JIMI HENDRIX: ELECTRIC LADYLAND, BLUE TEXT, EARLIEST ORIGINAL UK TRACK VINYL
£
214
$
283
Favourite Auctions
To save auctions to your favourites, please login
If you don't have an account, please register
Description
On offer here is an ultra rare 'blue text' copy of the very first pressing of Jimi Hendrix's double masterwork, the blissed out blues-psych of Electric Ladyland on UK Track (613008/9) of 1968. And it's a highly revealing copy too!
These earliest original electric blue print versions of the vinyl album are the Holy Grail for Hendrix collectors as they were only available for a matter of days before being rapidly withdrawn and replaced with the more familiar white print covers. But why did they disappear so swiftly? This particular first print cover reveals the truth.
On this example you can clearly see that the famed blue text is actually a clumsy factory overprinting of a pre-press publishing error. The blue print was used in an attempt to cover up an entirely different (and incorrect) order of titles on this brilliant album. The very first issue cover on offer here clearly reveals that the sought-after blue text was only used in an effort to mask an early mistake at the factory concerning the order of titles on the album.
Quite clearly the running order on the very first batch of Electric Ladyland covers was set up wrongly, with an incorrect order of song titles. But rather than binning this incorrect batch, a decision was made to overprint the incorrect order of titles with the now revered blue text.
However, the original text was not fully covered up by the overprinted blue text on the laminated gatefold sleeve on offer here, which very clearly reveals the original running order exposed beneath. Here you can see that Electric Ladyland might have started with 'Still Raining, Still Dreaming'. You can see this original track listing in the background, behind the overprinted blue text on this sleeve. The not fully obliterated original text states: 'Side A: 1. Still Raining, Still Dreaming.' And that would have been silly, because 'Still Raining, Still Dreaming' obviously needs to follow 'Rainy Day, Dream Away', which - according to the incorrect text still showing up behind the overprinted blue text - would previously have opened Side B (the not-quite-covered-up text on this album sleeve states: 'Side B: 1, Rainy day, dream away').
There are other changes too (all four sides' titles are clearly overprinted, so you can see what the original track listing might have been, but fortunately wasn't, due to this last minute blue text correction at the factory).
Blue on black text, of course, is hardly the most readable, so as soon as these corrected first issue covers were used up, it would have been a case of getting back to good old tried-and-tested white on black. Though why subsequent white text covers featured reduced sized photos of Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell is another mystery in itself.
So the blue text saga of Electric Ladyland is not so much a matter of design style but rather a hurried salvage operation to rescue someone's mistake!
This first pressing comes complete with its very first pressing Track discs featuring the tell-tale inverted serial numbers on the labels and a full set of 1/1/1/1 suffixes to the matrices so the set is the earliest you can obtain and all entirely complete and in order as you would expect. The discs are in at least VG+ condition, with just a few light marks here and there (and certainly no deep scratches) while the spindle marks indicate only a moderate amount of careful play. These discs lie perfectly flat on the turntable and deliver the sound you would expect from first pressing discs manufactured from as close to the original masters as you could wish for.
Condition of this blue text laminated gatefold sleeve is VG-. There are no tears or unwanted rips and no writing but there is some unfortunate wear along the top of the spine where the laminate has split and worn away (see photos) plus wear along the bottom edge of the front panel and some localised creasing.
Any questions, just ask (I don't broadcast your queries) and good luck if you are bidding.
Swift payment appreciated at close of auction please.
Please also check out my other items.
price rating
