SURPRISE PACKAGE Free Up 1968 ORIGINAL ACID FUZZ PSYCH LP sidelong freakout HEAR

$

40

THE SURPRISE PACKAGE "FREE UP" LP

ORIGINAL 1968 LP on the US LHI label, STEREO S-12005

COVER IN VG++ shape, some ringwear, UNIPAK cover holds up well

VINYL plays VG++ to EXCELLENT, a few scattered pops

First off, kudos to the art direction on this obscure 1968 album by the Surprise Package, called FREE UP.  That cover’s NOT 3-D, even though it looks it, and I can imagine how many tripping hippies back in ’68 slapped on some 3-D glasses and attempted to look at it, which probably resulted in something very unpleasant like being able to see directly into your own skull.  So don’t try it at home, kids.  Not only that, I dig the way they put the title inside the Skip Spence stunt double’s giant fright hair, and even better, when you flip this thing open, it seems like the Package even managed to beat the Stones and Alice Cooper to the whole graffiti tromp l’oeil thing.  Not that beating Alice Cooper to anything should be deemed a creative triumph, but still.  

Much like Iron Butterfly’s In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida and the Chambers Brothers’ Time Has Come Today, Free Up is essentially a Set Up.  There are some songs on Side 1 and a bit of Side 2, but that’s just a ruse, a little pre-game warmup for the real Superbowl of Rock.  And that would be the tour de force 15-minute title track, the Surprise Package’s entry into the Sidelong Extended Freakout Complete With Obligatory Drum Solo sweepstakes.  It’s structured almost exactly like “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida,” with a series of revolving soloists taking turns in the spotlight like coked-up frat boys on Joe Francis’s yacht waiting for another shot at Paris Hilton.  First comes the guitarist, ripping off an AMAZING distorto fuzz soliloquy, big shredding hairy power chords like mating calls from some giant electric yak.  It’s a lo-o-ong solo, but you don’t mind one bit, simultaneously wondering how one man can wrench such NOISES out of one instrument while also hoping he’s able to bar the door well enough to keep the drummer out in the hallway.  He fails, ultimately, and when the last crackling glimmer of fuzz finally fades, in steps the LHI label’s own little Ginger Baker, pounding away for four minutes that seem oddly closer to four hours.  The organ finally wrestles its way in, praise God, and the two instruments duel for another 2 and a half minutes, gradually getting more and more intense, as these things do.  Until, once again, we’re back into the song, giving Doug Ingle a couple more minutes to contact his lawyer.  It’s a “period piece” to be sure, but remember kids, people ate this s** up back in ’68, blissfully unaware that it might eventually lead to something like the first ELP album.  We know that now.  But we’ve got the benefit of hindsight. 

But unlike the Butterfly and the Chambers Brothers, the Surprise Package offers more than just one extended mind travel package.  Those earlier, shorter songs are pretty good too.  “New Way Home” rides in on a big forest-clearing buzzsaw of noise – big stadium implosion blasts of tumultuous fuzz and crashing seven-car interstate pile-up drums.  If the giant many-armed Once-ler tree-cutting machine from The Lorax ran up against a particularly stubborn redwood, this would be the sound it would make. 

“100% Vision” offers more giant fuzz solos, after a tension-filled Fever Tree like opening, while the old-timey “Social Disease,” much like its later namesake from Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, is a good old-fashioned drunken hillbilly singalong like momma used ta make.  Only unlike Bernie Taupin’s ode to cheap hootch, the Surprise Package’s “Social Disease” is more overtly anti-alcohol.  And pretty blunt.  Bet this didn’t play well in Tennessee:

“Some will drown themselves with whiskey,

Some will drown themselves in rum.

It’s so easy not to think when you’re in a drunken stupor.

The social disease of America is to drink your life away,

Got to find a reason to forget

All your troubles among the bubbles.”

Of course, it’s easy to miss the irony completely when you set your MADD monologue to one of the catchiest drinking song melodies this side of a Pogues best-of, but hey, they also add in a kazoo solo.  And there ain’t a straight liquor strong enough to get me through one of those.  Point taken, Surprise Package kids.  Go ahead, man, take everything in my wet bar.  Just please.  No more kazoos.  Besides, I’m still recovering from the time I tried to look at your album cover through 3-D glasses.  Is that REALLY what the inside of my skull looks like?

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.