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Small Collection of 1968 Music Autographs

I wanted to show a small collection of autographs that I have been most fortunate to have obtained recently. I thought of putting them up in the ‘What’s new…’ post, but then thought they are so lovely (IMHO) that, to give them their dues, they deserved a little post of their own. So I hope you will indulge me.

For a bit of background, they were all obtained from the original owner and acquirer of the autographs. This guy owned a music store in Portland Oregon which supplied many of the travelling musicians of the time (these autographs date from around late 1968). Each piece is signed on a large page (approx. 11 inches high) with the music stores information printed near the top.

I’ll start with what is probably the least valuable from a monetary perspective but, as is sometimes the way with these things, possibly the rarest of the lot. It’s a fully signed New Buffalo Springfield page. ‘New’ Buffalo Springfield only lasted a few months and were born out of the break-up of the ‘classic’ Buffalo Springfield band earlier in 1968. It consisted of Dewey Martin, from the original band, with Jim Price, Dave Price, Don Poncher, Bob Apperson and Gary Rowles. I love the fact that they conveniently left off the ‘New’ word when signing this page! These autographs were obtained following the bands show at the Memorial Coliseum in Portland on 22 December 1968:

Next we have a personal favourite of mine; Canned Heat. This is the ‘classic’ line-up containing the great Alan ‘Blind Owl’ Wilson, the man who helped Son House learn how to play like Son House when he was ‘re-discovered’, and who sadly passed in 1970 taking his place as a member of the 27 Club. Additionally it is signed by Bob Hite, Larry Taylor (twice), Henry Vestine and Adolfo ‘Fito’ De La Parra. I love this page for a number of reasons, firstly that the band have given their ages, then that they have included instrument information and finally that Bob Hite has added ‘Boogie With’ before his name (in reference I guess to their album ‘Boogie With Canned Heat’ released in the same year). The date these autographs were obtained is unknown for sure, but it is believed it was during November 1968:

Now we have a great set of ‘Mark I’ Deep Purple autographs. ‘Mark I’ having Rod Evans on vocals and being softer than later incarnations of the band, it released one of my fav songs of theirs ‘Hush’. This page, like the Canned Heat one, contains the great touches of age and instrument information. It’s signed by Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Paice, Jon Lord, Rod Evans and Nick Simper. There aren’t many autographs of this line-up around. The date is not known but the age information would place it around November – December 1968. The guy who got them remembers them playing at Elks Temple in downtown Portland and partying with them after their gig:

For the penultimate set we have Led Zeppelin. A nice and early set here being signed following the bands show at the Civic Auditorium in Portland on 29 December 1968, just a couple of months after the band changed from being the ‘New Yardbirds’ to ‘Led Zeppelin’. This was only the 4th date in the bands first US tour and this show saw them supporting Vanilla Fudge and being credited as “Led Zeppilen”, by the end of this tour their first album had been released and their reputation had grown exponentially. The original owner remembers going to the pub with them before the show and due to weather difficulties he supplied them with most of their instruments, including a Ludwig drum set for Bonham and an Epiphone Casino guitar that Jimmy Page played in the part of the show where he used a violin bow:

Finally we have the Jimi Hendrix Experience. This was the first set of autographs the original owner obtained (not a bad place to start!). He got them after their show at the Memorial Coliseum in Portland on 9 September 1968. Also on the bill that night were Vanilla Fudge, Soft Machine and Eire Apparent. Not much else to say about these:

Tags: Alan Wilson, Buffalo Springfield, Canned Heat, Deep Purple, Jimi Hendrix, Jimi Hendrix Experience, John Bonham, Led Zeppelin, New Buffalo Springfield, Ritchie Blackmore

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on April 26, 2016 at 9:23am

What a great story! Does he have more that you passed on? Members here might be interested. He can even post them in Buy/Sell/Trade for offers.

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Permalink Reply by a pug called eva on April 26, 2016 at 9:35am

From the sound of things I doubt the seller was asking anywhere near market prices so I also doubt Nate would have passed on anything of note. I may be totally wrong about the seller's prices of course but I know how these things generally work - you get a lead, things develop and you cannot believe your luck. Usually the seller is happy so it is a kind of "win win" situation - even if much more so for the buyer.

I think for this set of items I would have hopped on a plane rather than foot a massive bill for new underwear.

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Permalink Reply by Nate on April 26, 2016 at 11:09am

There were some others that I passed on (Turtles, Sweetwater, Chamber Brothers, 3 Dog Night, Joe Pass), they didn't hold a lot of interest for me but I was tempted so as to keep the collection together, but, in answer to another question/point, I had already agreed to pay multiple thousands of pounds for the ones shown so I didn't really want to spend any more.

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Permalink Reply by Paul on April 26, 2016 at 9:30am

Congratulations.
So if you sell these would you break them up or sell the together?

I always thought larry taylor was good on bass and speaking of violin bow, this band in the early 70s recorded an lp, the band was morly grey and the guitarist ran a bow over his strings and through a tape echo machine, which i found more interesting than what page had done.

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Permalink Reply by Nate on April 26, 2016 at 11:13am

My personal preference in matters like these would be to keep a collection together. I was a little surprised the owner didn't request that they all go as one lot.