JIMI HENDRIX : ELECTRIC LADYLAND, BLUE TEXT TRACK ORIG

	£		297
	$		394

JIMI HENDRIX: ELECTRIC LADYLAND

'RIDDLE OF THE BLUE TEXT' SOLVED ONCE AND FOR ALL!

COVER-UP OF MISTAKE AT FACTORY REVEALED!!!

On offer here is a gorgeous example 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 telling issue too!

These ultra rare original print blue text versions of the vinyl album are of course the Holy Grail for Hendrix collectors as they were only available for a matter of days before being rapidly withdrawn and replaced with the more familiar white print covers.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 ... and the chaos that actually went on at the factory.

Have a look at my detail photos of the album titles and you can clearly see that the so-so desirable first print blue text is actually an overprinting of a factory mistake. The blue text was used to cover up an entirely different (and wrong!) order of titles on this monumental album. This very first issue cover reveals that the sought-after blue text was only used to mask an early mistake at the factory concerning the order of titles on the album.

Quite clearly the very first batch of Electric Ladyland covers was set up wrongly, with an incorrect order of song titles. But rather than binning these, someone who obviously cared about recycling and the environment, decided they would overprint the incorrect order of titles, and that blue text was the way to go.

However, the original text was not fully covered up by the overprinted blue text on the laminated gatefold sleeve on offer here, and it clearly reveals that if the mistake hadn't been spotted, Electric Ladyland would have opened with 'Still Raining, Still Dreaming'. You can see this original track listing in the background, behind the overprinted blue text on this sleeve. This not fully obliterated original text states: 'Side A: 1. Still Raining, Still Dreaming.' And that would of course have been ridiculous, because 'Still Raining, Still Dreaming' could only ever have followed 'Rainy Day, Dream Away', which - according to the incorrect text still showing up behind the overprinted blue text - would have opened Side B (the relevant 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 of titles are clearly overprinted, so you can see what the original track listing would have been, but fortunately wasn't, due to this last minute blue text correction at the factory).

But blue text on a black background is hardly the most readable, so as soon as these corrected first issue covers were used up, it was a case of getting back to good old white on black text (a similar readability problem occurred with first pressings of Dark Side of the Moon). Though why subsequent white text covers featured reduced sized photos of Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell is another mystery which perhaps someone else can explain).

I hope this helps to clear up the blue text saga of Electric Ladyland ... not so much a matter of style or choice then but a last ditch salvage operation to rescue someone's mistake!

Condition of this lovely first pressing laminated gatefold sleeve is a comfortable EX-. There is no spinal wear whatsoever (so often a problem with this nude cover sleeve, which is regularly found 'reverse folded' to conceal the outer cover), with just a couple of minor creases and no tears or unwanted rips or writing or indeed anything else untoward, and just some tiny areas on one edge of the inside gatefold which have lost a little of their blackness due to sticking together during storage over the years.

This first pressing cover 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 all entirely complete and in order as you would expect. The discs are in at least VG+ condition, with moderate spindle marks indicating they have enjoyed a certain 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.

Any questions, just ask (I don't broadcast your queries). And please check out my feedback and previous listings if you wish to reassure yourself of my ability to accurately assess rare vinyl. Also please contact me first for likely postal costs if you are bidding from outside the UK. And good luck!

Payment required at end of auction please.

PS: Lots more rare stuff coming up over the next few days (see my final photo).