FRANK ZAPPA/MOTHERS Uncle Meat SCARCE US BIZARRE EX+ LPs, SUPER SOUND & COVER.

Sold Date: June 23, 2019
Start Date: June 18, 2019
Final Price: £20.00 (GBP)
Bid Count: 4
Seller Feedback: 8748
Buyer Feedback: 277


ONEADAYRECORDS – Simply Delivering Quality Music to the World in Quality, Safe Packing.

Postage: UK £4.75 (£1 per extra record). Europe (including Russia) £12.50 (£2 per extra record). Rest of World (including ALL parts of the USA) £16.50 (£3 per extra record). All boxes signed for in quality, safe packaging – I NEVER use mailing envelopes that offer virtually no protection at all, and records WILL arrive damaged in them at some time as most record buyers will already know. Here, you get what you pay for – SAFE PACKING in BOXES using 7mm DOUBLE-WALL STIFFENERS including full side protection and bubble wrap, the records removed from the covers of course. All this very safe packing means I lose money on every box I post, but safe delivery is, and will always be paramount. You WILL see the difference when my packet arrives. Also, I will pay for insurance on any record that sells for over £100 at NO extra cost – that is UK and abroad. Also I aim to post the very same day after payment is received if possible. PLEASE NOTE: I will NOT send any item, no matter what its value without a Royal Mail or courier tracking number. ALL my items must be signed and trackable to comply with Ebay delivery rules. Please do NOT ask me to make any exceptions to this rule as no country offers 100% reliable service without it.

Posting to Russia: Yes, I do post to Russia. But delivery can take longer from the UK. So please be patient. I will submit a tracking number to the winning bidder, and when the packet arrives there it can be followed online using the Russian post website.

ALSO: I now apply the Ebay ‘2-day’ rule for non-payment to keep things moving – cash-flow is important for any small business.

ANY ITEM or ITEMS TO BE PAID WITHIN A MAXIMUM OF 6 DAYS or they will be cancelled – NO EXCEPTIONS.

FINALLY: Late payers, non-payers and ‘0’ bidders will now be blocked or cancelled at my discretion, as will any bidder who cancels a bid. Please only bid on my items if you want them.

Artist or Band: THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION

Album Title: Uncle Meat

Produced: Frank Zappa

TRACK LIST:

Side 1: Uncle Meat; The Voice of Cheese; Nine Types of Industrial Pollution (with correct title on label); Zolar Czakl; Dog Breath in The Year of the Plague; The Legend of the Golden Arches; Louie Louie; The Dog Breath Variations.

Side 2: Sleeping in a Jar; our Bizarre Relationship; The Uncle Meat Variations; Electric Aunt Jemima; Prelude to King Kong; God Bless America; A Pound for a Brown on the Bus; Ian Underwood Whips it Out.

Side 3: Mr Green Genes; We Can Shoot You; If We’d All Been Living in California; The Air; Project X; Cruising for Burgers.

Side 4: King Kong Itself; King Kong by Don Preston; King Kong by Motorhead; King Kong the Gardener varieties; King Kong ‘deranged’; King Kong by Ian Underwood.

Country of Manufacture: United States

Label/Format/Conditions: Bizarre with matt, smooth surfaces, side one has the ‘400 Days of the Year’ track title error. All four are little short of immaculate, clean and fresh with hardly any spindle traces. This set appears hardly played and plays superbly with little unwanted. NOTE: side one backs side four.

Catalogue Number: 2MS 2024

Mode / Speed: Stereo / 33.3 rpm.

Weight of Records: 100 / 105. This album was usually lightly pressed the United States, but with pure vinyl with superb sound. That often not the case on the relatively briefly available UK version.

Up and Down Movement: A gentle trace. Few vintage records will ever be perfectly flat, any issues with significant movement or tracking will be mentioned in detail if applicable.

Lateral Movement (Side-to-Side): Barely a Trace.

Rarity: UK originals are quite scarce with only very modest sales, an album quickly deleted here. So fans who missed out had to rely on imported copies usually from the United States.

Original Year of Release: 1969 [this probably from around 1970 or thereabouts]. The Bizarre label folded in the early 1970s, so all copies of this are from around this time.

Matrix Nos: 30871 MS2024 A-1F / 30874 MS2024 D-1B / 30872 MS2024 B-1F / 30873 MS2024 C-1D

Musicians: Frank Zappa – guitar, percussion, vocals; Ray Collins – vocals; Jimmy Carl Black – drums; Roy Estrada – electric bass, vocal; Don Preston – electric piano; Billy Mundi – drums; Bunk Gardner – piccolo, flute, clarinet, bass clarinet, soprano sax, alto sax, tenor sax, bassoon (all mostly electrified); Ian Underwood – electric organ, piano, harpsichord, celeste, flute, clarinet, alto sax, baritone sax; Art Tripp – drums, timpani, vibes, marimba, xylophone, wood blocks, bells, small chimes; Euclid James (Motorhead) Sherwood – frenetic sax; tambourine. Guests: Ruth Komanoff (later Underwood) – marimba, vibes; Nelcy Walker – soprano vocal, Pamela Zarubica – spoken vocal parts.

Brief Artist & Album Info: In terms of ‘progressive’ music, they don’t come much more progressive than this awesome double album. One of the great Zappa albums, this a very clean, hardly played American copy. An amazing blend of rock, psychedelia and free-jazz and very experimental. The use of early electronics and treatments of voices and traditional musical instruments almost unprecedented for the time. This was the Mothers of Invention with eleven members, it introduces Ruth Komanoff (later Mrs Ian Underwood), a very talented classically-trained percussionist who really understood Zappa’s complex music, she plays the distinctive marimba and other vibes on this remarkable set. Zappa was still printing Edgard Varèse’s quote on his albums – ‘The present day composer refuses to die!’ – but so far his talent for outrage had arguably obscured his skills as a composer. Uncle Meat aimed to put that right, a double release that down-played lyrics. ‘Basically this is an instrumental album’, it states inside the gatefold. A note described the technique of overdubbing, which was used extensively, opening up the weird world of virtual orchestration. Along with Komanoff, the other new recruit, Arthur Tripp was added on percussion with Jimmy Carl Black. They helped Zappa realise some of his fiendish metrical ingenuities. Ian Underwood played harpsichord with a jangling, absurdist quality that infuses all the music. Uncle Meat eventually became a great favourite in Europe, and almost single-handedly gave birth to the genre of ‘Art Rock’. The music was to be used in the movie of the same name, but never got actually finished until much later (the money ran out). This is Zappa at the very peak of creativity, predominately instrumental, but not all, it includes classic live performances taken from tours in the US and UK. ‘Louie Louie’ features Don Preston on the ‘mighty Royal Albert Hall Pipe Organ’ and the band also demolish ‘God Bless America’ (an equivalent statement to the distortions Hendrix was applying to the ‘Star Spangled Banner’). Pamela Zarubica (a one time house-mate) appeared as the ‘Voice of the Cheese’ – Zappa takes the listener from domestic intimacy to rock-venue spectacle in breathtaking lurches. Every track is interesting in it’s complexity either vocally, or more so instrumentally. Zappa’s solo on ‘Nine Type of Industrial Pollution’ inspired many guitarists in the future with it’s strange chord structures and sound. ‘The Air’ had lyrics about customs searches and tape recordings and ‘If We’d all Been Living in California’ is a conversation between Jimmy Carl Black and Zappa about why the Mothers were not making more money being on the road and being near destitute. The album’s piece-de-resistance and long-standing favourite is Side D taken up by one of Zappa’s greatest compositions. ‘King Kong’, is a six section instrumental featuring some blistering solos from Underwood on electric alto saxophone, Motorhead on a deranged baritone sax, and best of all Bunk Gardner’s solo. Many assume this is a treated electric saxophone solo, but not so. The amazing sounds are created on an electric clarinet – you have never heard nothing like this before – the reed’s spit and rasp and create a sound possibly unique to this amazing album. The instrument is almost blown to destruction, this is Gardner’s tour de force and his finest moment with the Mothers. The large band is in overdrive on ‘Kong Kong’ and sounds created are astonishing. The prelude to King Kong on side B is pretty amazing too, a vast free-form jazz rock instrumental – this is the band blowing at their best. For any Zappa fan who has not heard this amazing journey into free jazz rock and weird creativity, this has to be experienced, but this could prove challenging for those not into more difficult music. If it proved to weird for you back in the late 1960s, give it another try today, the best records take time to fully appreciate and this is more than worthy of perseverance. Regarding this man’s work – this is truly one of the very best ever, this hardly played American original does it near maximum justice.

Cover Grade and Format: EXCELLENT(++): an unlaminated gatefold format with the surfaces having a gentle sheen. The inside has the paste-on panel. Printed and made in the United States. No original inners, the owner replaced them with new ones. Also this slightly later copy has no book or sticker, those only came with the very first issues.

<Cover Front: One of the very best examples of this very wear-prone cover I have seen. This front is fantastic, clean and fresh with hardly any rub traces or creasing – one tiny tip apart.

Cover Back: Same again, both front and back are exceptional and rarely seen as such.

Cover Inner Gatefold: Close to mint as-issued.

Top Edges: Both straight and flush with minimal traces of rubbing, and no splits (here or on any part of this cover).

Bottom Edges: Largely the same, any rub traces tiny and light.

Right Edge(s), and Type: Clean, mostly sharp with any thickening little and light as seen viewed end-on. Record enters on this edge that is guaranteed untrimmed or enhanced. The cover made with typically thicker card.

Spine and Text: Nigh-on perfect bar a tiny rub trace on the very top end that has clipped the first letter of the catalogue number. Solid, straight with no compression and folded square, so the edges meet up very closely together and parallel. All other text is perfect and unworn, the surface clean and fresh.

Corners: Any tip rubs or creases tiny and/or light, excellent or better shape retained with no knocks.

Cover Summary: A superb all-round example of this fragile, wear-prone and uncompromising cover, one that will prove very difficult to find better. This totally age-defying cover should please many, if not most collectors.

Vinyl Condition/Visual Grading: EXCELLENT(+): arguably better. A very fine visual copy that is very clean with equally fine shine and solidly pressed. A copy with minimal plays on all the evidence with any surface marks few, very light and faint as seen critically under bright light. No penetrating stylus scratches, viewed in average room light, hardly anything even registers. Visually a super record that should please many, if not most collectors.

Album Played For Grading: Yes. [I play ALL records I offer before submitting to Ebay, also the record is played in its entirety unless clearly stated otherwise. I do NOT play snippets or joining grooves to check for sound quality and quietness – I play from the beginning to end via clinically revealing equipment, all listed further down.]

Sound Quality and Audio Grading: This quality album plays even above it’s high visual grading with hardly anything to fault. Offering strong, distortion-free sound, all frequencies are sharp and clear – sound quality is very high with a wide dynamic range and very detailed sound. Any surface sounds are minimal indeed and this is a very clean pressing with no tracking issues* or inherent pressing noises. Few available copies will outperform this early first pressing I feel sure. Both channels are clean and sharp, I am certain this record has been played very lightly and has been generally well stored and carefully handled, almost certainly in a non-smoking environment. Nothing spoilt my pleasure when play-grading this lovely record. It will prove very difficult to find significantly better and can be strongly recommended.

* As played-graded on a high-end Linn LP12 Sondek turntable with Ittok Mk II arm and Ortofon Quintet Black moving coil cartridge tracking at 2 grams. Records are a ‘contact’ format, and few will avoid the odd minor sound blemish.

I am one of the most established sellers on Ebay, trading since 2001 and offering the finest records I can find. I pride myself on offering a variety of genres to keep my site as interesting as possible. I will rarely offer any record that falls below a true Excellent grading, unless its of a certain rarity which will justify offering a lesser grade. I try, to the best of my ability to describe as accurately and as honesty all elements of the items I offer for sale. You may notice I only submit records quite sparingly on Ebay as I Play-Grade every record I offer in their entirety – also on higher-end equipment – not just bits to guess a grade – visuals alone do not always tell a true story. I will try to mention any defects or flaws no matter how small that I notice to be fair as possible to any interested collector – I am very fussy and my buyers have the right to be too. Every record I offer, whether it be a common or rare item deserves the same respect as far as I am concerned and will be treated the same – just because an item is rare does not always mean it’s good. I get just as much pleasure offering a relatively common record in near mint condition as the real rare items. All the pictures I use for your guidance are the item being offered with no digital enhancements. Room light factors can make things vary sometimes, that is hard to control, especially in winter. I hope the item below is to your liking – any questions can be emailed and I will do my best to answer you. I am enthusiastic, and have a fair degree of knowledge about many genres and I promise quality items. Please assume all records I offer have NO jumps, sticks, major warps or writing on covers or labels unless clearly stated to the contrary. Thanks for your interest and Good luck – MIKE.

Equipment Used for Play-Grading: I now play-grade ALL the records I offer (unless clearly stated to the contrary) on the following equipment:

Deck: Linn LP12/Hercules/Cirkus with Ittok Mk II arm and Ortofon Quintet Black moving coil cartridge (tracks at 2 grams). Amps: Naim Supernait 2 with Project USB phono stage and Tellerium Black interconnects. Speakers: B&W 805 Nautilus (bi-wired with Tellurium Black terminated cable) with REL subwoofer. All records I offer on Ebay are cleaned on a professional Nessie vacuum machine before play-grading for the cleanest and best possible sound and will include a brand new lined inner and protective cover too. Pictures taken with a Nikon D7500 DSLR Camera.

PACKING – THIS IS WHAT YOU GET.

What You Get: To confirm to the strict Ebay rules on shipping, I must now send ALL my packets ‘Signed-For’ with NO exceptions. Both buyers and sellers want their packets to have a safer journey and this is not a bad thing.

PLEASE NOTE: I now exercise my right to open a dispute after the Ebay rule of TWO days if no payment is received. I will then cancel the dispute to end the bid, again after the mandatory FOUR days and then offer the item to the runner-up or relist. The non-payer will also be blocked from my Ebay site as will any suspicious bids or bid bid retractions. Small businesses need prompt payment to trade and these strict rules WILL be applied.

SHIPPING COSTS & CONDITIONS – THESE comply with EBAY’S RULES - PLEASE READ CAREFULLY:

Posting & Packing: UK & CHANNEL ISLANDS all now sent via Recorded Delivery:

1 LP (FIRST-CLASS Recorded Delivery with Standard Royal Mail Insurance) [Signed For] = £4.75

1 LP (Special Delivery with Standard £500 Maximum Insurance) [Signed For, Next Day] = £7.50. (this includes insurance of £500). Add £1 per extra LP.

Posting & Packing: EUROPE & SCANDINAVIA. (Airmail Only):

1 LP (Small Packet ‘Signed For’ with Standard Royal Mail Insurance [£50 maximum]) = £12.50 (enhanced Royal Mail insurance is an optional extra £3). Add £2 per extra LP.

Posting & Packing: ALL OVERSEAS (non-European) e.g. USA (ANY PART OF); South America; New Zealand; Australia; Canada; Japan and other Far East; (Airmail Only: I NEVER use Surface Mail):

1 LP (Small Packet ‘Signed For’ with Standard Royal Mail Insurance [£50 maximum]) = £16.50 (£17.50 for double sets). Add £3 per extra LP. (enhanced Royal Mail insurance is an optional extra £3)

Payment Conditions:

I prefer PayPal or cheque from UK winning bidders. I only accept PayPal from overseas bidders or direct payment into my bank account.

Potential Bidders: I will cancel any bids I feel are time-wasters. A maximum 2 days for communication and 7 days for payment to arrive – if not I will relist the item or offer to the runner-up.

My Guarantee: If any winning bidder is not satisfied with their purchase I will offer a complete refund if the item is returned in the same condition is was sent e.g. as per the listing pictures.

SOME GENERAL GUIDES TO WEAR AND CONDITIONS TO HELP YOU DECIDE

My Use of Description Terminology: Surface Marks = Superficial, usually light marks, hairlines or light scuffs that rarely sound. Scratch = a needle mark that goes below the record’s surface, some will sound, some will not, my play-grade will inform. Original = a record that has been pressed with the first label design which does NOT necessarily mean a very first pressed record. First Pressing = A record that I believe or know to be a genuine very first pressed record. I do not claim to always know for sure, and that’s why I state the stamper and matrix numbers if at all possible, for those who claim to know what they all mean, the information is there for the collector to decide. I prefer to use terms like ‘Early Copy’ rather than ‘First Pressing’ if I am not totally sure. Surface Sound = Mild, light sound, usually light crackle or similar. Distortion = Break up of the actual sound caused by groove wear or damage from a chipped stylus – the most undesirable form of unwanted sound, vintage mono records were the most prone to this happening but not exclusively so. The symptoms of distortion are high frequency clipping, moderate constant crackle or an echo type sound quality. Violin, piano and vocals are most prone to groove-wear distortion. Feathering = Fraying or softening of the entry edge of a cover. Covers with feathered entrance edges are more likely to have had the actual record inserted and removed more than a non-feathered, sharp-edged cover which are always far more attractive. Set Off, a printer’s term for dark ink leaving mild residue on pale or white ink when rested upon. e.g. when a gatefold cover has black ink closed against white, this can leave some black residue on the pale area – this is mostly unavoidable or course.