GRATEFUL DEAD Skeletons From The Closet VG++ 1974 Warner 1ST PRESS SANTA MARIA

$

28

Vinyl:  VG++  Play Graded. Sounds Great!   Warner Brothers Labels are Clean and Bright.   This is the 1974 Warner Brothers 1ST PRESSING!! W 2764.   This is the audiophile cclaimed pressing, pressed at Columbia's Santa Maria, CA Pressing Plant!!!  Listen for silkier vocals and fatter bottom end...A primer for Deadhead candidates and easy listening for Everready Dead-o-philes; a starting point inviting deeper exploration.  A frontier of experience awaits!  Tip of the iceberg!  Dancing bears peaking around the corner...!!  Side note:  In all the years listening to it, I've just this time noticed that definitive "WHIFF" just before the beginning of "Casey Jones"...Ridin' that train??...

As an aside...I recall driving back to LA from a Dead show in Berkeley and my friend, who was driving, pulling over and asking if I could drive..."What's up?", says I.  Says he:  "The freeway just turned into a giant Dead Ticket" ...now where were we??  
See Review Below!
In The Dead Wax:  On both sides:  matrices, etched.  Also  on both sides:  S1  ((Pressed at Columbia's Santa Maria, CA Pressing Plant))  TLC  ((The lacquer Channel))  Complete Dead Wax info cheerfully provided upon request.
Cover: VG++ (see photos).  Nice gloss on cover.  Front and back of cover artwork and text are rich, clear and bright, with minor shelf wear.  Seams and spine are solid and clean with minimal wear.  No splits.  No writing.  Spine print is clear.  Spine has a small piece of white tape across the spine, towards the bottom.  

Goldmine Standards.   I play grade every record that I sell on eBay as I have found you can't rate a record accurately by just visually inspecting it.  I wipe the dust off of every cover with clean, unscented baby wipes.  I professionally clean the vinyl.  (I also operate a Vinyl Record Cleaning business for your dusty/dirty records--if interested, send me a message).
U.S. Shipping:  $4.99 Media Mail.  Tracking included.  50 cents additional shipping per additional item, when the shipment is combined.   If you wish to take advantage of my COMBINED SHIPPING deal, simply select your items by clicking on "ADD TO CART" on the main listing page.  Do this for all of your selections and then go to your cart to checkout. Your combined shipping discount will be computed automatically.  Free domestic shipping if you spend $100 or more!  
All records are packaged securely with the vinyl outside the jacket (to avoid seam split in transit). The vinyl and jacket are sandwiched between two cardboard stiffeners and shipped in a custom cardboard record mailer box. 
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Why buy a first or early pressing and not a re-issue or a ‘re-mastered’ vinyl album? 
First and early pressings are pressed from the first generation lacquers and stampers. They usually sound vastly superior to later issues/re-issues (which, in recent times, are often pressed from whatever 'best' tapes or digital sources are currently available) - many so-called 'audiophile' new 180g pressings are cut from hi-res digital sources…essentially an expensive CD pressed on vinyl.  Why  experience the worse elements of both formats?  These are just High Maintenance CDs, with mid-ranges so cloaked with a veil as to sound smeared.  They are nearly always compressed with murky transients and a general lifelessness in the overall sound.  There are exceptions where re-masters/re-presses outshine the original issues, but they are exceptions and not the norm.  First or early pressings nearly always have more immediacy, presence and dynamics. The sound staging is wider.  Subtle instrument nuances are better placed with more spacious textures. Balances are firmer in the bottom end with a far-tighter bass. Upper-mid ranges shine without harshness, and the overall depth is more immersive.  Inner details are  clearer.   On first and early pressings, the music tends to sound more ‘alive’ and vibrant.  The physics of sound energy is hard to clarify and write about from a listening perspective, but the best we can describe it is to say that you can 'hear' what the mixing and mastering engineers wanted you to hear when they first recorded the music.   

AllMusic Review by Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr.  [-]

Skeletons from the Closet has been long-lived as a Grateful Dead primer, though it was superseded by The Very Best of the Grateful Dead in 2003. Fans of the band's live show have noted that Skeletons only contains two live tracks from a band whose live shows are its strongest suit. Still, Skeletons remains a good introduction to the band's early -- and arguably best -- work, and is also a great disc for the casual fan. Favorites include "Truckin'," "Sugar Magnolia," "Friend of the Devil," and "Casey Jones," classic tracks taken from 1970's Workingman's Dead and American Beauty. The disc also includes a couple of early Bob Weir jewels, "Mexicali Blues" and "One More Saturday Night," and an edited version of "Turn on Your Love Light" by Ron "Pigpen" McKernan. The disc offers several selections from the Dead's early albums, including "The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)," "St. Stephen," and "Rosemary." The tracking order of the songs isn't always chronological but it does have a natural flow, with the possible exception of the high-powered "Love Light." While most new fans will opt for The Very Best of the Grateful Dead, Skeletons -- for longtime fans -- will always be a great disc for a lazy Sunday afternoon.