FRANK ZAPPA / MOI 200 Motels RARER ORIG UK 1971 EX LPs + STICKER, BOOK & POSTER.

	£		58
	$		77

ONEADAYRECORDS – Serving-up a Christmas & New Year Feast of Entertainment

I would like to wish all my customers, regulars and newcomers, a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR

Over the Holiday Period, I am offering some interesting Christmas ‘Crackers’ – lovely albums – some rare – ENJOY!

Postage: UK £4.75 (£1 per extra record). Europe (including Russia) £12.50 (£2 per extra record). Rest of World (including ALL parts of the USA) £16.50 (£2 per extra record). All boxes sent FIRST-CLASS & TRACKED in quality, safe packaging – I NEVER use mailing envelopes that offer virtually no protection. Here, you get what you pay for – SAFE PACKING in BOXES using 7mm DOUBLE-WALL STIFFENERS with extra 7mm side protection and bubblewrap.

Posting to Russia: Yes, I do post to Russia. But delivery can take up to 4 to 6 weeks from the UK. So please be patient. I will submit a tracking number to the winning bidder, and when the packet arrives there it can be followed online using the Russian post website.

ALSO: I now apply the Ebay ‘2-day’ rule for non-payment to keep things moving – cash-flow is important for any small business. I will always keep my P&P prices as low as possible, and even after yet another Royal Mail price hike from April this year, I have NOT raised my prices and will never compromise on solid, safe packing that is invariably heavier than most you will get. My P&P offers probably the best value-for-money for vinyl records available, and I even will pay for full insurance on any record that sells for over £100 at NO extra cost – that is UK and abroad. Also I aim to post the very same day after payment is received. You WILL see the difference when my packet arrives.

FINALLY: Late payers, non-payers and ‘0’ bidders will now be blocked or cancelled at my discretion. As will any bidder who cancels a bid. I do not like this practice as it is most often used to phish out the price to beat. Ebay does not approve and neither do I – so only bid on my items if you want them.

Artist or Band: THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION

Album Title: Frank Zappa’s 200 Motels

Producer(s): Frank Zappa

TRACK LIST:

Side 1: Semi-Fraudulent/Direct from Hollywood Overture; Mystery Roach; Dance of the Rock and Roll Interviewers; This Town is a Sealed Tuna Sandwich (prologue); Tuna Fish Promenade; Dance of the Just Plain Folks; This Town is a Sealed Tuna Sandwich (reprise); The Sealed Tuna Bolereo; Lonesome Cowboy Burt.

Side 2: Touring Can Make You Crazy; Would You Like a Snack?; Redneck Eats; Centerville; She Painted Up Her Face; Janet’s Big Dance Number; Half a Dozen Provocative Squats; Mysterioso; Shove It Right In; Lucy’s Seduction of a Bored Violinist and Postlude.

Side 3: I’m Stealing the Towels; Dental Hygiene Dilemma; Does This Kind of Life Look Interesting to You?; Daddy, Daddy Daddy; Penis Dimension; What Will This Evening Bring Me This Morning.

Side 4: A Nun Suit Painted on Some Old Boxes; Magic Fingers; Motorhead’s Mighnight Ranch; Dew on the Newts We Got; The Lad Searches the Night for his Newts; The Girl Wants to Fix Him Some Broth; The Girls Dream; Little Green Scratchy Sweaters and Corduroy Ponce; Strictly Genteel (the finale).

Label/Format: United Artists – original cream and brown format with matt, smooth surfaces. This is only album Zappa ever issued on this label.

Label Conditions: All four are very clean, fresh and attractive. Only a small few fine spindle marks that show little.

Catalogue Number: UDF 50003

Mode / Speed: Stereo / 33.3 rpm.

Warps: Assume all records I offer have no warping of any significance and all tracking is easy and effortless and should play on all turntables and even ‘budget’ decks.

Weight of these Records: 125 / 101 grams. Like most Zappa albums, I know this one well, and was rarely pressed with substantial weight. But it was variable, just like its pressing quality.

Country of Manufacture: England. Many copies offered are French pressed and did not include the original inserts.

Rarity: Scarcer as a complete first issue UK copy. Original first-pressed UK copies included a book with film stills and a giant poster. Also the front cover included a shaped promotional manufacturer’s sticker – this was available in pink and yellow. The book shows up the most, the poster usually missing these days, being a spectacular and colourful piece, it was often wall-mounted, discarded or damaged, the cover sticker was selective and many covers did not have it at all. The most difficult aspect I have always found is pressing quality. Over time, I have found this the most difficult Zappa album on vinyl. Often noisy with crackle and even pressing noises, this has several quiet passages and songs, including orchestral music, so always challenging for a standard pressed ‘rock’ album. This has some sporadic one-off clicks, but generally this double set plays mainly well and certainly one of the better copies I have heard in a while – but not silent. Even my own personal copies are the same – I own the yellow and pink stickered versions, and neither are ‘perfect’. So do not expect perfection, few ever will be that, in fact I discard more copies of this album than any other. So if the odd polite reminder of what is being played is an issue, this one not for you. But it could prove difficult to find much better, simply, this album was not manufactured with the scrutiny and care most of his others were, and the material is challenging. An album that was deleted into the 1970s, thus French copies were made available for later fans.

Original Year of Release: 1971

Matrix Nos: UDF-5001-A1 / UDF-5001-B1 / UDF-5002-A1 / UDF-5002-B1

Brief Artist & Album Info: “Ladies and Gentlemen” – 200 MOTELS! One of Zappa’s most beautifully packaged albums, a double set including large 16-page size book with stills from the film, also a giant movie poster that is now quite elusive, especially in top condition. As stated, often not one of the very best pressed albums in Frank’s huge catalogue, this one plays generally well, but a few mostly one-off sporadic clicks here-and-there, silence is near impossible being honest. An album with some very quiet orchestral passages, so always a challenge. I have never heard a copy of this album that will play totally silent through it’s entirity (including two copies I own myself). ‘200 Motels’ is a unique and very interesting Zappa project – United Artists offered him a budget of $630,000 to make his first feature film. He decided to make it in England and employ the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra – some 100 musicians at £1,000 a day. This gave him a chance to actually hear his own orchestral compositions while writing on tour. The film is a surreal experience of being on tour, the movie, predictably, was not well received, generally being far too ‘out-there’ and inpenetrable for most people’s tastes. Typically for early 1970s Zappa, this was very bawdy and the resulting tour of the UK resulted in prosecution which Zappa eventually lost. I still regard this as one of Frank’s most underrated albums. As the cover states, some of the music on the record is not in the movie and some of the music in the movie is not on the record.

The music and songs work beautifully on album. Zappa’s music has always been about the collision of social attitudes and genres and the action here is centred around ‘Centreville’ a town that’s portrayed as a concentration camp. The physical presence in Pinewood Studios of a symphony orchestra and genuine ‘pop stars’ (Volman and Kaylan, along with Ringo Starr as ‘Larry the Dwarf’, Keith Moon as a nun and trainee groupie, and drummer Aynsley Dunbar, allowed him to make the collision palpable. On the record, these forces are manifested in magnificent sequences between the string-orchestra and hard-rock fury. ‘Magic Fingers’ showed that Zappa had been listening to Black Sabbath; the fact that his scores were finally being interpreted by a proper orchestra seemed to push him to the opposite extreme in his song-writing. The riff and his own live-on-screen guitar solo detonated new depths of heaviness. An orchestral version of ‘Holiday in Berlin’ from Burnt Weeny Sandwich provides the ‘Semi-Fraudulent/Direct from Hollywood Overture’. The original introduction – Ringo’s speech about how the rock revolution has putrified the minds of the young and meant retraining orchestral musicians for the modern world – is reduced to compere Theodore Bikel telling us that Larry the Dwarf is dressed up like Frank Zappa (in the film, Ringo was dangled on the end of a wire like a puppet. ‘Mystery Roach’ detailed drug/road fatigue (What are we singing about?… We must be flipping out…)’. Jimmy Carl Black plays the part of Lonesome Cowboy Burt – the hippie-hating redneck – with particular glee, the irony being he was a Cherokee Indian. The next few tracks describe how band and groupies meet each other. In the film, ‘Lucy’s Seduction of a Bored Violinist’ used video technology to project Lucy Oferall’s erotic gesticulations over the obedient arm-movements of an RPO violinist. In this satire, no-one was left off the hook. ‘I’m stealing the towels’ and ‘Dental Hygiene Dilemma’ were the soundtrack to Cal Schenkel’s animations, emphasising the affinity Zappa’s’ music has for cartoons, with its swiftness, violence and humour. ‘Daddy’ was as tender a song as Zappa ever wrote, describing the allure of a confident groupie for sex-starved musicians. ‘Penis Dimensions’ mocked male anxieties over the size of their manhood and remains one of Zappa’s most explicit songs ever. ‘What will this evening bring me this morning’ brought out the attitudes of sexual encounter. All this music is tightly organized, with Flo and Eddie’s vocals soaring over complex orchestrations. Devoid of the in-jokes and absurdism and chaos, this could have been hailed as a rock opera. At the movie’s end in a close-up of Zappa’s eyeball, Howard Kaylan says ‘he is the guy that is making me do all this s**t –- it did not impress the film critics, but followers of Zappa’s work generally loved it. It took rock music, satire and orchestration to new levels of intenseness, paving the way for future ideas in this great man’s career. What is for certain, there has been no other movie or album quite like ‘200 Motels’ and is dedicated to anyone who ever played for the Mothers.

The Mothers on this Album: Frank Zappa – Guitar, bass; Mark Volman & Howard Kaylan – vocals and special material; Ian Underwood – keyboards, winds; Aynsley Dunbar – drums; George Duke – keyboards, trombone; Martin Lickert – bass; Jimmy Carl Black – vocals; Ruth Underwood – orchestra drum set; Jim Pons – vocals. Guest appearances in the movie include: Ringo Starr, Theodore Bikel, Keith Moon, Jeff Simmons, Pamela Miller (from the GTO’s), Don Preston, Motorhead Sherwood, Phyllis Bryn-Julson is the soprano soloist. The movie still gets an 18 rating and goes in and out of print regularly. I think the CD version is currently out-of-print.

Cover Condition and Details: EXCELLENT(–): an unlaminated gatefold format with matt, smooth surfaces. Printed and made in England by E. J. Day Group, includes the elusive original cover sticker, 16-page book and large poster. Plus the two plain white inner sleeves.

Cover Front: Very colourful and attractive with superb artwork – a sinister looking Zappa overlooks the mayhem. This has always proved wear-prone and seldom seen without some. Firstly the sticker, as-seen, the pink version, this is immaculate and clearly never removed or picked at. These were applied by hand and position varies. The spectacular artwork is clean and still fresh with most of any rubbing on the corner tips with slight other traces here-and-there. No sticker issues and any marks light and faint, the same for any creasing which has largely been avoided. So an attractive front for an uncompromising cover.

Cover Back: Aged a little, but the overall lack of significant rubbing makes this better than many seen. Very prone to ring wear and seldom seen without often heavy penetrating types. A few light marks, gentle stain traces seen up close, but the lack of creasing and fading to this surface is good news, Most of any rubbing on the very top edge end which is only quite fine.

Cover Gatefold Inner: Little to fault at all inside, any blemishes few and very light.

Top & Bottom Edges: All four straight, flush and flat. All have moderate rubbing, some patchy.

Right Edge(s), and Type: Clean, mostly sharp with little wear and both guaranteed untrimmed. Any thickening gentle and light as seen viewed end-on. Records entered on these outside edges.

Spine and Text: A perilous spine that has some light fading which is rarely avoided again. Solid, quite thick with hardly any compression. Also folded square, so all edges meet up perfectly together and parallel. Some light rubbing to the ends, elsewhere minimal including the folds. The text all present and unworn, also nicely centred, the actual surface looking more like lilac with exposure to natural light over time – most will look similar these days.

Corners: Tip rubbing is quite light (spine) to moderate/(+) (others). Very fine shape mostly retained with no major knocks.

Cover Summary: A difficult and uncompromising cover, but this one still attractive as-seen. Some wear, mostly to the edges, so not for the more discerning, but it should please many collectors.

The Inner Sleeves: EXCELLENT: one (+) both unlined with open windows and little aged. Four undamaged crisp window circles, one has a corner crease and all edges unsplit with no repairs.

The Book: EXCELLENT(++): minor handling traces on the covers but little else to fault. The inside has black and white plus colour stills from the film with great pictures of The Mothers and guests including Ringo Starr and Keith Moon. All the inner pages are impressively clean and still fresh. The pages held together with the two original staples that show minimal hint of tarnishing, still very solid and unloosened.

The Poster EXCELLENT(++): but looking better still, only marked down for a tiny single pin-hole in each corner. The most elusive part of this album. So clearly this was wall mounted and enjoyed – the difference being, it was taken down with immense care and put back inside the cover undamaged with no affect by light or tape. As-seen, not tears and fully intact, this poster looks fantastic. Very big, attractive and spectacular, still very clean and fresh. Neatly folded with crisp edges, no tears and hardly creased. This is now getting elusive and the later French pressings, that have a different label design, did not include it.

Vinyl Condition/Visual Grading: EXCELLENT: or thereabouts. A very fine visual pair that remain clean with fine shine and quite solidly pressed. Any surface or usage marks light, mostly fine and faint as seen under bright light. More unusually, this has avoided penetrating stylus scratches. The grooves in places quite compact and vulnerable. Not untypically for the year of issue – 1971 – possibly not pressed on the purest of pure vinyl. Again under light, some impurity is seen within the pressing itself. This a very common trait for this album, I am sure certain albums were selected for cost-cutting in manufacture to save expensive vinyl due to the oil shortage of the time. Often vinyl was reprocessed, thus pressings became thinner or mixed. It simply explains why this album is rarely heard without blemishes (at best), often it could be unlistenable – those I will never offer. Visually, a pleasing pair I doubt have been played many times, they should please many collectors.

Album Played For Grading: Yes. [I play ALL records I offer before submitting to Ebay, also the record is played in its entirety unless clearly stated otherwise. I do NOT play snippets or joining grooves to check for sound quality and quietness – I play from the beginning to end via clinically revealing B&W speakers that include the legendary tweeter from their awesome Nautilus range that reveals every blemish or minuscule sound present on any record.]

Sound Quality and Audio Grading: This double set is always a tough one with so many quiet passages with dialogue and some delicate orchestral passages. This copy plays generally well with not a great deal to fault, but silence is almost unrealistic, even my own prized copies are not perfect, and few ever will be for the reasons explained above. There will always be the odd sporadic light click or crackle trace, and is the case, but few I have heard have bettered this copy to a great degree. The production is known for being a little compressed, this is quite a long double set, but played on a quality system, this is still a great listen with fine depth and detail. I am sure this copy has been played little, it has no distortion, pressing noises, frequency degrading or tracking issues*. But again, it does have a few sporadic clicks here-and-there, possibly from the odd stubborn piece of debris within some ultra fine grooves. It should please many Zappa fans and collectors, but not quite for the purists who only want perfection – I will need a ‘perfect’ copy myself, and not through the lack of trying, my search goes on as well. In the meantime, this is a very respectable complete original. ‘200 Motels’ remains one of the most essential albums in the vast Zappa catalogue, daring and different, and musically, one of most complex works.

End Piece: I have probably gone a little over-the-top with my detail on this one, but a complex work like this needs some explanation for those less than familiar. As stated not an easy one to find now especially complete and this a highly respectable all-round copy. If you have not experienced this album (or movie) your are in for some unique sounds from the mind of one of the greatest entertainers ever. Highly recommended for those for an ear to listen, but a few blemishes as clearly mentioned.

* As played-graded on a high-end Linn LP12 Sondek turntable with Ittok Mk II arm and Ortofon Quintet Black moving coil cartridge tracking at 2.2 grams.

Now one of the most established sellers on Ebay and still offering the finest and most accurately described and graded records I can find. I pride myself on offering a variety of genres to keep my site as interesting as possible. I will rarely offer any record that falls below a true Excellent grading, unless its of a certain rarity which will justify offering a lesser grade. I try, to the best of my ability to describe as accurately and as honesty as I can all items I offer for sale with all the relevant information I can think of to help any potential bidder and collector. You may notice I only submit records sparingly on Ebay as I Play-Grade every record I offer in their entirety – also on higher-end equipment – not just bits to guess a grade - visuals alone do not always tell a true or full story. I will mention any defects or flaws no matter how small that I notice to be fair as possible to any interested collector – I am very fussy and my buyers have the right to be too. Every record I offer, whether it be a common or rare item deserves the same respect as far as I am concerned and will be treated the same - just because an item is rare does not always mean it’s good. I get just as much pleasure offering a relatively common record in stunning near mint condition as the real rare items. All the pictures I use for your guidance are taken with a digital camera or scanned - they are NOT improved, cleaned-up or made better looking than they are with camera trickery or enhancing with digital programs. Room light factors can make things vary sometimes, that is hard to control, especially in winter. If any picture I take looks more flattering than the actual item for any reason, I will clearly state the fact in the advert and vice-versa. I hope the item below is to your liking - any questions can be emailed and I will do my very best to answer you. I am enthusiastic, and have a fair degree of knowledge about many genres and I promise quality items - bid with confidence - excellence comes as standard and so does Near Mint regularly. Please assume all records I offer have NO jumps, sticks, warps or writing on covers or labels unless clearly stated to the contrary. Thanks for your interest and Good luck – MIKE.

Deck: Linn LP12/Hercules/Cirkus with Ittok Mk II arm and Ortofon Quintet Black moving coil cartridge (tracks at 2.2 grams). Amps: Naim Supernait 2 with Project USB phono stage and Tellerium Black interconnects. Speakers: B&W 805 Nautilus (bi-wired with Tellurium Black terminated cable) with REL subwoofer. All records I offer on Ebay are cleaned on a professional VPI-17 vacuum machine before play-grading for the cleanest and best possible sound and will include a brand new lined inner and protective cover too. Pictures taken with a Nikon D5000 SLR Digital Camera.

PACKING - THIS IS WHAT YOU GET.

What You Get: To confirm to the strict Ebay rules on shipping, I must now send ALL my packets ‘Signed-For’ with NO exceptions. Both buyers and sellers want their packets to have a safer journey and this is not a bad thing.

I now offer the fastest possible posting, often the very next day after payment is received or within two to three days maximum (unless on holiday). I only use FIRST-CLASS Mail. The record’s cover will be placed within a BRAND NEW soft protective sleeve and the actual record will be professionally cleaned on my new VPI-17 Pro vacuum system to give ultimate clean grooves and playing surfaces and the best possible looks and ultimate sound quality. You will NOT get tired, dull looking, dust infested records inside worn and foggy covers with tatty inners from this seller and that’s a promise and guarantee. All records are posted in professional boxes (NOT Mailers, these do not offer any real protection). The record(s) are REMOVED from their main cover to avoid edge splits and placed within a brand new polylined inner. The record’s original inner will be included if available. The boxes are then reinforced with at least TWO, ULTRA THICK stiffeners for maximum extra protection – these are FOUR TIMES thicker than commercial stiffeners and are custom-made for oneadayrecords. Really rare and expensive albums will even be Double Boxed if deemed necessary and possible. When larger boxes are used, the thick record and stiffener ‘sandwich’ is then thickly embedded into bubble-wrap to bulk out the record inside the box to centre the item inside to reduce the risk of damage still further. Printed address labels are used for clarity as well as a sender label. Customers requests or special needs for P&P will be respected if at all possible but ‘Signed-For’ posting is NOT an option anymore. I do not profit on posting, better quality packaging costs, I offer probably the best-value and safest shipping possible for ultimate confidence. The boxes and ultra thick double-wall stiffeners make a near impregnable fortress for safe shipping and this is used inland and overseas for ALL my records, not just the rare and expensive. I will invoice any winning bidder as soon as possible after the auction ends. My ‘loss’ or ‘damage rate’ is minuscule in over 14­ years of Ebay trading and I consider that pretty exceptional. The only damage rate acceptable for this seller is ZERO and I think my packets will offer just that. It would take a vicious postman or postal service to damage these for sure. Oneadayrecords is a MAILER-FREE ZONE – they offer next-to-no-protection, and should be banned, no ‘professional’ should consider using them in my opinion. I discount of course for multiple purchases with a maximum of FIVE records per box (one double can sometimes be included subject to total weight). All postage costs are below and at the top of the listing.

NOTE: First Time Bidders: Please ask me first.

PLEASE NOTE: I now exercise my right to open a dispute after the Ebay rule of TWO days if no payment is received. I will then cancel the dispute to end the bid, again after the mandatory FOUR days and then offer the item to the runner-up or relist. The non-payer will also be blocked from my Ebay site as will any suspicious bids or bid withdrawals. Small businesses need prompt payment to trade and these strict rules WILL be applied.

SHIPPING COSTS & CONDITIONS – THESE comply with EBAY’S RULES - PLEASE READ CAREFULLY:

Posting & Packing: UK & CHANNEL ISLANDS all now sent via Recorded Delivery:

1 LP (FIRST-CLASS Recorded Delivery with Standard Royal Mail Insurance) [Signed For] = £4.75

1 LP (Special Delivery with Standard £500 Maximum Insurance) [Signed For, Next Day] = £7.50. (this includes insurance of £500). Add £1 per extra LP.

Posting & Packing: EUROPE & SCANDINAVIA. (Airmail Only):

1 LP (Small Packet ‘Signed For’ with Standard Royal Mail Insurance [£50 maximum]) = £12.50 (enhanced Royal Mail insurance is an optional extra £3). Add £2 per extra LP.

Posting & Packing: ALL OVERSEAS (non-European) e.g. USA (ANY PART OF); South America; New Zealand; Australia; Canada; Japan and other Far East; (Airmail Only: I NEVER use Surface Mail):

1 LP (Small Packet ‘Signed For’ with Standard Royal Mail Insurance [£50 maximum]) = £16.50 (£17.50 for double sets). Add £3 per extra LP. (enhanced Royal Mail insurance is an optional extra £3)

Payment Conditions:

I prefer PayPal or cheque from UK winning bidders. I can accept PayPal from overseas bidders or direct payment into my bank account.

Potential Bidders: I will cancel any bids I feel are time-wasters. A maximum 3 days for communication and 7 days for payment to arrive - if not I will relist the item or offer to the runner-up. Fast deals get great feedback from me. Any questions - please ask and thanks for looking.

My Guarantee: If any winning bidder is not satisfied with their purchase I will offer a complete refund. I will not refund if any defect detail is clearly stated on the advert and missed by the buyer, so read the item description carefully. If any overseas collector does not understand anything in my listing, please email and ask me to help. Thank You.

SOME GENERAL GUIDES TO WEAR AND CONDITIONS TO HELP YOU DECIDE

My Use of Description Terminology: Surface Marks = Superficial, usually light marks, hairlines or light scuffs that rarely sound. Scratch = a needle mark that goes below the record’s surface, some will sound, some will not, my play-grade will inform. Original = a record that has been pressed with the first label design which does NOT necessarily mean a very first pressed record. First Pressing = A record that I believe or know to be a genuine very first pressed record. I do not claim to always know for sure, and that’s why I state the stamper and matrix numbers if at all possible, for those who claim to know what they all mean, the information is there for the collector to decide. I prefer to use terms like ‘Early Copy’ rather than ‘First Pressing’ if I am not totally sure. Surface Sound = Mild, light sound, usually light crackle or similar. Distortion = Break up of the actual sound caused by groove wear or damage from a chipped stylus – the most undesirable form of unwanted sound, vintage mono records were the most prone to this happening but not exclusively so. The symptoms of distortion are high frequency clipping, moderate constant crackle or an echo type sound quality. Violin, piano and vocals are most prone to groove-wear distortion. Feathering = Fraying or softening of the entry edge of a cover. Covers with feathered entrance edges are more likely to have had the actual record inserted and removed more than a non-feathered, sharp-edged cover which are always far more attractive. Set Off, actually a printer’s term for dark ink leaving mild residue on pale or white ink when rested upon. e.g. when a gatefold cover has black ink closed against white, this can leave some black residue on the pale area – this is mostly unavoidable or course.

The Argument for Vinyl Original sound and mix (mono mixes are rarely available on CD), high quality sound on clean copies (played on a hi-end dedicated analogue system – breathtaking sound!), beautiful, large format covers, artwork, inserts and even full size posters etc; huge investment potential, and the pleasure of owning ‘the real thing’.