TIM BUCKLEY-starsailor *RARE* UK 1st press Near Mint vinyl STRAIGHT A1/B1

	£		70
	$		92

Artist or Band: TIM BUCKLEY

Album Title: Starsailor.

Producer(s): Tim Buckley.

TRACK LIST:

Side 1: Come Here Woman; I Woke Up; Monterey; Moulin Rouge; Song to the Siren.

Side 2: Jungle Fire; Starsailor; The Healing Festival; Down by the Borderline.

Label/Format: Straight – matt, smooth surfaces.

Label Conditions: Both in beautiful condition: very clean, fresh and attractive with only a tiny few, small and faint spindle traces on side one, and barely any at all on side two.

Cat Number: STS 1064.

Mode / Speed: Stereo / 33.3 rpm.

Warps: Assume all records I offer have no warping of any significance and all tracking is easy and effortless and should play on all turntables and even ‘budget’ decks.

Weight of this Record: 138 grams. A very good solid weight.

Country of Manufacture: England.

Rarity: This has always been a difficult album to find as a UK Straight original. It sold very poorly and was quickly deleted. Unlike some other UK Straight albums, it was not repressed and was not available very long at all before the demise of the label. This was a very late Straight album, one of the final ones in fact, so availability was only very brief and few bothered anyway. US copies are easier found, but still elusive, especially here. Also finding clean pressed copies is also difficult, I have heard several American copies with loud pressing rasps and major distortion. The UK pressings seem more consistent – that said, I have seen or heard very few – this one plays great with very little unwanted with no pressing issues at all. An album over time that has gained considerably in stature, many regard it a mini classic and is now very sort after. But like many such albums that went almost unnoticed at the time, finding one now is increasingly difficult. I actually consider this the rarest and one of the very best of all the Straight albums, it is seldom seen or offered. So a great opportunity to experience an original and one of the finest to ever grace this most alternative of labels.

Original Year of Release: 1970 (possibly 1971 in the UK)

Matrix Nos: STS 1064 A1 / STS 1064 B1

Musicians: Tim Buckley – guitar, 12-string guitar, vocals; John Balkin – double bass, electric bass; Lee Underwood – guitar, piano, pipe organ; Buzz Gardner – trumpet, flugelhorn; Maury Baker – percussion; Bunk Gardner – alto flute, tenor saxophone.

Straight & Bizarre: Straight and Bizarre were two record labels formed by Frank Zappa and his business partner and manager Herb Cohen, they were manufactured and distributed by Warner Bros in the United States. Their intention was to promote and issue albums by very alternative and non-commercial artists (chosen by Zappa) and give himself and them the freedom to release their music without restriction and censorship. Straight was initially chosen for more accessible acts and Bizzare for the less mainstream, but it only briefly worked out with all but Lenny Bruce, Wild Man Fischer and The Mothers of Invention ending up on Straight. All except The Mothers albums issued in the US on Bizarre are rare and elusive with a few exceptions – Captain Beefheart’s classic ‘Trout Mask Replica’ surprisingly sold reasonable well, but few others did. Most were simply too weird and out-there for most people’s tastes or simply unknown acts (including Alice Cooper in the early days), and these artists’ albums were now highly sort-after by collectors. Straight album bands and artists were: Captain Beefheart (2), Alice Cooper (3), Tim Buckley (2, his most experimental). Jeff Simmons (1), Lord Buckley (1), Judy Henske & Jerry Yester (1), The GTOs (Girls Together Outrageously) (1), Tim Dawe (1), The Persuasions (1) and Rosebud (1) on Reprise/Bizarre. Both Straight and Bizarre folded in 1973 when Zappa’s new label Discreet label emerged. A small few were repressed before this time on Warner and Reprise. However ‘Starsailor’ was not one of them probably due to a dispute over rights when Straight Records went. It had long been out-of-print and CD copies near impossible to find.

Brief Info: ‘Starsailor’ was album number six for Buckley and it proved a commercial disaster. His previous albums were hardly best-sellers either, but this one hit a new low with material too unaccessible for most. Largely gone was his early folk sound and it followed two other similar very poor sellers in ‘Blue Afternoon’ and ‘Lorca’. It was the second on Frank Zappa’s Straight label, and a bit like Captain Beefheart’s seminal album ‘Trout Mask Replica’, this took Buckley’s ideas of free-form music and expression into deeper avant garde territory. The album includes possibly his best-known song – the achingly beautiful ‘Song to the Siren’, easily the most accessible on the set, but most of the material too way-out for most listeners. Buckley uses his voice as an instrument with extremes in tone, range and expression. This against a backdrop of jazzy rock backing that includes two former members of The Mothers of Invention, the Gardner brothers on winds. A difficult and challenging work that needs perseverance to be fully appreciated, again like the magnificent Beefheart Straight albums, the songs get entrenched into the mind and those repetitive chords become addictive for those prepared to listen. Now regarded by many music fans and critics as a masterpiece, it regularly features highly in all-time great album lists. A typical Straight album that gave Buckley poetic licence for total vocal and musical expression without any constraints or thoughts about selling units in shops. This a magnificent high in his musical catalogue, but it proved brief – after ‘Starsailor’, a new style was adopted with a far less ‘out-there’ sound. In Tim’s quite short career, his output was quite unpredictable and varied, and few could have predicted this brave, bold and daring release. This a contender for one of the greatest albums that even today, many would have still never heard – time to put that right with the superb UK original that is unreservedly recommended. These are not seen or offered often.

Cover Grade and Format: NEAR EXCELLENT: rubbing on the top and mainly bottom edge being the main issue. A single unlaminated format with matt, smooth surfaces. Printed and made in England by Shorewood Packaging Co Ltd and includes the ‘Patents Pending’ text.

Cover Cosmetic Improvements: None Apparent.

Cover Front: A fairly ‘basic’ cover from Shorewood, I have the feeling this was made with anticipated low sales potential – which proved more than correct. Apart from corner rubbing, this has little else to fault, and this cover with similar Shorewood types at this time, rarely prove durable, hence most seen are rubbed and worn. So nice to see this one has survived the years generally well. Clean, still fresh and attractive with hardly any creasing at all.

Cover Back: No great expense made for this very sparse and basic back. A low resolution black and white graphic of Tim with album text credits below as seen in close-up. But this a genuine UK cover and they are much harder to find than the American-made versions. A little fine edge creasing and slight grubbiness as can be seen in the photos, but not a great deal else.

Top Edge: Near moderate slightly patchy rubbing, still straight with no splits or repairs.

Bottom Edge: Moderate to moderate(+) rubbing, but this has not really spread off the edge and only really shows when viewed end-on. Again, no splits or repairs.

Right Edge(s), and Type: Clean, quite sharp with little wear. Any thickening or burring minimal and light as seen viewed end-on. Record enters on this edge and guaranteed untrimmed or enhanced.

Spine and Text: Solid, straight with some surface crinkle and mild compression in places. All text is perfect and unworn, also well centred on quite a narrow depth – so this vulnerable edge has faired well overall.

Corners: Moderate tip rubbing with mostly fine shape retained.

Cover Summary: A difficult, rare and challenging cover, the surface on these are more prone to wear than some. So overall, a very strong all-round example. One that could prove very difficult to find much better with the front and back especially in very fine attractive condition. This elusive item should please most, if not all collectors.

Vinyl Condition/Visual Grading: both sides NEAR MINT: A lovely visual copy that appears hardly even played, very clean, fresh with equally fine shine and solidly pressed. Two superb Straight labels that are barely marked at all. A few ultra fine and faint lines can be seen under very bright light. This UK rarity only pressed in tiny numbers for a predictable very limited market – and this one really did hit an all-time low in that respect. As stated, far too experimental and ‘out-there’ for most music buyers of the time. Finding an original UK 1st press in better condition will not prove easy.