Mother Load

FD-60 poster, Mother Load, with Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company by Rick Griffin, May 1967

Rick Griffin

 

Mother Load, 1967

 

First printing, lithograph, Excellent condition

 

Framed dimensions: 26 3/4" tall x 20 3/4" wide

 

$$

 

 

Frame detail on FD-60 poster, Mother Load, with Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company by Rick Griffin, May 1967

Close-up of frame

More frame detail on FD-60 poster, Mother Load, with Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company by Rick Griffin, May 1967

Frame at angle

Close-up top of FD-60 poster, Mother Load, with Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company by Rick Griffin, May 1967

Detail, top

Close-up of bottom of FD-60 poster, Mother Load, with Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company by Rick Griffin, May 1967

Detail, bottom

FD-60 poster, Mother Load, with Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company by Rick Griffin, May 1967 Frame detail on FD-60 poster, Mother Load, with Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company by Rick Griffin, May 1967 More frame detail on FD-60 poster, Mother Load, with Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company by Rick Griffin, May 1967 Close-up top of FD-60 poster, Mother Load, with Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company by Rick Griffin, May 1967 Close-up of bottom of FD-60 poster, Mother Load, with Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company by Rick Griffin, May 1967

Description

The spring of 1967 was the heyday of the Avalon Ballroom and dances like these. Janis Joplin was beginning to stand out as represented in this poster by Rick Griffin which has a little bit of an old western dance-hall feel to it. Others have pointed out the subtle sexual overtones with the penis-shaped photograph, Janis Joplin occupying the "head" from her breasts up, all the other members pictured close to her waist, and "Down on Me" being the band's current single. Considering that Griffin spelled the poster MotherLoad instead of Lode, they may be right…

 

"Combination Of The Two," the opening song of Cheap Thrills, the second album by the Big Brother and The Holding Company, was a homage to the rock ballrooms of San Francisco, and there is a direct reference to the Avalon in the lyrics: "Everybody over at the Avalon Ballroom in the San Francisco Bay". According to Sam Andrew in the documentary Nine Hundred Nights, he wrote “Combination of The Two” for the San Francisco late 60s scene, and "The Two" were The Fillmore and The Avalon.

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