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Splatt Gallery's History of Detroit Rock Posters
Volume Nine: 1973 - Page Three
An ad with Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airman opening for Sha Na Na and the Persuasions at the UCLA Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles, California on February 25, 1973.
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Warner Brothers Records ad for the release of Alice Cooper’s “Billion Dollar Babies” album on February 25, 1973. The album peaked at #1 on the Billboard 200 album chart on April 21, 1973. It was knocked off the top spot by Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon”.
Only two months in, and it was beginning to look like a good year for albums, new ones by Bob Seger and Iggy & the Stooges had already been released, as well as the debut albums by future superstars Aerosmith and Bruce Springsteen, and on February 25, 1973, Alice Cooper released their sixth long-player.
The first single, “Elected”, had been released to coincide with the US Presidential Election of 1972, and it had peaked during election week in November. Following the release of the album, the band embarked on a 90 day tour that broke the box office records in the US previously held by the Rolling Stones.
The album also featured a number of contributors beyond the core band, the sessions recorded in London, England included Donovan and Marc Bolan, while the US sessions featured guitarists Dick Wagner, and Steve Hunter, who played the solos on six tracks, including this one:
Alice Cooper – Generation Landslide (1973)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oVdYmURpwQ
The billion-dollar bill that was part of the album package for Alice Cooper’s “Billion Dollar Babies”.
The album packaging for Billion Dollar Babies was designed by Carl Ramsey, on staff for Pacific Ear & Eye. The record came inside an airbrushed snakeskin wallet that also included a billion dollar bill poster, cut-out cardboard coins, and wallet-size photos. Our next post will delve a little deeper into “The Golden Age of Custom Album Packaging”.
After graduating from school in Chicago, Craig Braun moved to New York City in 1964 and came up with a brainstorm gimmick, an adhesive sticker with the words “Includes the Hit Single” to stick on shrink-wrapped record album covers. He managed a deal to put the sticker on an Elvis Presley album and it was noticed pretty quickly that the records with the sticker sold much faster than the ones without. From there, Braun took the sticker to all the record companies and was able to expand into a full merchandising agency with a staff of designers and illustrators.
Braun was approached by Andy Warhol, who wanted to have his painting of a banana on the cover of a Velvet Underground album, and when Braun made the banana a sticker that peeled off to reveal the shocking-pink fruit, he and Warhol became fast friends. Later, Warhol employed Braun to create the zipper cover for the Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers album, and in the course of that project Braun also helped develop the Stone’s lips and tongue logo for their new label.
Braun’s agency also produced the spinning wheel cover for the Led Zeppelin III album, Alice Cooper’s desktop and panties package for the School’s Out album, and the package for Cheech & Cong’s Big Bambu album, an oversized cigarette paper pack, complete with rolling paper. “That quickly came to me because I got high a lot and used Big Bambu papers. I had a pack on my desk and one day thought, why can’t this be an album cover?”
Braun was assisted on the Sticky Fingers project by Ernie Cefalu, who had designed the package for the Jesus Christ Superstar album, together they also created the coin-shaped E Pluribus Funk album for Grand Funk Railroad. Cefalu later started his own agency, Pacific Eye & Ear, with one of their first jobs being to create the stylish PEE company logo. PEE designed Alice Cooper’s Billion Dollar Babies package, and the packaging for the following Muscle of Love album. During the “Golden Age of Custom Album Packaging 1970 to 1984”, PEE created nearly two hundred album covers.
An ad for Grand Funk in Columbia, South Carolina on February 25, 1973, the final show of the “Phoenix” tour which had started in October 1972.
A poster, in the same style as for the previous show and with the same line-up, for Rare Earth with Brownsville Station and White Witch in Tampa, Florida on February 25, 1973.
A pair of ads for Mind, Body, Soul at the Coral Gables Show Bar in East Lansing, Michigan, February 26, 1973 through March 3, 1973. This was actually the band Flaming Ember, who had changed their name to the title of their 1969 hit song.
Flaming Ember – Mind, Body and Soul (1969)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5M91JHi3gZc
An ad for Mackinac Jack’s in Ann Arbor, Michigan with a benefit show for the Michigan Committee For Prisoners’ Rights, (logo by Gary Grimshaw) with the Sunday Funnies plus Terry Tate & United Supply Co. on February 26, 1973.
Poster and newspaper ad by Hugh Surratt for Fleetwood Mac and Elf at MSU Auditorium in East Lansing, Michigan, February 27, 1973. The next night, Fleetwood Mac performed in Detroit, at the Ford Auditorium, for their 24th show in Michigan in five years.
Alice Cooper’s Billion Dollar Babies Tour kicked off with a dress rehearsal show without an audience at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, New York on February 27, 1973. The tour, which would run through the first week of June, included 64 concerts in 59 cities in 90 days and broke the US box office records previously held by The Rolling Stones. The band had their own jet and on-board napkins.
Front cover of the program book for Alice Cooper’s 1973 Billion Dollar Babies tour. Like the tour itself, the program book was large-sized, with over 50 pages. It was later reprinted by Dell Publishing as the "Dell Special" having a modified front cover.
A fold-out poster from the program book for Alice Cooper’s 1973 Billion Dollar Babies tour.
The back cover of the program book for Alice Cooper’s 1973 Billion Dollar Babies tour.
An ad for Alice Cooper’s Whiplash mascara in the program book for Alice Cooper’s 1973 Billion Dollar Babies tour.
An Alice Cooper “personality poster” taken from the shot for the Alice Cooper’s Whiplash mascara ad in the program book for the 1973 Billion Dollar Babies tour.
Dennis Preston poster for Bushwhacker at Heaven in Clarkston, Michigan, February 28, 1973 through March 12th, a Jerry Patlow presentation.
Here is a short audio clip of the Dogs performing at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit, Michigan sometime in February 1973 (or possibly the April date described further below).
The Dogs – Live at the Grande Ballroom Detroit (February 1973)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CO9H4_KUOJI
Alice Cooper on the cover of the March 1973 preview issue of Focus magazine. Focus “On Reading and English” is possibly an academic journal at some university.
Tour poster with art by Charles "Prairie" Prince, drummer for the band the Tubes, for Alice Cooper’s Billion Dollar Babies tour that officially started on March 1, 1973 with the show in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.
A friendly invitation in 16 Magazine for Alice Cooper’s Billion Dollar Babies Tour, which kicked off in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada on March 1, 1973.
Poster for Alice Cooper’s Billion Dollar Babies Tour.
Using the same poster art as had been used on his first US tour, this poster for David Bowie’s second US tour, with a stop at Masonic Auditorium in Detroit, Michigan, March 1, 1973.
A more colorful version of the tour poster with David Bowie’s second Detroit appearance, at the Masonic Auditorium in Detroit, Michigan, March 1, 1973. A second show was added “by popular demand” for the following night.
Bowie would release his sixth album in April, so this song, which was written based on conversations with pal Iggy Pop about life in Michigan, was already in the can and was one of the “two cuts from a forthcoming album” that was performed at this show, although unbelievably, the reviewer did not catch the title.
David Bowie – Panic in Detroit (1973)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKoYQqXsbaI
Newspaper ads for David Bowie at Masonic Auditorium in Detroit, Michigan, with a second show added, March 2, 1973.
Newspaper ad for Stevie Wonder in Santa Monica, California, March 2, 1973.
A newspaper ad with the Bob Seger System performing at the Southside Drive-In in Fort Myers, Florida on March 2, 1973 along with a local opening band and two movies. Not sure why there’s a screen shot from the Mad Dogs & Englishmen film.
Grammy Award nominees for Best Album Cover at the 15th annual awards show, held on March 3, 1973, with Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out” in nomination. The cover of the Flash album is pretty bold for the academy, the winner was Siegel-Schwall.
Poster from the third show of Alice Cooper’s Billion Dollar Babies Tour, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada on March 3, 1973. The most ambitious and elaborate rock tour of the time, ultimately rewarded as the highest grossing tour to date, the tour consisted of 64 concerts in 59 cities in 90 days, with two semi-trailers transporting 26,000 pounds of equipment across the country.
The album hit #1 on the Billboard 200 Album Chart, the group’s only album to top the charts, both in the US and the UK. The title track featured guest vocals by Donovan and lead guitars by the dynamic duo of Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner.
Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies (1973)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2kBG5dcVtU
A newspaper ad for Bob Seger with Cactus at Fun-Lan in Tampa, Florida on March 4, 1973.
Poster/flyer for an art show featuring the Rainbow Graphics artists at the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor, Michigan, March 4-15, 1973. Rich Dorris, aka Richard Creamcheese called it “an ill-fated event”:
“This flyer was for an ill-fated event at the Pig. These guys were all Rainbow Graphics Artists, 1973 They used my Plum Street Alias Creamcheese. Turns out I was the only one who made a sale. Traded a big chunk of Hash for a “ Nation” piece to Tim Belowe (?)”
Warner Bros Records poster/ad promoting Alice Cooper’s “Hello Hurray” single, with dates for the tour starting with the show in Rochester, New York on March 5, 1973. They would come to Detroit for two nights on April 4th and 5th.
Alice Cooper – Hello Hurray (1973)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HY8wGxj032A
A Warner Bros. Records poster for Alice Cooper’s Billion Dollar Babies tour, picking up from the fourth show of the tour, in Rochester, New York on March 5, 1973.
Volume Nine - 1973 - continues - HERE
An ad in a Dutch publication for the album “Billion Dollar Babies” by Alice Cooper, released on February 25, 1973.
Poster/flyer by Gary Grimshaw for a series of concerts to benefit the Michigan Committee For Prisoners’ Rights, starting with the Sunday Funnies plus Terry Tate & United Supply Co. at Mackinac Jack’s in Ann Arbor on February 26, 1973, followed New Heavenly Blue with Merlin on the 27th, and TNT on the 28th.
A full-page London records ad for the David Bowie compilation album “Images 1966–1967”, coinciding with Bowie’s two Michigan shows, March 1-2, 1973.
Artwork by Stanley Mouse for the Grateful Dead album “Europe ‘72” in the March 1973 issue of CREEM magazine.
A Motown Records ad for Luther Allison’s second album “Bad News Is Coming” album in the March 1973 issue of CREEM magazine, his first of three albums on the Motown Gordy label.
A Motown Records ad for Marvin Gaye’s “Trouble Man” album in the March 1973 issue of CREEM magazine.
Terry O’Connor poster for R.E.O. Speedwagon at The Brewery in East Lansing, Michigan, February 25, 1973. The Brewery was in its ninth month of operation and things must have been going well enough to increase the poster budget, as O’Connor’s posters became slicker.
Poster by an unknown artist for Blood, Sweat & Tears at the Finch Fieldhouse in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, February 25, 1973.
A full-page ad with art by Chris Frayne for his brother George’s band, Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen, appearing at the UCLA Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles, California, February 25, 1973.
An ad for Ted Nugent & the Amboy Dukes in Chapel Hill, North Carolina on February 24, 1973.
The Alice Cooper group looking rather dapper on the cover of the February 24, 1973 issue of Cash Box magazine.
Gary Grimshaw poster for Herbie Hancock and Freddie Hubbard at Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor, Michigan on February 24, 1973.
Newspaper ad for Herbie Hancock and Freddie Hubbard at Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor, Michigan, February 24, 1973. The ad also mentions a “Poor Man’s Special Dance” the night before, with Lightnin’ and Locomobile at Couzens Dormitory on February 23rd, with “Free Beer”.
Cool poster by an unknown artist for Rumor and Mission at the Warriner Auditorium in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, February 24, 1973.
A great poster, presumably by Chris Frayne, for Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen with Morning Morning at Western Illinois University in Macomb, Illinois on February 24, 1973. Also of note is the “Tribal Council/SunRise magazine presentation”, so far away from Ann Arbor.
A poster for Rare Earth with Brownsville Station and White Witch at Pirates World in Dania, Florida on February 24, 1973.
The Temptations’ sixteenth studio album was released on February 21, 1973. As we’ve noted through a succession of Temptations albums since 1970’s Psychedelic Shack, producer Norman Whitfield drew criticism of relegating the group to almost being just a back-up group (“The Norman Whitfield Chorale Singers”) to his increasingly sophisticated productions, and this album was truly his “Masterpiece”, from the back cover photo to the title track, which clocking nearly fourteen minutes long, includes only three minutes of vocals from the group. None the less, it was a hit, the title track reached #1 on the Billboard R&B Chart. It was also the last Temptations recording at Motown’s Detroit Hitsville USA studio.
The Temptations – Masterpiece (album) (1973)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3z5NKskK60
A pair of ads for Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup at the Mariah Coffeehouse in East Lansing, Michigan, February 22-24, 1973.
Gary Grimshaw poster for a “Rock & Roll Circus” at Couzens Hall in Ann Arbor, Michigan, February 23, 1973, with Lightnin’ and Locomobile. The newspaper ad theme was "Poor Man's Special".
An ad for the Mike Quatro Jam Band at the Lion’s Den in Akron, Ohio, February 23-24, 1973. Both shows ran until 6 a.m.
Dennis Preston poster for Commander Cody & his Lost Planet Airmen at The Stables in East Lansing, Michigan, February 19, 1973.
Terry O’Connor poster for Commander Cody & his Lost Planet Airmen at The Stables in East Lansing, Michigan, February 19, 1973.
The band’s third album will be released in May, but these songs had probably worked their way into the set.
Commander Cody & his Lost Planet Airmen – Smoke, Smoke, Smoke that Cigarette (1973)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyYLrVNKE68
A new rock club named Richard’s opened in Atlanta, Georgia in January 1973. There will be a fun chapter when Iggy & the Stooges perform there in October, but prior to that, here is the poster for Bob Seger at Richard’s, February 19-24, 1973.
Gary Grimshaw poster for Roosevelt Sykes at the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor, Michigan, February 20-22, 1973.
A while back, when we posted about the break-up of SRC, we implied that they had been the last band that represented the Grande Ballroom era, but we forgot that Frijid Pink were still around, as seen in this ad for The Gables in East Lansing, Michigan, February 20, 1973.
Poster by an unknown artist for Herbie Hancock at the Strata Concert Gallery in Detroit, Michigan, February 20-23, 1973. Here is a recording of the complete, two hour-plus show.
Herbie Hancock – Live in Detroit (1973)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p0WdDJUwqs
