FRANK ZAPPA ABSOLUTELY FREE ORIG'67 VERVE STEREO LP w/UNBANDED SIDE 1

$

96

WE CURRENTLY HAVE  MORE THAN 100  LISTED ITEMS

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·      FRANK ZAPPA AND THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION - ABSOLUTELY FREE -  ORIGINAL 1967 STEREO VERVE LP V6-5013

·      ORIGINAL U.S. PRESSING

·      IMPOSSIBLY RARE PRESSING WITH "UNBANDED" (UNSPIRALED) SIDE 1 !!!! (THE FIRST SIDE DOES NOT HAVE SEGMENTED TRACKS WITH SONG BREAKS IN BETWEEN THE TRACKS,  SHOWING - PERHAPS - THAT ZAPPA SAW THE ENTIRE SIDE 1 AS AN EXTENDED PSEUDO-CLASSICAL SUITE, BUT THAT VERVE, HIS LABEL, PREFERED A MORE "SONG-STRUCTURED" FORMAT; INSTEAD, THIS PRESSING ONLY HAS A SINGLE SIDE-LONG TRACK ON SIDE 1 (EVEN THOUGH THE INDIVIDUAL SEGMENTS ARE LISTED ON THE LABEL !) AS FAR AS WE CAN RECALL ,  THIS IS ONLY THE NINTH OR SO SUCH PRESSING WE HAVE ENCOUNTERED IN 51 YEARS OF COLLECTING!  (NOTE: ONLY STEREO 'UNBANDED' PRESSINGS ARE KNOWN TO EXISTS. MONO PRESSINGS WERE ONLY RELEASED AS 'BANDED' PRESSINGS)

·      ORIGINAL BLUE VERVE LABEL WITH SILVER PRINT AND A LARGE "T"-SHAPED LOGO

·      MGM RECORDS, BLOOMFIELD, IN  PRESSING

·      THIS IS THE ORIGINAL, AUTHENTIC, FIRST U.S. PRESSING; THIS IS NOT A REISSUE, AN IMPORT, OR A COUNTERFEIT PRESSING.

·      THICK CARDBOARD GATEFOLD COVER, AMERICAN STYLE

·      CLEAN, WEAR-FREE LABELS

·      THICK, HEAVY VINYL PRESSING

(►PLEASE SEE THE IMAGE OF THE COVER, LABEL OR BOTH, SHOWN BELOW)

(Note: this is a REAL image of the ACTUAL item you are bidding on. This is NOT a "recycled" image from our previous auction. What you see is what you’ll get.  GUARANTEED!)

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Here’s the album whose musical and historical significance is of truly earth-shaking proportions . If ever there was a REVOLUTIONARY album, this is it (although having to categorize this album as "Classic Rock" was something of a stretch). How many albums can claim to have ignited entire social and political revolutions? This one can: in the late 1960’s, just as both Eastern and Western Europe were up in flames of student protest, and just as Daniel Cohn-Bendit was preaching the virtues of violent overthrow of the burgoisie in burning Paris, Zappa was doing something else: he was lambasting, ridiculing and mocking everything that was petty, ignorant, mentally limited, tyrannical , oppressive and otherwise retarded. In Czechoslovakia, this album fell on fertile ground among the local intellectuals (mind you, we are talking less than a year before Russians came in with tanks and totally different social ideas). One of the local bands, the later-famous "Plastic People of the Universe" took their name from one of the songs on this album; and, of course, Czech president Havel cited Zappa, and this album in particular, as one of his major influences. Still not persuaded? Well, you will be when you hear it. THIS IS THE ALBUM WHOSE IMPORTANCE TRANSCENDS ITS MODEST SALES. GRAB IT BEFORE SOMEONE ELSE DOES.

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The US version of Absolutely Free was due to be released in January 1967. Zappa had wanted the album to include a libretto/lyric insert, but MGM attempted to censor some of the songs and, following a four-month delay, Absolutely Free appeared without the libretto. Another hold-up occurred when MGM's legal department tried to remove the phrase "War means work for all" from the back cover montage. A compromise of sorts was eventually reached and the phrase was printed very faintly in grey!

The sleeve itself was a deluxe gatefold affair which opened vertically. The famous front cover photo of Frank was by Alice Ochs, although Zappa himself was responsible for most of the sleeve artwork. Following MGM's decision to axe the libretto, Zappa made it available separately via his publishing company. It was advertised on the sleeve of Absolutely Free together with the "freak map" which was originally planned to accompany Freak Out!.

From Record Collector magazine #93, May 1987 (quoted by Mikael Agardsson):

TO SEE IF WE HAVE OTHER LISTED ITEMS BY THIS GROUP OR ARTIST ►  CLICK HERE

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·                          CONDITION:

·                          THE RECORD

(IMPORTANT NOTE: unless otherwise noted, ALL records are graded visually, and NOT play-graded!; we  grade records under the strong, diffuse room light or discrete sunlight)

(a)         WE GRADE THE VINYL AS STRONG VG++, JUST A NOTCH BELOW NEAR MINT. A few light abrasions (probably just sleeve scuffs inflicted in storage over the years) ARE VISIBLE, but they appear fairly  insignificant relative to the overall condition of the vinyl, and are only moderately visually distracting. For most part, the vinyl looks impeccable, without any MAJOR visual flaws or imperfections. Much of the original luster is intact, and the vinyl shines and sparkles almost like new.

(b)         The record is pressed on a beautiful, thick, inflexible vinyl, which was usually used for the first or very early pressings. Usually, the sound on such thick vinyl pressings is full-bodied, vivid, and even dramatic. Do not expect to obtain such a majestic analog sound from a digital recording!

(c)         The record comes in a hi-grade MFSL PVC inner sleeve, which has - apparently with success - shielded the record from the harmful impact of elements over many years!

(d)         Of course, this is a full-bodied ANALOG recording, and not an inferior, digital recording!!!

·                          THE COVER

THE COVER IS NICE --- ABOUT VERY GOOD++ (VG++).

The following flaws or imperfections are noted on the cover:

-       The gatefold cover has partially split seams on 1 out of 4 "legs" of the cover (less than 1 inch = 2.5 centimeters) as well as the closed (sealed, front) "leg" on the opening side (about  4 inches)

-       Cover has some fraying/wear along the upper seam and the opening side

-       Visible shelf wear noted on the bottom seam

-       Cover has two corners slightly worn / dinged (nothing significant)

-       Cover has JUST A HINT of ring wear (nothing significant); On the scale from 1 to 10 (1 being the least, and  10 being the most severe), we assess the severity of ring wear as 2.

-       Cover shows some light yellowing on both sides, apparently from aging.  (nothing significant) ; Minor yellowing is also noted on the INSIDE gatefold

-       Cover has a few tiny wrinkles along the spine  (nothing significant)

NO OTHER VISIBLE FLAWS OR IMPERFECTIONS ON THE  COVER

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POSTAGE & SHIPPING:

We offer three postage rates for domestic orders: USPS Media Mail, USPS Priority Mail and USPS Express Mail and three rates for international shipments:  USPS First Class, USPS Priority International Mail, and USPS Express International Mail (in a small number of cases, we will, at our discretion and for purely technical reasons, substitute First Class Mail with eBay's Global Shipping, which is fundamentally the same service at about the same cost). INTERNATIONAL CUSTOMERS PLEASE NOTE: WE RECOMMEND (BUT DO NOT INSIST) that you select USPS International Priority Mail when making a payment.

INTERNATIONAL POSTAGE rates vary from one region of  the world to another. For SPECIFIC international and domestic postage rates, please click on " Shipping, returns, and payments" tab in the header of our listing.

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CRITICALLY IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

(A) All orders valued at $50.00 or more will be shipped fully insured against loss, damage or theft by ShipCover, eBay's contracted insurer, at our expense (B) Yes, we do combine items into a single shipment; in order to enable this feature, the winning bidders should WAIT until their last item of interest ends and ONLY THEN make a payment. Doing otherwise will result in multiple shipments to the same customer and forfeiture of multiple shipping charges already paid. (C) Because we do not play-grade our items, we do not know how the purchased item will play on the buyer's equipment. We can only make reasonable inference on the record's playing condition based on its visual appearance. (D) This seller will NOT cancel erroneous, frivolous and prank bids. The bidders can do so on their own, by visiting eBay's Site Map, then clicking on Bid Retractions link. (E) This seller does not specifically grade or describe certain items, such as: shrink (cellophane) wrap and accompanying extras (inserts, booklets, etc.); however, the presence of these items WILL be noted and accompanied by the gallery photo(s). (F) Please do not submit any bids on our items if you have insufficient user history. (G) Other than in very rare justified cases, failure to pay for the item you won amounts to a fraud and will result in a permanent ban on bidding on our future listings. (H) We will NEVER deliberately, knowingly or willingly provide a false, deceitful or misleading information.

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OUR REFUND POLICY :

WE OFFER UNCONDITIONAL MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE (POSTAGE INCLUDED) WITHIN 30 DAYS FROM THE RECEIPT OF THE MERCHANDISE, NO QUESTIONS ASKED; STILL SEALED ITEMS MUST BE RETURNED SEALED IN ORDER TO BE ELIGIBLE FOR A REFUND.   NO EXCEPTIONS!

FINE (BUT IMPORTANT!) PRINT

 (1) The year indicated in the title bar is the year of the original release,  NOT necessarily the year of the actual pressing; for the actual generation of the pressing, please see our item description (top section, the text in red letters). (2) Please do NOT bid based on the title bar, subtitle bar or item specifics box alone; instead, please read the entire description before bidding; (3) Absolutely NO order cancellations after the auction closes. ever, under any circumstances. We can ONLY cancel bids before the item closes. (4) We are unable to provide matrix-, stamper- or other pressing  information in the final 24 hours of the auction. (5) All disagreements and miscommunications can be - and will only be - solved in a civil and mutually respectful manner; please avoid puerile, offensive, abrasive or menacing language (6) This seller will accommodate all reasonable requests and - unless seriously molested - is generally a flexible, pragmatic and agreeable person.

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