VELVET UNDERGROUND 1st LP MONO Original w/Banana PSYCH

$

204

PLEASE READ THIS: Most questions are answered below, and most problems can be avoided by looking at the following information. Chances are you're a record collector, I'm a record collector, we're both nice honest people trying to get by in a cruel world. Let's avoid misunderstandings, problems, etc.

I prefer payment by PAYPAL. It gets me my money quickly and I ship your LP quickly in return. Please make your payment to: abts@indy.rr.com. But please do NOT send emails to that address! It's just a Paypal address and no longer functions for email.

To contact me by email please use the ask seller a question feature. If I have an answer to your question I'll try to get back to you quickly. If you don't get a reply it's probably because I just don't know the answer.

The total amount due is the winning amount PLUS the shipping/handling costs below:

SHIPPING & HANDLING:

*First LP is $4 Media Mail IN THE US

*or $6 for priority mail IN THE US

*or $7 air mail to Canada

*or $12 airmail to Europe and $13 to Japan/Australia/New Zeland.

*OR $6 for international surface mail.

MULTIPLE ITEMS: It’s great if you find multiple items of mine. You will save $$ on shipping and I can ship you by whatever method you want BUT I need you to keep me posted on how long you want to wait before settling up for everything. Once the TEN DAY period is passed you may receive a late payment warning, please don’t panic, just remind me that there are still things you are waiting on to close.

• In the US add .50 for each additional LP MEDIA POST

• or $1 for each additional LP PRIORITY POST

• International Air add $3 for the 2nd LP and $1 for the 3rd

• International Surface add $1 for the 2nd and $1 for the 3rd

• More than three LPs total please contact me for post costs.

!nsurance is your option if you live in the US. $1.30 up to $50 and $2.50 up to $200. Because of the US Post Office policies, !nsuring international packages is prohibitively expensive – it raises the cost of the postage by 200% AND requires a full value customs declaration. Same is true for registered mail, it's way more expensive and I prefer not to use it. If you pay the normal postage rate and tack on "please send registered" at the end, I'll ignore it. 

INTERNATIONAL BUYERS BE CAREFUL. IF YOU PAY $6 FOR SHIPPING YOUR LP WILL BE SENT VIA SURFACE MAIL.

NOTE: This is a VINYL LP. It might be possible to get it into your CD player but it won’t be good for the LP or the CD player and whatever noises it may make will be entirely unexpected (and later issued as a box set on the kranky label under the name gods’s anise saliva or Peace Leopard Frequency or something. Don't buy it.).

GRADING: Grades are at the end of this listing. Unless a record is truly flawless or brand new but unsealed MINT MINUS (M-) is the highest grade given. The scale I use is from M- EX VG++ VG+ VG VG- with VG+ represent the condition of most LPs that have been taken care of but played over the course of 10-20 years. VG- LPs are records that have significant surface scratches and noticeable noise but do not skip and are still enjoyable. Records in this condition will usually be listed only when they are copies of LPs that are particularly sought in M- condition. All items are guaranteed and may be returned for the full winning amount if you are not satisfied with the described condition; if SEALED LPs are shipped SEALED there is no guarantee (I know what reseals look like and do not sell them as sealed LPs); after receiving payment I can open sealed records here and inspect them before shipping. Any defects, or problems and your payment will be refunded in full.

*Always give a seller an opportunity to correct any problems before leaving feedback.

In nearly 2,000 transactions I have only had one problem, and that was with a guy who was happy with the items, but decided to complain about the shipping charges a couple months after the fact. This is why I do not leave feedback until I receive it, as his negatives reduced my 100% positive rating to a 99.9%, while my negatives reduced his 100% positive to a 47% rating (and his follow-up email actually set off my smoke alarm).

Psychedelic? Most of what I sell falls into the realm of records collected by people who collect psychedelic music of the 60s and 70s. Most of the time these people look at eBay listings under the word “psych” and that’s why I almost always put that word in my item descriptions, even when it might not be entirely appropriate. It's also very much in the ear of the beholder so please ask me about records you haven't actually heard before bidding. I won't actually lie when asked directly (which also means that when a description is all about how cool the cover is there's a certain caveat implied).

Descriptions are often borrowed from listings in one of the Borderline Books (“Fuzz, Acid & Flowers,” “Tapestry of Delights,” “Dreams, Fantasies & Nightmares,” etc.) or from the All Music Guide site. I feel these are more objective than descriptions written by the people who are trying to get you to buy the record.

PAYMENT: PAYPAL is preferred. Money Orders, IMO’s, checks, well concealed cash may be sent to PO Box 19553 Indianapolis IN 46219 and payable to: STAN DENSKI. Please include the name of the item you’re paying for and your address in with the payment. If you send me money with no explanation I will spend it and always think fondly of you, but I won’t actually send you anything. I also do not have the time to track you down.

* Please don't send me an email telling me you'll be paying me soon and including your shipping address; I don't save these. Please include your address and the title of the disc you're paying for when you make payment.

* Please don't ask me to "confirm" your Paypal payment; Paypal does that for you.

* The arrival of your LP or CD will be notification that it has shipped.

* Only packages are !nsured for over $50 have "tracking numbers." Please don't ask for tracking numbers for other packages.

And PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE print your address so I don't have to guess what various letters and numbers are! I've had a slew recently - both US and abroad - where letters in the names of cities and streets look like the mutant offspring of unnatural acts between G's, R's and Q's and numbers in addresses and postal codes which don't even vaguely resemble anything between 0 and 9!  Last week I received a registered letter from Budapest stuffed with cash and nothing else; no mention of what it might be for. I've since spent it on cigarettes & beer and want to send a hearty "Thanks!" out to some guy in Hungary. C'mon! A little help here, OK?

You have TEN DAYS from the close for payment to be received. If you'll be taking longer please met me know. Please don’t b!d on inexpensive LPs that you won’t actually want if you win them (come to think of it, please don’t b!d on expensive records if you don’t intend to pay for those either). 

Thank you and my apologies to the 99.999% of you who already know all this stuff! OK.... 

Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground & Nico

US Verve Records (MONO V-5008) 1967. See below for cover/disc grades.

One would be hard pressed to name a rock album whose influence has been as broad and pervasive as The Velvet Underground and Nico. While it reportedly took over a decade for the album's sales to crack six figures, glam, punk, new wave, goth, noise, and nearly every other left-of-center rock movement owes an audible debt to this set.

While The Velvet Underground had as distinctive a sound as any band, what's most surprising about this album is its diversity. Here, the Velvets dipped their toes into dreamy pop ("Sunday Morning"), tough garage rock ("Waiting for the Man"), stripped-down R&B ("There She Goes Again"), and understated love songs ("I'll Be Your Mirror") when they weren't busy creating sounds without pop precedent. Lou Reed's lyrical exploration of drugs and kinky sex (then risky stuff in film and literature, let alone "teen music") always received the most press attention, but the music Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison, and Maureen Tucker played was as radical as the words they accompanied. The bracing discord of "European Son," the troubling beauty of "All Tomorrow's Parties," and the expressive dynamics of "Heroin," all remain as compelling as the day they were recorded.

While the significance of Nico's contributions have been debated over the years, she meshes with the band's outlook in that she hardly sounds like a typical rock vocalist, and if Andy Warhol's presence as producer was primarily a matter of signing the checks, his notoriety allowed The Velvet Underground to record their material without compromise, which would have been impossible under most other circumstances.

Few rock albums are as important as The Velvet Underground and Nico, and fewer still have lost so little of their power to surprise and intrigue more than 30 years after first hitting the racks. — Mark Deming (AMG)

Considered by fans to be the definitive version of the album, the mono version has the band sounding more cohesive, and much heavier, as the bass features very prominently. The mono mix of "I'm Waiting for the Man" blows away the stereo version, as the song thunders along, with more reverb added to Reed's vocals. Three versions of the LP sleeve were issued within months (possibly weeks) of each other. The very first had a dancer's face visible on the back cover art work; the second simply pasted a sticker over the face and the third, which is what this is, reprinted the sleeve without the face. This copy is from 1967, and is the original MONO version w/out the dancer.

The SLEEVE is a conservative VG. There is a repaired top right seam split (repaired correctly from the inside) and a small 2-inch split in the center of the bottom seam (which could be repaired in the same manner and rendered virtually invisible. The banana is in great shape; the very top shows some slight signs of prior removal and there is a very small tear (see pic) on the right edge about halfway down. The spine is fine; the back cover has a spot about an inch long at the top left that looks darkened as if it sat against a light for a moment too long - the darkening is not visible inside the sleeve or inside the inner gatefold.

The DISC also grades as a conservative visual VG with numerous scuffs and light sleeve lines however there are no "feelable" scratches and, like most MONO pressings of the era, this plays extremely well (VG++ to EX). 

Actually a rather nice copy I've tried to grade and describe so that when it shows up at your PO Box and you open it up you'll think, "Wow, this isn't bad at all!"

SEE OUR OTHER PSYCH LPs & CDs!!!