Katie Allen
Associate Specialist
Lot 25
Gary Burden's Personal & Working Sketchbook 7 featuring designs for Neil Young, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and Crazy Horse, also with original art by Rick Griffin, Gary Burden (American, 1933-2018), circa 1970,
20 – 30 June 2025, 12:00 PDT
Online, Los AngelesUS$5,000 - US$7,000
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Fred Lawton
Cataloguer
Claire Tole-Moir
Head of Department
Gary Burden's Personal & Working Sketchbook 7 featuring designs for Neil Young, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and Crazy Horse, also with original art by Rick Griffin,
Gary Burden (American, 1933-2018), circa 1970,
bound sketchbook with black cover, approx. 100 pages total with approx. two-thirds of pages with handwritten notes, designs and drawings showing the direct evolution of Burden's album designs, in black pen and pencil, with two pages of loose notes within,
13 x 10in
bound sketchbook with black cover, approx. 100 pages total with approx. two-thirds of pages with handwritten notes, designs and drawings showing the direct evolution of Burden's album designs, in black pen and pencil, with two pages of loose notes within,
13 x 10in
Footnotes
In order, key pages include:
1. The album cover design for Neil Young's After The Gold Rush (1970), both front and back cover designs drawn in black ink, with track listing and credits. To the upper margin of the page reads Most of these songs were inspired by Dean Stockwell.
2. A detailed sketch of Graham Nash, likely for the 1971 album Songs for Beginners in pencil.
3. Rick Griffin (American, 1944-1991), A half-page original sketch of a cartoon face in black pen reading Hi Gary!. This is a sketch Rick Griffin left for Gary Burden after leaving a party at Burden's house. Burden woke up with the drawing next to him on the nightstand.
4. A Crazy Horse Live album concept.
5. A Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Live album concept.
After The Gold Rush:
Burden commented; "This photograph was taken by Joel Bernstein one day while Neil Young, Graham Nash and I were walking around the [New York] City filming. We have footage of a young guy coming up to Neil and asking if he would show him the tuning for 'Cinnamon Girl' on the guitar in the case he was carrying... [Later,] Joel took this photo at the exact perfect moment when the little Greenwich Village Italian woman walked behind Neil. Later Joel took the film into his lab and produced this beautiful solarized print."
Burden created the lettering on the album based on the belief that after the goldrush there would still be rust. Before computers, the process took several steps using die transfers and days of time.
See the clip below where Neil Young teaches a fan how to play Cinnamon Girl:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqNpfQZDUag
Gary Burden and Rick Griffin were both deeply involved in the countercultural art and music scenes of the 1960s and 1970s, and though they had distinct styles and careers, their paths crossed in meaningful ways through their contributions to rock album art, particularly in California.
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