Jimi Hendrix Experience Electric Ladyland GENUINE UK earliest pressing

	£		127
	$		168

THE JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE ELECTRIC LADYLAND

EARLIEST POSSIBLE FIRST PRESSING

BLUE TEXT

VINYL

- 613008 A//1+B//1 and 613009A//1+B//1 with matrix/stamper

errors crossed out (xxx) and hand etched corrections - Inverted album numbers in brackets on the 1st print Track labels (see photos)

Vinyl has a lovely dark sheen – clean and shiny. No serious scratches but a few hairlines and light scratches when held up to the light. Lovely heavy high grade vinyl – the weight difference between these early pressings and the later Polydor pressings is striking.

Side A : Some initial background noise but quickly settles down. There is a clearly visible hairline scratch across the voodoo chile jam – track 4. The album was initially cut very hot – ‘high dynamic’ for these first pressings. Subsequent pressings were mastered less ‘hot’ as many turntables couldn’t cope and mis tracked.. The most striking thing about the sound for someone who is used to a later pressing is the bass which is absolutely immense on voodoo chile. On first play of this side there were a couple of small skips on track 4 which meant I had to increase the tracking weight on my turntable which sorted it. Because of this I would grade this side as VG/VG+

Side D : Some small hairlines visible in the light, no impact on play. Voodoo Chile slight return is a revelation on this earliest press – absolutely incredible and ear scorching played loud as it should be. Grade VG+++

Side C. This side would be ex if not for one tiny skip between the words torn and forever on track 2 (‘away from this land so battered and torn, forever’) the skip is so small that both words ‘torn’ and ‘forever’ are clearly heard, but makes grade VG. Would probably require a clean and a few plays to sort.

Side D : a few hairlines, most visible one spanning tracks 1 and 2. No impact on play – Grade VG+++

The Track labels are a nice dark matt black as they should be – excellent condition, see pics.

GENUINE very 1st print sleeve:

Fully laminated sleeve in overall nice condition (VG++). No rips tears or sticker marks. Laminate fully intact though cracking in a quite a few places as you would expect. Spine fully intact – tried to capture in pics.

- Blue text inside the Ernest J. Day naked ladies sleeve (later runs had white text) – this marks this out as one of the very first.

- Large photos of Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding (later sleeves had smaller ones)

- The blue text was supposed to hide/cover up a printing mistake made prior to release. The album tracks were originally printed in the wrong order, and in white ink. The original track listing in white is visible through the blue text and black surround – see pic. This is the EARLIEST POSSIBLE 1st print original laminated-both-sides Ernest J. Day gatefold sleeve. It has the large photos of Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding. The first print run of this sleeve was beset with problems and is known for it's poor quality and printing errors. The blue text was withdrawn not long after release because it failed to fully conceal earlier track listing mistakes. Also, the lamination was sub-standard and therefore has not stood the test of time well hence the cracking.

GENUINE track records poly-lined inner sleeves:

With 'Made in England 098' and 'Made in England 108' printed on the paper, indicating they were made in September '68 and October '68 before the album was released on the 25th October. One of these sleeves is a bit tatty with writing on the top right corner and the poly lining coming away. A Nagaoka anti stat sleeve has been placed inside it to protect from further damage.

Sleeve:

Here is an extract from an article written by Hendrix expert Tim for www.jimpress.co.uk which sheds light on the sleeve's early manufacturing history (please look at the close-up photo of the blue text): 'You can clearly see that the most desirable first print blue text is actually an overprinting of a factory mistake. The blue text was used to cover up an entirely different (and wrong!) order of titles on this monumental album. This very first issue cover reveals that the sought-after blue text was only used to mask an early mistake at the factory concerning the order of titles on the album. However, the original text was not fully covered up by the overprinted blue text on the laminated gatefold sleeve .It clearly reveals that if the mistake hadn't been spotted, Electric Ladyland would have opened with 'Still Raining, Still Dreaming'. You can see this original track listing in the background, behind the overprinted blue text on this sleeve. This still visible original text states: 'Side A: 1. Still Raining, Still Dreaming.' And that would of course have been ridiculous, because 'Still Raining, Still Dreaming' could only ever have followed 'Rainy Day, Dream Away', which - according to the incorrect text still showing up behind the overprinted blue text - would have opened Side B ... So this would certainly explain the letter from Track (to the BBC) stating they were having problems at the printers! ... So it would appear that white text was the intention from the beginning. As to the photos of Mitch & Noel being larger - maybe they are covering up something also! I checked 2 copies and the photo images of the pair can vary in that on some you can see a faint white border where a photo has been clipped.'

Overall a nice solid example of one of the most desirable and collectable of all vinyl records.

UK and North America only please.

Any questions please ask.

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