FRANK ZAPPA/MOTHERS Ruben & The Jets SCARCE ORIG UK 1968 EX+ Mono LP

	£		70
	$		93

PLEASE NOTE: I am no longer a professional record seller, I am selling a few albums from my own personal collection. The service I offer will of the standard I used successfully for over 20 years on Ebay.

The pictures are of the actual item I am selling. I would never, and have never used stock images. What you see, is always what you get.

Artist or Band: THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION

Album Title: Cruising with Ruben and the Jets.

Producer: Frank Zappa.

TRACK LIST:  

Side 1: Cheap Thrills; Love of My Life; How Could I Be Such a Fool; Deseri; I’m Not Satisfied; Jelly Roll Gum Drop; Anything.

Side 2: Later That Night; You Didn’t Try to Call Me; Fountain of Love; No, No, No; Anyway the Winds Blows; Stuff Up the Cracks.

Rarity: Scarce, not a big seller especially when first released in 1968. Mono copies are still harder to find in better conditions, and the early original Mothers albums on verve are notoriously hard to find with clean, fresh covers with little wear. Also, mono pressings had long stopped when the Verve Select repressings appeared in the early 1970s.

Label/Format: Verve, with matt surfaces with a gentle hint of texturing. This copy has no embossed tax codes, so this likely to be one of the last mono pressings made.

Label Conditions:  Both very clean, fresh and highly attractive with any traces of spindle marks very few, ultra fine and faint. All evidence suggests this elusive mono record has hardly been played. This so crucial on any mono record.

Catalogue Number: VLP 9237.

Mode / Speed: Mono / 33.3 rpm.

Warps: Few vintage records are ever perfectly ‘flat’, so some slight or very gentle arm movement is normal. If any record I offer has more than that, I will mention it, and it can be assumed all I offer will track without issues, even on budget turntables.

Record Weight:  139 grams.

Country of Manufacture:  England.

Musicians:  Frank Zappa – low grumbles, oo-wah and lead guitar; Ray Collins – lead vocals; Roy Estrada – high weazlings, dwaedy-doop and electric bass; Jimmy Carl Black and Arthur Dyre Tripp III – lewd pulsating rhythm; Ian Underwood – piano, saxes; Don Preston – piano; Bunk Gardner – saxophoness.

Original Year of Release:  November 1968.

Matrix and Stamper Codes: V 5055 A-1 / V 5055 B-1 (1 GD / 2 M)

Brief Artist & Album Info:  Zappa’s album of retrospective nostalgia and one of his most personal. An album that went back to the doo-wop sound of the 1950s, the music of Frank’s youth he was so proudly fond of. This doo-wop sound was so faithfully reconstructed, it fooled many critics and listeners at the time to who was actually playing the music. Zappa originally was to record this with a deliberate low-fi, scratchy sound but decided against it. Instead, he used a compressed production to emphasise the mechanical nature of the music – it works perfectly. Ray Collins vocals rarely sounded better than on this amazing journey into the past. The Ruben parody still has elements of Mothers humour and fun as the speech bubble on the front cover states. I would very much doubt whether much ever made it on the airwaves. This is a superb clean record and plays beautifully throughout. This album in mono is especially suited to the music. The cover with its colourful artwork is also in fine EX shape. Always prone to wear, the back especially, and normally found grubby and very badly aged. Remember this is at least 55-years-old, nd few will be seen a great deal better now. This is a copy that all Zappa fans will enjoy – especially with the two repro inserts that came with a small number of American promo copies, that are nigh-on impossible to find for real. So this gives a nicer sense of being ‘complete’.

Cover Grade and Format:  EXCELLENT(–) and arguably better given to what most are seen like nowadays. A single format with the front laminated. The back is matt and quite smooth and has three external flipbacks. Printed and made in England by Garrod & Lofthouse Ltd. It has correct original catalogue of VLP 9237.

Cover Front: The laminated retains fine shine and clarity with minimal hint of dulling or rim marks, and little lifting at all. A couple of laminate creases towards the bottom left corner area and a few finer ones mostly on the top edge. Arguably the least to be expected on a cover this great age and type. A few mostly fine and light surface laminate marks, but overall, little detracts from the fresh vibrant colourful artwork.

Cover Back: The black and white picture is a young Frank Zappa. This is one of the best backs I have seen on this original album cover. Any darkening or ageing gentle and light with little creasing at all to the main unprotected back panel bar a gentle light one near the bottom left corner area which shows little. There is the tinest nick ‘split’ on the entrance edge, but look hard to even noticed it. Any on the laminated flipbacks are also few and light. The three flipbacks themselves are superb, solid with crisp, neat ends, the lack of ugly grime lines on the laminate end areas is particularly worthy of special note. This has no ring wear and little detracts from this way better than average wear-prone back cover, with most found in poor, grubby, very worn and shabby conditions.

Top & Bottom Edges: The thin laminated edges are still quite straight with little wear, the top expecially is superb.

Right Edge(s), and Type: Both ends reasonably neat with any thicking or burring only moderately light. A tiny nick split on the back has been mentioned already – it really is very small indeed and registeres little. Record enters on the vulnerable back edge.

Spine and Text:  Solid and quite straight, with any compression gentle and light. The ends are very slightly pinched in manufacture. All the laminate intact and clear, the same goes for the blue spine text.

Corners: Any tip rubs or creasing little and very light, these have avoided any significant knocks, hence very fine shape is retained.

Cover Summary:  One of the great 1960s covers and this one does it high justice. This has been cover protected for many years, so has generally aged little. It will prove difficult to find significantly better and should please many collectors.

The Inserts: As stated a little ‘extra’ to make this vintage Mothers album feel more complete. These are reproductions, and with originals being near impossible to find from US promos, I have no qualms adding them to this lovely UK mono album.

The Inner Sleeve: NEAR EXCELLENT: A plain white unlined inner including the text “PATENT APPLIED FOR’ and ‘MADE IN ENGLAND’. A little darkened, but in a neat way to politely remind of its great age. Hardly creased with the edges solidly intact, any marks or blemishes few and very light.

Vinyl Condition/Visual Grading: EXCELLENT(+), and arguably better still. One of the very finest mono version I have ever had. This is one of two I had in my own collection, and both are pretty much the same. This is very clean, equally fresh and highly attractive, and scant clues or its age or format. Mono records, especially in this genre, are rarely seen much better. Without doubt, this has hardly been played and sounds fantastic. Any blemishes are bordering on minuscule, one for Zappa connoisseurs I would suggest (of which I am).

Album Played For Grading: Yes. [Equipment used: Pro-Ject X2 B Turntable, Ortofon MC X30 moving coil cartridge, Pro-Ject DS3 B Phono Preamp, Naim SuperNait 2 and Spendor A7 floorstanding speakers.]

Sound Quality and Audio Grading:  This record plays up to, and beyound its visual grading with practically nothing to fault. The analogue mono mix is unique to vinyl as is the content of the record. This has impressive clear sound with great detail and with strong dynamics, pace and rhythm. This is THE sound Zappa originally wanted, his idea to record this 1950s pop parody was little short of inspired. Of all his albums within the vast catalogue, this is arguably the most important to be heard on the vinyl format, a clean, lightly played copy like this is priceless these days and its importance within a Zappa collection cannot be overstated. All remains sharp and clear – sound quality is high with a wider dynamic range and a fuller sound. Few surface sounds and no pops or clicks were noted. Nothing of any note spoilt my pleasure when play-grading this fantastic album, the sound is definitive and must be heard. This copy will prove record and copy will prove difficult to find much better.

End Piece:  Few could have predicted the fourth Mothers of Invention record – the final original album they made on Verve – would have sounded like this. But clues for Zappa’s fondness of ‘Greasy Fifties Love Songs’ were on Freak Out! with a few of these songs included on that classic debut, albeit different versions. Ruben and the Jets for the more discerning collector, this copy really rocks just like it should. With of course the original sound and mono mix – for those who have never heard it, well they have never heard it for real. Zappa produces an immaculate parody of the music from his younger days with astonishing authenticity, proving again what a versatile band the early Mothers were. I strongly recommend it – SNAT! – bop bop bah bop bop bah.





The record has been professionally cleaned on my German-made Nessie vinyl record cleaning machine.

The record will always be removed from the main cover and placed inside a soft-lined white inner to avoid edge splits in transit. Then put inside a protective plastic sleeve.

It will be posted for UK delivery via a Royal Mail tracked service. More expensive albums will be posted Special Delivery. The price will be £4.50.

The price to Europe will be £14 and overseas £24 using a tracked DPD courier service. I will NOT send to Russia or Belarus.

Payment required within 4 days of sale or will be cancelled with no exceptions. Payment via Paypal is preferred.