THE KINKS Muswell Hillbillies VG+ 1971 RCA LSP-4644 1ST PRESS! RAY DAVIES

Sold Date: October 14, 2021
Start Date: February 17, 2021
Final Price: $25.99 (USD)
Seller Feedback: 1515
Buyer Feedback: 0



Vinyl:  VG+ Play Graded. Sounds Great!  Labels are Clean and Bright.  This is the 1971 RCA 1ST PRESSING!  LSP-4644.  The Kinks during (one of) their finest hours!  They were still banned from the U.S. at this point so they did the next best thing: demonstrate how the British at their best can outdo the Americans at their very own music...with style and cool work ups...a Lost Classic!   allmusic gives it 4 1/2 stars!!
See Review Below!
In the Dead Wax:  Side 1:  APRS-5984 2S A1    
Side 2:  APRS 5985 2S 1  A1  
Cover:  VG+  (see photos)  Gatefold.  Nice gloss on cover. Front and back of cover artwork and text are rich and bright, with some ring wear and a notch cut. Seams, corners and spine are solid and clean, with some wear.  No splits.  No writing.  The spine print is readable.
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:  $4.25 Media Mail.  Tracking included.   50 cents additional shipping per additional item, when the shipment is combined.   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.  Free domestic shipping if you spend $100 or more!  
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. 
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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 Stephen Thomas Erlewine 

How did  respond to the fresh start afforded by ? By delivering a skewed, distinctly British, cabaret take on Americana, all pinned down by ' loose autobiography and intense yearning to be anywhere else but here -- or, as he says on the opening track, "I'm a 20th century man, but I don't want to be here." Unlike its predecessors,  doesn't overtly seem like a concept album -- there are no stories as there are on  -- but each song undoubtedly shares a similar theme, namely the lives of the working class. Cleverly, the music is a blend of American and British roots music, veering from rowdy blues to boozy vaudeville. There's as much good humor in the performances as there are in ' songs, which are among his savviest and funniest. They're also quite affectionate, a fact underpinned by the heartbreaking "Oklahoma U.S.A.," one of the starkest numbers  ever penned, seeming all the sadder surrounded by the careening country-rock and music hall. That's the key to  -- it mirrors the messy flow of life itself, rolling from love letters and laments to jokes and family reunions. Throughout it all, ' songwriting is at a peak, as are  themselves. There are a lot of subtle shifts in mood and genre on the album, and the band pulls it off effortlessly and joyously. Regardless of its commercial fate,  stands as one of ' best albums.