Large World #237 Solid Gold Hits From 1966 LP Album Orange Beatles China Press

$

30

I rarely list records for sale, mostly because I don't like to try to grade them, but this one seemed interesting enough to offer. This is Large World #237.  If you are not familiar, Large World records were pressed in China and offered for sale to GI's during the Viet Nam war who were stationed in various overseas locations.  The records were not intended to be exported, but many made it to the states with returning soldiers. They were virtually all pressed on colored vinyl, like this lovely orange example. The jackets are simply printed in color on paper and enclosed in thin plastic.  It is not a cardboard jacket like a typical US release.  So, it's hard to grade the sleeve as even new it was never what we would call "mint". However it is not damaged, ripped, etc. The record itself looks lovely.  There are no noticeable scratches or damage, it's not warped.  It plays fine, however it's also difficult to judge the condition of the record by listening as the audio quality is subpar to begin with as the Chinese plants of course didn't have access to masters, so the records were made from dubs of other records.  So, when you hear background noise etc it can very well be in the recording itself from the dub of the source record. There are actual audio dropouts, equalization issues, etc and that's the way they were mastered. In the middle of a war you can't be too picky about the records you can find to purchase!  Of course the translations to English for the names is often wrong, such as here we have two songs from the Beatlos and the Associations. The version of "Wild Thing" on this album is not the Troggs, but rather the Senator Bobby parody version. Even though it's titled Solid Gold from 1966 on the front it says "67 on the back and the label says '67.   It is the right album in the sleeve. A true oddity and certainly an interesting item for a Beatles completist. Pay no attention to the shadow of the bottle holding up the album for the photos and ignore any light reflections. What you see is what you get.  FREE shipping in the USA.  Overseas bids welcome but you will have to pay shipping.