Sold Date: September 2, 2023
Start Date: March 11, 2021
Final Price: $49.98 (USD)
Seller Feedback: 2810
Buyer Feedback: 0

This is the very rare original 1968 pressing of Mark LeVine's Pilgrims Progress LP, a very strange and wonderful folk-blues-rock album famously featuring Ry Cooder as well as some other famous session players like Jie Osborn and Michael Deasy, who also produced it. This album was released on a small LA private label run by a hippie collective who called themselves the Society for the Naturalization of Animals, and was never sold in regular record stores. The music is too risqué and counter-culture for the mainstream labels, so the real hippies were the only ones who would release such things... anyhow this copy comes with a very rare 3-page insert, which seems to be a reprint a 1969 article in the LA Free Press, telling all about the Hogfat label (this album apparently being their only release). It talks about how they only sell the records for $2.98, or best offer, or even for barter. Michael Deasy apparently put the label together and that accounts for all the top players being included, and the records are just sold on the street. It is one of those classic tales of the hippies and freaks trying to run their business and art completely on their own and on their own terms. A beautiful example of west-coast counter-culture idealism.   This disc is in about VG condition. There are some light scratches and scuffs, and there is some crackling here and there in the playback. It isn't too bad, and most of the time not very noticeable, if at all. The first half of side one is the worst, with a few pops and crackles that can even be heard during the music, but the rest of the time the music is a lot louder than any background noise. Even during the worst parts the music still is clear and really not badly intruded upon. I think it plays really nicely and would myself be entirely satisfied with the condition, but others are more picky about this sort of thing, so I have to warn the mint-only collectors that this one isn't mint. The cover is beautiful, with only a very light corner ding at the lower left, and maybe some very gentle general shelfwear, but almost perfect. A great rare copy, with an impossible-to-find insert.