NICO "The End" 1974 UK ISLAND 1st PRESS, NEAR MINT

	£		42
	$		56

  NICO "The End" 1974 UK ISLAND 1st PRESS, NEAR MINT SUPERB LP, DEEPLY GLOSSY 'ROBOR' SLEEVE, STUNNING AUDIO
NICO
The End

FIRST UK PRESSING (October 1974) ON ISLAND RECORDS (ILPS 9311) OF NICO's DEFINITIVE MASTERPIECE, "The End" - A STUNNING PIECE OF WORK WITH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM ENO, PHIL MANZANERA AND JOHN CALE

THE RECORD HAS SEEN A FEW LIGHT PLAYS ONLY AND IS IN NEAR MINT CONDITION
THE FULL LAMINATED, AND DEEPLY GLOSSY "ROBOR" SLEEVE IS SIMILARLY, NEAR MINT

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 AN IMPRESSIVE LOUD CUT AND BEAUTIFULLY RECORDED
THE RECORD HAS THE FIRST ISLAND PINK RIM LABELS
MARTIX: ILPS 9311 A-2U (etched 'PORKY') / ILPS 9311 B-3U (first UK pressing)
MOTHERS/STAMPERS: 1/A and 1/L

AN OUTSTANDING COPY OF NICO'S DEFINITIVE MASTERPIECE - VERY STARK - VERY UNCOMPROMISING - EXTREMELY BEAUTIFUL - AND HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

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

Track Listing:
Side 1: IT HAS NOT TAKEN LONG / SECRET SIDE / YOU FORGET TO ANSWER / INNOCENT AND VAIN / VALLEY OF THE KINGS
Side 2: WE'VE GOT THE GOLD / THE END / DAS LIED DER DEUTSCHEN

LABELS: The labels are CLEAN and BRIGHT with NO unwanted marks/writing and barely any spindle traces
VINYL Visual: The surfaces have their original DEEP, LIKE-NEW LUSTRE and are practically UNMARKED
VINYL Audio: OUTSTANDING audio - CRYSTAL CLEAR, DEEP, RICH SOUND. Plays BEAUTIFULLY throughout to a very, very high standard with NO groove-wear and NO distortion (its hardly been played). TREMENDOUS, AND QUITE SCARY RECORD - EXTREMELY UNCOMPROMISING BUT ALSO HAUNTINGLY BEAUTIFUL. There are NO sticks, NO jumps, NO scratches, NO loud clicks/pops - the playback is SENSATIONAL. Graded NEAR MINT - BEAUTIFUL COPY
SLEEVE: The original DEEPLY LAMINATED AND GLOSSY sleeve, "PRINTED IN ENGLAND BY ROBOR LIMITED." is CLEAN, SHARP, BRIGHT and FRESH - practically AS-NEW. The edges are UNWORN and the spine displays all text CLEAR and BOLD with just a couple of light creases - NEAR MINT

PLEASE HAVE A LOOK AT MY PICTURES - I USUALLY TAKE QUITE A FEW SO YOU CAN GET A CLEAR INDICATION OF EVERY DETAIL OF THE ITEM
I HAVE UPLOADED AS MANY PICTURES AS I CAN BUT I WOULD BE MORE THAN HAPPY TO SUPPLY ANY ADDITIONAL PHOTOS ON REQUEST
SUPERB COPY OF NICO'S DEFINITIVE MASTERPIECE - VERY STARK - VERY UNCOMPROMISING - EXTREMELY BEAUTIFUL - VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
AS WITH ALL MY RECORDS THIS HAS A LOW START PRICE AND NO RESERVE
PLEASE CHECK OUT MY OTHER AUCTIONS FOR MORE RARE AND COLLECTABLE VINYL
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