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Classic Rock Posters: Sixty Years of Posters and Flyers: 1952 to today
Rock on, with more than 500 classic music posters—many unseen for years! Organized chronologically from the 1950s to the present, this gallery of images from the very best illustrators in the genre captures the interplay of music and art, revealing how both evolved over the years. From gritty bar bands to the superstars, from the Fillmore to CBGBs, this is a remarkable visual journey.
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
18 people want to read
About the author
Mick Farren
67 books81 followersFarren was the singer with the proto-punk English band The Deviants between 1967 and 1969, releasing three albums. In 1970 he released the solo album Mona – The Carnivorous Circus which also featured Steve Peregrin Took, John Gustafson and Paul Buckmaster, before leaving the music business to concentrate on his writing.
In the mid-1970s, he briefly returned to music releasing the EP Screwed Up, album Vampires Stole My Lunch Money and single "Broken Statue". The album featured fellow NME journalist Chrissie Hynde and Dr. Feelgood guitarist Wilko Johnson.
He has sporadically returned to music, collaborating with Wayne Kramer on Who Shot You Dutch? and Death Tongue, Jack Lancaster on The Deathray Tapes and Andy Colquhoun on The Deviants albums Eating Jello With a Heated Fork and Dr. Crow.
Aside from his own work, he has provided lyrics for various musician friends over the years. He has collaborated with Lemmy, co-writing "Lost Johnny" for Hawkwind, and "Keep Us on the Road" and "Damage Case" for Motörhead. With Larry Wallis, he co-wrote "When's the Fun Begin?" for the Pink Fairies and several tracks on Wallis' solo album Death in a Guitar Afternoon. He provided lyrics for the Wayne Kramer single "Get Some" in the mid-1970s, and continued to work with and for him during the 1990s.
In the early 1970s he contributed to the UK Underground press such as the International Times, also establishing Nasty Tales which he successfully defended from an obscenity charge. He went on to write for the main stream New Musical Express, where he wrote the article The Titanic Sails At Dawn, an analysis of what he saw as the malaise afflicting then-contemporary rock music which described the conditions that subsequently gave rise to punk.
To date he has written 23 novels, including the Victor Renquist novels and the DNA Cowboys sequence. His prophetic 1989 novel The Armageddon Crazy deals with a post-2000 United States which is dominated by fundamentalists who dismantle the Constitution.
Farren has written 11 works of non-fiction, a number of biographical (including four on Elvis Presley), autobiographical and culture books (such as The Black Leather Jacket) and a plethora of poetry.
Since 2003, he has been a columnist for the weekly Los Angeles CityBeat.
Farren died at the age of 69 in 2013, after collapsing onstage while performing with the Deviants at the Borderline Club in London.
In the mid-1970s, he briefly returned to music releasing the EP Screwed Up, album Vampires Stole My Lunch Money and single "Broken Statue". The album featured fellow NME journalist Chrissie Hynde and Dr. Feelgood guitarist Wilko Johnson.
He has sporadically returned to music, collaborating with Wayne Kramer on Who Shot You Dutch? and Death Tongue, Jack Lancaster on The Deathray Tapes and Andy Colquhoun on The Deviants albums Eating Jello With a Heated Fork and Dr. Crow.
Aside from his own work, he has provided lyrics for various musician friends over the years. He has collaborated with Lemmy, co-writing "Lost Johnny" for Hawkwind, and "Keep Us on the Road" and "Damage Case" for Motörhead. With Larry Wallis, he co-wrote "When's the Fun Begin?" for the Pink Fairies and several tracks on Wallis' solo album Death in a Guitar Afternoon. He provided lyrics for the Wayne Kramer single "Get Some" in the mid-1970s, and continued to work with and for him during the 1990s.
In the early 1970s he contributed to the UK Underground press such as the International Times, also establishing Nasty Tales which he successfully defended from an obscenity charge. He went on to write for the main stream New Musical Express, where he wrote the article The Titanic Sails At Dawn, an analysis of what he saw as the malaise afflicting then-contemporary rock music which described the conditions that subsequently gave rise to punk.
To date he has written 23 novels, including the Victor Renquist novels and the DNA Cowboys sequence. His prophetic 1989 novel The Armageddon Crazy deals with a post-2000 United States which is dominated by fundamentalists who dismantle the Constitution.
Farren has written 11 works of non-fiction, a number of biographical (including four on Elvis Presley), autobiographical and culture books (such as The Black Leather Jacket) and a plethora of poetry.
Since 2003, he has been a columnist for the weekly Los Angeles CityBeat.
Farren died at the age of 69 in 2013, after collapsing onstage while performing with the Deviants at the Borderline Club in London.
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May 30, 2020In what ways did Indian Classical music contribute to the development of psychedelic rock?
Psychedelic rock is a style of music developed during the late 1960s-early 1970s that ultimately attempts to replicate the effects of mind-altering psychedelic drugs (for instance, cannabis or LSD-25). Psychedelic rock music has historically based itself on the styles of blues-based rock as well as classical Indian music. Musical artists such as Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, the Beatles, and Jimi Hendrix sought to liberate sound via the frequencies in rhythm, suggesting that there is no such thing as silence through their manipulation of pre-recorded sounds and unprecedented electronic distortion. Various influential psychedelic recordings include Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, by The Beatles (1967) followed closely on the charts by Jefferson Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow (1967) and the Rolling Stones' Their Satanic Majesties Request (1967).
The Beatles were especially influenced by classical Indian music; not only did their introduction to marijuana (via Bob Dylan) force them to criticize their romantic, mushy lyrics and over-the-top pop sound, but George Harrison’s study of the sitar with Indian Classical master Ravi Shankar also contributed to a change in their sound, if only because it forced them to reevaluate their sound based on the instruments they were choosing to work with. Additionally, the transcendental meditation they experienced with the Maharishi Yogi also altered their mindstate, forcing them to consider the use of drugs (and music) to realign and reevaluate sanity. The Tibetan Book of the Dead also influenced the Beatles music; its advice in the movement from life to death was paralleled and referenced in their lyrics as well as in their attempt to create sounds which would have sought to personify the relativity of time.
Furthermore, the Beatles pursued the development of spiritual artistic music via the sitar and psychedelic sounds. in August of 1966 they stopped touring to focus on studio recording, which became the artistic medium for their creation of manipulated sounds. Their use of methods such as double tracking, hypnotic couplets, drones, mantras, rogue style piano, and especially the use of Indian Classical instruments (for instance, the sitar) hoped to transform the conciousness of the listener. Their use of fades (fading in and fading out) suggests the continuation of eternal time and creates regularity inside of imbalance
Psychedelic rock was influenced by interest in the music of India, particularly the raga form and the classical instrumental styles of Ravi Shankar (which was popularized in the west by The Beatles). Extended structures, long passages of improvisation, unusual time signatures, and exotic instruments like the sitar, the tambura, and the tabla are all examples of technical influences that exist in Indian music and which can be found in many psychedelic rock songs developed in the late 1960s. Additionally, psychedelic rock was heavily influenced by the introduction of many new recording and sound processing techniques and new, electronic musical instruments which were developed and became widely available in the mid-1960s.
Michael Hollingshead, known better as “the man who turned on the world”, introduced Timothy Leary to LSD, who then introduced the drug (created by scientists Albert Hoffman) to influential artists such as the groups Donovan and the Beatles as well as poets such as Alan Watts. In 1966 Donovan [Leitch] became a transitional figure in the development of ‘tripping’ when he went to the club “Trip” in Los Angeles and developed “the mystical style to present lyrics of self-realization”. Furthermore, in 1968, when the Beatles, Donovan, Mike Love, and the Maharishi participated in transcendental meditation.
Psychedelic rock is a style of music developed during the late 1960s-early 1970s that ultimately attempts to replicate the effects of mind-altering psychedelic drugs (for instance, cannabis or LSD-25). Psychedelic rock music has historically based itself on the styles of blues-based rock as well as classical Indian music. Musical artists such as Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, the Beatles, and Jimi Hendrix sought to liberate sound via the frequencies in rhythm, suggesting that there is no such thing as silence through their manipulation of pre-recorded sounds and unprecedented electronic distortion. Various influential psychedelic recordings include Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, by The Beatles (1967) followed closely on the charts by Jefferson Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow (1967) and the Rolling Stones' Their Satanic Majesties Request (1967).
The Beatles were especially influenced by classical Indian music; not only did their introduction to marijuana (via Bob Dylan) force them to criticize their romantic, mushy lyrics and over-the-top pop sound, but George Harrison’s study of the sitar with Indian Classical master Ravi Shankar also contributed to a change in their sound, if only because it forced them to reevaluate their sound based on the instruments they were choosing to work with. Additionally, the transcendental meditation they experienced with the Maharishi Yogi also altered their mindstate, forcing them to consider the use of drugs (and music) to realign and reevaluate sanity. The Tibetan Book of the Dead also influenced the Beatles music; its advice in the movement from life to death was paralleled and referenced in their lyrics as well as in their attempt to create sounds which would have sought to personify the relativity of time.
Furthermore, the Beatles pursued the development of spiritual artistic music via the sitar and psychedelic sounds. in August of 1966 they stopped touring to focus on studio recording, which became the artistic medium for their creation of manipulated sounds. Their use of methods such as double tracking, hypnotic couplets, drones, mantras, rogue style piano, and especially the use of Indian Classical instruments (for instance, the sitar) hoped to transform the conciousness of the listener. Their use of fades (fading in and fading out) suggests the continuation of eternal time and creates regularity inside of imbalance
Psychedelic rock was influenced by interest in the music of India, particularly the raga form and the classical instrumental styles of Ravi Shankar (which was popularized in the west by The Beatles). Extended structures, long passages of improvisation, unusual time signatures, and exotic instruments like the sitar, the tambura, and the tabla are all examples of technical influences that exist in Indian music and which can be found in many psychedelic rock songs developed in the late 1960s. Additionally, psychedelic rock was heavily influenced by the introduction of many new recording and sound processing techniques and new, electronic musical instruments which were developed and became widely available in the mid-1960s.
Michael Hollingshead, known better as “the man who turned on the world”, introduced Timothy Leary to LSD, who then introduced the drug (created by scientists Albert Hoffman) to influential artists such as the groups Donovan and the Beatles as well as poets such as Alan Watts. In 1966 Donovan [Leitch] became a transitional figure in the development of ‘tripping’ when he went to the club “Trip” in Los Angeles and developed “the mystical style to present lyrics of self-realization”. Furthermore, in 1968, when the Beatles, Donovan, Mike Love, and the Maharishi participated in transcendental meditation.
September 19, 2015
I've always liked the psychedelic art from the late 60's, the lettering, etc. This book has it and more. Many styles and movements abound. If there is a 'problem' with Classic Rock Posters it is the wish to hear all the different groups and artists playing the music they are known for--or for the more familiar artists, their more obscure material. For example, I work with a fellow named Melvin so posters about the Melvins caught my eye. I have since listened to them on YouTube. While I wouldn't call myself a big fan, at least I know a little more than I did when they were just a name on a poster.
November 23, 2014
Amazing collection of classic rock posters. Great inspiration for those interested in design.
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November 30, 2021Mr. Loren presents a sampling of classic rock posters from 1952 to 2012.
Please see my rating. :-P
Please see my rating. :-P
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews