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Tracklisting & More Information
Background
The original premise of the "Unfinished Music" series was that John and Yoko were going to chronicle their lives together on record release, this is the first of these.
Recorded one May morning between midnight and dawn in 1968 at John's Kenwood mansion in Weybridge (probably Sunday 19th May 1968). John's wife, Cynthia, had gone on holiday to Greece with Jennie Boyd and Magic Alex. Yoko had expressed an interest in John's avant-garde recordings using his home recording system, and they decided to make an album together.
So, John's first recording venture without his fellow Beatles was this weird album of sound effects and bodily noises.
More interesting than the "music" (sorry, John) was the album cover. The naked photographs were taken in the basement of Ringo's place in Montague Square, London in early October 1968. There was no way John was going to allow a professional photographer to take the pictures as he was too embarrased, so he set the camera up using a delayed shutter release and took them himself.
That was the easy bit ... next was convincing the other Beatles to approve the project ... that took almost six months !
And even though Paul was strongly against the sleeve, he still contributed with a one line sleeve note which reads:
"When two great Saints meet, it is a humbling experience. The long battles to prove he was a Saint."
Next obstacle was the record company (EMI) who refused release unless the pictures were changed. But, eventually, the album was distributed by Track records in the U.K. as catalogue number 613 012.
But even with approval, the record company printers wouldn't print it, and many record shops refused to stock it. Even the music press opposed it and no editor would accept any of the adverts.
Not surprisingly, it sold only around 5,000 copies in total (mono and stereo) and did not enter the charts.
It was also the first solo Beatles album to be deleted by E.M.I., although it was re-instated into the catalogue in January 1975 when being distributed by Charmdale. But, by 1978 it was deleted again.
**The above text is taken from www.JPGR.co.uk **
CONDITION
LABELS
The Apple labels are dark in design with clear text. The 'Sold in the UK subject to..' text runs left to right approximately a third of the way down from the top of the label.Below this in bold black print is the title. There is no tracklist on either side of the label. To the far right of the label at the '3 o clock' position is the all important 'MONO' text and below that the mono catalogue number 'APCOR 2'. On the stereo copies at the 9 o clock position you would expect to find the Track Records logo as Track distributed the album in the UK, however the mono editions of this record lack this logo because EMI had originally agreed to distribute the album - that is until they saw the nudity on the cover. EMI then withdrew their support and the record had to find an alternative distributer.
The spindlehole shows no signs of wear and only two very light spindlemarks are evident under close scrutiny. The label is free from writing, stickers or blemishes of any kind. The 'KT' tax code is clear either side of the spindle hole on the unsliced label side.
The matrix numbers are machine stamped into the dead vinyl. They are as follows
Side One APCOR 2A-1
Side Two APCOR 2B-1
THE VINYL
The vinyl is in pristine condition with no marks, scratches, or blemishes of any kind. The vinyl has retained its original 1960's sheen and looks almost unplayed which is unsurprising as this album has long been sought after for its collectability rather than its musical content. (Sorry again John!).
THE SLEEVE
It's a popular misconception that the few mono copies issued of this album were all issued in a picture sleeve with the 'Merrie England' blurb on the front. This just isn't the case, though many are. As previously mentioned the project was fraught with problems from the start and the EMI printers refused to print it and the job had to be done by Techink. There are 2 different styles of sleeves, one with writing on the front and the other with the text on the back, however during our 20 years we have seen all variations come up for sale, including mono vinyls in sleeves with rear text and stereo copies with text on the front.
Since there is no catalogue number or Track Records logo on the sleeve it can therefore only be assumed that the sleeve was interchangable.
The sleeve itself , unlike it's US counterpart is fully laminated, front and back. The front of the sleeve depicts the couple nude. The rear of the sleeve shows the back of the couple. Below is the infamous quote provided by Paul McCartney, along with the 'Made in Merrie England' text.
There is a small laminate bubble about a third of the way down the spine of the sleeve. The length of the bubble is 2" and less than half an inch wide. The laminate is still intact and has not broken.
There is minimal yellowing around the edge of the sleeve, both back and front due to the aging process. This is to be expected and we've never come across a copy without this yellowing. This defect is minor and doesn't detract from the overall beauty of the item.
This record in mono is estimated in equal scarcity as the black and gold Parlophone Please Please Me in stereo! This is because a stereo pressing in 1963 was almost unhead of, so in turn was finding a mono copy of anything pressed in 1968!
LP RECORD
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