Bob Dylan: The Posters
Posters and flyers are an integral part of promoting concerts and music festivals. A well-designed gig poster will help any band to look more cool and can help to generate interest for the artists and their show.
It started in the 60s with the psychedelic images of the hippie scene. It got a revival with DIY of the punk scene in the late 70s and there is a revival these days. What am I talking about? The Gig posters. The silk screen prints done in a limited number of prints and works of art in their own right, but also the mass-produced pr material used by big arena artists. The originality of these posters are sometimes more striking than the music itself.
Bob Dylan have always had nice gig posters, and they have gone through changes as the artist has changed from the 60s until today.
Here are some of AllDylan’s favorites:
We are not sure how many of these were actually used in promoting the concerts, but we like them.
– Hallgeir & Egil
A terrific trawl through some great artwork, thank you so much.
#3 isn’ a genuine concert poster, it was done in 2003 by Steve Harradine (it says so in small print at the bottom actually). I got that one from eby about ten years ago, it’s printed on silver paper.
We suspect that there are several of these that are not actual concert posters 🙂
Thanks for the info
I have an original Bob Dylan poster from Columbia Records like the one that was hanging by the entrance to gerdies folk city from the early 60’s. I also have a rare dylan poster from the first budokin concert. what can i do with them? on that poster he is wearing a spangled suit .full length picture
You should frame them and put them on your wall!
I would also think that you could get some money for them on ebay…but I wouldn’t do that 🙂
Here’s one you don’t have from Buffalo, New York in 1996.
http://www.usgbuffstate.org/files/2014/05/bobdylan96.jpg
i have an original b.dylan on columbia records poster and a poster from his budokin concert . Any offers?
As you indicate at the very end, quite a few of these posters are not genuine, in that they were not official posters printed to advertise the concert in question. However attractive, they are unofficial.
The 1966 Royal Albert Hall one, for example, is a reworking of a commercial poster that was designed in 1967 or 1968, though is actually much later than that. In fact, I don’t think I have ever seen a poster for Dylan’s British shows in 1966 – the concerts sold well enough based on newspaper reports and newspaper advertisements.
The final poster (Richmond Mosque) is from 1966. The poster should be 14 x 22 (inches, that is) and the basic design was used for a number of shows in late 1965 and early 1966 but not all. They were printed by the Murray Poster Company and it has been suggested that Murray printed the top part of the poster (Dylan’s photo and name) leaving a blank area at the bottom for the local promoter to add the local details in red. However, this seems unlikely, if only because these local details are to a uniform layout and standard in whichever city they were used.
Thank you!
Great to get some more info on these posters.
– Hallgeir
very nice trip through the years … “Bob Dylon” ? LOL !
I’ve searched the years for the posters #1 75or 76, #2-66, #3 65, #4 78, #5 64, #6 69, #7 78, #8 89, #9 09, #10 94, #11 13, #12 96, #13 97#14 97, #15 03, #16 03, #17 04, #18 04, #19 09, #20 09, #21 10, #22 11, #23 12, #24 13, #25 06, #26 ??, 27 11, #28 98, #29 10, #30 10, #31 ??, #32 81, #33 07, #34 86, #35 99, #36 99, #37 66, #38 ??, #39 10, #40 ??, #41 ??, #42 61, #43 99, 44 ??, #45 ??, #46 13, # 47 ??, #48 ??, #49 92 #50 ??. Hope I haven’t mixed up the numbers and hope this is of any help. Some posters confused me like #41 and the last the date and place doesn’t fit with any year in the 60-ies according to bjorner.com. All the best //Ben
Thanks!
Greatly appreciated!
– Hallgeir
The listings on bjorner.com are not perfect. The 60s concerts appear to be based on business records and don’t always reflect changes that happened during a tour. One of Dylan’s 60s appearances in Buffalo, NY has been mis-listed from the beginning and never corrected. Without looking into it, I’d guess that the Tufts show was not part of a scheduled tour, added to a tour once it had started (or switched from another venue), or scheduled and promoted but then cancelled for some reason.
Anyone know where I can find poster from Garde Theater, New London, Connecticut?
Most of the posters contain date of concert without any hint of the year !
About a third of them (I think have year printed on them) the rest we don’t know, we could guess…but from the look of the posters and the guest artists it should be possible to find out (at least the decade)
This would of course have been nice, but oh so much more work 🙂
We just wanted to show those nice posters, but if we get some spare time (yeah, right…) we will try to fill in the years.
– Hallgeir
Hellgeier, I believe there’s a slight misunderstanding here. I wasn’t expecting to have these posters listed by the year at all, neither by myself, nor yorself, nor anybody else. Actually, I just wanted to point out the illogical element behind submitting and okaying such artworks. For example, postage stamps never used to carry hints of the year of issue, making it real hard to pin down. It is only in the last decades that one by one, most countries have smallprint of year included in stamp design. Next example is a variation on similar theme of incomplete logic. All US coins do not show their face value in arabic numerals that all of can quickly and easily see and know. Instead, they show denomination in letters only, as in One Dime, One Quarter and so on. Pity the poor immigrant who can neither read English nor guess what a Dime could be.
Thanks for your comments, we agree with you about the posters 🙂
Please also read the new comments on the post after our last conversation
Again, thanks for valuable feedback
– Hallgeir
I think that one from Richmond is from 1964. Anyone know where I can get an original?