TOP M- 1968 PEARLS BEFORE SWINE Balaklava FOLK PSYCH

$

35

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1968 MINTY CLEAN LEGENDARY FOLKPSYCH ORIGINAL                   

     PEARLS BEFORE SWINE

             Balaklava  

                          ...USA -  ESP DISK - 1075

Very nice, clean, original 1968 first pressing in TOP condition, handled so well...

Balaklava is one of the most extraordinary, sublime and sophisticated protest albums of 1968. To many, this album represents Tom Rapp's surrealist song-craft in perfection. Not a foot-stamping anti-Vietnam war album but a complex and psychedelic masterwork that touches on Tennyson and Tolkien in a sublime metaphorical fashion. Tom Rapp is among the most erudite, intellectual songwriters of the American '60s era.

The psychedelic folk band Pearls Before Swine was the brainchild of singer, composer and cult icon Tom Rapp, born in Bottineau, ND in 1947; after writing his first song at age six, he later began performing at local talent shows, and as a teen bested a young Bob Dylan at one such event. Upon relocating to Melbourne, FL, Rapp formed Pearls Before Swine in 1965, recruiting high school friends Wayne Harley, Lane Lederer and Roger Crissinger to record a demo which he then sent to the ESP-Disk label; the company quickly signed the group, and they soon travelled to New York to record their superb 1967 debut One Nation Underground, which went on to sell some 250,000 copies. The explicitly anti-war Balaklava, widely regarded as Pearls Before Swine's finest work, followed in 1968; the group -- by this time essentially comprising Rapp and whoever else was in the studio at the moment -- moved to Reprise for 1969's These Things Too, mounting their first-ever tour in the wake of releasing The Use of Ashes a year later. Two more albums, City of Gold and Beautiful Lies You Could Live In, followed in 1971. A record that virtually defies categorization, Pearls Before Swine's 1968 epic Balaklava is the near-brilliant follow-up to One Nation Underground. Intended as a defiant condemnation of the Vietnam War, it doesn't offer anthemic, fist-pounding protest songs. Instead, Rapp vented his anger through surrealist poetry, irony, and historical reference: Balaklava was the 1854 Crimean War battle that inspired Alfred, Lord Tennyson to write his epic The Charge of the Light Brigade; in reality, the "Charge" was a senseless military action that killed scores of British soldiers. Balaklava begins with "Trumpeter Landfrey," an 1880's recording of the actual voice and bugle charge of the man who sounded the charge at Balaklava. It makes the transition into "Translucent Carriages," a mix of acoustic guitars, a basic vocal, and ghostly narration ("Jesus raised the dead...but who will raise the living?"), all the more stunning. "Images of April" continues the mystical feel, combining flutes, cricket chirps, and frog croaks for a nether-worldly effect. Rapp virtually cries "I Saw the World," backed by a powerful string arrangement that makes the song even more impassioned. Like One Nation Underground, Balaklava is somewhat unfocused: "There Was a Man" is a little too Dylan-esque, and Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne" detracts from Rapp's compositions. Unfortunately, the record closes with "Ring Thing," a morbid piece that refers to Tolkien's famous Lord of the Rings trilogy. Still, this is superb psychedelic music, successfully merging exotic instruments like marimba, clavinet, French horn, and swinehorn with Rapp's unique lisping vocals. But Balaklava isn't just acid-trip background music. It's probably the best example of what Rapp calls "constructive melancholy"  a combination of the real with the surreal, and it's indispensable to any serious '60s rock collection.

1. Trumpeter Landfrey
2. Translucent Carriages
3. Images Of April
4. There Was A Man
5. I Saw The World
6. Guardian Angels
7. Suzanne
8. Lepers & Roses
9. Florence Nightingale
10. Ring Thing

CONDITION: The cover: absolutely top level M- in thick cover with no split seams, no bends, no writing and 4 sharp corners...really nice ...hard to find this clean

The vinyl: all glossy clean and clear M- looks and plays outstanding...here's the upgrade

keeper!

     A  GREAT ADDITION TO ANYONE'S COLLECTION !

SEE: SELLERS OTher items for similar cool sounds for "head" people...

EFFICIENT/CAREFUL GRADING

All imperfections are noted both cover & record