Of all the rock posters from the 1960s, few command as much attention as those created for the legendary acid tests in 1965 and 1966. Organized by author Ken Kesey and featuring music by the Grateful Dead, these events took place in the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California, and were popularized by Tom Wolfe in his 1968 book “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.†Two of the rare posters auctioned recently. The final prices were $18,191.25 (including the buyer’s fee) for the ‘graduation’ poster, and $17,325 for a signed piece.
An original, authentic Can You Pass the Acid Test? poster from 1965 featuring the Grateful Dead, the Fugs, the Merry Pranksters and Neal Cassady.
This San Francisco Bay Area psychedelic event poster was used in December 1965 and January 1966, and had a blank box down at the bottom where details could be filled in from event to event.
Collectors might see this as a very early Grateful Dead concert poster, but Jerry Garcia himself once noted that the Dead were just a very small element of these Acid Test gatherings, that "the scene" was really the draw here. Music was but a small part of it.
This poster is very seminal in that it would soon lead to expanded Acid Test events up and down the West Coast, to the Trips Festival series of psychedelic concert events, and then to the Bill Graham and Family Dog series of hundreds of concerts for years to come.
Notice the dotted line down the center of this Acid Test broadside... it was meant to be cut in half, with the left side then getting stacked on top of the right side to make for a very tall, thin Acid Test psychedelic event window card! In fact, such instructions are even given on the poster!
This poster has an insane amount of words, but for your information, I will attempt to spell them all out for you. This poster reads, from top to bottom in the left column, followed after that by the right column, with some allowances:
Read Every Word of This. alphabet abbot dappled a pulley quaff bell pull pap appall aquarelle parallel Can you pass the ACID TEST?
William Burroughs becomes / control, however much it's / you mean by a sense of / clusion. It's one conclusion in their lives, in all senses
Only one way out! I'll take the course myself!
Intrepid Trips inc. Perseverance Furthers Production
This grand thing can be made very long & thin by cutting up the middle & pasting line a, below, to line b, above. Or it can be left as it is.* Contest Ends October 19, 1897.
The Happeners are likely to include: Allen Ginsberg, The Fugs, The Merry Pranksters, Neal Cassady, The Grateful Dead, Roy's Audioptics, movies
Be sure to remember these eight vital areas during the test: 1. Das "Halbton-System," die Noten-Beispiele in verschiedenen Lagen zu spielen. 2. Eine Uebung nach dem Studium jeder einzelnen Tomart (see Fig. 3). 3. Arpeggien in jeder Tonart. 4. Zwei Etuden, welche den praktischen Gebrauch der 2. u. Large zeigen. 5. Fingerubungen in verschiedenen Lagen. 6. Vibrato. 7. Uebungen. 8. Klangfarben.
TRANSLATION: "It appears to be a historical eight-step tutorial for learning a musical, probably stringed, instrument (violin?). Translation is:
1. The "half-tone" system, for playing the sheet music examples in different positions (like on a fretboard?) 2. An exercise after having studied every single key 3. Arpeggios in every key 4. Two etudes (exercises) that illustrate the practical use of the 2 (lower?) positions 5. Finger exercises in different positions 6. Vibrato 7. Exercises 8. Tone colours"
(Back to the poster's exact text now):
Now you can tell which one is us. (By a large fingerprint.)
Fig. 73- cup. echo cerise peace cease lace
This Saturday Night. Bring your own comfort. here's Where it's at: (right above the blank box to fill in date & venue)
Gzz! You worm! *i.e. schizoid
This is an AUTHORIZED FIRST REPRINT of this poster originally issued in 1965. One of an unspecified number of prints by Ken Kesey. This poster has for many years been mistakenly attributed to Norman Hartweg but is now known conclusively to have been the work of Prankster Paul Foster. The infamous Acid Tests were seminal events in the development of the hippie subculture and the Psychedelic Revolution. Taking place in California, Oregon, and Mexico, when LSD was still legal, these free-form, drug-fueled events featured the music, sound effects, light shows, and multi-media entertainment that later became a staple in the '60s underground, and eventually became part of Pop Culture.

MINT