INCREDIBLE STRING BAND 5000 SPIRITS RARE ORIG '67 ELEKTRA MONO LP w/BOOK+SHRINK
  $   30

 


$ 30 Sold For
Feb 4, 2026 Sold Date
Jan 30, 2026 Start Date
9   Number Of Bids
  USA Country Of Seller
eBay Auctioned at
 
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Description

WE CURRENTLY HAVE  MORE THAN 100  LISTED ITEMS

 

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·      THE INCREDIBLE STRING BAND - 5000 SPIRITS OR THE LAYERS OF THE ONION (THE GROUP'S SECOND STUDIO ALBUM) - ULTRA-RARE  ORIGINAL 1967 ELEKTRA MONO LP EKL-4010 (ONE OF ONLY TWO ISB ALBUMS RELEASED IN THE UNITED STATES IN MONO FORMAT)

 

·      (PLEASE NOTE: APPARENTLY, THIS WAS A PROMOTIONAL COPY; WE CAN SEE A FEW MINOR RECTANGULAR-SHAPED PEEL-OFF SPOTS WHERE THE CLUMSILY REMOVED ELEKTRA'S DAY-GLO PROMOTIONAL STICKER USED TO BE)

 

·      ORIGINAL TAN/BROWN ELEKTRA LABEL, MID-'60s STYLE

 

·      EAST COAST PRESSING (SONIC SOUND PRODUCTS, HOLBROOK, LI, NY)

 

·      ULTRA-RARE ORIGINAL MONO PRESSING, MANY TIMES RARER THAN STEREO

 

·      THE ALBUM COMES WITH IT'S ORIGINAL ELEKTRA 1967 CATALOG BROCHURE/BOOKLET

 

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

 

·      ORIGINAL, THIN CARDBOARD COVER (NO THICK CARDBOARD COVERS WERE EVER PRODUCED FOR THIS TITLE)

 

·      COVER IS PARTIALLY (ABOUT 90%) STILL IN ITS ORIGINAL SHRINK (CELLOPHANE) WRAP

 

·      ORIGINAL COVER ARTWORK BY THE DUTCH 'THE FOOL' ARTISTIC MULTIMEDIA COOPERATIVE

 

·      CLEAN, WEAR-FREE LABELS

 

·      THICK, HEAVY VINYL PRESSING

 

·      MONO version of this album has NEVER been available on legitimate Compact Disc or in any other digital format.

 

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

(Note: except for the label, 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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In 1967, Joe Boyd had signed the Incredible String Band, who were then down to Robin Williamson, Mike Heron, and Licorice McKechnie, to Elektra. The 5000 Spirits or Layers of the Onion had been crafted in a cottage in Glasgow, but Boyd wanted a proper recording studio to get it on tape. He chose engineer John Wood's Chelsea studio for the sessions. Recorded on a four-track machine, Boyd and Wood proceeded to capture the very best of the dozens of songs Williamson and Heron brought in. Influenced heavily by the era -- this was the summer of love, after all -- and North African music due to Williamson’s recent trip to Morocco, the set is one of the most ambitious albums in the band’s catalog. The trio were also accompanied by Danny Thompson on bass on seven tracks, as well as Nazir Jarazbhoy on sitar. The standout tracks include “First Girl I Loved” (later covered by Judy Collins and Jackson Browne), and the cosmic folk-blues “The Mad Hatter’s Song.” On this set, British folk often comes up against against Williamson’s fascination with Middle Eastern sounds -- check the bowed gimbri hovering and flitting about the acoustic guitar on “Chinese White,” and the hand drums underscoring the acoustic slide guitar on “The Hedgehog Song.” Thompson’s bass and Williamson’s harmonica are the only elements that keep “Blues for the Muse” on the ground -- barely a blues at all because of the way it pushes the 12-bar envelope. The brief “My Name Is Death” begins as a one-chord drone before it moves back to a more formally constructed 18th century traditional song. The meld of all ISB’s influences are heard on “Gently Tender,” a beautiful if somewhat anarchic tune where flutes, acoustic blues, hand drums, bass, gimbri, and sitar are all employed. This set stands as one of the true masterpieces in the group's catalog.

 

 (EXCERPT FROM AN ONLINE REVIEW BY THOM JUREK, ALL MUSIC GUIDE  /ALLMUSIC.COM/)

 

Here is the finest British folk/psych album from the first British folk boom of the late 1960's, in an unsurpassable MONO. This is a first pressing of a veritable folk-rock classic which influenced so many bands over almost four decades. Indispensable in any self-respecting folk collection.

 

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 VERY GOOD+(+) . CAUTION: The vinyl is NOT MINT or NEAR MINT, but is nevertheless in a very nice and clean condition. There are some surface marks and abrasions, mostly light and superficial, although some may be longer than 1.1/4 inches (1 inch = 2.5 centimeters)

 

(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)         Mono pressing of this title is much rarer, and by far more  preferable to its stereo counterpart. We think that the mix is more natural, humane, "organic" and that the mixes are somewhat different than on the stereo version. We estimate that stereo copies of this album outnumber mono pressings by a ratio of at least 20:1.

 

(d)         The album comes with the original 1967 Elektra catalogue brochure.

 

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

 

 

·                          THE COVER

 

THE COVER IS STILL IN ITS ORIGINAL ►SHRINK WRAP;  HOWEVER, WE ARE UNABLE TO GRADE IT NEAR MINT DUE TO MINOR FLAWS LISTED BELOW; WE GRADE THIS COVER AS EXCELLENT OR VG++ (A  PIECE OF SHRINK WRAP IS MISSING)

 

The following flaws or imperfections are noted on the cover:

 

-       Cover has a sticker residue (partially peeled remnants of the promo sticker and a few nano-peel-off marks; the buyer can probably remove these small, still affixed bits and pieces of the sticker with a minor effort) (less than 1.1/2 square inch in size)

 

-       Cover has one corner slightly worn (BARELY VISIBLE)

 

-       Cover has a few tiny wrinkles along the spine (BARELY VISIBLE)   (VISIBLE ON BACK SIDE ONLY)

 

 

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.

 

Our love & appreciation for your trust, loyalty and business, always and forever;  Thank You & Good Night!

 

© 2001,2007 MDJ. All rights reserved.

 

On Jan 29, 2026 at 21:53:39 PST, seller added the following information:




























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