1967 Velvet Underground & Nico Mono First US LP East Coast + Torso + Banana

	£		530
	$		702

NO RESERVE AUCTION 1p START
VELVET UNDERGROUND & NICO 1967 FIRST PRESSING EAST COAST (MONO) TORSO LP V-5008

LOT DESCRIPTION, PLEASE READ
This LOT is the now seldom seen 1967 first US East Coast pressing (variant 1 stamped identifier 15 / 12) of The Velvet Underground & Nico LP produced by Andy Warhol, including banana. 
The original 1967 mono version of The Velvet Underground & Nico LP, with all the important first pressing identifiers, is significantly more rare than the stereo version.
That statement is not rock myth but audited fact as sales data for the album was audited through early 1969 showing 13,336 mono copies were sold in the US, compared to 45,140 stereo copies. 
Interest in mono LP's from the mid to late 1960s remains strong today because producers of the time focused on mono mixes, with stereo versions literally an afterthought. 
Beatles producer Ken Scott spoke in November 2025 on the subject, commenting to Rick Beato "Record mixing was always done in mono, until The White Album (The Beatles ninth studio album 1968) everything they did was mixed and monitored in mono. If you want to hear The Beatles how they want to hear themselves, you have to listen to the mono's not the stereos. The only thing they (bands) ever OK'd were mono mixes".
BIOGRAPHY
The Exploding Plastic Inevitable (EPI) was a groundbreaking multimedia performance series created by Andy Warhol in 1966 that fused art, music, film, and live performance into a chaotic and immersive sensory experience. 
Central to the EPI were The Velvet Underground, Warhol's protégé band known for their raw, experimental sound, and Nico, a German singer and model who Warhol insisted join the group, adding an icy, hypnotic vocal presence. 
The performances featured live music accompanied by strobing lights, multiple overlapping Warhol film projections, mirrored balls, and provocative dancing by Factory regulars like Gerard Malanga and Mary Woronov, creating a hallucinatory environment that mirrored the psychedelic and avant-garde spirit of the era. 
The EPI toured various venues including The Dom in New York and The Fillmore in San Francisco, confronting audiences with a radical blend of art and music that broke down traditional performance boundaries and laid the foundation for the multimedia concert experiences of the future. 
It was at an early EPI gig that amongst the multi media showcase, New York actor Eric Emerson's image was projected onto a screen behind the band. 
A still photo of the band taken by Hugo and with Eric in the background, would later become the (notorious) rear sleeve artwork for what would become the most influential LP in rock history, The Velvet Underground & Nico. 
A law suit brought by Emerson against the record company would hamper sales of the LP's first pressing (that very same LP for sale here) and his face would be covered/removed from subsequent pressings of the LP until a legal solution was found.  
Meanwhile The Velvet Underground and Nico's cult status was cemented while Andy Warhol’s influence redefined the intersection of pop culture and experimental art.
Leo Castelli opened an art gallery on New York’s 77th Street in 1957 with the intention of showing the best of contemporary American art. It was here that Andy Warhol debuted his Flowers paintings in November 1964, mere months after having had a major show at Ileana’s Galerie in Paris. 
In 1966 Warhol's iconic screen print of a banana on laminated plastic was exhibited.  The laminated plastic peelable banana was widely featured in Warhol catalogue raisonné of the time. 
Soon after the same laminated plastic "peelable banana" would appear with Warhol's name on the front cover of the Velvet Underground & Nico's debut LP.  The banana was plastic and could be peeled off from the LP.  In the absence of the official banana some inventive owners simply glued a paper copy of the banana on their LP sleeve.
Warhol would go on to exhibit his iconic banana as a serigraph while debuting other new projects such as his Silver Clouds and Mao portraits at Castelli’s New York gallery well into the late 80s.  
Castelli himself would earn a reputation as one of the foremost publicists of contemporary American art.
TRACK LIST
A1 Sunday Morning (2:53) A2 I'm Waiting For The Man (4:37) A3 Femme Fatale (2:35) A4 Venus In Furs (5:07) A5 Run Run Run (4:18) A6 All Tomorrow's Parties (5:55)
B1 Heroin (7:05) B2 There She Goes Again (2:30) B3 I'll Be Your Mirror (2:01) B4 The Black Angel's Death Song (3:10) B5 European Son (7:40)
MATRIX NUMBERS & SELECTED CREDITS
Matrix / Runout (Side 1 etched): V5008 Side 1 MG 558 Rev (15 stamped)  Matrix / Runout (Side 2 etched): V5008 SIDe 2 MG 559 (12 stamped) 
First pressing with Eric Emerson 'torso' image projected upside down on the back cover. This image was removed/covered on later pressings.
East Coast pressing with labels reading "Side 1" and "Side 2" instead of Side A & Side B
COVER DESIGN: Acy R. Lehman DIRECTOR OF ENGINEERING: VAL VALENTIN LINER PHOTOS BY: NAT FINKELSTEIN & BILLY LINICH COLOR SHOW PHOTO BY: HUGO  PORTRAITS BY: PAUL MORRISSEY  Cover Painting BANANA by: ANDY WARHOL
® © Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. / Printed in U.S.A. Three Prong Music. All Selections BMI MGM RECORDS - A DIVISION OF METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER, INC. - Made in U.S.A.
Side 2 Track 5 credits Reed-Cale-Morrison-Tucker 
THE BAND
Vocals, Guitar, Piano – Lou Reed Vocals, Guitar, Bass Guitar – Sterling Morrison Vocals, Organ, Bass Guitar – Doug Yule Percussion – Maureen Tucker Vocals - Nico
CONDITION
VG/VG
In addition please reassure yourself of condition by referring to the many large photographs provided which are of the actual LP you are bidding on. 
Gatefold LP sleeve in very good condition with age related general wear and tear front and rear, some foxing and discoloration to outer sleeve surfaces, spine credits intact but worn with the extremities rubbed with some separation (see photos) and some surface scuffs/damage to the sleeve rear. The inner gatefold is strong with only a small hinge paper split and some very light foxing mainly around Lou Reed's image bottom right.
The vinyl laminated Warhol designed banana was with the LP when I originally bought it and has lost most of its adhesive property. 
The LP is photographed with and without the banana to illustrate. 
Some early owners actually glued a paper photocopy banana to their LP! 
The LP labels are clean with only very minor signs of spindle wear under light, no handwriting or graffiti.  
Plenty of visible signs of previous playing but the LP still plays through fine with some background noise. 
Vinyl stored separately in a Japanese anti-static sleeve. 
This LP is literally pop art legend, a museum piece, one to be put away for the grandchildren. 
PAYMENT, SHIPPING & INSURANCE
Please pay within four days of winning the auction. 
If you fail to pay in that time eBay may automatically cancel the sale and start a non-paying bidder procedure. 
Securely consigned fully insured, packaged and protected in a reinforced record mailer and shipped using tracked international postal service.
Please note any import duty is the buyers responsibility.  
Please note UK sellers do not control shipping costs, which are set, managed and administered by eBay.
My previous three UPS deliveries to my US customers arrived door to door in 4 days.  
QUESTIONS
Please ask questions you might have before bidding.
Please note I CANNOT provide an AUDIO play through grading, so if by chance this is not satisfactory please do not bid. 
FEEDBACK
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