TODD RUNDGREN Something/Anything? VG+ 1972 RARE PROMO 2LP Bearsville 2BX 2066

$

70

Vinyl: VG+ Play Graded. Sounds Great!  Nice Glossy Vinyl.  Superb Fidelity!  Bearsville Labels are Clean and Bright.   This is the audiophile acclaimed RARE Original 1972 Bearsville PROMO 1st Pressing, Mastered by Lee Hulko at Sterling Sound, NYC and Pressed at Columbia's Santa Maria, CA Pressing Plant!!   2BX 2066.  Proto Indie Sounds from Todd, post-Nazz, pre-Utopia.  This is Todd's Magnum Opus and his moment in the Sun, hit-wise, with 2 Top 40 Smashes...a Concept record and a unique look into a Pop Masterpiece-Making process with snippets of Todd's dialogue, tours around the studio and fragments that don't distract in the least, but only add to the Sonic Tour through Todd's mad-genius...a great introduction to how he Engineered a particular Sound which can also be heard on the myriad of bands that he produced in this era, from Grand Funk Railroad to XTC ...allmusic gives it 5 stars!!!
See Review Below!  
In the Dead Wax:  Side 1:  S1 ((Pressed at Columbia's Santa Maria, CA Pressing Plant))  2BX 2066A 31360-1F  STERLING ((Sterling Sound, NYC)) LH ((Lee Hulko)) 3  A4
Side 2:  S1 ((Pressed at Columbia's Santa Maria, CA Pressing Plant))  2BX 2066-B 31363-1F  STERLING ((Sterling Sound, NYC)) LH ((Lee Hulko)) 2  B6
Side 3:  S1 ((Pressed at Columbia's Santa Maria, CA Pressing Plant))  2BX 2066-c 31362-1E  STERLING ((Sterling Sound, NYC)) LH ((Lee Hulko)) 2  B
Side 4:   S1 ((Pressed at Columbia's Santa Maria, CA Pressing Plant))  2BX 2066-D 31363-1E  STERLING ((Sterling Sound, NYC)) LH ((Lee Hulko)) 2  A8

Cover: VG+ (see photos)  Gatefold.  1 PROMO Sticker and 1 Hype Sticker.   Nice high gloss on cover. Front and back of cover artwork and text are rich, clear and bright, with some shelf and ring wear.  Seams, corners and spine are solid and clean, with some wear.  No splits.  No writing.  Spine print is clear. 

Goldmine Standards.   I play grade every record that I sell on eBay as I have found you can't rate a record accurately by just visually inspecting it.  I wipe the dust off of every cover with clean, unscented baby wipes.  I professionally clean the vinyl.  (I also operate a Vinyl Record Cleaning business for your dusty/dirty records--if interested, send me a message).

U.S. Shipping:  $4.50 Media Mail.  Tracking included.   50 cents additional shipping per additional item, when the shipment is combined.   If you wish to take advantage of my COMBINED SHIPPING deal, simply select your items by clicking on "ADD TO CART" on the main listing page.  Do this for all of your selections and then go to your cart to checkout. Your combined shipping discount will be computed automatically.  Free domestic shipping if you spend $100 or more!  
All records are packaged securely with the vinyl outside the jacket (to avoid seam split in transit). The vinyl and jacket are sandwiched between two cardboard stiffeners and shipped in a custom cardboard record mailer box. 
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Why buy a first or early pressing and not a re-issue or a ‘re-mastered’ vinyl album?  First and early pressings are pressed from the first generation lacquers and stampers. They usually sound vastly superior to later issues/re-issues (which, in recent times, are often pressed from whatever 'best' tapes or digital sources are currently available) - many so-called 'audiophile' new 180g pressings are cut from hi-res digital sources…essentially an expensive CD pressed on vinyl.  Why  experience the worse elements of both formats?  These are just High Maintenance CDs, with mid-ranges so cloaked with a veil as to sound smeared.  They are nearly always compressed with murky transients and a general lifelessness in the overall sound.  There are exceptions where re-masters/re-presses outshine the original issues, but they are exceptions and not the norm.  First or early pressings nearly always have more immediacy, presence and dynamics. The sound staging is wider.  Subtle instrument nuances are better placed with more spacious textures. Balances are firmer in the bottom end with a far-tighter bass. Upper-mid ranges shine without harshness, and the overall depth is more immersive.  Inner details are  clearer.   On first and early pressings, the music tends to sound more ‘alive’ and vibrant.  The physics of sound energy is hard to clarify and write about from a listening perspective, but the best we can describe it is to say that you can 'hear' what the mixing and mastering engineers wanted you to hear when they first recorded the music.    

AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine  [-]

After two albums, Todd Rundgren had one hit and a burgeoning cult following, plus growing respect as a hitmaking record producer. There's no question he was busy, but as it turns out, all this work only scratched the surface of his ambition. He had decided to abandon the Runt pretense and recorded a full double album by himself (save for one side). Others had recorded one-man albums before, most notably Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney, but Rundgren -- without borrowing musically from either artist -- captured the homemade ambience of McCartney with the visionary feel of Music of My Mind, adding an encyclopedic knowledge of pop music from Gilbert & Sullivan through Jimi Hendrix, plus the crazed zeal of a pioneer. Listening to Something/Anything? is a mind-altering trip in itself, no matter how many instantly memorable, shamelessly accessible pop songs are scattered throughout the album. Each side of the double album is a concept onto itself. The first side is "a bouquet of ear-catching melodies"; side two is "the cerebral side"; on side three "the kid gets heavy"; side four is his mock pop operetta, recorded with a full band including the Sales brothers. It gallops through everything -- Carole King tributes ("I Saw the Light"), classic ballads ("Hello It's Me," "It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference"), Motown ("Wolfman Jack"), blinding power pop ("Couldn't I Just Tell You"), psychedelic hard rock ("Black Maria"), pure weirdness ("I Went to the Mirror"), blue-eyed soul ("Dust in the Wind"), and scores of brilliant songs that don't fall into any particular style ("Cold Morning Light," "It Takes Two to Tango"). It's an amazing journey that's remarkably unpretentious. He may have contributed self-penned liner notes, but Rundgren peppers his writing with self-aware, self-deprecating asides, and he also indulges his bizarre sense of humor with gross-outs ("Piss Aaron") and sheer quirkiness, such as an aural tour of the studio at the beginning of side two. Something/Anything? has a ton of loose ends throughout: plenty of studio tricks, slight songs (but no filler), snippets of dialogue, and purposely botched beginnings, but all these throwaways simply add context -- they're what makes the album into a kaleidoscopic odyssey through the mind of an insanely gifted pop music obsessive. Rundgrenoccasionally touched on the sheer brilliance of Something/Anything? in his later work, but this extraordinary double album is the one time where his classicist songcraft and messy genius converged to create an utterly unique, glorious record.