Hasting's Street Opera -- Slippery When Wet LP

Original 1969? US private pressing on Mole Productions (catalog # C-14001), with custom blank cover which has a long hand-written letter from one of the band members.

Completely unknown private press late-sixties psych-rock LP, with a heady experimental psyched-out mix of stoner rock riffage, mellow acid-folk vibes and wild free-form avant-jazz jamming.

This is an entirely instrumental LP but for the cut-up found-sound voice of Oral Roberts ranting and raving in a couple places, and the 20-second track "Lo-De-Do" which is just spliced-in sounds of the band coughing and puffing away and uttering some nonsense. (And, as mentioned on the cover, there's a three-year-old kid who yells out "Psychedelic!" at the end of the first track.)

It's mostly electric guitar, bass and drums. There's also some piano and flute on a couple songs. The smokin' rhythm section is really tight and can also get really loose... they go off on some extended and completely fried-out jams. The drummer is pretty wild, and he sounds absolutely besesrk at times; the bass player is solid, both heavy and loose, adept and both low-down riffage and going off on exploratory tangents. The guitar's got a nice crisp but rough tone, not fuzz so much as hard-edged jangle.

Just check out these credits:

CRO-MAGNON MAN: Flute
BUMBLE BEE: Electric Lester, Schmalz
MOLE: Fender Jazz Bass, Acoustic Guitar
H. ROOT WELLOTT: Drum, Gee-Whiz Teen Appeal

WOODY CARLAND: Piano on "Think Of Me"

MOLE PRODUCTIONS Featuring UNCLE CHARLEY at the 1 track

There's not much at all on the internet about Hasting's Street Opera. Acid Archives doesn't even know about this one. This site:

http://www.chickenonaunicycle.com/New%20Orleans%20House.htm

has the concert listing of a "Hastings Street Opera" playing New Orleans House in Berkeley in 1967 the same week as John Fahey and Red Krayola. Don't know if it's the same band.

The front cover is a unique long hand-written letter from one of the band members to a certain "Elvira honey", containing a detailed account of the recording of the album. The handwriting is a little hard to make out at points but the entire thing is well-worth reading! In it he speaks about fellow band member called both "Don" and "Donny", who co-wrote the track "Perch". On the label, "Perch" is credit to "Hathaway", and it's clear that this "Don" is Donny Hathaway, but whether it's the Donny Hathaway is impossible to say.

Check out an mp3 of the opening track "Nobody Knows" (it has about five distinctly different parts...):

Download an mp3 of Hasting's Street Opera -- Nobody Knows and for more mp3s from obscure records check out the ampnoise audio blog, and search ampnoise records eBay store for listings with mp3 downloads.ampmp3

Tracks:

Nobody Knows Fool-August Scarborough Fair Lo-De-Do Perch Taste Of Honey Think Of Me Summertime

CONDITION: Cover G++ / Vinyl G+   cover is split most of the way at bottom seam, has sticker and small red ink mark on front, some wear on back; NOTE: vinyl has some wear, a number of small surface scratches and a lot of surface scuffing, plays alright but not well, with a fair bit of surface noise and occasional tics that of course can be removed if you are digitizing this album -- check the mp3 above to hear exactly how this LP sounds, it was ripped straight from the LP and has not been cleaned-up or edited at all -- overall not the best condition but this is probably the only copy of this LP ever on eBay... certainly the only copy with a full band history written on the cover!

Graded conservatively using Goldmine standards [G / G+ / VG / VG+ / NM / ]
grade only used if record is brand new.
Bid with confidence -- over 12000 positive feedbacks selling vinyl on eBay since 1998, with a total 11-year average of 100% positive.

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