VAN DYKE PARKS SONG CYCLE INSANELY RARE SEALED ORIG'67 WARNER GOLD LABEL MONO LP

$

310

WE CURRENTLY HAVE  MORE THAN 1,000  LISTED ITEMS

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·       VAN DYKE PARKS  with RANDY NEWMAN, HAL BLAINE, EARL PALMER, DENNIS BUDIMIR AND VIRTUALLY THE ENTIRE PHIL SPECTOR'S 'WRECKING CREW' ORCHESTRA - SONG CYCLE - ULTRA-RARE ORIGINAL 1967 WARNER BROTHERS MONO LP W-1727

·       ORIGINAL U.S. PRESSING

*** INSANELY RARE STILL SEALED GUARANTEED ORIGINAL FIRST MONO PRESSING  ***

·       GUARANTEED ORIGINAL GOLD  WARNER BROTHERS MONO LABEL WITH RED AND BLACK PRINT  , SUCH AS THE ONE SHOWN BELOW, FROM OUR PREVIOUS AUCTION

·       ULTRA-RARE ORIGINAL MONO PRESSING, MANY TIMES RARER THAN STEREO

·       RECORDED AND ENGINEERED BY BRUCE BOTNICK, THE ORIGINAL DOORS RECORDING ENGINEER (CHECK OUT BELOW SOME OF HIS REMINISCENCES ABOUT RECORDING SESSIONS FOR THIS ALBUM)

·       THE THICKNESS OF THE VINYL, THE APPEARANCE AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE COVER, LABEL’S LOGO AND OTHER PERIPHERAL ELEMENTS OF THE COVER, ARE ALL PERFECTLY CONSISTENT WITH THE ORIGINAL, FIRST PRESSING OF THIS TITLE.

·       THREE “BREATHE” (AIR) HOLES NOTED ON THE SHRINK WRAP

·       THIS IS THE ORIGINAL, AUTHENTIC, FIRST U.S. PRESSING; THIS IS NOT A REISSUE, AN IMPORT, OR A COUNTERFEIT PRESSING.

·       ORIGINAL, THICK CARDBOARD COVER (AMERICAN STYLE)

·       THICK, HEAVY VINYL PRESSING

·       MONO version of this album has NEVER been available on legitimate Compact Disc or in any other digital format.

 (►PLEASE SEE THE IMAGE OF THE COVER, LABEL OR BOTH, SHOWN BELOW)

(Note: this is a REAL image of the ACTUAL item you are bidding on. This is NOT a "recycled" image from our previous auction. What you see is what you’ll get.  GUARANTEED!)

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Van Dyke Parks moved on from the Beach Boys' abortive SMILE sessions to record his own solo debut, Song Cycle, an audacious and occasionally brilliant attempt to mount a fully orchestrated, classically minded work within the context of contemporary pop. As indicated by its title, Song Cycle is a thematically coherent work, one which attempts to embrace the breadth of American popular music; bluegrass, ragtime, show tunes -- nothing escapes Parks' radar, and the sheer eclecticism and individualism of his work is remarkable. Opening with "Vine Street," authored by Randy Newman (another pop composer with serious classical aspirations), the album is both forward-thinking and backward-minded, a collision of bygone musical styles with the progressive sensibilities of the late '60s; while occasionally overambitious and at times insufferably coy, it's nevertheless a one-of-a-kind record, the product of true inspiration.

 (EXCERPT FROM AN ONLINE REVIEW BY JASON ANKENY, ALL MUSIC GUIDE  /ALLMUSIC.COM/)

THE FOLLOWING IS AN EXCERPT FROM THE MATTHEW GREENWALD'S INTERVIEW WITH BRUCE BOTNICK, LEGENDARY ENGINEER OF ALL SIX DOORS STUDIO ALBUMS (AND THE CO-PRODUCER OF L.A. WOMAN)

MG: Let's talk about Van Dyke Parks' Song Cycle a little bit.

BB: One of my favorites.

MG: What do you recall about the evolution of recording that album?

BB: Van Dyke Parks recorded all around town; he did a lot of stuff that was on four-track that later got bounced to eight-track. On some of the cuts the strings were done at Western Recorders Studio 2. Van did a lot of it at United Western. I didn't do a lot of the recording; Lee Hershberg did the majority of it. The man should be canonized. Anyway, I did a couple of tracks at Sunset Sound, and some of the vocals, but I did all of the mixing, and this is where it all sort of came together. We did a lot of experimenting; I came up with something called a "Farkle" (laughter). In those days we didn't have a lot of tools to modify electronic sound. We didn't have phasers, we didn't have flangers, we didn't have anything like that. They didn't exist, so you kind of had to make things happen [by using your imagination.]

The "Farkle" was sort of like that. It was basically where I could take the return of the echo chamber and bring it back into a quarter-inch mono tape machine, and on the capstan I had hand-folded masking tape into eighth-inch pieces, so it was like a fan, and then taped it around the capstan. When the tape would go through, it would make this fluttering sound, and the tape would bounce over the heads. If you listen to that album, you'll hear a lot of that. So, that was one of the things that I came up with because we didn't have those kinds of tools. Basically it was a lot of experimentation, different reverb types, using the combination of the acoustical chamber and an EMT (plate reverb) simultaneously, playing stuff out into the studio and bringing it back on crystal microphones just to get weird pick-ups.

But also beyond the incredible creativity of Van Dyke and his mind, the one person who really understood how to pull it together was Lenny Waronker. I'll never forget when we were mixing it down at Sunset Sound. Joe Smith was there, Mo Ostin was there, Lenny was there, and Jac Holzman was hanging out. Jac started bidding for the album with Mo, "Let me put this album out on Elektra, I know just what to do with it; I must have this album...."

MG: To put it out on Elektra?

BB: Yeah! (laughter) And they're bidding right in front of us, we're watching, heads going back and forth like a tennis match. Van Dyke's credibility shot up a lot because Jac Holzman realized what the album was. He probably knew that the album wasn't going to really sell, but he wanted it because he knew creatively it was going to enhance all the other acts. One of the things about Elektra, and it holds true about Columbia Records, Atlantic Records, in — I don't want to say “the old days" — but in days gone by, was that labels had a sound, they had an identity. And you signed with a label because of the artists who were on it. Everybody didn't do rap, everybody didn't to this or do that. Elektra didn't do jazz. They didn't do any soul music. They did folk, folk-rock, and rock ’n’ roll.

For The Doors to sign to Elektra, they did it for two reasons. Paul Butterfield, and of course Love. If you went to Columbia Records, you were on the label with Bob Dylan and The Byrds. There was a sound, even to the records. You could identify a Columbia record by the tape-delay reverb. You'd hear their pop stuff, like Robert Goulet, and hear (claps hands loudly) “Ba-bam!”...You knew what it was. It was a Columbia record, it had that sound. Elektra Records had a sound, too.

MG: That is so true...any other thoughts on Song Cycle?

BB: Well, still to this day it's one of the highlights of my life. I listen to it and I'm amazed. We did so much with so little.

MG: The mono mix is really amazing, too. Tell me about doing mono mixes during this period.

BB: Well, it was normal. Up until when the industry really went stereo, I'm not talking about recording studios, I'm talking about the record stores carrying only stereo records. Up until that point, mono was still our medium, as AM radio was mono and 95% of the homes in America had mono phonographs. We didn't hit stereo radio with pop music until the late '60s and early ’70s. Also, we used to listen in mono a lot. Even though I had three speakers, I was always listening in mono, because in three-track, the thought wasn't for making stereo records, it was for splitting up the elements for later mixing. You could turn the vocal or the strings up and down against the rhythm section. We didn't even always have separate drums. You made a live mix in those days. You made the decisions live; it was normal.

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·                               CONDITION:

·                               RECORD

 (IMPORTANT NOTE: unless otherwise noted, ALL records are graded visually, and NOT play-graded!; we  grade records under the strong, diffuse room light or discrete sunlight)

(a)          THE ALBUM IS STILL FACTORY SEALED AND IS BELIEVED TO BE PERFECTLY MINT. Please note: sealed items are assumed to be mint and are sold as-is, as we have no way of inspecting them. For our policy on still sealed records ►click here (PLEASE READ BEFORE PLACING A BID).

(b)          The record is  apparently pressed on a beautiful, thick, inflexible vinyl, which was usually used for the first or very early pressings. Usually, the sound on such thick vinyl pressings is full-bodied, vivid, and even dramatic. Do not expect to obtain such a majestic analog sound from a digital recording!

(c)           The record is believed to come in its original stock inner sleeve.

(d)            Mono pressing of this title is much rarer, and by far more  preferable to its stereo counterpart. We think that the mix is more natural, humane, "organic" and that the mixes are somewhat different than on the stereo version. We estimate that stereo copies of this album outnumber mono pressings by a ratio of at least 10:1.

(e)           Of course, this is a full-bodied ANALOG recording, and not an inferior, digital recording!!!

·       COVER

COVER IS STRONG NEAR MINT, STILL SEALED AND COVERED IN ITS ORIGINAL ►SHRINK WRAP

NO SIGNIFICANT IMPERFECTIONS ON THE COVER:

-        No split seams

-        No ring wear

-        No cut-out (drill) holes.

-        No cut-out corners

-        No saw-marks or indents

-        No dirt/dust rubbing stains (friction marks caused by rubbing against other covers)

-        No wrinkles or creases

-        No yellowing from aging

-        No writing

-        No stamps

-        No tearing: no chips, dents or nicks on the seams

-        No peel-off marks

-        No stains

-        No mold or mildew spots

-        No stickers or labels

-        No water damage

-        No razor marks, scratches, pressure marks, lines, streaks, or  cuts.

-        No warping

-        No wax, glue, paint or liquid drops on the cover

-        No glue traces or wax residue.

-        No bar codes

-        No RIAA stamps or stickers. 

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POSTAGE & SHIPPING:

We offer THREE postage rates for both Domestic and International Mail: Media Mail, Priority Mail and Express Mail for domestic, and First Class, Priority International Mail, and Express International Mail for international orders. INTERNATIONAL CUSTOMERS PLEASE NOTE: WE RECOMMEND that you pay for USPS International Priority Mail OR International Express mail when making a payment in order to obtain tracking information, which is NOT available for First Class International shipments.

INTERNATIONAL POSTAGE rates vary from country to country. For SPECIFIC international and domestic postage rates ►click here. While you can be rest assured that ►our packaging is careful, sturdy and impact-proof, please note that damage, loss or theft in transit is always possible, and in the case of some countries even PROBABLE. To discuss this potential problem and ensure flawless delivery, please contact us thru eBay BEFORE placing a bid.

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OUR REFUND POLICY :

WE OFFER UNCONDITIONAL MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE WITHIN 7 DAYS FROM THE RECEIPT OF THE MERCHANDISE, NO QUESTIONS ASKED (THE BUYER PAYS FOR THE RETURN POSTAGE); Still sealed items MUST be returned sealed in order to be eligible for a refund Some restrictions apply. Please read our complete refund policy before placing a bid. ►Click here  for the full text of our policy

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