DAVE MASON Alone Together VG+1970 Blue Thumb BTS 19 1ST MARBLED LP 1A/1A

$

40

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Vinyl: VG+ Play Graded. Sounds Great!  Blue Thumb Labels are Clean and Bright.  This is the audiophile acclaimed 1970 Blue Thumb 1st Pressing!  BTS 19, Mastered at Artisan Sound Recorders of Pasadena, CA and pressed at Columbia's Santa Maria, CA Pressing Plant!!  This is the RARE Marbled inyl pressing, significant for being the FIRST Marbled vinyl pressing, Ever!  It also happens to be one of Dave Mason's most acclaimed solo efforts with the monster Classic Rock hits Onlu You Know And I Know and Shouldn't Have Took More Than You Gave!   Classic  Boogie, Blues Rock!!  Classic Rock Defined! ...all music gives it 4 stars!!!
See Review Below!
In the Dead Wax:  Matrices, etched, on both sides.  Has the glyph for Artisan Sound Recorders and the "S" for Columbia's Santa Maria, CA Pressing Plant.  Also 1A/1A.

Cover: VG+ (see photos) Die-Cut Original 1ST PRESSING Gatefold!  Nice high gloss on cover.  What a wild Concept!  Dave Mason up front and personal!! :)  Has a Die-Cut hole so you can pin Dave to your wall!! :)  Front, gatefold and back of cover artwork and text are rich, clear and bright, with some shelf wear and a piece of clear tape across one seam that can be felt but barely seen.  Also has some creases that again, are hard to see unless you look close up.    Seams, corners and spine are clean, with some wear.  No splits.  No writing. 

Goldmine Standards.   I play grade every record that I sell on eBay as I have found you can't rate a record accurately by just visually inspecting it.  I wipe the dust off of every cover with clean, unscented baby wipes.  I professionally clean the vinyl.  (I also operate a Vinyl Record Cleaning business for your dusty/dirty records--if interested, send me a message).
U.S. Shipping:  $4.99 Media Mail.  50 cents additional shipping per additional album, when the shipment is combined.   If you wish to take advantage of my COMBINED SHIPPING deal, simply select your records by clicking on "ADD TO CART" on the main listing page.  Do this for all of your selections and then go to your cart to checkout.  Your combined shipping discount will be computed automatically.  Free domestic shipping if you spend $100 or more!  
All records are packaged securely with the vinyl outside the jacket (to avoid seam split in transit). The vinyl and jacket are sandwiched between two cardboard stiffeners and shipped in a custom cardboard record mailer box. 
INTERNATIONAL BUYERS!  EBAY'S PLATFORM DOESN'T ACCOMMODATE FOR COMBINED SHIPPING FOR INTERNATIONAL BUYERS---BUT DON'T LET THAT STOP YOU!!!---I CAN COMBINE SHIP FOR YOU AND MINIMIZE SHIPPING COSTS!!!  TELL ME WHICH ITEMS YOU WANT TO BUY, AND I WILL WEIGH THEM AND THE SHIPPING BOX TOGETHER AND THEN I WILL CREATE A "LOT OF 2..." OR "LOT OF 3...", OR "LOT OF 4...", ETC WITH THE ITEMS YOU WANT, AND CREATE A LISTING WITH THE EXACT WEIGHT OF YOUR LOT.   THIS WILL SAVE YOU A LOT OF MONEY!!!  IF YOU'RE INTERESTED IN THIS, SEND ME A MESSAGE TELLING ME WHICH ITEMS YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AND WE'LL GO FROM THERE.  OR, FEEL FREE TO ASK QUESTIONS.
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Why buy a first or early pressing and not a re-issue or a ‘re-mastered’ vinyl album? 
First and early pressings are pressed from the first generation lacquers and stampers. They usually sound vastly superior to later issues/re-issues (which, in recent times, are often pressed from whatever 'best' tapes or digital sources are currently available) - many so-called 'audiophile' new 180g pressings are cut from hi-res digital sources…essentially an expensive CD pressed on vinyl.  Why  experience the worse elements of both formats?  These are just High Maintenance CDs, with mid-ranges so cloaked with a veil as to sound smeared.  They are nearly always compressed with murky transients and a general lifelessness in the overall sound.  There are exceptions where re-masters/re-presses outshine the original issues, but they are exceptions and not the norm.  First or early pressings nearly always have more immediacy, presence and dynamics. The sound staging is wider.  Subtle instrument nuances are better placed with more spacious textures. Balances are firmer in the bottom end with a far-tighter bass. Upper-mid ranges shine without harshness, and the overall depth is more immersive.  Inner details are  clearer.   On first and early pressings, the music tends to sound more ‘alive’ and vibrant.  The physics of sound energy is hard to clarify and write about from a listening perspective, but the best we can describe it is to say that you can 'hear' what the mixing and mastering engineers wanted you to hear when they first recorded the music.  

Alone Together Review

by Jim Newsom

Dave Mason's first solo album was one of several recordings to come out of the Leon Russell/Delaney & Bonnie axis in 1970. (Other notables included Eric Clapton's solo debut and Joe Cocker's Mad Dogs & Englishmen.) Alone Together contains an excellent batch of melodically pleasing songs, built on a fat bed of strumming acoustic guitars with tasteful electric guitar accents and leads. Mason's vocals are embellished with harmonies from Rita Coolidge, Claudia Lennear, and Delaney & Bonnie. Besides the well-known semi-hit "Only You Know and I Know," and which was also a number 20 hit for Delaney & Bonnie, highlights include the bouncy gospel-inflected "Waitin' on You" and the banjo-bejeweled "Just a Song." "Look at You Look at Me" and the wonderfully wah-wahed "Shouldn't Have Took More Than You Gave" are reminiscent of Mason's former band, Traffic, whose drummer, Jim Capaldi is among the all-star cast assembled here. Alone Together represents Dave Mason at his peak. Later releases would betray lyrical shallowness, forced rhymes, and clichéd guitar licks. But here, everything comes together perfectly. The original vinyl release of Alone Together was also noteworthy for the marble grain of the record itself -- as the record played on the turntable, the tone arm appeared to be floating through the clouds.