I have owned this piece since it's birth in 1983, and am now prepared to pass it on to its next owner. While I can speak to condition, I thought it best to use the words of David Byrne and the artist himself to describe the artistry of it. As such, I have attached below an article by David Byrne. Below that, there is the Discogs listing for this piece. I have also included comments from other owners of this piece that are Discogs members.
I believe today was the first day I actually placed this vinyl on a turntable (my VPI Aries) - as an audiophile, I never intended this to be a playing copy, I own other copies of this record. In general, colored/clear is almost never up to the quality of virgin black vinyl. This is also a pretty bad way to store a record being minus an actual sleeve; and the fact that the case is not airtight to protect from airborne dust, my expectation was that it would be a noisy mess. I dropped the stylus on Burning Down the House, and to my surprise it was actually pretty good - some light surface noise which soon disappeared under the music level. But anyway, if you're purchasing this, it's not to get your go-to copy of this record. The case itself is yellowed from age - equally so all around, so you can tell it's not from sun exposure on a shelf or some parts would be colored unevenly. It's the nature of this type of plastic. Part of the reason I included the Discogs comments is so you can see other owners discussing this issue. Along the lower right edge of the case there is about a 1" section of the lip that is missing. It has no affect on the closure of the case, if you want, I'd be glad to send blow up photos of the area.
You can also see in the owner comments talk about a sticky dot on each inner side of the case which the color panels were attached to. I had never touched it, but if I wanted to get decent photos I needed to remove it - it was only meant to hold the pieces in place during shipping. I was apprehensive about it, but with a little Dawn detergent, I was able to clean it without damage. You can still see the residue of the spots on the case - 

Collage by Robert Rauschenberg; courtesy David Byrne

By DAVID BYRNE

I APPROACHED Bob Rauschenberg in the mid-’80s to design a cover for the Talking Heads record “Speaking in Tongues.” I had recently seen some of his black-and-white photo collages at Leo Castelli’s gallery on West Broadway and thought they were amazing, and I wondered what he would do with an LP cover.

It was not unusual for a pop musician to approach a fine artist in those days; other contemporary artists had collaborated with pop bands in the late ’60s and early ’70s. I was pleasantly surprised, though, when Bob, who died this week, eschewed simply reproducing a work on the album jacket in favor of re-envisioning what the whole LP package could be.

His package consisted of a conceptual collage piece in which the color separation layers — the cyan, magenta and yellow images that combined to make one full-color image — were, well, deconstructed. Only by rotating the LP and the separate plastic disc could one see — and then only intermittently — the three-color images included in the collage. It was a transparent explication of how the three-color process works, yet in this case, one could never see all the full-color images at the same time, as Bob had perversely scrambled the separations.

Needless to say, the design posed some production problems for Warner Bros. Records, so it ended up a limited, but very large, 50,000-copy edition, released in addition to the regular, mass-produced version. Luckily, everyone shared in the crazy idea of making radical art that could also be popular. Nowadays there might be concerns about the return on investment, but at that time the label let these matters slide.

I later became friends with Bob and his collaborators, and it was an incredible world to enter. I sensed immediately that Bob had never become cynical about his work. Even after he found success, he continued to see the world as a work of art that simply hadn’t been framed yet.

Bob’s way of talking was a challenge to many — he spoke in constant puns and metaphors, like a stream-of-consciousness poet, and one had to suspend traditional forms of speech, understanding and discourse and go with the flow. It was liberating, if you could hang in there, and never mundane. Conversation was like one of his pieces: a crazy mishmash of images, multiple layers and references, and a spray of allusions that were simultaneously silly, profound and beautiful — he was the Neal Cassady of the art world. His life, and his relation to those around him, was just like his work; there was no separation and he never went out of character. The love of the world that was in the work was also in the man.

Bob drank heavily. In the ’80s, I discovered him once at his studio on Lafayette Street, in mid-afternoon, with a glass of Jack in his hand. I, rock ’n’ roll guy, was amazed to see an established artist living one aspect of the rock ’n’ roll life much more intensely than I ever dared. I did wonder if some of the beautiful jumps and leaps in his conversation were partly alcohol-related, but his output remained transcendent, so I figured he was managing it.

Being around Bob was often like being on some kind of ecstatic drug — he inspired those around him to not only think outside of the box, but to question the box’s very existence. He was driven to challenge himself. For his globe-spanning project, Rauschenberg Overseas Cultural Interchange, Bob collaborated with artisans and small factories in Chile, China, Cuba, Germany, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, the Soviet Union, Tibet and Venezuela over many years. In pre-“it is glorious to be rich” China, Bob worked with the oldest paper manufacturer in the world, while in India he worked with mud-manure straw clay. Suspicious of Bob’s motives, some countries forced him to wade through red tape, and his open attitude toward materials and creativity occasionally confounded his traditional artisan collaborators. The results, though, were sometimes wonderful, especially when he managed to break his own mold.

Bob was extraordinarily generous. I don’t mean he gave away art — though he did that, too — but he was generous with his time and with his ideas and spirit. He started Change Inc., a foundation that awards grants to emerging artists who can’t pay their rent, utility or medical bills. No questions asked.

He was, of course, famous for making art out of everyday junk he found on the street. One summer I went down to Captiva Island, Fla., where Bob had his main studio. I stayed across the road in one of the houses he had “saved,” and I spent a week or so writing a few songs. When I returned to New York, I left behind a pair of worn-out tennis shoes. A ghostly image of them showed up in a painting not long after.

Bob’s generosity of vision was, it seemed to me, more profound than the financial kind. His openness and way of seeing was contagious and inspired others in their own work — not to imitate and make pseudo-Rauschenbergs, but to see the whole world as a work of art. As corny as that may sound, that’s what he sometimes did.

David Byrne is a musician and visual artist.

Discogs info:

Talking Heads – Speaking In Tongues

Label: Sire – 1-23771 Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Limited Edition, Clear Country: US Released: 1983 Genre: Electronic, Rock Style: Leftfield, Synth-pop, Indie Rock

Tracklist

A1
Burning Down The House Percussion – Steve Scales Synthesizer – Wally Badarou 4:00 A2
Making Flippy Floppy Guitar – Alex Weir Violin – Shankar 4:36 A3
Girlfriend Is Better Synthesizer – Bernie Worrell 4:25 A4
Slippery People Backing Vocals – Dolette McDonald, Nona Hendryx Percussion – Raphael Dejesus Saxophone – Richard Landry 3:30 A5
I Get Wild / Wild Gravity Percussion – David Van Tieghem, Raphael Dejesus 4:06 B1
Swamp Guitar – Alex Weir Synthesizer – Wally Badarou 5:09 B2
Moon Rocks Guitar – Alex Weir Percussion – Steve Scales 5:04 B3
Pull Up The Roots Guitar – Alex Weir Percussion – Raphael Dejesus 5:08 B4
This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) Percussion – David Van Tieghem Synthesizer – Wally Badarou 4:56

Companies, etc.

• Phonographic Copyright ? – Sire Records Company
• Copyright © – Sire Records Company
• Recorded At – Blank Tape Studios
• Recorded At – Compass Point Studios
• Mixed At – Compass Point Studios
• Recorded At – Sigma Sound Studios, New York
• Mixed At – Sigma Sound Studios, New York
• Mastered At – Sterling Sound
• Lacquer Cut at – Sterling Sound
• Mastered At – Sheffield Lab Matrix – ? 4430
• Pressed By – Capitol Records Pressing Plant, Winchester

Credits

• Backing Vocals, Double Bass, Guitar, Synthesizer, Music By – Tina Weymouth
• Backing Vocals, Drums, Synthesizer, Music By – Chris Frantz
• Backing Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards, Music By – Jerry Harrison
• Bass, Percussion, Guitar, Cover, Lyrics By, Music By, Keyboards, Synthesizer, Vocals – David Byrne
• Design [Cover / Package] – Robert Rauschenberg
• Engineer [Assistant Mix] – Franklin Gibson*, Jay Mark
• Engineer [Assistant Recording] – John Convertino (2)
• Engineer [Recording] – Butch Jones
• Management – Gary Kurfirst
• Mastered By – Ted Jensen
• Mixed By, Engineer [Mix] – Alex Sadkin
• Producer – Talking Heads

Notes

Basic tracks recorded at Blank Tapes, NY.
Final overdubbing and mixing at Compass Point Studios and Sigma Sound, NY.
Originally Mastered at Sterling Sound, NY.

Limited edition of 50,000. Clear vinyl.
The packaging, designed by Robert Rauschenberg, is a transparent plastic case with artwork and credits printed on 3 12" circular transparent collages, one per primary color.

Canadian import has a sticker on the front cover:
Imported For Distribution In Canada By WEA Music Of Canada Ltd.

The full-color source material at the bottom of the images page came from a blog post by David Byrne about the project that can be found here.

Runouts are etched, except for STERLING, which is stamped.

Barcode and Other Identifiers

• Matrix / Runout (Side A, variant 1): 1-1 23771 A SH3 SLM ? 4430 ??
• Matrix / Runout (Side B, variant 1): T 23771 B SH4 SLM ? 4430-X ?? 1-1 STERLING
• Matrix / Runout (Side A, variant 2): 1 23771 A SH3 SLM ? 4430 1-1 -?? STERLING
• Matrix / Runout (Side B, variant 2): 1 23771 B SH4 SLM ? 4430-X · ?? 1-1 STERLING

Owner comments from Discogs:

Germ007 Mar 13, 2021 My copy has a couple small clear adhesive dots holding the blue and yellow rings together and one holding the bottom ring to the inside. Was this how they were packaged originally or did someone do this over time? They aren’t that noticeable and I can probably remove them with adhesive remover but don’t want to if it’s original.

RockWrok Nov 10, 2020
Exact same thing has happened to my clear vinyl copy ! Vinyl has yellowed and has transparent ring around first track on each side. Played it and it sounds fine still tho.

Marx-Music Dec 29, 2019I have had mine all these years and it has yellowed as well. I just pulled it off the shelf and it is about the same color as the first picture on discogs. Mine isn't exposed to light and the record has never been played and it is unaffected. It appears to be just the outer case. Still one of the great record jacket designs ever.


Frachtheini May 23, 2019Strange as it seems, my VINYL also changed color after about 33 years, although I kept it in it's case and that wasn't exposed to sunlight (exept when the record was played). The clear vinyl record has now a transparent red ring about the size of the first song - and then it goes back to clear.... (really spooky!)

Hipnotik  Nov 3, 2018 I can vouch for the yellowing of the outer case for this. I have had mine for years and it has definitely gotten more yellow over time. The record still sounds great though.
DLukask Jan 25, 2011
I could be wrong, but I think most of these limited editions, being 30 years old, have just turned yellow over time. Having just bought two copies of this (one that is unopened and intact strictly for my collection, one opened and in lesser condition – so I can "play" with it...), I noticed one copy is more yellow than the other. I did some digging and found an interesting article that I think applies to the variance of coloration and brittleness found in this rare record's outer shell...


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