DAVID BOWIE TMWSTW MERCURY REC THE DRAG COVER NO RES

	£		260
	$		345

 This is an ORIGINAL release of David Bowie`s classic rock album from 1971 The Man Who Sold The World on Mercury records .

  Infamously known as the Dress cover or Drag sleeve due obviously to Bowie`s garb on the front sleeve .To me this magnificent sleeve designed by the great Marcus Keef of Philips Mercury Vertigo , is a total atmospheric work of art , making it the best album sleeve I have ever seen .

Back in 71 on its release this great LP was a total flop so the first original pressing was done in tiny numbers . Since the sucess of Ziggy in 72 everybody wanted to track down Bowie`s earlier works making these rare originals very highly prized by collectors .

Spotting a gap in the market and due to the high prices this LP brings in 1978 the Japs created a superb forgery of this . After that in 83 the Italians made a bad forgery of this LP hoping to feed demand for this rarety .

Heres how to tell the difference between the Jap fake and this the English original :

1) The counterfeit has a sheeny texture to it , the original has a matt texture which is more defined . The colours on the counterfeit are much paler like the EMI/Rycodisc re-release who strangely used the counterfeit for their artwork.

2) The clock on the right hand side of the sleeve is hardly there on the counterfeit whereas on the original has over half the clock on it . Bowie`s foot goes right to the end of the sleeve on the fake where on the original there is a centimetre or so more sleeve- this is the usual method in telling the two appart .

3) The counterfeit`s back cover is very pale , again the original is a much more defined grey.

4) The spine has Mercury , title and catalouge number running from right to left on the counterfeit whereas the original has them running from left to right , this is if you are holding the cover face up !

5) The inner sleeve is white on the counterfeit and grey on the original and i`m talking about the ACTUAL sleeve and not the paper inner sleeve !

6) The label on the counterfeit is a lighter black than the original, also the typset on the countefeit is taller and thinner , it also has an `R` circled near the date 1971 rather than the propper `P` , other than that the fake is very good !

7) The matrix on the runout groove is larger on the fake not so well stamped and omits 420 from the numbers , additionally the matrix faces the label rather than pointing away from it as on the original .

         So theres the proof that this is the authentic original . Double click the pictures , this sleeve is in very respectable condition . By its nature this sleeve is very flimsy and very delicate so prone to damage .Since first attending record fairs back in 1978 I have been lucky enough to have 33 of these pass through my hands .In all that time and of so many dress covers I have only seen 2 that are truly mint . A mint one of these is a rare rare find . So condition wise this one is not too bad .

The colours are still very bright and clean . Theres a few blemishes and ware but nothing to spoil it and I think it would be acceptable to most collectors .

There is some ware to the spine but no rips or tares anywhere . The record has a few hairlines on both sides but I test played this record twice and it really plays SUPERBLY . No faults at all , no skips no sticking and it definatly plays Mint- .If you double click the picture of the label on side 1 you can see where an anitials has been writen but they are very small about 4 mm and in black so its not too bad.

The album and sleeve I would

grade as very good + .

On the sleeve credits they spell Woody Woodmanseys name wrong and on the label they also spelt Tony Visconti`s name incorrectly . They spell it as Tonny .A few years ago I asked Visconti did he notice this at the time .

 He said " when you finish an album you go all over it and you notice everything, David went nuts about it ,he thought Philips Mercury was a tacky label".

Tony continued " back then I was a nobody and treated as such," He also said he was blown away when he mentioned it ,Mercury corrected the error .

  A very interesting and rare Bowie collectable .

Penny start and NO RESERVE !

P+P is £5.60 First Class recorded inland .

Special delivery is £6.50

To Germany its £9.50

To the US its £12.40