When I first found this and saw the cheapish black and white front cover I thought it was basic garage rock. But the wrapping does not coincide with the music. Here you get elaborated US psych in different genres played by a group consisiting of educated musicians, including David Lindley - later industrious solo artist and iconic US session musician. The album is very diverse - pop, psych, ragtime, country - some with Indian influence and one cut with a semi-Egyptian style. Most of the songs are very good by themselves, but it's hard to grasp as an entity. Favorite tracks - "Keep Your Mind Open, "Pulsating Dream" and "Why Try" - all good psych. Produced by Barry Friedman. The audio is fine and it sounds like a separate mono mix. It's tricky to find original copies in Sweden so I've never heard a first press stereo and can't compare. To my knowledge this US was the only original release. Re-issued by Edsel in UK and US 1988 (ED 284), German CD 1990 on Coline Records (CLCD 9.00925 O), also later on Sundazed. (YZÄ*) (ÖXCÅ*)
Hey man, how are you?
SvaraRaderaSome nice stuff you posted recently. Love that French Animals sleeve, and I finally checked out some Hansson & Karlsson on youtoob, after being curious for the original version of Tax Free for years.
I recently heard this record for the first time. It was a counterfeit pressing with the same yellow Epic labels (probably from the 70's) but the music sounded good. The originals should have stamped matrices that start with xsm or (in mono) xlm and non-glossy sleeve.
Hi mate! Nice to see You here again.
RaderaMy copy has etched XEM-117726/27 and 1F. The cover has a drill hole and it was part of the cut/out dumping here we talked about earlier. Never even crossed my mind it could be a counterfeit but then probably is. Oh well. Still it didn't cost me more than a cup of coffee and it's good music so I'll stick with it.
Btw nice Who cut You posted. I'm still trying to hunt down a fine copy of the Track compilation, but it always eludes me.
Ah, okay, that would make it a West Coast cutting. The counterfeit was stereo, btw. This is obviously worth a lot more than a cup of coffee these days. :)
SvaraRaderaSo it's legit? Thanks for sorting that out. I don't have a clue about the US pressings - had both US Let It Be and first Beatles on VeeJay and it turned out both were fakes :)
SvaraRaderaYeah, the Veejay's are a real minefield. There's one simple rule though; all the copies that have the spindle hole in-between the albumtitle and groupname on the label are fakes. A search with google will lead you to a site that documents all variations.
SvaraRaderaAs for US Let it be, the fake's have poor quality sleeves, with fuzzy looking photo's. The real ones have "Phil & Ronnie" inscribed and/or "bell sound" stamped on the deadwax. Only found out about the counterfeits of this recently, when I had some "suspect" looking used copies in the store.
Matrix-knowledge is one's strongest suit with spotting counterfeits. Recently, I had a copy of the first Brinsley Schwartz record that looked exactly like an original UK press from 1970. However, it had handwritten non-EMI matrixcodes on the wax and turned out to be a fake when I researched it further. It seems a whole variety was made in the late 70's/early 80's, when original 60's pressings were gaining further in demand.
Yup it's a jungle and it was even worse before the net. I know a little about UK fake pressings, but the American ones are just too many too spread. Or at least was...I bet now the counterfeiters are more into CD:s.
SvaraRadera