Sold Date: June 11, 2018
Start Date: August 3, 2016
Final Price: $49.99 (USD)
Seller Feedback: 49
Buyer Feedback: 23

Here's an original copy of outsider-music legend Elva Ruby Miller's rare last album from 1968 on the small Amaret Records label after Capitol Records dropped her.

The album is in stereo. The musical arrangements are quite enjoyable -- they're somewhat reminiscent of Mama Cass' solo career. The backing vocals on "Granny Bopper" are more redolent of Serge Gainsbourg's Anna soundtrack or that "I'm So Young" song from Smashing Time. Mrs. Miller's singing, on the other hand, is indescribable.

The cover shows Mrs. Miller in a psychedelic dress offering the listener a plate of suspiciously green brownies, and the songs on side two are basically a series of barely veiled allusions to cannabis use -- Mrs. Miller later claimed she was unaware of the implications. So apparently the record producers thought it would be totally high-larious to trick a sweet little old lady into singing DOPE-FIEND ANTHEMS… which doesn't even make all that much sense when you think about it, because there were probably plenty of sweet little old ladies and gentlemen who had indulged in the demon reefer decades earlier during the jazz era, right? Whatever, I doubt much hippie humor stands up to such serious scrutiny.

The inner sleeve has ads for some 1960s London/Parrot/Deram releases -- Wikipedia says that London Records did some of the distribution for Amaret, so the inner sleeve is presumably original.

The handwritten matrix number on the run-out etching says ST-5000-1 (REI) on side 1 and ST-5000-2-(REI) on side 2.

The song "Mary Jane" was allegedly used in the film Maryjane (1968), which I haven't bothered to watch, but apparently it stars FABIAN as a high school teacher who gets framed for marijuana possession. This is not the same song as "Mary Jane" by Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera (or "Mary Jane" by Rick James, or "What's the New Mary Jane" by the Beatles, for that matter).

At one point Mrs. Miller performed for American troops in Vietnam. I don't think this has ever been portrayed in a war movie, but it should be.

The back cover says:

Mrs. Miller is an experience that should happen to everyone once.

We don't mean just seeing or hearing Mrs. Miller. We mean being a Mrs. Miller, and having that elusive, magic chance we all dream about. The chance to do your own thing, whatever it may be.

Mrs. Miller's thing is singing. Singing her heart out. And it's all she's ever wanted to do.

Go back a few years. Singing was still her thing, but there was no one to listen. Success in the music world was limited to a chosen few. Beautfiul [sic] people who looked just right or sounded just right and always seemed as though they'd just come from a refreshing dip in a vat of plastic.

Things are different now. In the mid sixties, a chain reaction of mind-blowing and time-changing young musicians began to explode all over the world. They were open, honest and real. And their communication with their audiences was both instantaneous and permanent.

Suddenly, the lamination process was over. Music was no longer a spectator sport. It was a game the whole family could play.

Five years ago, Mrs. Miller's success couldn't have happened, and it's a compliment to our times that it can now. That she can get up on a stage or stand in front of a recording studio microphone and let it all hang out without being afraid or uptight about what she has to offer.

What she has to offer is herself, and she offers same on this album. In her own inimitable style, she socks a selection of songs to you. Songs that are somtimes [sic] funny, sometimes hip, and sometimes both.

In other words, she does her own thing. Don't you wish everybody would?

This has apparently never been released on CD.

I'm a complete novice at record rating, but judging from Goldmine's guides, I'd say the cover is good -- there's obvious ring wear, significant wear on all seams, a split measuring maybe an inch or inch and a half on the right end of the top seam, scuffing, yellowing, and the remnants of some kind of sticker on the upper left side of the back cover. Inner sleeve is yellowed and partially split on two edges. I'd rate the record itself as very good -- there's some surface noise that doesn't really detract from the listening experience, maybe one or two popping sounds, and possibly some groove wear judging from the sound, but if so, it's not very much at all. Appearance-wise, there are some minor scratches and wear on the vinyl and spindle marks on the label, but the record is still quite shiny.

Feel free to ask questions!



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