LOU REED "Metal Machine Music" 1975 RCA MINT AUDIO

	£		27
	$		36

 
LOU REED "Metal Machine Music" 1975 RCA MINT AUDIO FIRST US 2LP PRESSING OF LOU REED'S INFAMOUS 1975 OPUS

LOU REED
Metal Machine Music (The Amine ? Ring)

ORIGINAL USA RCA (CPL2-1101 ) FIRST PRESSING (July 1975) OF LOU REED'S INFAMOUS "Metal Machine Music" DOUBLE LP (never released in the UK and only available on import) - ONE OF THE MOST NOTORIOUS RELEASES IN ROCK HISTORY AND IN BEAUTIFUL CONDITION (played, or more correctly part played just the once) AND DELIVERING PERFECT MINT AUDIO THROUGHOUT - easy to understand why its practically unplayed as it would take a very brave soul to sit through this challenging/uncompromising/unlistenable/joke/masterpiece?? in one sitting - AND AS REED HIMSELF WRITES IN THE LINER NOTES "No one I know has listened to it all the way through including myself."

AS THE FIRST PRESSING THE GROOVE AT THE END OF SIDE 4 IS LOCKED SO THE LP PLAYS ENDLESSLY (and is timed: 16:10 to ?)

MATRIX: (side one is backed with side four, side two with side three)
RECORD ONE: CPL - 2 - 1101 - A - 1 / CPL - 2 - 1101 - D - 1
RECORD TWO: CPL - 2 - 1101 - B - 1 / CPL - 2 - 1101 - C - 1

As a radical departure from the rest of Reed's catalog, Metal Machine Music is generally considered to be either a joke, a grudging fulfilment of a contractual obligation, or an early example of noise music. Reed himself has said of the album "I was serious about it. I was also really, really stoned."
According to Reed the album entirely consists of guitar feedback played at different speeds. The two guitars were tuned in unusual ways and played with different reverb levels. He would then place the guitars in front of their amplifiers, and the feedback from the very large amps would vibrate the strings — the guitars were, effectively, playing themselves. He recorded the work on a four-track tape recorder in his New York apartment, mixing the four tracks for stereo. In its original form, each track occupied one side of an LP record and lasted exactly 16 minutes and 1 second with the last track timed, and playing to infinity - as the groove is locked (16.10 or ?) - the music has no beginning or end and can be started or finished anywhere (see photo of liner notes)
A major influence on Reed's recording, and an important source for an understanding of Reed's seriousness with the album, was the mid-1960s drone music work of La Monte Young's Theater of Eternal Music (whose members included John Cale, Tony Conrad, Angus Maclise and Marian Zazeela). Both Cale and Maclise were also members of The Velvet Underground (Maclise left before the group began recording). The Theater of Eternal Music's discordant sustained notes and loud amplification had influenced Cale's subsequent contribution to the Velvet Underground in his use of both discordance and feedback. Recent releases of works by Cale and Conrad from the mid-sixties, such as Cale's Inside the Dream Syndicate series (The Dream Syndicate being the alternative name given by Cale and Conrad to their collective work with Young) testify to the influence this important mid-sixties experimental work had on Reed ten years later.
In an interview with rock journalist Lester Bangs, Reed claimed that he had intentionally placed sonic allusions to classical works such Beethoven's Eroica and Pastoral Symphonies in the distortion, and that he had attempted to have the album released on RCA's Red Seal classical label; however, it is not clear if he was being serious, though he has repeated the latter claim in a 2007 interview.

Record One; Side 1: Metal Machine Music (A-1) 16.10
Record One; Side 2: Metal Machine Music (A-4) 16.10 or ?
Record Two; Side 1: Metal Machine Music (A-2) 16.10
Record Two; Side 2: Metal Machine Music (A-3) 16.10

LABELS: The gold RCA labels are clean, bright and unmarked with barely a spindle trace to be seen - this copy has been played, or just part played the one time only
VINYL Visual: All four sides retain their original deep, like-new, glossy sheen and are unmarked - two beautiful records
VINYL Audio: I listed to all 60+ minutes of this work from beginning to end (honestly) and the audio reproduction is perfect throughout - no clicks/pops, no scratches or even any surface noise - although it would be pretty hard to detect any as this is a real aural assault with barely any let-up. But far from being totally unlistenable, after a while I found it becomes incredibly hypnotic and the densely and carefully constructed layers weave in and out of each other to fascinating effect (although I must admit I won't be sitting through it all again anytime soon). Critically graded MINT for audio quality - this is a really superb copy - as good as it gets
SLEEVE: In common with almost every other copy I have ever seen the gatefold cover displays a lot of outer wear (but the inside is beautifully fresh, clean and unrubbed). The sleeve is however, good and solid with a strong spine which displays most of the text clear and bold and as this is an import copy it is 'clipped' on the bottom opening edge and has the RCA "Terminal '75" sticker - which is unrubbed with clean text - actually a VERY GOOD example of this sleeve

PLEASE HAVE A LOOK AT MY PICTURES - I USUALLY TAKE QUITE A FEW SO YOU CAN GET A CLEAR INDICATION OF EVERY DETAIL OF THE ITEM
I HAVE UPLOADED AS MANY PICTURES AS I CAN BUT I WOULD BE MORE THAN HAPPY TO SUPPLY ANY ADDITIONAL PHOTOS ON REQUEST
ORIGINAL 1975 FIRST PRESSING OF THIS INFAMOUS WORK WHICH PLAYS FLAWLESSLY THROUGHOUT AND IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
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 308 (GS 5.3.7 (308))