ERNEST WILSON- STORYBOOK CHILDREN- STU.1- EX++

$

45

Ernest Wilson - Storybook Children

b/w Ernest & Freddie [McGregor] - After Laughter

                                      Label:   Studio One

                     Matrix Number:   FCD 7270   b/w   CS 015 1 1 1

           Vinyl Wear Condition:  EX++

                   Pressing Quality:  5.5 (crackly)

                Mastering Volume:  Side A:  HOT-   Side B:  Average

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SOUND SAMPLE TAKEN FROM ACTUAL RECORD AT FLAT RESPONSE

     This is an original pressing of the 1968 release "Storybook Children" by Ernest Wilson, produced by Clement Coxsone Dodd on his Studio One label.  I've no idea if this is an early 70s reissue or what, but the matrix numbers for the B-side stamper are British die-cuts.  Recorded at Studio One, the studio band is sometimes credited as Sound Dimension though it sounds more like the Soul Vendors to me.  This cut is a cover of the 1967 US hit (#56) by Billy Vera & Judy Clay on Atlantic.  Vera co-wrote the tune and Judy Clay was Dionne & Dee Dee Warwick's adopted sister.  Vera & Clay broke cultural barriers by becoming the first interracial soul singing duo.  This was pretty much the apex of the very gifted Clay's career and Vera went on to form the pop band Billy & The Beaters.

     The B-side is "After Laughter", a late ska number from 1967 and though it is credited to Ernest & Freddie, it's a solo vocal by a VERY young Freddie McGregor (11 years old!).  And he'd already joined Wilson & Peter Austin's Clarendonians at age 7 (he had to stand on a crate to reach the microphone).  Child singers were not unusual at Studio One; others included Jacob Miller and Delroy Wilson.  Later Freddie was a session drummer for Studio One, especially around 1974.  The trombone solo is most likely by Vin Gordon.

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     I had the distinct pleaure of hanging out with Freddie McGregor for several months in 1977.  Scott McPherson and I had a reggae record shop in Cambridge, MA called Rupert's Music.  Scott produced my radio show on WBOS-FM, and the shop also promoted local shows by touring bands, among them Jah Malla and Soul Syndicate.  Soul Syndicate, one of the most prolific studio bands of the 70's, had an album contract with the California-based label Epiphany, and Rupert's worked with the label on the band's East Coast tour.  On the album ("Harvest Uptown"), the lead vocals were handled by Donovan Carless, but for touring purposes he had been replaced by a 21-year old Freddie McGregor.  Other band members included Earl "Chinna" Smith on guitar, a feisty Max Edwards on drums, George Fullwood on bass, Tony "Valentine" Chin on rhythm guitar, Arnold Breckenridge on trumpet and Richard "Jamaka" Johnson on keyboards.  Jamaka was also a very talented cartoonist and did quite a bit of album cover art.  I learned a lot about the music from them, and they were a delight to spend time with.

     Soul Syndicate made Boston their headquarters in the region, and Rupert's had a large basement which we outfitted with cots for several weeks before the band rented their own house in a West Indian section of Boston.  So the group hung around at the shop a lot, listening to music and making expensive phone calls home to Jamaica.  One time, they were really excited about making a field trip to Connecticut to see Earth, Wind & Fire in concert.  Freddie was Rasta but not yet a dreadlocks.  I remember him being very polite and mild-mannered, also very open-minded and curious.  He was thrilled to discover that I owned this copy of "After Laughter", which he said he had never heard on record since the day he cut the tune ten years previously, so he had me make several cassettes of it for him.  My friend Laurie Gunst, author of the definitive book on Jamaican politricks and gang warfare "Born Fi Dead", took Freddie down to Harvard Square to Brattle St. Books, where he was very happy to acquire several alternative versions of the Bible and related texts, including the Book of Macabees which was unavailable/banned in Jamaica.

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     This record is from my personal collection; I'm not really a buy-and-sell-or-trade type of seller. Like much of my vinyl, I bought this record unplayed in 1976, played it a few times, recorded it to cassette and then put it back in its sleeve for the next 33 years!  Visually, the vinyl shows very little sign of wear.  It's been wet cleaned, then both sides archived to CD by me as part of the grading process. Guaranteed free of skips and loud scratches when I used a tonearm weighted at 1.5 grams.

     About my pricing:  this record, in similar condition, has fetched up to $97.00 at auction before, but I'm starting the bidding at $45.00.

Payment Terms:    Right now I ONLY accept PAYPAL methods of payment.   If you wish to make a PayPal Instant Payment, make sure your bank account is correctly linked to your PayPal account, so your payment will be virtually IMMEDIATE.

To pay a seller using your checking account (INSTANT PAY OPTION), please follow these steps:

a)   Log in to your PayPal account at the link below:

             https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_login-run

b)   Click on the "Send Money" tab
c)   Enter the required information
d)   Click "Continue"
e)   Click the "Funding Options" link under the Source of Funds heading
f)    Click the "Add Bank" link next to "Instant Transfer"
g)   Enter the information on the following page. (You will need to know
      your bank account number and routing number. You can find these at the
      bottom of one of your checks.)
h)   Click "Add Bank Account"
i)    Next, select the radio button next to "Instant Transfer" and click
      "Continue"
j)    Review the information on the Payment Details page and click "Send
      Money" to complete your transaction 

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Shipping: High bidders may want to consider insuring their purchases, since even the best packed records do occasionally arrive broken, and you can only get all your money back if you fully insure your purchase.

Within the continental US:

Shipping cost depends on the location of the winning bidder and there is a flat $4 handling fee. 

SINGLES are shipped by USPS Priority Mail (insurance optional) or First Class Mail (cheaper but slower, no insurance).

ALBUMS are shipped by USPS Priority Mail (insurance optional) or Media Mail (cheaper but slower, no insurance).

International purchases:

Records are usually shipped by USPS International First Class Mail (no insurance available), or USPS Priority Mail International (partial insurance included), and there is a flat $5 handling charge.  To choose a USPS International Mail option for shipments to your country, please use the Shipping Calculator provided by Ebay at the foot of this listing.

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                          LP in cardboard mailer = approx. 1 lb. 3 oz.
                          Each additional LP = approx. 8 oz.

     With due respect, Jamaican pressings are not generally known for their high quality, although over the last 35 years I have encountered the occasional superbly hot, clear and quiet pressing. New York, UK and Canadian pressings of reggae music are often better than Jamaican pressings, but not always.  In my opinion, Jamaican pressings generally fall somewhere between 4 and 7 on the 1-to-10 rating scale (see below). Some manufacturers are consistently better or worse than others, but not always. Labels are often mangled, illegible, incorrect or applied off-center.  One or both sides of a record are often pressed slightly or wildly off-center (see below).

     It is essential to remember that the birth (and amazing development) of Jamaican popular music and its recording industry was a living miracle which flourished, and continues to do so against incredible odds.  A history of colonial exploitation with its racist slavery, together with a lack of marketable resources in today's globalized world market --- all this has not been kind to the beautiful island of Jamaica and its resilient people.  Life in Jamaica continues to be a contradiction: physically primitive conditions with massive poverty alongside culturally rich complexity, innovative genius and sophistication.

     So working conditions in the pressing plants are often less than ideal:  it can be hot, smoky, crowded and noisy, but at least it's a job.  Access to good materials, equipment and maintenance is often difficult or unaffordable. When the economic oil crises of the 70's hit, fresh vinyl was scarce and expensive, so they started melting down old tunes and defective pressings, sometimes including the paper labels.  I remember seeing these rusty oil barrels full of 45's out in back of the pressing plants.  They'd leave them out in the yard, filling up with rainwater and mosquito eggs, to soak off the labels!  It's too bad --- a great many musical treasures were destroyed in those barrels, but business was business, and I guess it still is. 

            MAY GOD BLESS.....        

In grading the sound quality of a vinyl record (assuming it's been cleaned and there's no significant warpage), there are three main issues:

1.)  Wear from usage

2.)  Pressing quality after manufacture, which is the amount of surface noise such as pops/clicks/hisses/buzzes due to imperfections in the grooves of the record like small pits or bubbles.  This is partially determined by vinyl quality/purity, temperature control and cleanliness of the record stamping machine.  Other problems include the record being pressed off-center ("drunk") resulting in a wobbly, pitch-wavering sound.  

        TIP for off-center pressings:  With 45's, you can compensate during playback for a drunk pressing by removing the centering "dome" from the turntable spindle, slowly turning the record by hand while observing in which direction the grooves are off center, and then pushing the record slightly off-center in the opposite direction until the grooves themselves are centered.  It's an acquired skill.

3.)  Mastering volume and the resulting Signal-to-Noise Ratio:  how loudly ("hotly") or softly ("sleepily") the record was mastered to the stamper from the master tape of the music. With a hot pressing, the loudness of the music overpowers and masks the fainter sound of the surface noise.  With a sleepy pressing, the music is dimmer and down closer to the level of surface noise; the listener has to turn up the volume, making the surface noise more audible along with the music.  Other mastering problems include exaggerated tone settings and distortion, especially in high frequencies ("S" sounds) and upper midrange frequencies ("squawking" in the vocals or other tinny instruments).  Too much bass and the needle will hop right out of the groove!

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Gradings for visually detectable wear on vinyl records

MINT (M) The record itself is in brand new condition with no surface marks or deterioration in sound quality. The cover and any extra items such as the lyric sheet, booklet or poster are in perfect condition. Records advertised as Sealed or Unplayed should be Mint.  

NEAR MINT (NM+/-) As above, but only played a few times.  The cover and any extra items such as the lyric sheet, booklet or poster are in nearly perfect condition.

EXCELLENT (EX+/-) The record shows some signs of having been played, but there is very little lessening in sound quality. The cover and packaging might have slight wear and/or creasing.  

 VERY GOOD (VG+/-) The record has obviously been played many times, but displays no major deterioration in sound quality, despite noticeable surface marks and the occasional light scratch. Normal wear and tear on the cover or extra items, without any major defects, is acceptable.  

 GOOD (G+/-)   The record has been played so much that the sound quality has noticeably deteriorated, perhaps with some distortion and mild scratches. The cover and contents suffer from folding, scuffing of edges, spine splits, discoloration, etc.  

 FAIR (F+/-)   The record is still just playable but has not been cared for properly; it may even jump. The cover and contents will be torn, stained and/or defaced.  

 POOR (P+/-)  The record will not play properly due to scratches, uncleanable dirt etc. The cover and contents will be badly damaged or partly missing.  

 BAD (+/-) The record is unplayable or might even be broken, and is only of use as a collection-filler.

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RATINGS FOR PRESSING QUALITY ON A SCALE OF 10 DOWN TO 1

10:  No audible surface noise (nearly impossible to achieve).  Example:  Classical or audiophile music pressings on "virgin" high-quality vinyl and manufactured under "laboratory" conditions, often of European or Japanese origin.  Most really good pressings will only rate a 9 anyway.

 9:   Very few barely audible clicks. No pops at all.

 8:   Frequent softly audible clicks and no pops.

 7:   More frequent audible clicks and occasional pops.

 6:   Frequent audible clicks and pops.

 5:   Frequent noticable clicks and pops.

 4:   Very frequent noticable clicks and loud pops.

 3:   Extremely frequent loud clicks and loud pops, possibly with occasional hisses/buzzes.

 2.   Constant loud clicks and loud pops, with frequent hisses/buzzes

 1:   Virtually unlistenable, might as well've been pressed on peanut-brittle!

       Go buy the re-issue of the song on CD made directly from the master
 tapes.

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STANDARDS FOR RATING MASTERING VOLUME

              HOT (+/-)

             AVERAGE (+/-)

             SLEEPY (+/-) 

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HOW I GRADE RECORDS FOR SALE:

For records with a visual wear rating between VG and NM++ , additional ratings for pressing quality and signal-to-noise ratio are included.  It's entirely possible for an M or barely played NM record to sound pretty bad because it was poorly pressed in the first place.

For records with a visual wear rating below VG , it is often too difficult to tell the difference between surface noises due to wear and those due to pressing quality, so only a single condition grading is offered.

About grading integrity :  it is my strict policy to grade these records as carefully and truthfully as possible.  It's a common complaint that many record sellers tend to overgrade their stock: more than once, I've purchased a few "VG+" or "EX" records on Ebay, and eagerly put one on the turntable only to find it's a nearly unlistenable mess.  Yuck! This is why I have no return policy:  my record description is intended to be honest and thorough enough in the first place, so you can decide if you want to buy it AS DESCRIBED and AS IS.

Payment Terms:

Currently, I only accept PAYPAL methods of payment.   If you wish to make a PayPal Instant Payment, make sure your bank account is correctly linked to your PayPal account, so your payment will be virtually IMMEDIATE.

To pay a seller using your checking account (INSTANT PAY OPTION), please follow these steps:

a)   Log in to your PayPal account at the link below:

             https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_login-run

b)   Click on the "Send Money" tab
c)   Enter the required information
d)   Click "Continue"
e)   Click the "Funding Options" link under the Source of Funds heading
f)    Click the "Add Bank" link next to "Instant Transfer"
g)   Enter the information on the following page. (You will need to know
      your bank account number and routing number. You can find these at
      the bottom of one of your checks.)
h)   Click "Add Bank Account"
i)    Next, select the radio button next to "Instant Transfer" and click
      "Continue"
j)    Review the information on the Payment Details page and click "Send
      Money" to complete your transaction

                    Miss Bibby say...

No bettah fish, no bettah barrel
If the shoe fits, wear it.