Item #4096 Easter. Patti Smith Group, Lynn Goldsmith, Robert Mapplethorpe, photos.

Easter. [Promotional Poster]

New York: Arista, 1978. Large narrow poster illustrated with black-and-white photos, mounted to foam core (the whole measuring 36" x 20.5").

"death is a dance, a ballroom, a glove / an extension of total abandon in/love." Original promotional poster for Patti Smith Group's third studio album, Easter, the commercially successful record that solidified Smith's stardom beyond a one-hit wonder. Producer Jimmy Iovine was also Bruce Springsteen's production partner at the time and is credited with arranging the legendary Springsteen-Smith collaboration that became "Because the Night." Springsteen's unfinished and unwanted demo provided a love song template for Smith to finish and give her own form and feeling. "When Jimmy gave [the demo] to me, I really resisted...Bruce was already established, and I felt like I should write my own songs...So I get my little portable cassette player, and I put it on, and I remember looking at it, just staring at this cassette player...I stood there, and I shook my head, and I might have said it out loud: 'It’s one of those darn hit songs'" (from a 2018 Billboard interview with Smith and Iovine). Smith's long-time friend Lynn Goldsmith shot her portrait for the cover – probably the first major-label album cover to show a woman with unshaved armpits (which Arista was rumored to try airbrushing out). Additionally illustrated with photos of the group's first two albums, Horses (1975) and Radio Ethiopia (1976), both shot by Robert Mapplethorpe. Some toning and wear along edges. Very good. Item #4096

$325.00