Ralph Steadman rare Picture Disc Record Hunter S Thompson Ambrosia Gonzo

$

30

Artist: Ralph Steadman

Band: AMBROSIA

7-INCH VINYL WB Records 1982 - 31 years old but perfect condition.

Very rare 1982 original art picture disc created by mad genius and Hunter S Thompson collaborator, Ralph Steadman to illustrate the record by rock band, Ambrosia. Now out of print for decades, original clear cover and record remain in excellent condition. A rare collectable that will continue to grow in value. Beautiful framed and hanging on your wall. This record was released around the same period as Steadman's illustrations for his and Thompson's legendary book, "The Curse of Lono".

About the band (from Wikipedia): Ambrosia has an interesting history, and never released another studio album after 1982. The group was founded as a quartet with guitarist/vocalist David Pack, bassist/vocalist Joe Puerta, keyboardist Christopher North, and drummer Burleigh Drummond. They chose the moniker of Ambrosia in 1970 to represent a vision of their music: all shades, textures, colors and styles. While Ambrosia had many radio hits in the 1970s, much of the material on their five albums is progressive in nature.
The founding band members came from Southern California in the area known as The South Bay, later adopting San Pedro as their hometown. Their initial musical influences, like many of their generation, came from The Beach Boys and The Beatles. Ambrosia fused symphonic art rock with a slick produced pop sound.

Early on, the band was infatuated with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and began to experiment with vocal harmonies. After the group attended a show at the Whisky a Go-Go in December 1969, to see an unknown but highly recommended new band called King Crimson, their perception of music was changed. The musicians, inspired by the music and artists of the progressive rock era, acquired a significant regional admiration. In 1971 a friend who was doing sound for the Hollywood Bowl invited them to play there on stage to test a new sound system that had been installed. Gordon Parry, the head engineer in charge at the Bowl, was so impressed with the group that he invited them back to attend performances by the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He introduced them to conductor Zubin Mehta, who featured Ambrosia as part of a so-called All-American Dream Concert. Despite this early career break, however, it took them four additional years to obtain a recording contract.

They signed with Rubicon Management, which eventually landed the group a deal with 20th Century Fox Records. The first album, Ambrosia, produced by Freddie Piro, was released in 1975. It spawned the Top 20 chart single "Holdin' On To Yesterday" as well as the minor hit "Nice, Nice, Very Nice." The latter sets to music the lyrics to a song in Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle. The album was nominated for a Grammy award for Best Engineered Recording (other than Classical). Alan Parsons was the engineer for Ambrosia's first album and the producer for their second. All four members of Ambrosia played on the first Alan Parsons Project album, Tales of Mystery and Imagination, which was recorded soon after Ambrosia's first album. David Pack later appeared on the Alan Parsons album Try Anything Once (1993), co-writing, playing and providing vocals on three songs.
After lengthy touring, the band returned in 1976 with Somewhere I've Never Travelled. The album yielded the title song and the single "Can't Let A Woman", which both became FM favorites, both featuring lush orchestration and vocal arrangements. The record sleeve folded into a large pyramid. Somewhere I've Never Travelled received a Grammy nomination and set the stage for the band's signing to Warner Bros. Records.

In 1976, the group covered The Beatles song "Magical Mystery Tour" for the transitory musical documentary All This and World War II. The film's soundtrack consisted of different groups providing arrangements of Beatles songs. Their version of "Magical Mystery Tour" scored a Top 40 hit and has since been a staple of their live shows. In 1978 Life Beyond L.A. was released. It marked a move away from their lush arrangements and introduced a more raw, aggressive progressive rock/jazz influence. The year 1978 marked their biggest pop breakthrough with their first Gold single "How Much I Feel" from the album, which was a No. 3 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. Warner Bros advertised the title cut for radio and Life Beyond L.A. started to get significant airplay on radio stations a few months after the album's release. Extensive touring with Fleetwood Mac, Heart, and the Doobie Brothers, in addition to major headlining shows, cemented Ambrosia's reputation as a live act. For the '78 touring band, the group added a second keyboardist, David C. Lewis, as well as an additional singer Royce Jones.

In 1980 Warner Bros. released One Eighty, which produced two of the year's biggest hits. The first, "Biggest Part of Me", reached number three for three weeks on the Hot 100 and crossed over to the soul chart, where it peaked at number thirty-five. The second, another blue-eyed soul hit, "You're the Only Woman (You & I)", reached No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100. One Eighty earned the band three Grammy nominations, including Best Pop Vocal Group. A headlining world tour followed. For the Japanese leg of the tour, the group was joined by their longtime friend guitarist Cliff Woolley (formerly of The Association).
The title of the album One Eighty was believed by fans to signal the group's "180-degree" change in direction. In actuality, it was so named because it was recorded in January 1980 (1/80). They dedicated one of their songs to Sandie Clark.

In 1980 the band contributed the song "Outside" to the movie Inside Moves and the following year placed another track, "Poor Rich Boy" (written by Burt Bacharach), on the soundtrack of the movie Arthur. In 1982 David C. Lewis briefly left the touring group to be replaced by Bruce Hornsby, four years before his own rise to stardom. The same year, Ambrosia released their fifth and final studio album, Road Island, their first effort without the assistance of Freddie Piro's production company. Produced by James Guthrie, the album consisted of intense, driving hard rock (outside of the soft ballad "Feeling Alive Again" and the progressive rock closer "Endings"). Though it scored a minor hit with "How Can You Love Me", the album was a commercial disappointment. The band broke up afterwards, ending their run of chart success.

After Ambrosia, David Pack pursued a solo career and produced or worked with many top artists. Pack's 1985 solo album, Anywhere You Go, included the song "Prove Me Wrong," which also appeared on the soundtrack of the 1985 film White Nights. Joe Puerta became a founding member of Bruce Hornsby and the Range. In 1989, Ambrosia reunited with all four original members and began playing live shows again, mostly on the West Coast. In 1997, Warner Bros. released Ambrosia's greatest hits CD, Anthology, which contains tracks from all five albums plus three new tracks.

The band launched a 30th anniversary tour in 2000 that proved highly successful. On September 1, 2001 the band recorded a live album at the Galaxy Theater in Santa Ana, California without David Pack. This album, Live, was released in May 2002. Also, in 2003 Collectables Records released another compilation album, How Much I Feel and Other Hits. Several compilation albums and another live album have been released, though none officially from the band. In 2004, the band released a DVD called Ambrosia: Real Artists Working. Though there have been no new studio albums since 1982, they have written and performed new material, and a new original album has long been in the planning stages.

The band appeared on the May 2, 2011 episode of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon as part of the host's "Yacht Rock 2k11" theme show, performing "Biggest Part of Me" (during the show) and "How Much I Feel" (after the formal taping, but put up on the Fallon website). They continue to tour throughout the country.
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