Many of the sculptural objects Günther Kieser incorporated in his posters took weeks to construct and were inspired by numerous, often disparate, sources. In 1966, psychedelic artists Alton Kelley and Stanley Mouse borrowed a 1913 book illustration by Edmund Joseph Sullivan to create The Grateful Dead’s iconic “Skull and Roses” motif. Here, Kieser alludes to that storied design, placing an artificial rose in full bloom on the hat of the grinning skull. Around 1966, the band’s front man, Jerry Garcia, began wearing a patriotically striped Uncle-Sam-style top hat that became part of a “Captain Trips” character—a persona given to Garcia by fans and the media that he did not enjoy. Rather than simply copying Garcia’s hat, however, Kieser crafted a companion to it, focusing on the stars rather than the stripes of the American Flag. The skeleton wearing a top hat may also be a reference to the Haitian Voodoo figure Baron Samedi, a spirit best known for his connection to the dead, and associated with debauchery and mayhem—both time-honored elements of any Grateful Dead concert. This version of the poster is known as a “tour blank.” Information about a particular date and venue would have been added later by a printer. This design was so popular that the band also used it for both its 1972 and 1974 concerts in West Germany.