Grateful Dead Posters

June 9, 2009

Memorabilia -> G -> Grateful Dead

Grateful Dead fans, often called Dead Heads, and music memorabilia collectors can pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for items like handbills and Grateful Dead posters. Anyone not familiar with the band or the unique style of images and posters used during the band’s run might be surprised at the value of some of the items, but it comes as little surprise to collectors. While not everyone might enjoy Grateful Dead music or memorabilia, almost everyone has heard of them. And fans are particularly loyal, even though the Grateful Dead was never a popular “mainstream” band and never quite achieved the fame of many of the same bands around during its heyday.

The Grateful Dead’s lead guitarist Jerry Garcia became a well-known name in music because of his talents and his outspokenness. The group formed in San Francisco in 1964 with their original name, The Warlocks, and continued on until Garcia’s death in 1995. Grateful dead posters from their early period, particularly concert posters from the 60s and 70s, are the most rare and valuable posters available from the band.

They drew their following because of their unique type of music, which combined several different styles, and their psychedelic leanings. Drug use in the 60s among those who went to see San Francisco bands was the rule, not the exception, and because some of the bands openly used drugs, it became a sort of culture among bands and fans, and a symbol for the counterculture of the time. The Grateful Dead embraced that psychedelic stoned attitude, and became popular among those who felt the same.

Grateful Dead posters are a visual delight for fans of the 60s counterculture and all things psychedelic. Often the concert posters are dominated by the large vintage lettering, and others often feature skeletons symbolizing, “The Dead,” as the band was often called by its fans. Some of the more valuable posters feature skeletons and roses, and one features a multi-colored skull wearing a top hat—a poster that can bring from $250 to $500 at an auction.

The band came out of the same area, and was part of the collective group of bands that became popular called the San Francisco Sound, with groups like the then Jefferson Airplane (later known as Jefferson Starship, and then just Starship) and Santana. One of their most widely known songs is probably “Touch of Gray.” Fans delighted in the way the band would play for the sheer love of it “jamming” like few other bands at the time did. Grateful Dead posters from those early concerts are harder to find because the focus was so much more on the music than memorabilia at the time, not many people worried about getting them or saving them.

If you want to find vintage Grateful Dead posters online, then auctions like eBay are an excellent source. Even posters with tiny tears around the edges and minor damage can be valuable, so don’t overlook those as collector pieces.

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