Monday morning Gary Grimshaw passed away (February 25, 1946 – January 13, 2014).
He was one of America's leading graphic artists of the 60's and designed many of the infamous and famous posters of the era.
He was also a part of the revolutionary poet John Sinclair’s Rainbow People’s Party and the “Trans-Love Energies” artistic movement, and member of the White Panther movement.
He remained working in art all through his life with many artists over the years benefiting from his talent, Jimi Hendrix Experience, Cream, Canned Heat, The Who, The Grateful Dead and many more in later years.
The above Free John Sinclair poster is a classic and highly collectable (as is all Grimshaw's work) as it included one of the very rare post 60's Beatles performances by John Lennon in his activist years of the early 70's.
Lennon was to never do a full tour, just a few one off concerts so a poster of any type with Lennon's name attached is high on the collectors list.
In this instance the prison sentence of 10 years handed out to John Sinclair for possession of two joints had outraged the counter culture and most liberal minded onlookers. As Sinclair himself said the absurd sentence was "for giving two joints to an undercover police woman". The then Nixon led State reacted by making a ridiculously over blown example of Sinclair to all his anti-war activist buddies and sympathisers.
Grimshaw had been indicted himself on a marijuana charge in 1968 and with John Sinclair a political mentor of his the Freedom Rally and benefit concert was the natural
answer to that judgement.
Once Lennon had agreed to perform and his name added to the bill the concert was a complete sell out. America was now taking notice of Sinclair's case, it was all the organisers had hoped for regardless of the performances, the concert publicity guaranteed success. The Rally was held at Ann Arbor, Michigan on December 10 1971.
Ironically after all the anticpation of Lennon's appearance it was Stevie Wonder who stole the show that day. After a wait of some 8 hours Lennon did eventually appear at 3am obliging the crowd with a 15 minute acoustic set and no Beatles songs. Somewhat of an anti climax. But you can be sure Lennon wouldn't have seen his appearance as any more relevant than the the cause he was supporting and for that involvement John Sinclair's case was blazened before the American public which in turn led to his release. And in retrospect to Lennon's appearance the audience actually did see something quite unique, the only time he played slide on a national steel guitar in a typically quirky and driven song dedicated to Sinclair.
It was a time when the artist and a cause could become inseparable, and there on this bill political activists stood with performers from different worlds. Folk traditionalist and protest singer Bob Seger, the jazz saxophone colossus Archie Shepp who on all accounts played a blinding set, beat poet Allen Ginsberg, Black Panther figurehead Bobby Seale and of course Gary Grimshaw.
These were revolutionary times for society and the artist alike. Gary Grimshaw had been at the centre of such times. His work is the tribute.
Here's a short extract from a film of the concert with Lennon's Free Sinclair song and John Sinclair speaking in more modern times.
