Swirly - The Doors - 1967

This early Avalon poster features the Doors, the Miller Blues Band and Haji Baba for an April 1967 performance. The design was created by Victor Moscoso and is very popular, as well as quite scarce. The popularity of both The Doors and the beautiful design has led to this poster being printed twice but this is an original first-printing as denoted by the faint blue dot to the left of 1967 at the bottom.

The artist turns you on an angle and lets you look through the blinds to see the faint image of a nude woman dancing with abandon. The lettering and colors are fantastic, both eye-popping and at least somewhat legible.

Victor Moscoso was almost the San Francisco House Poster Artist for the Doors in the first half of 1967, this being one of 4 posters he did for them playing at the Avalon Ballroom (March 3-4, April 14-15, May 12-13, June 1-4) and one run at the tiny Matrix from March 7-11. The Doors’ first album had been released in January and they toured madly, logging more than 240 shows during that year. No wonder Jim Morrison got in trouble on stage by December – he needed a break!

The Miller Blues Band was called several things during 1967 depending on which poster it was. Could be Miller Blues band, the Steve Miller Blues Band or just the Steve Miller Band (which was eventually settled on).  Haji Baba was a (now) obscure Latin Jazz player who released an album in 1962 called “Crazy Bongo” and indeed appears to be a bongo player.