BEATLES Yesterday And Today BUTCHER COVER 1966 HOLY GRAIL 1ST PRESSING SCRANTON

$

1,499

Vinyl:  VG Play Graded. Sounds Very Good!  Capitol Rainbow Labels are Clean and Bright.  This is the 1966 Capitol STEREO 1ST PRESSING!  ST-2553.  This is the audiophile acclaimed Scranton, PA STEREO Pressing!!  The Stereo Yesterday And Today is also more Rare than its Mono cousin.  A "Compilation" of Quintessential Middle Period Beatles, at the very end of the Beatlemania period, released a couple months before their last public concert and before they retreated to the studio to create their Masterwork, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.  The underbelly of this compilation, of course, is that the greedsters at Capitol had it in mind to get a "bonus" album out of The Beatles by patching together a bunch of songs they had ripped off of the Beatles' original Parlophone releases over the years, in order to present more product to the hungry American public (compare, for example Capitol's "Revolver" with Parlophone's "Revolver").  Interestingly, the "chaff" that they pulled carry some of the most emblematic of The Beatles' inimitable sound:  the Motown chug of Drive My Car, the blistering electric guitar run that bursts open and runs throughout And Your Bird Can Sing, the sheer Rock 'N Roll genius of Nowhere Man and George's beautifully chiming If I Needed Someone!  And of course unbeknownst to the Capitol bosses, they had played into a Faustian bargain whereupon The Beatles for their part (as one storyline plays it) decided to one up the greedsters with a visual representation of how they felt about their albums being ripped apart...See "Cover", below  :)
See Review Below!
In the Dead Wax:  Side 1: Stamped:  ST1-2553-A1  IAM  ((Pressed at Capitol's Scranton, PA Pressing Plant))
Side 2: Stamped:  ST2-2553-A5  IAM  ((Pressed at Capitol's Scranton, PA Pressing Plant))        Cover: VG+ (see photos)  Includes the Capitol Records Company Inner Sleeve, in beautiful condition, with no seam splits.  An exceptionally well cared for, beautiful Second State Butcher Cover.  The cover is about 12 1/4" wide, consistent for a 2nd State Butcher Cover as the 1st State Butcher Covers (12 3/8" wide) were trimmed on the edge where the record goes in, to accommodate for the 2nd State slick to be pasted over at the factory. 
Also, see the photos, especially showing the area to the right of the trunk, where we find Ringo's dark sweater hiding under the slick.  This reveals that the Butcher Cover lies under the pasted over 2nd State slick...There are also various areas of the slick where the textured cover can be seen and/or felt under the 2nd State Butcher. 
The Cover retains most of its luster and color glossy beauty.  The 1st State Textured cover can be felt and seen in various places under the 2nd State Slick.   For example, where there is a paper tear on the Cover, in the top right corner, where the distinctive textured slate grey of the Butcher cover can be seen and felt.  This single bit of exposed Butcher Cover is itself undamaged.  In other words, the Butcher Cover is completely intact beneath the 2nd State Slick.  If you were to remove the 2nd State slick correctly the Butcher Cover would be intact underneath (and if you aren't experienced in this kind of thing, please don't try it at home!!!!  There are vendors who specialize in removing 2nd state slicks and if that's what you want, you can easily find them on the internet).  By the way, interestingly, the Textured Butcher slick was photographer Robert Whittaker's idea to make the Butcher scene look more artistic, initially envisioning the Butcher scene to be one of a three paneled triptych Cover design, a meditation on the surreal nature of The Beatles' success...
There is minimal ring wear on the front, as well as some age spots.  There is some tape residue on the three seam edges, on both sides.   Front and back of cover artwork and text are rich, clear and bright.  Seams, corners and spine are all intact with chipping in the slick in places along the seams and wear spots and tiny paper tears in a few places along the seams (again, nowhere do these affect the Butcher Cover underneath).  On the front top right corner, some of this slick edging is worn off but this is not where the Butcher Cover "lives".  The Butcher Cover is beneath the imaginary horizontal line beneath the number 2553 at the top right corner of the Cover.  Therefore, none of the Butcher Cover beneath the slick is worn at all.  If you have any questions about any of these particulars, including the geographical landmarks that I refer to, then please don't hesitate to ask. 
Although there is some chipping and cracks in the slick along the seam edges and spine, there are no areas where the seams are split.  The band name is readable and the title is mostly readable.  The back cover has the number 2, verifying that the cover matches the disc. That is, this is a Stereo record, pressed at Capitol's Scranton, PA Pressing Plant. 

Includes a copy of the original letter from Ron Tepper, dated June 14, 1966, attempting to explain to the DJ's they had sent Promo copies of "Yesterday"...And Today to why they were asking for these copies (with the Butcher Cover) to be returned to Capitol Records (C.O.D.! -- No doubt!!!)  I love the denigrating use of the term 'pop art' thrown in there, in quotations--how déclassé!!! :O
See my other listings for other Beatles & Related items.  I also have a treasure trove of Beatles LPs, 45s and memorabilia yet to be listed.  Let me know what you're looking for.  You can also click on "Save This Seller" and you'll be among the first to be notified when I post new listings.

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:  FREE domestic shipping!  Includes tracking.  Also, Ebay requires "Signature Confirmation" on anything over $750.  I cover the cost for this, so it doesn't cost you anything extra.  Combine any additional items and they're also shipped FREE!  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.   
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 Bruce Eder  [-]

Yesterday...and Today was the last Beatles album to be created exclusively for the American market without the group's direct consent, and its tumultuous history seemed to bring the issue of those albums to a head, both for the group and Capitol Records. Owing to business and market differences between England and America, the label had reconfigured every one of the group's long-players in America up to that point, and also generated a few LPs out of singles, B-sides, and EP tracks that had no U.K. equivalent on 12" vinyl -- the Beatles had tolerated it all quietly in the early days, content to go along amid the whirlwind of success they were riding, even in the face of such abominations as the original U.S. Help! album. By 1966, however, they were on a firmer footing, and well past being wide-eyed teenagers from the north of England; they'd also begun to express themselves creatively in media beyond music, and take themselves a bit more seriously, and having a bit more fun as well -- by the spring of 1966, after all, they were neck-deep into the making of the Revolver album. When confronted with what should have been a routine matter, the proposed 11-song U.S.-only Yesterday...and Today, assembling a bunch of single sides and leftover U.K. LP tracks, they delivered the notorious "butcher cover," depicting the quartet in butcher smocks, handling cuts of meat and pieces of dismembered baby dolls -- it was all their comment on how strangely albums like this one seemed to chop up pieces of their history and repertory. Somehow, Capitol Records' executives went along with gag and approved the initial design, and a print run of the album was ordered up, anticipating the usual six-figure release-date demand for a "new" Beatles LP. Then the negative reactions started coming in from record chain buyers and disc jockeys, and Capitol was soon faced with a crisis -- everybody seemed to find the cover tasteless and even grotesque, and it was possible some department store chains would refuse to stock the album. A new, tamer photo replaced the original cover, and untold thousands of copies of the original "butcher cover" sleeves were pasted over with the new picture. In the end, between the junking of artwork and some jackets, and the overtime needed to salvage the inventory, Yesterday...and Todayended up as the only U.S. Beatles album to show a loss on Capitol's books. From that point forward, there would be better coordination between England and America to prevent such near-disasters. As for the album itself, Capitol assembled four songs that had been removed from the British version of Rubber Soul, the singles "Yesterday," "We Can Work It Out," and "Day Tripper," a pair of B-sides, and offered a "preview" of the upcoming Revolver album (released seven weeks later) in the form of "And Your Bird Can Sing" and "Doctor Robert" (neither one in its final mix). Amazingly, despite origins ranging across 18 months of the band's history, it all hung together very well, with the country-influenced "Act Naturally" and "What Goes On" -- both heavily featuring Ringo Starr -- adding some unexpected roots rock elements amid the cutting-edge, riff-driven glories of "Day Tripper" and others, and the latter contrasting beautifully with McCartney's romantic classic "Yesterday." Despite being thrown together in a blender, the album could stand next to almost any of the competition in the summer of 1966, though it became clear with the release of Revolver, two months later, that the band had left most of the sounds represented here far behind them.