MOBY GRAPE S/T VG/VG+ 1967 Columbia 1ST PRESS CS 9498 WITH POSTER SKIP SPENCE

$

100

Vinyl:  VG/VG+ Play Graded. Sounds Very Good!  Columbia Labels are Clean and Bright.  This is the Original 1967 Columbia 1ST Pressing!  CS 9498.  This is Moby Grape's Debut! One of the oddest Debut Hypes in Rock History, wherein every song on the album was simultaneously put out as a single!?!  Some of them were stone brilliance, like "Omaha" and "Indifference", written by enigma psychedelic boy wonder, Skip Spence!  RARE Psychedelic Rock!!  One of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time!!!  allmusic gives it 5 stars!!!
See Review Below!
In the Dead Wax:  Side 1:  XSM118068-1A ((stampers))  and the glyph for Columbia's  Jacksonville, IL Pressing Plant Side 2:  XSM118069-1B  ((stampers))  and the glyph for Columbia's  Jacksonville, IL Pressing Plant
Cover: VG+ (see photos)  This is the SUPER RARE UNCENSORED Cover with Don Stevenson surreptitiously flipping the bird...this was discovered by Columbia and they quickly airbrushed the offending finger out.   Includes the HUGE (~22"x ~33") Full color Poster that makes that Middle Finger Even BIGGER!!! LOL!   Has some pin holes in the corners; still very crisp and would add super cool psychedelic cowboy into any room!   Nice high gloss on cover. Front and back of cover artwork and text are rich, clear and bright, with some shelf wear and minimal ring wear. Has some creases.  Seams, and spine are solid, with some wear.  Corners have wear, with the top left corner being the most worn.  No split seams.  No writing.  Spine print is worn.  Band/title is mostly there:  It appears as  MOBY  RA E.

Goldmine Standards.   I play grade every record that I sell on eBay as I have found you can't rate an LP accurately by just visually inspecting an album.  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:  FREE domestic shipping!  Includes tracking.  Combine any additional items and they're also shipped FREE!  If you wish to take advantage of my COMBINED SHIPPING deal, simply select your items 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.   
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!  I CAN COMBINE SHIP FOR YOU AND MINIMIZE SHIPPING COSTS!!!  IF YOU TELL ME WHICH ITEMS YOU WANT TO BUY, I CAN WEIGH THEM AND THE PACKAGING TOGETHER AND THEN GO IN AND ADJUST THE LISTINGS ACCORDINGLY TO REFLECT THE EXACT WEIGHT OF THE COMBINED SHIPMENT!  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.
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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.   

AllMusic Review by Mark Deming  [-]

Moby Grape's career was a long, sad series of minor disasters, in which nearly anything that could have gone wrong did (poor handling by their record company, a variety of legal problems, a truly regrettable deal with their manager, creative and personal differences among the bandmembers, and the tragic breakdown of guitarist and songwriter Skip Spence), but their self-titled debut album was their one moment of unqualified triumph. Moby Grape is one of the finest (perhaps the finest) album to come out of the San Francisco psychedelic scene, brimming with great songs and fresh ideas while blessedly avoiding the pitfalls that pockmarked the work of their contemporaries -- no long, unfocused jams, no self-indulgent philosophy, and no attempts to sonically re-create the sound of an acid trip. Instead, Moby Grape built their sound around the brilliantly interwoven guitar work of Jerry Miller, Peter Lewis, and Skip Spence, and the clear, bright harmonies of all five members (drummer Don Stevenson and bassist Bob Mosely sang just as well as they held down the backbeat). As songwriters, Moby Grapeblended straight-ahead rock & roll, smart pop, blues, country, and folk accents into a flavorful brew that was all their own, with a clever melodic sense that reflected the lysergic energy surrounding them without drowning in it. And producer David Rubinson got it all on tape in a manner that captured the band's infectious energy and soaring melodies with uncluttered clarity, while subtly exploring the possibilities of the stereo mixing process. "Omaha," "Fall on You," "Hey Grandma," and "8:05" sound like obvious hits (and might have been if Columbia hadn't released them as singles all at once), but the truth is there isn't a dud track to be found here, and time has been extremely kind to this record. Moby Grape is as refreshing today as it was upon first release, and if fate prevented the group from making a follow-up that was as consistently strong, for one brief shining moment Moby Grape proved to the world they were one of America's great bands. While history remembers the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane as being more important, the truth is neither group ever made an album quite this good.