BOB DYLAN, Blood on the Tracks 1st pressing/1st sleeve EXCELLENT UK LP

	£		65
	$		86

UK ABSOLUTE FIRST PRESSING VINYL LP ON ORANGE LABEL WITH MAROON INNER WITH WHITE CATALOGUE NUMBER AND FIRST STATE REAR SLEEVE WITH BLACK LETTERING.

Like everything to do with Bob Dylan, this, perhaps his most perfect album, has a story - the recording, the sleeve, the mixes...yep, as usual, it gets very confusing. But as interesting as all this is, it wouldn't mean a thing if we were discussing a Herman's Hermits LP. Fortunately, what we are writing about is one of the greatest albums ever recorded by a living legend. One that we can proudly offer you in extremely hard to find, splendid condition. A true first UK pressing on quality UK CBS vinyl. No other pressing, with the exception of the Columbia USA first pressings and white label promos sound better than this pressing does. The US pressings may have the slight mastering edge, they seem to be cut a little louder as usual, but they are all on crappy, cruddy mass-produced bits-all-in-the-grooves vinyl that never played clean even when new - whereas CBS UK vinyl on the orange label from this period is uniformly excellent and much quieter. The UK pressing is the one to own if you have a great hi fi, and the other one of interest, oddly enough, is the Columbia issued half-speed master as it was cut from the pre-sped up master tapes on audiophile vinyl and thus plays about 2% longer time-wise than the Dylan officially sanctioned release.

The first US and UK pressings of this album had rear sleeve notes by Pete Hamill [not the lead singer in VDGG!] around a painting by David Oppenheim. The excellent, but almost unreadable notes - due to the black on maroon printing - were based on lyrics from the original versions of the songs from the Blood On The Tracks test pressing. By the time the album was released, Dylan had re-recorded some tracks. The original New York musicians were credited on the sleeve, but not the ones from Minnesota where he re-recorded some material. On later pressings the sleeve notes were understandably removed and replaced by a larger painting and the New York musician credits were gone.

The story though, has a wonderful twist to it, because Pete Hamill went on to win a Grammy for his sleeve notes...sleeve notes that were no longer on the LP as available in stores. Columbia then restored the original rear sleeve notes in white text, but the Minnesota musicians were still not credited...Phew...

So, it is important, as is the case with this listing, that your UK rear sleeve has the original black on maroon design with sleeve notes by Pete Hamill and the first picture by David Oppenheim. Inside must be a plain, maroon cardboard inner sleeve with CBS 69097 in white type, and the disc must have CBS orange labels with the catalogue number CBS S 69097 and stamped matrix numbers: Side 1 - CBS-S-69097-A2, Side 2 - CBS-S-69097-B2. This was the last UK CBS Dylan album to have plain orange labels. The sleeve must be printed by Shorewood.

MATRIX NUMBERS IN RUN-OFF GROOVES: SIDE A: CBS-S-69097-A2 A/N and SIDE B: CBS-S-69097-B2

MOTHER No. SIDE A: A / SIDE B: D

STAMPER No. SIDE A: 31 / SIDE B: 11

SLEEVE: EXCELLENT MINUS WITH JUST LIGHT SHELF AND EDGE WEAR, BUT THERE IS A SMALL GREEN PRINTED STICKER ON REAR UNDER THE CBS LOGO. THE MAROON INNER IS EXCELLENT MINUS.

DISC: EXCELLENT. SUPER CLEAN VINYL WITH NO MARKS OR SCRATCHES AND NO SPINDLE WEAR. A BEAUTIFUL COPY, WE PLAYED TWO TRACKS ON A TOP END TURNTABLE AND THEY SOUNDED AWESOME. THE LP IS RATHER LONG AND CUT SLIGHTLY QUIETLY, SO YOU NEED TO GIVE IT A BIT OF VOLUME, IT THEN TAKES OFF AND SOARS. THE LUCKY FUTURE OWNER OF THIS COPY IS UNLIKELY TO NEED TO UPGRADE AGAIN.

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