45 - J.T. IV (John Timmis IV) - "Waiting For The CTA" - private pressing, RARE

$

3,350

J.T. IV (John Henry Timmis IV) "Waiting For The CTA" 3:11 / "Song For Suzanne" 2:20 / "Death Trip" 2:52
Private pressing, no label name (although Discogs says it's Rock and Roll Records R-001, which appears nowhere on the label) 45 rpm, 7" 1980 (dead wax says "Q&R Recording Studios 1-22-80")
"For promotion only" "Rock N' Roll Will Never Die!" VG+
This is one rare record from Chicago outsider punk John Henry Timmis IV. According to this 2008 article from the Chicago Reader (https://chicagoreader.com/music/sharp-darts-outsider-punk/), there were only two copies known to exist at that time. In 2020, another copy showed up on Discogs and sold for a crazy $1750. There is no sign on Popsike that another copy has ever been sold.  So I guess this may be copy #4. I've had it for more than 40 years.
Drag City released a compilation of Timmis's material in 2008, Cosmic Lightning.  At that time, the Reader said "of all the acts Drag City is trying to rescue from the edge of oblivion, the most fascinating and obscure has to be John Henry Timmis IV, aka J.T. IV, a glam-punk savant who died in 2002, almost 15 years after his last single." The Reader described this record as follows: "Drag City’s Cosmic Lightning opens with the one-two punch of Timmis’s first single: “Waiting for the CTA,” a wiggy, sax-crazy rewrite of the Velvets’ “I’m Waiting for the Man,” and “Death Trip,” a reverbed-out dose of punky, paranoid garage that shares more than its title with a Stooges number. Timmis’s “destructo rock,” as he called his style, mostly falls between these two poles—he seems to have been trying to bend sounds lifted from idols like Lou Reed and Alice Cooper to fit his own psychedelic vision." 

Here are some YouTube links (not taken from this copy of the record). "Death Trip": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=me4oS-NgtZc. "Waiting for the CTA": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptev_Q0iNP4. "Song for Suzanne": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoXkyfHcgKQ

Timmis also wrote a book, "From The Inside", which was published after his death and described by the publisher as "the autobiographical account of a rebellious adolescent's run-ins with—and attempted escapes from—the law, an abusive and uninterested family, the Menninger Clinic sanitarium, budding teenage sexuality, and, among the many other expected consequences of youthful deviance, the inner-workings of one’s own medicated and shifting mind." http://www.featherproof.com/catalog/from-the-inside-special-edition
I have no idea what this record is worth today, so I'll start the bidding well below the $1750 price of the only copy that ever sold before and let the bidders tell me.

Apologies for any reflections in the photos.
I'll combine shipping if you buy more than one record, but please wait for me to send you an invoice before you pay. I can send up to 5 singles for the same shipping cost.

My auctions are listed as "no international shipping" because of the excessive cost and delays these days. However, if you really want something and are willing to put up with both the cost and likely delay, please feel free to bid.

Goldmine Record Grading Standards:

Mint: Absolutely perfect in every way.

Near Mint (NM or M-): Nearly perfect, no visible defects, no surface noise.

Very Good Plus (VG+) or Excellent (E): May show slight signs of wear, slight warps, or minor signs of handling, that do not affect the listening experience.

Very Good (VG): Lacks most of the original gloss found on factory-fresh records. Groove wear and light scratches are visible. The record has surface noise, and some scratches may be audible, especially in soft , but the noise will not overpower the music. Label may include minor writing, tape or a sticker.

Good (G), Good Plus (G+) or Very Good Minus (VG-): Significant surface noise and groove wear, and the label is worn, with significant ring wear, heavy writing, or obvious damage.

Poor (P) and Fair (F): Records are cracked, impossibly warped, or skip and/or repeat when an attempt is made to play them.