NICO The End 1974 UK ISLAND 1st PRESS BARELY PLAYED Nr MINT
£
127
$
169
£ 127
Sold For
May 6, 2013
Sold Date
Apr 26, 2013
Start Date
£ 24
Start price
6
Number Of Bids
Great Britain
Country Of Seller
eBay
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Description
NICO The End 1974 UK ISLAND 1st PRESS BARELY PLAYED Nr MINT
SUPERB LP, DEEPLY GLOSSY 'ROBOR' SLEEVE, STUNNING AUDIO
NICOThe End
UK ISLAND RECORDS (ILPS 9311) FIRST PRESSING (October 1974) OF NICO's "The End"
A STUNNING PIECE OF WORK WITH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM ENO, PHIL MANZANERA AND JOHN CALE
It is one of the most entrenched visions in the rock critic's vocabulary; Nico as doomed valkyrie, droning death-like through a harsh gothic monotone, a drained beauty pumping dirges from her harmonium while a voice as old as dirt hangs cobwebs round the chords.
In fact she only made one album which remotely fit that bill -- this one -- and it's a symbol of its significance that even the cliché emerges as a thing of stunning beauty.
Her first album following three years of rumour and speculation, The End was consciously designed to highlight the Nico of already pertinent myth.
Stark, dark, bare, and frightening, the harmonium dominant even amid the splendour of Eno's synthesized menace, John Cale's childlike piano, and Phil Manzanera's scratchy, effects-whipped guitar, it is the howling wind upon wuthering heights, deathless secrets in airless dungeons, ancient mysteries in the guise of modern icons.
Live, Nico took to dedicating the final cut, a sparse but heart-stoppingly beautiful interpretation of the former German national anthem, to terrorist Andreas Baader, even as the song itself conjured demons of its own from an impressionable Anglo-American audience.
Nico later admitted she intended the performance in the same spirit as Jimi Hendrix rendered "Star Spangled Banner." But "Das Lied der Deutschen" -- "Deutschland Uber Alles" -- has connotations which neither tribute nor parody could ever undermine.
It was only in the '90s that even Germany has reclaimed the anthem for its own. In 1974, it was positively leprous.
Listen without prejudice, though, and you catch Nico's meaning regardless, even as her voice tiptoes on the edge of childlike, all but duetting with the little girl she once was, on a song which she'd been singing since the cradle.
The ghosts pack in. Former lover Jim Morrison haunts the stately "You Forgot to Answer," a song written about the last time Nico saw him, in a hired limousine on the day of his death; of course he reappears in the title track, an epic recounting of the Doors' own "The End," but blacker than even they envisioned it, an echoing maze of torchlit corridors and spectral children, and so intense that, by the time Nico reaches the "mother...father" passage, she is too weary even to scream. The cracked groan which emerges instead is all the more chilling for its understatement, and the musicians were as affected as the listener. The mutant funk coda with which the performance concludes is more than an incongruous bridge. It is the sound of the universe cracking under the pressure. But to dwell on the fear is to overlook the beauty -- The End, first and foremost, is an album of intimate simplicity and deceptive depths.
Nico's voice stuns, soaring and swooping into unimagined corners. No less than "Das Lied der Deutschen," both "Valley of the Kings" and "It Has Not Taken Long" make a mockery of the lazy critical complaints that she simply grumbled along in a one-note wail, while the arrangements (most of which were Nico's own; producer Cale admits he spent most of his time in the studio simply marvelling) utterly re-rout even the most generous interpretation of what "rock music" should sound like.
The End doesn't simply subvert categorisation. It defies time itself.
PRESSED WITH THE ISLAND PINK RIM LABELS
MARTIX: ILPS 9311 A-2U (etched 'PORKY') / ILPS 9311 B-3U (first UK pressing)
MOTHERS/STAMPERS: 1/P and 1/O
THE RECORD IS HOUSED IN THE ORIGINAL FULLY LAMINATED AND DEEPLY GLOSSY SLEEVE "Printed in England by Robor Limited"
COMPLETE WITH THE ORIGINAL PLAIN WHITE INNER SLEEVE WITH UK PATENT NUMBER AND "MADE IN ENGLAND" PRINTED IN BLUE
NICO – Vocals, Harmonium
ENO – Synthesizer
PHIL MANZANERA – Electric Guitar
JOHN CALE – Bass Guitar, Xylophone, Acoustic Guitar, Synthesizer, Organ, Marimba ,Triangles, Cabasa, Glockenspiel, Percussion, Piano, and Electric Piano
VICKI WOOD – Backing Vocals
ANNAGH WOOD – Backing Vocals
Side 1:
It Has Not Taken Long (4:11)
Secret Side (4:08)
You Forget To Answer (5:07)
Innocent And Vain (3:51)
Valley Of The Kings (3:57)
Side 2:
We've Got The Gold (5:44)
The End (9:36)
Das Lied Der Deutschen (5:28)
LABELS: MINT-
Clean, unmarked labels with possibly just one or two spindle traces
VINYL Visual: MINT-
Both surfaces shine like new
VINYL Audio: NEAR MINT
Impressively produced and recorded with a nice loud cut, the sound is deep, rich and finely detailed and my play-check at volume found no real audio issues of note - just a couple of tiny little clicks on Side Two - impossibly minor. A tremendous record - quite scary - extremely uncompromising but also hauntingly beautiful
SLEEVE: NEAR MINT
The sleeve is also in great condition with crisp, square and unworn edges and spine (where all text is clear and bold) and a deep, glass-like glossy sheen to the laminated surfaces (which display just the slightest storage rub)
POST & PACKING:
A PROTECTIVE POLY SLEEVE, NEW INNER SLEEVE WITH NEW ANTI-STATIC LINER, QUALITY BOX (NOT ENVELOPE) MAILER AND AMPLE STIFFENERS ARE ALWAYS USED TO ENSURE THAT YOUR RECORD ARRIVES SAFELY
UK: 1st Class: £4.50 (recorded delivery)
EUROPE: Airmail: £13.00 (International Signed For delivery)
INTERNATIONAL: Airmail: £17.00 (International Signed For delivery)
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Thank you for your understanding and cooperation
Guarantee: The record is unconditionally guaranteed and I will offer a complete, no quibble refund (through Paypal) upon return of the item should you not be pleased with it in any way I will email you when payment has been received to let you know when the item will be posted. Please leave feedback upon receipt of the item so that I know you have received it safely. Any problems please email me. Thanks 486 (GS 6.5.1 (486))
