"The Drum Pedal came first, beating against the hide (like the keys of the typewriter), possibly stimulated by the music of the time, possibly by the presence of war. When commissioned to do a poster announcing a print show, I had a choice between two images of contact - a ground-out cigarette-butt or a punching bag. Since it was Jasper's show, the preference went toward something close to one of his projects - the light bulb. The bag is represented in three versions denying its function. In the floating version, only the thick disk would be visible, like a lily-pad on the water. Using the circular planes of the disk, reducing the bag a little and adding a rectangle, one would arrive at Mickey Mouse. If the disk, in its colossal version, were made of concrete, it would serve as a dam." - Claes Oldenburg's text from Notes, p. II.