Nov. 27, 1970
The Grateful Dead at the Chicago Coliseum.
Image: Marshall Bohlin /Smithsonian Books
In December 2015, Smithsonian Books launched a website calling on rock and roll fans to gather and submit their favorite stories and personal photos from music history.
The result is Smithsonian Rock and Roll: Live and Unseen, a compendium of hundreds of previously unpublished photos scrounged from attics, shoeboxes, and dusty albums.
The book traces the evolution of the genre over more than six decades, from pioneers like Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and Elvis Presley, through the British Invasion and punk and metal and alternative and all the permutations in between.
Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Prince, David Bowie, Nirvana, Amy Winehouse and more than 130 other artists are featured, all of them captured in intimate, audience-level snapshots.
Smithsonian Rock and Roll will be published on Oct. 24th.
1984
Peter Gabriel sings "Lay Your Hands on Me" on the Plays Live tour at the Agora Ballroom, West Hartford, Connecticut.
Image: Tim Devlin /Smithsonian Books
May 1974
Bonnie Raitt at the Harvard Square Theatre, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Image: Barry Schneier /Smithsonian Books
August 1969
B.B. King at the Atlantic City Pop Festival, Mays Landing, New Jersey.
Image: David Weitz /Smithsonian Books
1987
James Brown at Ontario Place Forum, Toronto.
Image: Dan Hinde /Smithsonian Books
Jan. 30, 2000
Men's bathroom at CBGB, New York City.
Image: Joe Ryan /Smithsonian Books
Feb. 11, 1974
Joni Mitchell at Kleinhans Music Hall, Buffalo, New York.
Image: Amy Jaffe /Smithsonian Books
1978
Johnny, Joey, and Dee Dee Ramone at Dooley's, Tempe, Arizona.
Image: Dorian Boese /Smithsonian Books
Oct. 13, 1968
Cream at the Chicago Coliseum.
Image: Marshall Bohlin /Smithsonian Books
Oct. 28, 1973
Sly & The Family Stone at the San Diego Sports Arena.
Image: Gary Kieth Morgan /Smithsonian Books
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