FRANK ZAPPA/MOTHERS Weasels Ripped My Flesh SCARCE ORIG UK 70 EX+ LP SUPER SOUND

	£		38
	$		50

PLEASE NOTE: I am no longer a professional record seller, I am selling a few albums from my own personal collection. The service I offer will of the standard I used successfully for over 20 years on Ebay.
 

The pictures are of the actual item I am selling. I would never, and have never used stock images. What you see, is always what you get.
 

Artist or Band: THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION

Album Title: Weasels Ripped My Flesh.

Producer: Frank Zappa.

TRACK LIST:  

Side 1: Didja Get Any Onya; Directly From My Heart to You; Prelude to the Afternoon of a Sexually Aroused Gas Mask; Toads of the Short Forest; Get a Little..

Side 2: Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbecue; Dwarf Nebula Processional March & Dwarf Nebula; My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama; Oh No; The Orange County Lumber Truck; Weasels Ripped My Flesh..

Rarity: Moderately scarce, harder to find in better condition, the cover especially.

Label/Format: Reprise – RSLP original with the deeper orange-tan finish and smooth matt surfaces that have two ring ridges. This album was not issued on the tri-coloured format, ‘Burnt Weeny Sandwich’ was the last ‘Mothers’ album on that label.

Label Conditions:  Both very clean, fresh and attractive with any of the few spindle marks light and quite faint. Any other minor ‘blemishes’ are within manufacture.

Catalogue Number: RSLP 2028.

Mode / Speed: Stereo / 33.3 rpm.

Warps: Few vintage records are ever perfectly ‘flat’, so some slight or very gentle arm movement is normal. If any record I offer has more than that, I will mention it, and it can be assumed all I offer will track without issues, even on budget turntables.

Record Weight:  161 grams.

Country of Manufacture:  England.

Musicians:  Frank Zappa – lead guitar, vocals; Jimmy Carl Black – drums; Ray Collins – vocals; Roy Estrada – bass, vocals; Bunk Gardner – tenor saxophone; Lowell George – rhythm guitar, vocals; Don ‘Sugarcane’ Harris – vocals, electric violin; Don Preston – organ, electronic effects; Buzz Gardner – trumpet and flugel horn; Motorhead Sherwood – baritone saxophone, snorks; Art Tripp – drums; Ian Underwood – alto saxophone.

Original Year of Release:  1970.

Matrix and Stamper Codes: RSLP 2028 A2 (A 1) / RSLP 2028 B2 (A 2)

Artist & Album Info:  ‘Weasels Ripped My Flesh’ was originally designed as a sampler for a 12-record set, ‘The History and Collected Improvisations of the Mothers of Invention’. It includes all new live and studio recordings (all superbly recorded). In more recent times, this is regarded as one of Zappa’s finest works and remains a fascinating collection. Sugarcane Harris’s performance of Little Richard’s ‘Directly From My Heart to You’ is perfect – it was part of the same sonic universe as the <i>avant garde</i> orchestral music of Varèse and the free-form jazz of Eric Dolphy. The latter was given his own ‘Memorial Barbecue’, a stunning encounter between bizarre harmonies and electronic distortion. The album also featured another notorious sleeve – for me one of the greatest ever – a hilariously gruesome painting by Neon Park (Martin Muller from San Francisco). He found more fame with his covers for Little Feat. When guitarist Lowell George – who can be heard imitating a Gestapo officer on ‘Didja Get Any Onya’ – broke away to form Little Feat, he insisted on using Neon Park for all their covers. The title of ‘Prelude to the Afternoon of a Sexually Aroused Gas Mark’ nodded to Debussy’s ballet about the skipping faun, but the heavy-rock sounds were totally ‘Mothers’. ‘My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama’ (a Zappa classic) is an icon of teenage rebellion and was issued as a single, that failed to sell (of course). The title track was simply two minutes and seven seconds of feedback and distortion – amazing very loud electrical mayhem. It would be many years later with the advent of lo-fi and ‘noise’ bands like Sonic Youth, that such strategies would become familiar to rock listeners. As it was, Zappa was happy to be known as the ‘King of Weird’, it gave him <i>carte blanche</i> to employ any musical texture or style that took his fancy and here it’s very varied. This album is essential and remains one of his most popular for his even growing audience and fans – in UK chart terms, it was his third highest entry. My regular Ebay readers and buyers will know of my love of Zappa’s music and I am always delighted to offer any of his items if the conditions are right. This is a fantastic record – never so easily found as a RSLP version in better grading conditions, it looks and plays superbly, one for fans of the master entertainer. The only reason for the sale is – I have three other copies.

Cover Grade and Format:  EXCELLENT: or very close to. A single unlaminated format with matt, smooth surfaces, it has RSLP on the front, back and spine. Printed and made by Garrod and Lofthouse, includes the plain white inner sleeve.

Cover Front: Although not one of rock’s biggest selling albums, most rock and prog fans will know this sleeve well. The first RSLP matt printings are notoriously wear-prone and seldom seen without. This famous Neon Park graphic has minimal rub or crease traces and still looks great. Generally clean and still fresh, a very fine fade hint on the yellow of the spine end with a mere trace on the top edge. The lack of ugly ring wear is always a plus on this one. At 55-years-old, this unforgiving surface has fared very well overall.

Cover Back: Largely the same again, A gentle hint of grubbiness near the very sides the only real polite hint of age, little else to fault apart.

Top & Bottom Edges: Both remain straight and unsplit, the top with minimal rubbing, the bottom only quite light and patchy, seldom avoided totally on this storage edge.

Right Edge(s), and Type: Clean, straight and still quite sharp, this is also impressive.

Spine and Text:  Solidly and neatly intact, also still clean. Made quite thin – this is not compressed – the text is almost complete with just a couple of letters rubbed away or clipped. This is all nicely centred on the narrow spine depth.

Corners: Light tip rubbing only. Fine to very fine shape retained with no dinks.

Cover Summary:  One of the 1970s classic rock covers – and this does it strong justice as seen. It will prove difficult to find significantly better and should please many collectors.

The Inner Sleeve: EXCELLENT: a plain solid unlined inner that has aged little with far less darkening or toning that most. Minimal creasing and all edges solidly intact.

Vinyl Condition/Visual Grading: EXCELLENT+, a superb visual copy that arguably better still. This is retains genuine freshness and shine, with any surface traces minimal, few and ultra fine and faint. They hardly get much better than this, clearly little played, one to please many, if not most fans of the great man.

Album Played For Grading: Yes. [Equipment used: Pro-Ject X2 B Turntable, Ortofon MC X30 moving coil cartridge, Pro-Ject DS3 B Phono Preamp, Naim SuperNait 2 and Spendor A7 floorstanding speakers.]

Sound Quality and Audio Grading:  This fantastic record plays even above its visual grading with lovely clean focused sound. With such intensity and complicated music included, that can never be taken for granted. This a super clean pressing with barely anything unwanted. A loud and dynamic recording and brilliantly produced by Frank, this intricate and compelling music still pleases every time I hear it on a very clean, early-made record. It gives a wonderful account of itself and offers mastertape quality – and of course with the original sound that has not been messed around with like the CD versions. The really difficult song is ‘Directly From My Heart to You’, with Sugarcane Harris’s electric violin. But this plays beautifully with sharp and totally focused sound with no traces of clipping, crackle or distortion, this instrument is amongst the hardest to track and often suffers the most. This vintage record is special for Zappa enthusiasts, it should please many, if not most collectors..

End Piece:  Far too weird and musically advanced for many when first issued, the RSLP issues are prized. Few but Zappa and this superb band could produce a piece so varied – covering rock, jazz, classical, blues and avant garde electronic music all on one brilliant album. The cover alone I would have thought would have promoted more sales, but only moderately successful in that respect. This record is intricate and challenging, it has to be enjoyed loud, it’s the final album featuring most of the early Mothers. As stated this includes live cuts but all the songs here are new and the sound quality is of studio quality. Get this on to your deck, sit back and be entertained – this is the genius that was Frank Zappa. Musically this album is as fresh and timeless as the day it was issued, it’s the man and his band at their experimental best. Groundbreakingly compelling, original and entertaining – a Five Star album in most reference books and deservedly so. This is a copy I can strongly recommend, not one to lose lightly.





The record has been professionally cleaned on my German-made Nessie vinyl record cleaning machine.

The record will always be removed from the main cover and placed inside a soft-lined white inner to avoid edge splits in transit. Then put inside a protective plastic sleeve.

It will be posted for UK delivery via a Royal Mail tracked service. More expensive albums will be posted Special Delivery. The price will be £4.50.

The price to Europe will be £14 and overseas £24 using a tracked DPD courier service. I will NOT send to Russia or Belarus.

Payment required within 4 days of sale or will be cancelled with no exceptions. Payment via Paypal is preferred.