Sold Date: December 26, 2024
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PINK FLOYD 'DARK SIDE OF THE MOON' COMPLETE VERY EARLY US PRESSING COMPLETE w/ 2 POSTERS 2 STICKERS & HYPE STICKER
PINK FLOYD "THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON" LABEL:  HARVEST  SMAS-11163 RELEASED: MARCH 1, 1973 VERY EARLY U.S. PRESSING w/ EARLY 'PATENT'  LABELS AND EARLY 'TYPO' JACKET GATEFOLD w/ HYPE STICKER, 2 POSTERS & 2 STICKERS RECORDED AT ABBEY ROAD STUDIOS ~ LONDON ~ JUNE 1972 - JANUARY 1973 MASTERED AT CAPITOL MASTERING MASTERING / LACQUERS: WALLY TRAUGOTT ('Wly') & KEN PERRY ('KP') RECORDING ENGINEER: ALAN PARSONS CAPITOL RECORDS PRESSING PLANT ~ HOLLYWOOD  (✲ IN MATRIX) ALBUM JACKET DESIGN:  HIPGNOSOS STICKER AND RECORD SLEEVE ART: GEORGE HARDIE PUBLISHING: TRO-HAMPSHIRE HOUSE PUBLISHING CORP. MATRIX (SIDE A): 1-11163-F-29: MASTERED BY CAPITOL 'KP' 2 MATRIX (SIDE B): 2-11163-F-9••  3 ✲ 'Wly' 
CONDITION: VINYL: VG+      JACKET: EX-to EX      POSTERS & STICKERS: EX- to EX ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I've been going thru my massive vinyl record collection these past few weeks and pulling out some LPs that I thought that someone else would want for their collection. I've been collecting records for over 45 years and it's time to pass some of them on to the next generation of collectors.
This week on EBay I am offering up this very early, original, complete, US Pressing of Pink Floyd's classic 'Dark Side of the Moon'. A record that everyone should have in their collection.   This is a clean, complete, early pressing and comes with both posters, both stickers, and a hype sticker.
This has an early jacket with the text typos and is pressed with the early Harvest 'patent number' labels.
See much more on this album's specifics and condition below.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "The Dark Side Of The Moon" was the 8th studio album to be released by Pink Floyd. 
The album was recorded in two sessions in May 1972 and February 1973 at EMI Studios, now called Abbey Road Studios, in London. It took approximately 60 days and was completed on February 9th, 1973.
'The Dark Side Of The Moon' was released in the US in early March and a week later in the UK. Just 4 days after its release, it hit #1 on the Billboard charts.
Although it didn't stay at the top of the charts for long, it remained in the Billboard top 200 albums chart for over 800 nonconsecutive weeks (from March 1973 to July 1988), becoming one of the best selling Rock albums of all time.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Early on, Pink Floyd conceived 'Dark Side of the Moon' as a concept album that would focus on the pressures and struggles that people faced, not only the band, but all people, during their lifetime.
The album's songs reflect the various stages of human life and explore the nature of the human experience.
The album's lyrical and musical themes include conflict, greed, the passage of time, mental illness, and ultimately insanity and death.
Former close friend and bandmate Syd Barrett, who left the group in 1968 after dealing with mental health issues and a quickly deteriorating mental state, was constantly on Roger Waters and the Band's minds as they conceived and wrote this album.
'Dark Side' loosely follows the life of a character, generally based on Syd, who battles the challenges and anxieties of daily life, struggling to make sense and find meaning, ultimately failing, and going insane, becoming the 'lunatic' that many of the album's songs describe.
Pink Floyd intended this album to be one cohesive piece of music, so the first and last sounds you hear on the album are a human heartbeat, which gives the album a sort of life of its own, a beginning and an end.
Although one doesn't typically think of a rock album that's essentially a musical tale of death, madness and disillusionment to become a top selling record, it somehow works, and works well. Pink Floyd was able to turn 'Dark Side of the Moon' into one of the classic, most iconic, and best selling rock albums of all time.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As I said, Pink Floyd intended this album to be one cohesive piece of music, so each side is presented as one long continuous piece of music which flows seamlessly.
The first side of the album ends with "The Great Gig in the Sky" which features Clare Torry's iconic voice singing over Rick Wright's simple, somber, emotive, solo piano work. She improvised her performance on the spot and created a heartfelt, wailing, soulful, wordless metaphor for death.
Her vocal performance really makes 'Great Gig' 'her' song. 
At the time, she was only paid the standard Union wage of £30 for her work, twice the normal amount as it was recorded 'off hours'. In 2005 she sued Pink Floyd and was, rightfully, awarded 50% writing credits for her contribution to the song.
Side two opens with 'Money'. Money is one of the things that can drive people mad, but also can help alleviate the stresses and burdens of life. Roger Waters wrote the ironic lyrics that both criticize and glorify the power of money and capitalism. 
With its unusual 7/4 time signature, tape loops of ringing cash registers and jingling coins, and other sound effects, it's an amazing song utilizing Alan Parson's mastery of studio technique and precise tape editing. 
Released as a single, it became the band's first hit in the United States.
Pink Floyd knew they wanted to record their new album with all the latest studio technology that Abbey Road could offer and 'Money' is one of the songs on the album that is technically perfect, studio-wise. 
The group used extensive multitrack recording, tape loops, reverse tape, and analogue synthesizers like the Synthi A, and experiments using the new Poney EMS VCS 3 synthesizer.
The music on 'Dark Side' had a modern, advanced, electronic, and extensively layered sound, all of which was captured, recorded and blended perfectly by Recording Engineer Alan Parsons.
Parsons, although responsible for many of the sounds and technical aspects of the recording, didn't get much credit at the time.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 'Dark Side of the Moon' is performed by:
DAVID GILMOUR: Electric & Acoustic Guitars, Vocals, Synthesizers (VCS-3 & Synthis AKS)
ROGER WATERS: Most Lyrics, Bass Guitar, Guitars, Synthesizers (VCS-3), Tape & Studio effects, Vocals 
NICK MASON: Drums, Percussion, Tape effects
RICHARD WRIGHT: Keyboards including Hammond organ, Piano, Farfisa organ, Rhodes electric piano,                                        EMS VCS 3, Wurlitzer electric piano, Synthi AKS, Vocals
DICK PARRY: Saxophones
CLARE TORRY: Stunning, soulful vocals on "Great Gig in the Sky".
Though not credited in the liner notes, Doris Troy, Barry St. John, Lesley Duncan, and Liza Strike perform backing vocals on several tracks.
~~~~~~~ Near the end of recording, looking for some spoken word pieces to weave through and inter-connect certain segments of the album, Roger Waters asked members of the road crew and other staff at Abbey Road to respond to questions about  themes central to the album, including those of madness, violence, and death, printed on flashcards.
Questions such as "Have you ever been mad (insane)?", "When was the last time you were violent?", followed immediately by "Were you in the right?"
Snippets of some of their answers were recorded, and then edited and woven into the final mix at various points throughout the album.
Roadie Chris Adamson offered the words that open the album: "I've been mad for fucking years. Absolutely years. Over the edge..."
Roadie Roger 'The Hat' Manifold answered one question about death "Live for today, gone tomorrow, that's me ..."
Henry McCullough, guitarist with Paul McCartney, who was hanging around the studio offered "I don't know, I was really drunk at the time."
The album's closing statement "There is no dark side of the moon really. Matter of fact, it's all dark" – came from Abbey Roads studios' Irish doorman, Gerry O'Driscoll.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Early releases of this album came complete with two posters and two colored stickers inside the gatefold sleeve, all designed by the U.K. graphics and design company Hipgnosis. George Hardie designed the artwork for the stickers.
The two postcard sized stickers have Pyramid themes and have the same 6-panel artistic design, just printed in different color schemes. One is Yellow and one one is a Golden brown color. Each panel has letters that together spell out 'Pink Floyd'.
There are two large, 6-panel, foldout posters, designed and  created by Hipgnosis, included. One featuring 'green' infrared photographs of the Great Pyramids of Giza, which I can tell you from personal teenage experience, look more 'natural' colored when viewed under a blacklight, and a second poster made up of a collage of squares of photos of the band members live in concert, each square containing several scattered letters, that together spell out 'PINK FLOYD', just like the panels on the stickers.
The earliest stickers were each individually printed. Each had a printing & color 'justification' strip printed along the left edge, and each sticker and poster had their own catalog number (11163-1, 2, 3 and 4).
Later 70's pressings still had the posters and stickers, but they weren't individually numbered, the gold-tone color of the one sticker was replaced by a tan color, and the stickers were printed together on a single sheet rather than individually.
Also the quality and colors of the posters dropped off over time. Early posters, like these, have much sharper images and more realistic, life-like images of the band members. For example, Rick Wright has an intense psychedelicized look and stares right into your eyes, an effect that is more washed-out and 'lost' on later printings.  
By the 1980's many copies of this album, while still using Gatefold jackets, no longer came with the extra posters and stickers. 
The full set of posters and stickers re-appeared time to time over the years on 'special' releases but nothing beats an original early set.
The stickers in early UK releases had alternating light brown and dark brown diagonal stripes on the back and were marked with the Fasson "Crack 'n Peel" logo. I'm not sure if the Fasson stickers were ever used in U.S. pressings, but in nearly 50 years of record collecting I've never seen them in any early U.S. pressings. The earliest US stickers I've ever seen had plain Tan backs and were individually printed. Later stickers had a white backing and were printed in blocks of two.
This record comes complete with both original tan-back stickers, both original posters, and an early hype sticker. 
They are all in excellent condition. The posters have never been hung, have sharp clean corners, great colors, and only minimal edge wear, from shifting around inside the record jacket on my shelves for the past 50 years.
This rare early pressing also comes with a round black DSOTM hype sticker that was attached to the shrink wrap of some copies. The early hype stickers say 'Made in the USA'. This one is in great condition and still attached to a bit of shrink wrap.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ALBUM COVER ART
The instantly recognizable and iconic cover for the album was designed by the creative minds at Hipgnosis. The front shows a beam of light being split into it's full spectrum of colors which continues thru onto the inner gatefold where it cleverly includes individual visual 'heartbeats', like an EKG.
The back of the album cover contains Storm Thorgerson's idea of another prism recombining the spectrum of light back into a single beam again.
Storm thought it would be a clever way for record stores to display the album, lined up next to each other, continuing the beam of light and uniting multiple copies of the record as one long chain or trail of light. 
I can remember several record stores doing just that, way back in the day, when this was a 'new' release.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ THE VARIOUS EARLY U.S. PRESSINGS OF 'DARK SIDE OF THE MOON'
'The Dark Side Of The Moon' was released in the US in early March 1973 and was quickly a hit record and sold well. Despite high sales and high demand, the basic album design and packaging wasn't really updated and repressed in large numbers until early 1975, which has led to several different early versions being called 'First Pressings' or 'First releases'.
The highly sought-after UK Harvest first pressing has the famous solid blue triangular prism on the labels, and sells for thousands of dollars, but there are no 'Solid Blue' triangle U.S. pressings.
The very first US releases have a matte black Harvest label with the triangular "blue outline prism" label design.
Unlike the 'solid blue' triangle UK First pressing, early US pressings of 'Dark Side of the Moon' all look rather similar and are somewhat difficult and complicated to figure out, as there were several early labels used, several similar early jackets used, and 2 different early mastering engineers involved, Wally Traugott and Ken Perry.
Add to that the various Capitol pressing plants involved and their individual characteristics, and the number of different early pressings of 'Dark Side of the Moon' becomes mind boggling. There are more copies of 'Dark Side' listed on Discogs than any other album.
I'll try to help clarify the mess.
There were several different record jackets used for the earliest releases of 'Dark Side', all Gatefold style.
The very first jackets can easily be identified by having the "Copyright TRO Hampshire House Publishing Corp. All rights reserved. INTERPAK Pats. Pending." text located at the bottom right corner inside the gatefold.
Several months after its first release, by the late summer of 1973, the 'INTERPAK' at the bottom right corner of the gatefold was gone and it now read "Copyright TRO Hampshire House Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.", like this copy.
The next way to tell the early jackets apart from one another is by the errors and typos in the jacket's printing and text.
This early jacket has the typo in the lyrics to 'Money' printed inside the gatefold, with the line "I'm all right Jack keep your hands of my stack". It has 'of' printed instead of 'off'. 
This early jacket also lists recording engineer as "Peter Jones" instead of his correct name Peter James.
Those errors were soon corrected, making this copy an early pressing.
Early pressings had the catalog number, SMAS 11163 printed in small letters in the top center of the back cover, and the text at the bottom of the back cover, under the Harvest logo, had '℗ 1973 The Gramophone Company Ltd.' and a tiny 'printed in U.S.A' underneath.
That was the cover used up until the first major re-pressings and re-issues were done in 1975.
~~~~ In addition to the jackets, the record labels themselves underwent several changes early on as well.
The First Pressing and earliest pressings have labels with rim text that starts at 8 O'clock and reads: "Mfd. by Capitol Records, Inc., a subsidiary of Capitol Industries, Inc., U.S.A. • Ⓡ [Capitol dome logo] Marca Reg. • U.S. Pat. No. 2,631,859". This copy has those early labels.
Starting in 1975 with the first re-pressings, the rim text became longer, started at 10 O'clock, and contains the "All Rights Reserved" notice, no mention of a patent, and no Capitol 'dome' logo.
There are many pressings of this album out in record stores and 'in the wild', and they all look very similar. A quick easy way to tell a very early pressing of this album is by the short rim text that includes the Patent number.
Due to this album's high demand when first released, Capitol also used 2 of their best mastering engineers to cut the lacquers for making stampers. Early pressings of this album typically have Wally Traugott's 'Wly' or 'Wally' mastering mark or Ken Perry's 'KP' mastering mark, or combinations of the two, depending on what stampers the pressing plant were using at the time. These can be identified by their unique 'marks' etched in the vinyl run-off area and the boldly stamped 'MASTERED BY CAPITOL' mark that was added starting in mid 1973.
This version has a split mastering: The "Wly" in side two's runout denotes that it was mastered by Wally Traugott and the "KP" in side one's runout denotes that it was mastered by  Ken Perry. This 'split' mastering was not uncommon on early pressings as Capitol were cranking out pressings to fill demand and used whatever plates and stampers they had on hand.
The sound quality on these early pressings was fantastic and amazing, regardless of who mastered it, Wally or Ken, but what is more important to collectors and audiophiles is how 'fresh' the stampers were; how close to the original master tape the stampers were.
In the matrix information, the inclusion of the 'F' denotes that the high quality Neumann lathe at Capitol's Tower Mastering was used to cut the lacquer. The lower the F number, the earlier and 'fresher/cleaner' the lacquer and stampers and the better the sound.
Any etched numbers after the 'F' represents the number of the Mother made from that lacquer to press the record.
Obviously, fans and audiophiles want the lowest 'F' and lowest Mother numbers to get the best sound from the record.
The F numbers in the matrix of this pressing are F9 and F29, relatively low lacquer numbers, with no following numbers, meaning the first 'mothers' from those lacquers were used to press this record.
I've seen early pressings of 'Dark Side of the Moon' with F numbers up into the 70's and 80's, and in the mid 1970's the original Neumann cutting lathe was replaced and Capitol started using 'G' instead of F to represent that new equipment. Looking at all the listings on Discogs, you can see all sorts of F and G numbers. It's crazy.
I know this seems like a lot of 'Nerdy' and irrelevant information. After all, as we say, "It's the music that matters" but I just wanted to point out what a rare, early pressing this copy of 'Dark Side' is.
~~~~~~~~ Summing all this up, this copy of 'Dark Side of the Moon', while not a true First Pressing, is a very early pressing, with an early gatefold jacket that contains the typo errors, the early record label with the Patent number, and is complete with both early stickers, both early posters and even has a Hype sticker.
Everything is in fantastic, clean, original condition. This has been in my personal collection since I purchased it as a 'new release' in the summer of 1973 and I've taken great care of it for 50 years.
You just don't find copies like this every day and it would be a fantastic addition to any Pink Floyd or 70's rock vinyl collection.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CONDITION: I tried to show good hi-resolution photos of the cover, labels and vinyl in my pictures.
I purchased this copy back in the the early 70's, shortly after it's release, 50 years ago, on one of my regular vinyl digs in those days, and have taken great care of it since.
VINYL: The vinyl still looks very nice, clean and shiny. There is some mild evidence of play, a few hairlines and a few superficial scuffs, but no significant flaws. No serious scuffs, palpable scratches, or dings. It's been played a few times over the years, but always well taken care of. It still looks great. I'll call it at least VG+.
The Deadwax has the early etched matrix numbers, both the "Wly" on side two for Wally Traugott and the small "KP" on side one for Ken Perry's mastering, and the '✲' for Capitol's Hollywood pressing plant. 
See the full Matrix numbers above.
I tried to show some close-up pictures of the vinyl to show how good it still looks. Not perfect, but still very clean and I'm sure you'll be happy with it.
I haven't messed with it or cleaned it, other than my trusty 'DiscWasher' brush, in 50 years, since Nixon was in office. It could use a good deep cleaning to make it even better looking and better sounding than it already is. 
LABELS: This is pressed with the 'classic' matte black Harvest labels with the the triangular "blue outline prism" label design. It has the early rim text with the Patent number.
The labels are clean and bright. No marks or damage. The spindle holes are still sharp and clean, suggesting minimal playing and my careful handling over the years.
JACKET: As you can see from my pictures, this still looks fantastic for a 50 year old copy. 
Usually these all black jackets show significant wear, fingerprints, scuffs, damage and ringwear, but this copy still looks terrific. It was protected by the shrink wrap for most of it's life, but that finally fell off back in the 90's. 
These albums were typically played to death under unusual, sub-optimal conditions, so clean jackets and vinyl are quite rare. I took care of my records, even 50 years ago, and this one survived quite well. It's a beauty!
The prism artwork is bold and bright, the colors just Pop and the corners are relatively sharp. No seam splits and the spine is straight.
The inner gatefold is clean and bright. No stains, marks or issues.
The surface of the jacket is still fantastic. These are almost always found with dents, dings and scratches, which are hard to hide on this all black cover. No marks, names, writing or stains. A nice survivor.
This record has been stored in a poly-lined inner and outer sleeve and stored properly for decades. As you can see from my pictures, is still quite nice for an early pressing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 'Dark Side of the Moon' is one of the best-selling albums of all time and is often prominently featured in listings of the greatest albums of all time, deservedly so. 
'Dark Side' was, and still is, an amazing, well crafted record which flows perfectly from beginning to end. It captured a rare snapshot of Pink Floyd working at the peak of their creativity. 
Sadly, 'Dark Side of the Moon' marked the beginning of creative struggles within the band which would come to plague their future work and eventually cause their acrimonious demise. 
If you like 70's rock and collect records, you really need this absolutely essential album in your collection.
Add this classic, very early, complete, clean, copy of 'Dark Side of the Moon' to your collection today.
~~~~~~ ** NOTE: I'm selling this rare 'Collector' record "AS IS" and "NO RETURN". It's rare and as described and I'm sure you'll be very happy with it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I’m recently retired and downsizing and letting go some gems and rarities from nearly 45 years of vinyl record collecting. Check out the many other fantastic 45s and 33s coming soon to my page!
All records have been carefully evaluated and graded by me. I visually inspect all records under bright light, personally gently clean them with a soft cloth and then, if unsure, play them on a modern high-end turntable to get a true picture of condition. 
Please look at all the high-resolution pictures I added. They are all my own and are of the actual record being sold. The pictures are part of the description and can show small details, label variations, and condition better than I can put into words. 
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THANK YOU for looking and reading if you got this far. 
HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO YOU AND YOURS AND WE WISH YOU MUCH PEACE AND PROSPERITY IN THE YEAR TO COME!! ~~ JOHN