BLONDE ON BLONDE Reflections On A Life 1971 RARE 3rd FREAKBEAT PSYCH LP LISTEN

$

66

BLONDE ON BLONDE "REFLECTIONS ON A LIFE" LP

ORIGINAL 1971 LP ON THE SPANISH EMBER LABEL, STEREO

COVER IN VG++ shape, slight corner wear

VINYL is thick 'n' heavy, very slight handling scuffs only, plays EXCELLENT to NEAR MINT!

Original RARE 1971 third and final album by Blonde on Blonde, “Reflections on a Life”, on the UK Ember label.  By this time, Blonde on Blonde had already embraced pop, popsike, freakbeat and prog, in kinda that order, and if you continued that arc of progress, you’d suspect that “Reflections on a Life” must be the band’s “Tales from Topographic Oceans”, or at least their “Tarkus”.  After all, it IS a concept album, with song titles like “No. 2 Psychological Decontamination Unit” and “Chorale (Forever)”, which admittedly don’t bode well for those who know enough to avoid cover art by Roger Dean or H.R. Giger.  But surprise, this album’s not prog at all – in fact, it’s the band’s heaviest, rawest and most punishing of their three albums – alternatively sinister and bone-crunching and other times just flat-out trippy.  Imagine if Emerson Lake and Palmer had followed “Brain Salad Surgery” with a return to the crunchy popsike sounds of the Nice circa “Flower King of Flies”.  Or imagine “Tommy” reinvented by the Pink Floyd of 1969, the lineup that recorded “More”.  Right from the start of this album, you can tell Blonde on Blonde are back to the heady psychedelia of Album 1 Side 1, as the opening freakout “Gene Machine” fades in with a buzz of guitar feedback like the start of Steppenwolf’s “Magic Carpet Ride”.  Followed by the sound of a baby crying, while a hearbeat (womb-beat?) of backwards percussion lays down the spooky tempo.  From there, we veer off into some twisted acoustic folk sounds, like a severely bent Arlo Guthrie or Country Joe and the Fish on mescaline, complete with backwards AND distorted vocals wrapped in a haze of psychedelic feedback.  And THIS is supposed to be some kind of tribute to the former Gong Show dancer?  (Okay, that was a bad joke and a reference that only three of you will actually get anyway)  The inappropriately titled “Sad Song for an Easy Lady” isn’t very sad at all – this is one KILLER evil slab of heavy acid psych that spits firey bursts of crimson fuzz, breathing in great chunks of air through a wheezin’ blues harmonica while trampling small cities with a pounding rhythm not felt on this planet since the Brontosauri died off for good.  Equally adept at crushing bones and felling trees is the (again oddly-named) “Happy Families”, whose relentless pace and buzzsaw guitar has much in common with Pink Floyd’s “Nile Song”.  On the other end of the spectrum, there’s the spooky acoustic head trip called “Aint It Sad Too”, whose subdued and subtly trippy sound and great echoey slide guitar remind me a lot of Hapshash and the Coloured Coat’s brilliant “Western Flier” album (a perennial favorite on my playlist).  And as freaky as that one is, it’s still not HALF as freaky as the full-on freakfest called “The Rut”, easily the trippiest (coulda said “freakiest”) thing the band’s ever recorded.  You can tell that, between albums 2 and 3, Blonde on Blonde put away their Moody Blues LPs and sold off their well-worn vinyl pressings of “The Yes Album”, and really started listening hard to Pink Floyd.  “The Rut” in particular pulses and undulates with the same spooky tribal drum pattern that kept “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun” so riveting.  Add to that some tense, distorted, trippy vocals, and some killer slashing guitar riffs that fly from speaker to speaker, synapse to synapse, and you’re in for the sonic ride of your life, thanks to the freakiest band ever named after a Bob Dylan album (unless there’s a Japanese noise band called Shot of Love I’m not aware of).  “Reflections of a Life” is like “S.F. Sorrow” as played by the late 60’s Pink Floyd.  I don’t know whose life this album was meant to portray, but from the sound of this record, it must have been one heck of a ride.

HEAR IT!

PLEASE NOTE I NO LONGER SHIP TO ITALY DUE TO A CORRUPT POSTAL SYSTEM (THERE, NOT HERE).  BUYERS FROM ITALY AGREE TO PAY FOR GLOBAL PRIORITY MAIL INSURED ONLY!

The less exciting stuff

Media mail shipping with delivery confirmation starts at $4.00 in the US, with each additional record only $1 additional shipping.  I accept payments through Paypal. 

I try to grade as best as I can, and I list as many blemishes/imperfections I can find (writing, ringwear, scuff marks, etc.) – Also, please note that I DO listen to these albums – I may not listen to every track, but my grades are based on LISTENING, not just looking at it, since chances are you’ll be listening to the record you buy, not just looking at it.  Most of the albums I sell are the ones I’ve enjoyed for years – and I treat my records with kid gloves.  But sounds speak louder than words, so check out the sound clips below – they’re from the actual record you’re bidding on. 

SHIPPING AND PACKAGING

Listen, I buy a bunch of records too (when I’m not getting outbid at the last second, which is more often than not) – and I know what it’s like to get a rare, one-of-a-kind album packaged dangerously in a flimsy bubblewrap package.  I hate that too.  So rest assured, I ALWAYS package albums with stiff cardboard reinforcements, same for 45s.  And yes, the records are removed from the sleeves (for albums).  I ship out once a week, every Friday, because I have a regular day job.  But I’d be willing to give that up if you’d all be so kind as to bid my items up to stupidly high amounts. 

 For more security and international tracking, you may request GLOBAL PRIORITY MAIL - but bear in mind the cost of this service is upwards of $30.  For expensive items, however, it may be well worth it.  Unfortunately, there isn’t a cost-effective way of tracking parcels to foreign countries yet, and shipping times vary depending on your country’s postal system.   Italy in particular seems to be really bad at delivering packages quickly, or delivering packages at all, now that you mention it.  I will always email you when your package ships, but once it’s on its way, please don’t ask me when it will arrive because I don’t know.  If the world’s postal systems can ever agree on a universal tracking system that’s affordable, I’ll be the first to use it.

NOW IT’S YOUR TURN…

I will always leave positive feedback for successful transactions, and would appreciate the same in return.  All I ask of you is the following – please pay for your items within 14 days of the close of auction.  Compared to other sellers, that’s a generous amount of time, so if you don’t pay within 2 weeks, then I have to assume something’s wrong.  You’ll get an Ebay payment reminder at that point, and possibly a decapitated horse head in your bed.  If, after 30 days, you still haven’t forked up the cash, I’ll relist the item and yell at you if I ever see you in town.