ROLLING STONES "MUDDY WATER SESSION" 2-LP 1981 CHECKERBOARD LOUNGE & 1973 TOUR

$

30

THE ROLLING STONES "MUDDY WATER SESSION" 2-LP 1981 CHECKERBOARD LOUNGE & HIGHLIGHTS FROM 1973 TOUR w/ MICK TAYLOR
THE ROLLING STONES "MUDDY WATER SESSION" NOVEMBER 1981 CHECKERBOARD LOUNGE W/ MUDDY WATERS & BUDDY GUY 1973 EUROPEAN TOUR HIGHLIGHTS W/ MICK TAYLOR LABEL: UNKNOWN ~ 'MWRR 12681' IN MATRIX,  BUT NO OTHER INFORMATION  RECORD LABELS: BLANK ~ NO INFORMATION RELEASED: CIRCA DECEMBER 1981 2-LP ~ FIRST PRESSING ~ BLACK VINYL MATRIX: (SIDE A):  'MWRR-12681- A' ~ (SIDE C):  'MW-12681- C' 
CONDITION:  VINYL:  EX- TO EX    JACKET: EX-
I've been going thru my massive vinyl record collection over the past few weeks and pulling out some LPs that I thought that someone else would want for their collection. I've been collecting records for over 45 years and it's time to pass some of them on to the next generation of collectors.
After all, we are just temporary 'caretakers' of these musical gems until the next owner and next collection takes them in.
This week on EBay I am offering up this fantastic, rare copy of the classic Rolling Stones 'Collector' album "Muddy Water Session" which contains songs from the famous November 1981 club gig at Chicago's Checkerboard Lounge w/ Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy & Junior Wells, plus some fantastic live material, with Mick Taylor on guitar, from either the 1972 U.S. tour or the 1973 European tour. The date and location aren't listed.
This is my original clean copy that I purchased back when it was 'new', around Christmas time 1981, 45 years ago, on one of my regular vinyl digs in the record shops of Chicago.
I've taken great care of this record for many years. It's been poly-line sleeved, inside and out, and is still in excellent condition. It's about as good a copy of this rare release as you're likely to find.
See the full description of the jacket and vinyl condition below. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This rare 'Collector' album was purchased at one of my regular record shops in Chicago. At the time, my family lived in Chicago and I was attending the U of Iowa in Iowa City, not too far from the City.
I was lucky to catch the November 20th show in Cedar Falls, as well as 2 of the 3 nights at the Rosemont Horizon in Chicago. It was a great time to be a Rolling Stones fan!
After their show in Saint Paul, the Stones flew to Chicago and had a rare night off before starting their three night run.
On a Sunday night, November 22, 1981, most of the band, Mick, Keith, Ronnie and Ian Stewart, and their large 'entourage' showed up at Buddy Guy’s Checkerboard lounge and joined Muddy Waters and several other Blues legends for a night of jamming and partying. 
At this gig, the Stones joined Muddy Waters and his band, with 'guests' Buddy Guy and Junior Wells. The gig revealed a side of the Stones that few would ever see or hear again. The mutual admiration, buzz, and contact high is palpable and audible.
Word of this gig spread fast among Chicago Stones fans, even in the pre-internet days.
'Tailgating' at the Rosemont Horizon shows was cold, but lots of fun. All the talk and buzz was about the Checkerboard lounge gig they did a few nights earlier. 
My buddy and I were huge Stones collectors and we were asking around the locals if anybody knew anyone who was there, and recorded the show. No luck. I knew the show must have been taped, so I was eager to find a copy. 
About a month later, when I was back home in Chicago from Iowa for the Holiday break, I stumbled across this record in the bins at one of my regular shops. I had never seen it before, but the Title and bold yellow cover immediately caught my eye.
I just assumed this was the Checkerboard show I was looking for, but the song titles were confusing. Some titles clearly suggested the Checkerboard gig, others clearly did not. The record had no information, no dates, not even not any manufacturer listed.
Of course, as a Stones collector, I snatched it up. It was 'new' and sealed, so I was hoping that the record labels offered more information. Nope. Totally blank.
After listening, the strange track listing started to make more sense.
This 2-LP set did have several songs from the Checkerboard gig, in typical audience quality, but much of the 2-LP set consisted of 'classic' selections from either the 1972 US tour, or the 1973 European tour. The presence of Mick Taylor and the song selection narrowed it down to that time period.
This record has very little information as to who pressed it, but I suspect it was made by one of the regular 'collector' record labels like TMOQ, TAKRL, Pig's Eye, Rubber Dubber, Ruthless Rhymes, Vicky Vinyl, or somebody like that.
As far as Rolling Stone 'Collector' records go, this is a rather rare one. In all my years of collecting, I’ve seen many records and various pressings containing the Checkerboard show, but I've never run across another copy of this particular record.
Part of what makes this record interesting is that the source of the Checkerboard material seems, to my ears, to be from a different, alternate audience source than the more common Checkerboard 'Collector' records that would soon start to appear. ~~~~~~~~~~~~
The song selection is printed on the back of the jacket, but the 'true' song selection includes:
Gimmie Shelter Tumbling Dice Brown Sugar **Reasons To Get High Street Fighting Man Heart Breaker Angie Honky Tonky Woman Midnight Ramblor All Down The Line On Down The Road ("Down The Road Apiece") **Mannish Boy **Next Time You See Me **Hoochie Koochie Man ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The 4 songs with ** are the Checkerboard material. As you can see, some tracks are either misspelled or have completely different titles. Also, 'All Down The Line' and 'Next Time You See Me' are on the record, but not listed on the jacket. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Many Rolling Stones 'Collector' records go out of their way to hide the true content, source and date of the material they contain. Re-issues and repackaging are rampant, but this record is unusual in that the cover contains NO information, other than song titles, which are horribly misspelled, and the record labels are totally blank. The only hint of who made this record is the etched matrix numbers, and those aren't even consistent.
The Matrix numbers are all 'MWR-8812681 - A, B, D, but side C has a different Matrix number for unclear reasons; MW-12681 - C.
The plain white labels are slightly different sizes between record 1 and 2, Side C has a different Matrix number format. and both sides of record 2 have songs not listed on the jacket. This all suggests that the 2 records were pressed at different locations, or at least at different times.
There are clear track separations between some songs and some of the songs have 'edits' or fading of the songs. The mastering, editing and 'flow' of this album is kind of strange and seems 'hurried'.
Despite some song separation and editing, LP #1 seems to be all from one show, and is a stereo soundboard recording. (possibly from the 1973 Brussels, Vienna, Wembley KBFH shows?). I’m not sure of the source of this 1972/73 material, but I do recognize it from other 'collector' records, just can’t precisely place it in my head.
Despite a soundboard source, it has a slightly compressed, flattened, rather lo-fi sound.  The performances are all simply fantastic, especially a long version of 'Midnight Rambler.'
The Checkerboard stuff sounds like it's a decent Mono audience recording but also rather lo-fi quality. Despite all that, the album is still very listenable, very enjoyable, and the performances are fantastic, just that the recording quality of both sources could be better, and is your typical decent 'collector record' sound. 
This record is still in fantastic condition. The vinyl is very clean and the jacket is still clean and bright.  This is an original First (only?) Pressing of 'Muddy Water Session', from late 1981, on black vinyl, with blank white labels.
This rare record is rarely listed on any of the many online Rolling Stones 'rare record' collector sites. It's listed on Discogs, but last time I looked, fewer than 60 people claimed to own a copy. I'm not sure how many of these were pressed, but it can't be many. ~~~
The Checkerboard Lounge was a fantastic, small, intimate club to see shows at, and I was fortunate to catch many acts there during the several years I lived in Chicago. The Checkerboard was down on the South Side, on 43rd St. near MLK Boulevard, a tough neighborhood called 'Bronzeville', but it was always worth the trip to see a show.
When I lived there, the Blues scene in Chicago was (is) vibrant with the annual, week-long Blues Festival on Navy Pier and many great clubs. Many of the great Blues artists from the early days were still living in Chicago and they would pop up at local clubs now and then.
This show, on a cold Sunday night in 1981, at Buddy Guy's club down on the Southside, was one of those nights. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CONDITION: I tried to show good hi-resolution photos of the cover, blank labels and vinyl in my pictures. I purchased this copy 'new' back in late 1981, and have taken great care of it since. Back then, I typically taped these sorts of records on first play, and listened to the tapes. rarely playing the actual vinyl.
VINYL: The vinyl looks excellent. Clean and bright. It looks great, like new, and I'm sure you'll be very happy with it. You can see from my photos how terrific it looks. 
The Deadwax has the simple etched matrix numbers, 'MWRR-12681', which appear to be a date, a pressing date?, but not much else. No 'messages' or secret wisdom from Keith. See the full Matrix markings above.
LABELS: This is the First and only pressing of this album and it's pressed on nice thick black vinyl with plain white labels. No mention of the band, which was common for this type of record. 
The spindle holes are still relatively sharp and clean, suggesting minimal playing and my careful handling over the years.
The labels are clean and bright. No marks or defects. I only showed one label as they are all identical, and all clean. Same with the sides of vinyl, all pretty identical, but I did show some pictures and details of the various vinyl sides of the album. 
I tried to show some close-up pictures of the vinyl to show how good it looks. I'm sure you'll be happy with it. 
I haven't messed with this record or cleaned it, other than my trusty 'DiscWasher' brush, in 45 years. It's a little 'dusty' and could use a good deep cleaning to make it even better looking and better sounding than it already is. 
JACKET: As you can see from my pictures, this still looks very nice for a 45 year old OG copy. Clean and bright. The cover art is very cool, but a rather simple design, with an odd, almost distorted, picture of Mick Jagger's face on the cover.
The artwork is bold and bright. A nice bright yellow jacket with red lettering. The back cover gives short 'Bio's' of all the various band members, but no dates, location, or any other information.
The Jacket has no ringwear, but does have some very minor 'bulge-wear' on the cover due to them cramming 2 thick records into a thin, single cardboard sleeve. The 'bulges' have become more pronounced from shifting around in my collection for 45 years, but still very acceptable. Otherwise it looks terrific. A nice survivor in great condition.
Overall, I'll call the whole thing VG++ to keep everyone happy, but you can see what a nice clean copy this is.
This record has been sleeved and stored properly for decades, and is still quite nice for an original pressing. This copy is all original, and a real gem. I'm sure you'll love it.
Add this rare, classic, Rolling Stones record to your collection. It has some great, rare performances with Muddy Waters and other Blues masters, plus some fantastic live material with Mick Taylor, which is always exceptional. You can't go wrong when Mick Taylor and his fantastic guitar were in the band.
This 2-LP 'Collector' record belongs in any Rolling Stones collection or rock vinyl collection. ~~~~~~~~~~~~
** NOTE: I'm selling this rare Rolling Stones 'Collector' record "AS IS" and "NO RETURN". It's rare and as described and I'm sure you'll be very happy with it. You almost never see this album turn up for sale anywhere. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I’m recently retired and downsizing and letting go some gems and rarities from nearly 45 years of vinyl record collecting. Check out the many other fantastic 45s and 33s coming soon to my page!
All records have been carefully evaluated and graded by me. I visually inspect all records under bright light, personally gently clean them with a soft cloth and then, if unsure, play them on a modern high-end turntable to get a true picture of condition. 
Please look at all the high-resolution pictures I added. They are all my own and are of the actual record being sold. The pictures are part of the description and can show small details, label variations, and condition better than I can put into words. 
My grading is fair and honest. I have had over 3,600 happy and satisfied EBay customers over the years, with 100% positive feedback, and I have been buying/selling on EBay for well over 25 years, so please bid with confidence!
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THANK YOU for looking and reading if you got this far.  -- JOHN