ROLLING STONES PAST DARKLY INSANELY RARE ORIG PIC DISC RAREST R/S LP EVER MADE

$

4,550

WE CURRENTLY HAVE   NEARLY 1,000   LISTED ITEMS

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·       ROLLING STONES - THROUGH THE PAST DARKLY (BIG HITS, VOL.2) - INSANELY RARE - NEVER SEEN, NEVER PHOTOGRAPHED - NEVER TRADED - NEVER SOLD - ORIGINAL 1969 LONDON RECORDS PROMOTIONAL-ONLY REJECTED PRESSING OF THE PICTURE DISC OF THE ALBUM. PRESUMABLY PLANNED TO BE RELEASED IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE ALBUM'S OFFICIAL RELEASE AND AS A MARKETING TOOL, I.E., TO BE DISTRIBUTED TO MUSIC INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS AND INSIDERS;, NEVER COMMERCIALLY RELEASED IN ANY SHAPE, MANNER OR FORM; ONE OF ONLY 15 COPIES KNOWN TO EXIST (EIGHT COPIES HAVE IMAGE OF THE ROLLING STONES' 'BIG HITS: HIGH TIDE AND GREEN GRASS ON ONE SIDE, AND - BIZARRELY AND TOTALLY COUNTERINTUITIVELY - TEN YEARS AFTER'S 'SSSSH' ON THE OTHER SIDE, WHILE THE REMAINING SEVEN COPIES HAVE THE PICTURE OF 'BIG HITS: HIGH TIDE AND GREEN GRASS ON BOTH SIDES). BOTH VERSIONS PLAY 'THROUGH THE PAST DARKLY: BIG HITS VOL. 2 , NOT, REPEAT, NOT 'BIG HITS: HIGH TIDE AND GREEN GRASS-

·       ORIGINAL U.S. PRESSING

·       TAKE NOTICE!:  THIS IS A PICTURE DISC FOR 'THROUGH THE PAST DARKLY, BIG HITS VOL. 2' WHICH HAS A PICTURE OF 'BIG HITS: HIGH TIDE AND GREEN GRASS' ON IT AND A TOTALLY UNRELATED TEN YEARS AFTER ALBUM ON THE OTHER.  CONFUSED??? DISORIENTED???  LIGHTHEADED???  OF COURSE YOU ARE.  SO ARE WE. THE WHOLE PACKAGE MAKES ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE ON SO MANY LEVELS,  IT BOGGLES MIND. READ ON, THE PLOT IS ABOUT TO THICKEN. IT ACTUALLY GETS MORE CONFUSING.

·    LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WE HAVE A PRIVILEGE OF PRESENTING THE SINGLE RAREST RECORD WE HAVE EVER OFFERED ON EBAY -- AND WE HAVE OFFERED QUITE A FEW OVER THE PAST 16 YEARS; EVEN THE WORLD'S RAREST RECORDS EXIST IN AT LEAST 50-100 COPIES. THIS INCREDIBLE SPECIMEN WAS PRODUCED IN ONLY 15 COPIES, (OF WHICH ONLY EIGHT IN THIS PARTICULAR CONFIGURATION).

·    YOU ARE - NO EXAGGERATION - LOOKING AT SOMETHING PRECIOUS FEW HUMAN EYES HAVE ACTUALLY SEEN BEFORE

·       THIS IS EASILY THE SINGLE RAREST DOCUMENTED OFFICIAL ROLLING STONES RELEASE, ECLIPSING IN RARITY EVERY SINGLE VINYL PRESSINGS THE GROUP EVER RELEASED ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD.  IN TERMS OF SHEER RARITY AND SCARCITY,  THIS SPECIMEN IS TRULY OUT OF THIS WORLD AND FROM A DIFFERENT GALAXY ALTOGETHER.

·       , IN FACT, SO RARE IS THIS ITEM THAT, TO THE BEST OF OUR KNOWLEDGE,  UNDERSTANDING AND RESEARCH, IT HAS NEVER EVEN BEEN SEEN BY THE GENERAL PUBLIC, IT HAS NEVER BEEN APPROPRIATELY PHOTOGRAPHED (THE ONLY KNOWN PHOTO OF THIS RELEASE APPEARS TO A GRAINY, BLACK AND WHITE PHOTO WHICH CAN BE FOUND IN THE NOW 21-YEAR OLD 'GOLDMINE'S PRICE GUIDE TO COLLECTIBLE RECORD ALBUMS, FOURTH EDITION' (LIBRARY OF CONGRESS # 89-83584, ISBN # 0-87341-325-3)  ON PAGE 599).  THIS PRICE GUIDE PLACES THIS RELEASE AT SPOT # 27 OF THE WORLD'S 100 MOST VALUABLE RECORDS, ESTIMATING IT'S VALUE THEN - IN 1994,  IN THE PRE-EBAY TIME - AT $4,000 IN NEAR MINT CONDITION. EVEN THE MOST HARDCORE ROLLING STONES COLLECTORS CAN ONLY DREAM OF HOLDING ONE OF THESE ELUSIVE PIECES IN THEIR HANDS.

·       ACCORDING TO THE ABOVE MENTIONED GOLDMINE PRICE GUIDE, THIS RELEASE (WHICH GOLDMINE FLAGS AS PROMO) WAS A: "PROTOTYPE FOR A REJECTED PICTURE DISC BACK IN '69. TWO VARIATIONS ARE KNOWN: ONE HAS THE PHOTO OF THE COVER OF 'HIGH TIDE AND GREEN GRASS' ON BOTH SIDES, THE OTHER HAS 'HIGH TIDE' BACKED WITH 'TEN YEARS AFTER'S SSSSH. THE VALUE (ESTIMATED IN 1994 AT $4,000 IN NEAR MINT CONDITION" IS ENTIRELY FOR THE RECORD ALONE"

·       We should note that this album – like all works-in-progress, test pressings and pressing rejects – originally came in a plain white, generic carboard cover (as a matter of fact, there was no mark anywhere on the disc, EXCEPT the matrix hand-etched stamp and machine-stamped pressing plant To provide a complete album to the winning bidder (both original cover AND the rejected picture disc pressing of the record), we will ship this rare rejected picture disc ALONG WITH the original stock copy of this album (taken from our personal collection). This way, the winner gets to have the best of  both worlds. 

·       THE STOCK COPY ON BLACK VINYL SERVES ALSO ANOTHER PURPOSE: TO FULLY AND COMPLETELY AUTHENTICATE THE VERACITY AND AUTHENTICITY OF THE REJECTED PICTURE DISC: THE MATRICES ON THE REJECTED PICTURE DISC ARE ABSOLUTELY, DOWN TO FINEST DETAIL, IDENTICAL TO THE ONE FOUND ON THE STOCK COPY:  BELL SOUND LABS, SAN FRANCISCO MACHINE STAMP, AND HAND-SCRAWLED MATRIX NUMBER, STAMPER # 3.  WE HAVE PROVIDED THE TWO IMAGES SIDE BY SIDE, FOR EVERYONE'S PERUSAL: THE STOCK COPY MATRIX MARKINGS ARE ON BLACK VINYL, THE PICTURE DISC, OBVIOUSLY, ON THE COLORED WAX (PLEASE SEE THE ATTACHED IMAGES). IF ADDITIONAL ASSURANCE IS REQUIRED, WE WILL GLADLY PROVIDE CERTIFICATE OF AUTHENTICITY TO THE WINNING BIDDER (WE WILL PROVIDE IMAGES OF THE STOCK COPY AT REQUEST ; STOCK COPY OF THE ALBUM, COMPLETE WITH THE COVER,  IS NOT SEPARATELY GRADED, BUT IS IN A VERY NICE CONDITION OVERALL)

·       THIS IS THE ORIGINAL, AUTHENTIC, FIRST AND ONLY, REJECTED U.S. PICTURE DISC PRESSING; THIS IS NOT A REISSUE, AN IMPORT, OR A COUNTERFEIT PRESSING.

·       THICK, HEAVY VINYL PRESSING

·       THE RECORD HAS A'BELL SOUND' STAMP IN THE TRAIL-OFF VINYL (DEAD WAX) AREA, WHICH IS GENERALLY CONSIDERED A PROOF OF AUTHENTICITY OF THE FIRST PRESSING.

(►PLEASE SEE THE IMAGE OF THE COVER, LABEL OR BOTH, SHOWN BELOW)

(Note: this is a REAL image of the ACTUAL item you are bidding on. This is NOT a "recycled" image from our previous auction. What you see is what you’ll get.  GUARANTEED!)

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So little of this incredibly rare rejected Rolling Stones pressing makes sense, it is downright surreal.  No wonder the picture disc version of the album was scuttled in a hurry and has not been seen or heard from since, because - had it been released as planned -  it surely would have made London Records a laughingstock among their peers and industry professionals.

OK, so here we go....the year is 1969 - July 1969, to be precise -  and the World's Greatest Rock Band is about to release - to much media and public fanfare - their second greatest hits package, containing all the hits the group amassed since their first "Best Of" package , three years earlier  (technically,  in July 1969 The Beatles were still "alive" - minus Paul, of course ;-) -  but they were for all practical purposes moribund as a recording unit, so the Stones truly had no rivals or competitors for the # 1 title at this point);  to this end,  their US label, London Records, decides to print - apparently  as a promotional tool - a limited-edition  picture disc of the yet unreleased 'greatest hits' album and then (presumably) send it to the DJ's, radio personalities, music industry insiders and other professionals who could help gently "push" the sales of the set.

And then - touche!!! What do London's people do?  They put the image of the Rolling Stones FIRST greatest package (Big Hits and High Tide) on the much-anticipated SECOND greatest hits release  -- a move GUARANTEED  confuse the daylights out of everyone who received the complementary picture disc. An instant brain-death, or what?  Who in the right mind could possibly imagine that the Rolling Stones picture disc which shows Big Hits, volume 1 plays anything else but Big Hits, vol. 1.  Alas, it actually does.  When it comes to London Records, what you see is not quite what you get. Or, to put it differently:  you can't always get what you want. Or what you think you are getting.

Ah, wait, it gets better. And weired. Much better.  And much weirder.

To make things more curious, the London's staffers - perhaps after a lengthy drinking or snorkeling binge - then decide to put on the flip side of the Stones disc - of all things - the photo of one of their biggest rivals (Ten Years After) current album,  Ssssh .  Beam me up, Scotty!  Then, after they sober up, they probably continue their regular production, and delete the TYA image from the remaning (known) seven copies. Oy!  Maalox, pronto!

But the slapstick  does not end here.

Because the London geniuses decided to use original paper slick of the STEREO copy of the Big Hits Vol. 1 - which is an electronically rechannelled stereo (fake stereo) version- rather than the original photo, or at least the MONO paper slick minus the mono banner, the image of the group used for the picture disc prominently displays "Electronically Rechannelled for Stereo" banner.   And all this on a perfectly true stereo release, if you can believe it.  I mean, anyone caught reducing the glorious Rolling Stones stereo (by 1969, the group was actually recording in 8- and 16-track) to electronic stereo would probably be pilloried, drawn and quartered right on the spot. No two ways about it. Had this thing actually been released in any format - even as a promo-only tool - a massive brouhaha would have ensued, for sure.

Just exactly how London staffers planned to promote Rolling Stones Big Hits Volume 2 by releasing it with the photo of the Rolling Stones Big Hits Volume 1, and with the image of Ten Years After on the flip side, remains one of life's most enduring and baffling mysteries.  There you have it, folks. The long and short (mostly long) of the massive Rolling Stones $crewup at London records. No wonder the band quit the label in great haste - if not panic - barely year and a half later and severed all communication with the firm - other than through legal channels - for the next 32 years.

On an interesting note: the picture disc is one of the very few inordinately rare Rock pressings that have never been bootlegged and counterfeited in any way, manner or form (which is rather unusual given its presumed value). There is a very good and legitimate explanation for this phenomenon:apparently,  the counterfeiters never had a viable image of the pressing to work with and didn't know how to replicate it.  In fact, from what we have been able to determine,  this release has NEVER EVEN BEEN SHOWN TO THE WORLD in its full and integral, full-resolution, color format. We are proud to, for what we believe is the first time EVER - provide the image of one of those elusive, mythical 15 copies.  How many of these are still in existence after 46 years,  no one knows for sure -- I doubt that there could be more than 5, possibly 10 copies, at best.  The owners of these surviving specimens must be  clinging on to them for dear life,  because NOT A SINGLE COPY has sold or transacted in the past 20 to 30 years,

This is it, folks. You first, last and the only chance to acquire The Ultimate Rolling Stones rarity -- something we would be willing to bet not even Mick Jagger owns.

For those interested in the provenance of this item: the item was purchased at a local store which specializes in acquisition of abandoned and discarded property. We can only speculate that one of the original 15-or-so owners departed this vale of tears before getting a chance to bequeath this beautiful piece to his progeny. His loss is your gain for sure,   but - please! - bid now, bid  soon and bid  often -- unless you wish to wait for another owner to depart this vale of tears under similar circumstances! It may turn out to be a mighty long wait.

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This album was spawned by three coinciding events — the need to acknowledge the death of band co-founder (whose epitaph graces the inside cover) in July of 1969; the need to get "Honky Tonk Women," then a huge hit single, onto an LP; and to fill the ten-month gap since the release of Beggars Banquet and get an album with built-in appeal into stores ahead of the Stones' first American tour in three years. The fact that the Stones had amassed a sufficient number of hits since their last greatest-hits compilation in early 1966 (Big Hits: High Tide and Green Grass) made this a no-brainer, and its song lineup was as potent at the time as any compilation of hit singles by any artist. From the group's excursions into fey psychedelia ("Paint It Black," "Ruby Tuesday," "She's a Rainbow," "Dandelion"), space rock ("2000 Light Years From Home"), punk decadence ("Mother's Little Helper"), and back to straight-ahead rock & roll ("Jumpin' Jack Flash"), some of it with a topical edge ("Street Fighting Man"), it's all incredibly potent, though also redundant to the extent that "Ruby Tuesday" and "Let's Spend the Night Together" had previously appeared on two U.S. albums. The presence of "Honky Tonk Women" propelled it to gold record status upon release on both sides of the Atlantic, although the simultaneously released British version (long out of print, except as a bootleg CD) is different and more confusing, but also more diverse and rewarding musically than the American version. Both this album and Big Hits: High Tide and Green Grass have been supplanted by Hot Rocks and More Hot Rocks, but are still handy in their tight respective focuses.

(REVIEW REPRINTED COURTESY OF BRUCE EDER, ALL MUSIC GUIDE  /ALLMUSIC.COM/)

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·                               CONDITION:

·                               RECORD

(IMPORTANT NOTE: unless otherwise noted, ALL records are graded visually, and NOT play-graded!; we  grade records under the strong, diffuse room light or discrete sunlight)

(a)          WE GRADE THE VINYL AS STRONG VERY GOOD+(+) . CAUTION: The vinyl is NOT MINT or NEAR MINT, but is nevertheless in a very nice and clean condition. There are some surface marks and abrasions, mostly light and superficial, although some may be longer than 1.1/4 inches (1 inch = 2.5 centimeters)

(b)            The record is pressed on a beautiful, thick, inflexible vinyl, which was usually used for the first or very early pressings. Usually, the sound on such thick vinyl pressings is full-bodied, vivid, and even dramatic. Do not expect to obtain such a majestic analog sound from a digital recording!

(c)           Of course, this is a full-bodied ANALOG recording, and not an inferior, digital recording!!!

(d)          This is a true stereo recording, NOT, REPEAT, NOT  a fake (electronically rechannelled) stereo.

·      COVER : This promo-only release never had a custom sleeve or cover (it came out in generic packaging and without any artork), and will be shipped in a plain, generic, white cardboard cover; we will, however, add a STOCK copy of this album from our collection, complete with its original octagonal cover, in case the winning bidder wishes to have both stock copy and promo-only picture disc for reference purposes. Therefore, the winning bidder will receive two copies of this album: a stock copy, and a promo-only rejected picture disc..

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POSTAGE & SHIPPING:

We offer THREE postage rates for both Domestic and International Mail: Media Mail, Priority Mail and Express Mail for domestic, and First Class, Priority International Mail, and Express International Mail for international orders. INTERNATIONAL CUSTOMERS PLEASE NOTE: WE RECOMMEND that you pay for USPS International Priority Mail OR International Express mail when making a payment in order to obtain tracking information, which is NOT available for First Class International shipments.

INTERNATIONAL POSTAGE rates vary from country to country. For SPECIFIC international and domestic postage rates ►click here. While you can be rest assured that ►our packaging is careful, sturdy and impact-proof, please note that damage, loss or theft in transit is always possible, and in the case of some countries even PROBABLE. To discuss this potential problem and ensure flawless delivery, please contact us thru eBay BEFORE placing a bid.

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OUR REFUND POLICY :

WE OFFER UNCONDITIONAL MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE WITHIN 7 DAYS FROM THE RECEIPT OF THE MERCHANDISE, NO QUESTIONS ASKED (THE BUYER PAYS FOR THE RETURN POSTAGE); Still sealed items MUST be returned sealed in order to be eligible for a refund Some restrictions apply. Please read our complete refund policy before placing a bid. ►Click here  for the full text of our policy

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