THE BAND S/T NM- 1969 Capitol STAO-132 ROBBIE ROBERTSON LEVON HELM LOS ANGELES

$

39

Vinyl:  NM- Play Graded. Plays Like New!  Has some marks that don't affect the sound quality.  Capitol Labels are Clean and Bright, with small light marks on side 2 that don't obscure any of the print (see photo).   This is the audiophile acclaimed Pressing of the 1969 Capitol STAO-132 LP, pressed at Capitol's Renowned Los Angeles, CA Pressing Plant!   A landmark album full of The Band's nascent Americana mythology, somehow blending old, smoky north-south tension with rock, country, blues and old-time medicine-show minstrel music!  A Crucial album.  Fun to play REALLY LOUD!  One of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time!! allmusic gives it 5 stars!!!    
See Review Below!
In the Dead Wax:   Matrices, etched.  Has the * glyph denoting that it was pressed at Capitol's Los Angeles, CA Pressing Plant.  Complete Dead Wax information cheerfully provided upon request.

Cover: VG++ (see photos)  Front, back and Gatefold of cover artwork and text are rich, clear and bright, with a small sticker mark on the top right corner of the front cover. Seams and spine are solid and clean, with some wear.  No splits. No writing.  On the spine, "The Band" is crystal clear and the catalog number is worn.

Goldmine Standards.   I play grade every record that I sell on eBay as I have found you can't rate an LP accurately by just visually inspecting an album.  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).

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 William Ruhlmann  [-]

The Band's first album, Music from Big Pink, seemed to come out of nowhere, with its ramshackle musical blend and songs of rural tragedy. The Band, the group's second album, was a more deliberate and even more accomplished effort, partially because the players had become a more cohesive unit, and partially because guitarist Robbie Robertson had taken over the songwriting, writing or co-writing all 12 songs. Though a Canadian, Robertson focused on a series of American archetypes from the union worker in "King Harvest (Has Surely Come)" and the retired sailor in "Rockin' Chair" to, most famously, the Confederate Civil War observer Virgil Cane in "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down." The album effectively mixed the kind of mournful songs that had dominated Music from Big Pink, here including "Whispering Pines" and "When You Awake" (both co-written by Richard Manuel), with rollicking up-tempo numbers like "Rag Mama Rag" and "Up on Cripple Creek" (both sung by Levon Helm and released as singles, with "Up on Cripple Creek" making the Top 40). As had been true of the first album, it was The Band's sound that stood out the most, from Helm's (and occasionally Manuel's) propulsive drumming to Robertson's distinctive guitar fills and the endlessly inventive keyboard textures of Garth Hudson, all topped by the rough, expressive singing of Manuel, Helm, and Rick Danko that mixed leads with harmonies. The arrangements were simultaneously loose and assured, giving the songs a timeless appeal, while the lyrics continued to paint portraits of 19th century rural life (especially Southern life, as references to Tennessee and Virginia made clear), its sometimes less savory aspects treated with warmth and humor.