BRIDGET ST JOHN - SONGS FOR THE GENTLE MAN 1st UK Press DANDELION Nick Drake

	£		71
	$		94

BRIDGET ST JOHN -

SONGS FOR THE GENTLE MAN

DANDELION

1st UK Press 1971

DAN 8007

First press Machined matrices:  A1 B1

Companies, etc.

• Published By – Biscuit Music Ltd.
• Published By – Blue Mountain Music
• Published By – Donovan (Music) Ltd.
• Distributed By – Kinney Record Group Ltd.

Credits

• Arranged By – Bridget St John* (tracks: A4, B5), John Henry (43) (tracks: A2), Ron Geesin (tracks: A1, A4, A5, B3 to B5)
• Producer – Ron Geesin
• Written-By – Bridget St. John (tracks: A1 to A3, A5, A6, B1 to B6), Donovan (tracks: B5), John Martyn (tracks: A4), Nigel Beresford (tracks: A5)

One of the very rarest psych folk albums from the UK and any time this album comes up for sale there is a sense of excitement. This one is nice, please read on . It is becoming nearly impossible these days to still find copies of the original first issue of this classic timeless psych/folk album. 

Record itself in normal daylight is clean with a bright sheen. 

Labels clean and unmarked and EX.

Play test showed superb clear sound.

Here is a chance to own a copy of a very rare and desirable album. 

Musically haunting,  some strangely-strange melodies and great improvisations. This has long been a connoisseurs psych/folk album and highly sought after. I have always found this much harder to find than the first album and only ever seen two copies before and none even in the same class or league as this stunning example. These acid-folk albums are hard to find like this with nowhere for unwanted sounds to hide amongst the delicate acoustic and vocal music, this gave a fantastic performance throughout. Seeing is believing – this amazing and quite beautiful fully textured cover is truly as wonderful as it looks.  

Bridget St. John was one of the more distinctive artists to emerge from the U.K. folk scene in the '60s and '70s; she had a strong, powerful voice that made her sound a bit like Nico's cousin from the British countryside, and she was a talented if elemental guitarist and a songwriter whose lyrical perspective suggested a poet whose mystical side was still grounded by the realities of the earth. Caught somewhere between the U.K. folk community and the hippie culture, St. John found a sympathetic record label when John Peel co-founded Dandelion Records; Peel and his partners were music fans and not businessmen, which means St. John was given full creative freedom, though her records didn't get much of a chance in the marketplace. Three of the four studio albums St. John recorded before she took a sabbatical from music to move to the United States are featured in the artlessly titled box set Dandelion Albums & BBC Recordings Collection. Released in 1969, Ask Me No Questions is St. John's most simple and unadorned set, with the artist accompanying herself on acoustic guitar, with bass and hand drums dressing up a few tracks. Issued in 1971, Songs for the Gentle Man was a significantly more artful affair, with producer Ron Geesin giving the material greater variety with the use of creative audio effects and arrangements that used keyboards, strings, and woodwinds to lend a baroque sensibility to the tunes. While the results are often lovely, there are moments when the self-consciously pretty surfaces run counter to St. John's more grounded perspectives. And 1972's Thank You For... seems to strike a middle ground between the first two LPs; while the bulk of the album features a full band, the heartfelt, country-influenced backing meshes well with St. John's guitar and voice, and her covers of "Lazarus," "Everyday," and "Love Minus Zero/No Limit" are imaginative and a far cry from the many interpretations that came before.

Vinyl: EX.  Only a couple of very wispy hairlines which are barely visible to the naked eye, unless seen under a strong light source. Under a very strong light just some paper retraction traces which even new vinyls would have. This vinyl sounds great with nothing untoward safe for some light crackle during the first 15 seconds each side. The audio has beautiful separation and there is barely any background noise. This vinyl looks and sounds great with a beautiful  sheen. I played this in full on my Linn Sondek/Rotel system and thoroughly enjoyed it.  I was even tempted to keep this as it will be impossible to find this ever again, it is indeed mega rare these days. Only two or three went up for sale this last year. Needless to say NO jumps or sticks. 

Sleeve: EX. Matt luxuriously textured gatefold sleeve without any major issues. The sleeve is square and flat but has some shelf wear as is evident from the pictures. The edges have light wear. The opening is still crisp. the spine has light wear but is fully legible. Apart from the storage wear there are NO creases and there is NO writing. There are no stains either. A phenomenally scarce album and rumoured to only have been pressed in a quantity of 1000 to 1500. This is such a vulnerable sleeve and for that reason it is quite remarkable that this copy has remained in such superior condition. How many would have survived over the last 50 years??

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