Grateful Dead, Big Brother and The Holding Company, Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger service, Steve Miller Band, to name a few. The skull and roses image has become one of the strongest images associated with the Grateful Dead. Mouse and Kelley were the artists.

Victor Moscoso also gained fame for his poster work in San Francisco on 1967. He went on to work for Zap Comix with Robert crumb in the San Francisco Underground Comix movement.

Rick Griffin grew up in Palos Verdes and participated in Ken Kesey's Acid Test. After seeing work by Moscoso and Kelley he moved up to San Francisco and started working on his graphic art. The music promoter Chet Helms liked his work and invited him to create posters for Family Dog and the Avalon Ballroom. Griffin, like Moscoso, was part of the Underground Comix movement.

Wes Wilson, born in 1937, is known for his "psychedelic" lettering that appeared to be melting or moving. He designed posters for Bill Graham and the Fillmore Auditorium during the 1960's.

Frank Kozik was not a part of the “Big Five” and actually became active in Austin, Texas in the late 1980’s but has been credited as reviving the art of the concert poster. Born in Spain in 1962, he moved to TX at the age of 14 and now works in San Francisco. He is well known in the music poster world and his work is quoted as “simulating the intensity of the rock scene he has long been affiliated with, his art acts as a pictorial introduction to the musical experience”. The book Man’s Ruin: The Poster Art of Frank Kozik offers a look into the artist’s process with notes written by Kozik and the artists he was friends with.

Punk Graphics

The punk poster was designed for the moment.

The graphic artist, more than occasionally one of the band members, would create the music visuals and Xerox as many as he/she could afford or finagle. Flyers and handbills were taped to club walls, stapled to telephone poles and papered the streets. This art was left to be covered by the next shows’ flyers, to fade in the elements and rot in the rain. They were quickly made, bold, B&W blasts, created to spread the word of the band and then left to become trash.

Different than their 60s and early 70s psychedelic predecessors which used technology to evoke the “pretty” aesthetics of the Arts & Crafts and Art Nouveau movements, the punk poster aesthetic was different. It was typically satirical or political and was almost always emotionally raw. As Devo is quoted, “the more technology you have, the more primitive you can be. With synthesizers you can express guttural sounds, bird noises, brain waves, blood flow.” Similarly, punk posters evoked a primitivism.

Just as Raymond Pettibon, the graphic artist for Los Angeles’ Black Flag, went on to international acclaim as a highly-collectible visual artist, the Bay Area punk movement also launched careers. Pepe Moreno is best known for his DC Comic creation, Batman: Digital Justice, as well as video and arcade games such as HellCab. An Rafferty remains a freelance artist, having worked for Thrasher, Warner New Media and Klasky-Csupo, among others. Edwin Heaven, designer and promoter for The Tubes and The Nuns, continues to mold popular culture through advertising slogans, creative writing and novelty inventions. Patrick Miller, Minimal Man creator, worked in Hollywood as a set designer and dresser.

Other artists might be forgotten if not for archivists Peter Belsito, Bob Davis, Marian Kester and the local publisher Last Gasp. Their books Streetart: The Punk Poster in San Francisco 1977-1981, and Hardcore California: A History of Punk and New Wave offer a comprehensive look at the posters of the time.

Nervous Gender by An Rafferty (used by permission of the artist)

Bibliography

Art of Modern Rock: The Poster Explosion by Paul Grushkin & Dennis King; foreword by Wayne Coyne (Chronicle Books, 2004).

The Art of Rock: Posters from Presley to Punk by Paul Grushkin; artworks photographed by Jon Sievert (Abbeville Press, 1987).

The Blues Album Cover Art, edited by Graham Marsh & Barrie Lewis (Chronicle Books, 1996).

Cover Art By: New Music Graphics designed, written & edited by Adrian Shaughnessy (Laurence King, 2008).

Factory Records: The Complete Graphic Album by Matthew Robertson; foreword by Tony Wilson (Chronicle Books, 2007).

Fly: The Art of the Club Flyer by Nicola Ackland-Snow, Nathan Brett, and Steven Williams (Watson-Guptill Publications, 1997).

Freehand: The Art of Stanley Mouse by Stanley Mouse, with joint works by Alton Kelley; introduction by Joel Selvin; foreword by Mickey Hart; essay by Walter Madeiros (SLG Books, 1993).

The Greatest Album Covers of All Time by Barry Miles, Grant Scott and Johnny Morgan (Collins & Brown, 2005).

High Art: A History of The Psychedelic Poster by Ted Owen, Denise Dickson (Sanctuary, 1999).

In The Groove: Vintage Record Graphics, 1940-1960 by Eric Kohler (Chronicle Books, 1999).

Man's Ruin: The Posters & Art of Frank Kozik by Frank Kozik (Last Gasp, 1995).

Mouse & Kelley by Stanley Mouse and Alton Kelley (Dell Pub. Co., 1979).

Modern Dog: 20 Years of Poster Art (Not Canine-Related) by Robynne Raye, Michael Strassburger; introduction by Steven Heller; interviews by Rick Valicenti and James Victore (Chronicle Books, 2008).

Off The Wall: Psychedelic Rock Posters from San Francisco compiled by Amélie Gastaut and Jean-Pierre Criqui (Thames & Hudson, 2005).

100 Best Album Covers: The Stories Behind The Sleeves compiled and written by Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell; design by Richard Evans, et al. (DK Pub., 1999)

Punk on 45: Revolutions on Vinyl 1976-79 by Gavin Walsh; text by Paul A. Woods (Plexus, 2006).

Rock Art: CDs, Albums & Posters by Spencer Drate; foreword by Roger Dean (PBC International, 1993).


To search the catalog for similar books enter the following Subject Headings:

Advertising flyers
Rock music -- Posters
Sound recordings -- Album covers

To browse the shelves, go directly to these key Call Numbers:

741.6
741.66
741.6709
741.674

Poster Collection - Music Posters

A sampling of the Art, Music and Center’s poster collection is regularly on exhibit in a case adjacent to the Steve Silver Beach Blanket Babylon Room. We rotate posters from our collection throughout the year. Currently we are displaying music posters.

While most of the posters are for performances in San Francisco and the Bay Area, some others are from more far-flung sources. A photographic collage shows the dancers who interpret Isaac Albeniz’s suite, “Iberia ” in the film by Carlos Saura. The painting used in the poster to promote art from the Harlem Renaissance depicts a couple dancing in the middle of the horn section. The composition gives a sense of the rich vitality of the time and place. The poster art for "Medea: the Musical," presented by the Stage Door Theatre in 2000, is simpler, but like the other posters, distills through graphic art what would take many words to say.

The Art, Music and Recreation Center Poster Collection

The Art, Music and Recreation Center has long encouraged local arts organizations to send us copies of their brochures, fliers, and posters which we display and make available to the public. Once the advertised events are finished, we add these materials to our vertical files. We also have built up a collection of local posters. Because we have not yet been able to catalog these items, we have set up a display case where we rotate a selection of these posters for the public to view.

This month we are featuring theatre posters. Anyone needing visual resources on the Bay Area performing and visual arts can make an appointment at our reference desk to arrange to see more of the collection.