THE VELVET UNDERGROUND & NICO ORIGINAL MONO V-5008 67`VERVE LOU REED SHRINKWRAP

$

1,599

THE VELVET UNDERGROUND & NICO ORIGINAL MONO V-5008 67`VERVE LOU REED SHRINKWRAP

THE VELVET UNDERGROUND AND NICO

                                                  USA - VERVE - V-5008 - MONAURAL

Rare and highly collectible...1967 Mono pressing, delightfully *clean* ...

Beautiful, 1967 press vinyl in thick gatefold; the famous Andy Warhol peelable banana cover...

TOP COPY, complete banana peel untouched....rare!

Recorded in 1966 during Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable multimedia event tour, The Velvet Underground & Nico would gain notoriety for its experimentalist performance sensibilities, as well as its focus on controversial subject matter expressed in many of their songs.

Theirs was the dim world of drugs and sexual perversion, of heroin addiction and the desperate loss of hope that goes with it. Their concern was with death and violence... Oozing evil and lubricity, they made every other group look like kid stuff, and they made a lot of people nervous... There is no word for their sound but sometimes it seems as if a presence has taken it over, perhaps even His Satanic Majesty himself. You can easily imagine someone performing black masses with the Velvet Underground’s albums. Not for the kiddies.

Their world view was dark and nihilistic at a time when everyone else was singing about peace and flowers... The Doors (whose first album was a hit when Velvet Underground & Nico was released) had a darker vision than The Velvet Underground! Even Jefferson Airplane, whose Surrealistic Pillow LP defined for the time capsules the romance of the Hippie Moment, didn’t turn a blind eye to the dark side of the counterculture-- and the Airplane and The Doors were the most popular bands in America during the Velvets’ time.

The Velvet Underground & Nico (the latter being a Warhol-recommended "chanteuse" who departed after the album was released to pursue an even more quixotic solo career) does function as a kind of "map of their music" (to paraphrase The Doors’ description of their own debut LP). The overall impression created is dark, noisy, more than a little paranoid and seemingly amoral (as opposed to immoral)-- "Heroin" makes a point of being neither for nor against, but simply about; similarly, no specific judgment is passed upon the characters in songs like "I’m Waiting For The Man" and "Venus In Furs." The album concludes with "The Black Angel’s Death Song" and "European Son," likably self-indulgent exercises in sonic (and verbal) envelope-pushing. But the ballads Lou wrote for Nico to sing (including the album opener "Sunday Morning" ) provide a disarmingly sweet balance, and even a specific reassurance: "When you think the night has seen your mind, / That inside you’re twisted and unkind, / Let me stand to show that you are blind-- / Please put down your hands, / ‘Cause I see you-- / I’ll be your mirror...

1. "Sunday Morning" (Reed, Cale) – 2:54
2. "I'm Waiting for the Man" – 4:39
3. "Femme Fatale" – 2:38
4. "Venus in Furs" – 5:12
5. "Run Run Run" – 4:22
6. "All Tomorrow's Parties" – 6:00

7. "Heroin" – 7:12
8. "There She Goes Again" – 2:41
9. "I'll Be Your Mirror" – 2:14
10. "The Black Angel's Death Song" (Reed, Cale) – 3:11
11. "European Son" (Reed, Cale, Morrison, Tucker) – 7:46

Beautiful, and rarely seen original Mono on Verve label. this is a 1967 pressing without a doubt, as Mono's were not pressed in 1968 and forever gone! You can still find some Monos out there, but the bananna is always either gone, or some goof somewhere along the line has picked at the top, then pulled it down to get a look underneath. Let's face facts- that action effectively seriously devalues the cover. These all white covers alway's show tons of ringwear, and show the age, the stains, the dark spotting, the age yellowing  from the record rack, and the vast majority of them have some splitting at the opening. As of 2015, Its gotten to the point where if you can find one thats halfway decent, you found your keeper copy, even if the bananna isnt complete, or has some tampering.  The album cover here  has the bright white, non yellowed look with no record ring impression, and with the shrinkwrap, you have a pristeen Warhol bananna sticker. The corners are nice too with no jams (knocks). I've had about 7 or 8 copies over the last 40 plus years of collecting records, and never had one anywhere near as nice, nor have I seen one that someone else had that is as nice!  2 short creases along the spine seen only on the backside are about the only mentionable or notable cover flaw that I see. They in no way detract from the overall beauty of this superlative gatefold cover!  There's a line of vertical breathe holes in the shrinkwrap, and price sticker seen on the outer wrap. Pretty centered spine description, no ink loss to any of the graphics with bold colour, especially noticable on the rear. The Mono disc is about as nice as the cover with no needle scratches, just some slight sleeve marks in a few spots (the vast majority of the disc surface is without the sleeve scuffing) I played the record, both sides, and there are no skips- plays as clean as you can expect for a 48 year old record- Non intrusive pencil name on one side of the label, and none of the ugly spindle marks you always see on these early labels from poor handling. The Velvet's debut lp release is rarer and more desireable  than the stereo's. Probably 1 mono pressed for 5 stereo's!

  The very lucky winner will own an impossibly clean original mono cover,  quite likely the best! 

Verve innerseeve (original late 60`s and correct to the title- nice one!)
postal mo's ok