LED ZEPPELIN - HOUSES OF THE HOLY: EX JAP LP + INNER/2 OBIs/INSERT + £8 BIN OFFR

	£		21
	$		28

LED ZEPPELIN - HOUSES OF THE HOLY

Excellent original Japanese pressing with textured inner-lyric sleeve/white title sash-wrap/obi/Japanese language lyric/note sheet

+++++    BUY IT NOW OFFER    +++++

Win this auction using Buy It Now and I’ll take £8 off the BiN price you pay (given as a Paypal refund), so you’ll win this vinyl album immediately and for the same amount as the auction (bid and wait/hope) start price, instead of the minimum 40% uplift ebay requires for auction that also have a Buy It Now option.

Single vinyl album, Atlantic/WEA (P-10107A), released in 1973, Stereo, manufactured in Japan. Matrix Nos: P8288A-1 & P8288A-2.

For Led Zeppelin, the task of making an album to follow their highly acclaimed and untitled fourth long-player was always going to be very challenging, but the group’s varied  influences, calibre of musicianship and unity were such that simply by sticking to the principle of letting the ideas emerge, they were able to meet that challenge head-on and came up with a release that would in time not only sit comfortably alongside its predecessor but, more immediately, made its own contribution to the band’s growing roster of stage favourites as fans gave an enthusiastic welcome to No Quarter, The Song Remains The Same and The Rain Song in particular, as well as voicing considerable approval of Over The Hills And Far Away, Dancing Days and The Ocean.

By this time though, the music press had decided that the time had come to knock the Zeppelin down, and reviews were almost universally negative, many of them expressing extreme disappointment of what they saw as a change in musical direction.

It was an odd and rather sad perception for, though the band’s previous 4 albums had maintained a punchy blues-rock foundation, all of them had pushed out in other musical directions, giving credence to the group’s assertions that they were much more than a heavy rock combo. Indeed the third album had initially been panned for having a noticeably more folky feel than its predecessors.

On Houses Of the Holy, most of the criticism was aimed at two tracks, The Crunge and the deliberately tongue-in-cheek D’yer Mak’er, which were not just “different” but, to many of the critics, almost insulting as they seemed devoid of serious effort.

That the band - primarily through vocalist Robert Plant and guitarist Jimmy Page - had repeatedly observed the importance of not taking themselves too seriously seem to fall on deaf ears but, fortunately the group showed themselves to be suitably and selectively deaf of those same critics, while the group’s swelling legions of admirers merely did the sensible thing and simply bought the album so as to decide on its quality for themselves.

Suffice it to say that Houses was quickly and warmly received by the latter and that simply added to the music press’s growing dislike of the group.

Time too has borne out the fans’ wisdom as the album’s tracks have stood up well over the years, and as a whole, the release has a very respected place in the group’s recording history.

This particular album is Japanese-made and features not just the white title wrap (or sash) and textured inner lyric sleeve, but also a characteristic (Japanese) obi - Y2,500 -  and one-sided album notes and lyric sheet - in Japanese - which is also “water-marked” with the album name.

The vinyl has been pretty well looked-after, having been played a reasonable number of times and kept in a polythene inner sleeve liner - included here - and, as a result, the playing surfaces are still very shiny. However, both surfaces do have some noticeable marks - on side one, track 4 (The Crunge) and side two, track 3 (No Quarter) - which cause some extraneous sounds.

Even so, a pre-auction play-through shows that unless the listener is making a special effort to be aware of these sounds, they are relatively minor and, in the case of The Crunge, the track ends a split second before the first really obvious pop. On side two’s No Quarter, the noises (a series of pops) occur towards the end of the short piano break following the first verse but though audible, are not very loud.

Otherwise, from the moment the needle enters the run-in groove on each side to the time it leaves the run-off, you hear a full-bodied and clear sound which is every bit as pleasing as it’s the vinyl’s overall appearance, with no other obvious extraneous sounds during the tracks and just minimal - if any - surface noise on the run-ins/run-offs and between the tracks. Thus, allowing for the above-noted marks, this vinyl is graded “excellent”.

The characteristic WEA/Atlantic (green, white and red) labels have some very light marks around the spindle hole, but no noticeable wear to the hole rim and no writing, stains, labels or any other kind of blemish and, consequently, they are rated “excellent”.

The cover, which has also been kept in a plastic cover, is a sturdy card gatefold designed by Hipgnosis and, at 38 years old, it inevitably shows some signs of wear: most noticeably the seam at the top of the open edge has started to split (max 1.5”). There is also very light general surface rubbing (inside and outside), a little seam/corner rubbing/wear, a few surface scuffs and slight corner squashing.

Otherwise though, this sleeve boasts strong, clean and bright colouring, a well-defined spine, straight and largely wear-free seams/edges, virtually no open-edge feathering, no ring-wear and smooth clean surfaces with no tears, no writing, no sticker-marks or other serious blemishes. Overall, this very visually-rewarding sleeve is also graded “excellent (+)”.

Of the inserts/obis, the white textured inner/lyric sleeve has a sprinkling of small and relatively light stains, but with the white title wrap/sash, the red/white obi and “water-marked” Japanese lyric sheet cover showing no obvious signs of wear/deterioration at all, these “extras” are collectively graded “excellent (+)”.

8 Tracks

Side 1: The Song Remains The Same; The Rain Song; Over The Hills And Far Away & The Crunge.

Side 2: Dancing Days; D’yer Mak’er; No Quarter & The Ocean.

Note: I give postal discount on multiple auction wins when the items won can be packaged together.

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