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CHUCK BERRY AFTER SCHOOL SESSION ORIGINAL 1957 CHESS RECORDS MONO LP 1426
ORIGINAL U.S. PRESSING
CHUCK BERRY S VERY FIRST ALBUM
ORIGINAL BLACK CHESS LABEL WITH SILVER PRINT.
DEEP GROOVE PRESSING
RARE TRUE FIRST VERSION OF THE COVER WITHOUT THE BOXED CHESS LOGO IN YELLOW BOX IN THE UPPER RIGHT-HAND CORNER OF THE FRONT PANEL ON THE COVER AND WITHOUT THE CHECKERED PATTERN ON THE SPINE
ACCORDING TO OUR VENDOR, THIS ITEM COMES FROM THE ESTATE OF THE RECENTLY DECEASED MEMBER OF THE DUKE ELLINGTON ORCHESTRA WHOSE NAME HE DID NOT DISCLOSE. WE WERE UNABLE TO VERIFY THE AUTHENTICITY OF THIS INFORMATION OR THE IDENTITY OF THE SAID INDIVIDUAL.
THIS IS THE ORIGINAL, AUTHENTIC, FIRST U.S. PRESSING THIS IS NOT A REISSUE, AN IMPORT, OR A COUNTERFEIT PRESSING.
ORIGINAL, THICK CARDBOARD COVER AMERICAN STYLE
ORIGINAL LAMINATED COVER
THICK, HEAVY VINYL PRESSING
PLEASE SEE THE IMAGE OF THE COVER, LABEL OR BOTH, SHOWN BELOW
Note: this is a REAL image of the ACTUAL item you are bidding on. This is NOT a recycled image from our previous auction. What you see is what you ll get. GUARANTEED
Chuck Berry s first album boasts a picture of him lifted from his appearance in the 1956-vintage rock roll movie Rock, Rock, Rock -- it s a daring pose if you look closely, the singer/guitarist/songwriter captured at his most animated, in what was a pretty bold pose for a black artist in an interracial movie, strutting and duck-walking across the screen with his guitar at full...exposure. That said, bold as the movie appearance was and the pose that was reflected in its cover, After School Session came out fairly late, given that his first hit, Maybellene, dated from the summer of 1955. This was partly owing to the sheer novelty of rock roll LPs -- during that period, only a relative handful reached the public, and a significant portion of those were the work of Elvis Presley or Bill Haley, whose associations with the gigantic RCA Victor and Decca labels, respectively, put them in virtually a separate universe from everyone else in the field, especially Berry, recording for the tiny independent Chess label. Chess Records hadn t even issued its first LP until the end of 1956, and that album, the soundtrack LP Rock, Rock, Rock, had included Maybellene. After School Session was only the label s second-ever long-player, and its timing was predicated on the fact that, after Maybellene, the rock roll legend hadn t charted another major pop hit in almost two years though he had generated some serious RB hits, which are included here, among them the blues Wee Wee Hours -- which was what Berry originally purported to represent as his sound -- and the more rhythm-oriented No Money Down and Brown Eyed Handsome Man .
It was the release and hit status of School Day in the early spring of 1957 that yielded this album, which is a brilliant compendium of the range, depth, and breadth of Berry s music across his first two years as a recording artist. The sounds ranged from the pounding, jargon-laden teen-oriented beat of School Day through those RB and blues classics to the moody instrumental Deep Feeling the Latin-flavored, Calypso-influenced Havana Moon the slow, romantic ballad Together We ll Always Be , which showed Berry working in a 40s RB-pop mode similar to the music of the Ink Spots, and attempting a Nat King Cole style of soft singing his more successful effort in that ballad vein, Drifting Heart and the mysterious, ominous, darkly shimmering Down Bound Train, which could almost have been Berry s and black music s answer to Ghost Riders in the Sky.
REVIEW REPRINTED COURTESY OF BRUCE EDER, ALL MUSIC GUIDE /ALLMUSIC.COM/
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CONDITION:
RECORD
IMPORTANT NOTE: unless otherwise noted, ALL records are graded visually, and NOT play-graded we grade records under the strong, diffuse room light or discrete sunlight
a WE GRADE THE VINYL AS NEAR MINT. Some VERY LIGHT AND SUPERFICIAL abrasions mostly sleeve scuffs - are barely visible, but are probably inaudible, and do not affect visual integrity or beauty of the vinyl. The original luster is very much intact, and the vinyl shines and sparkles almost like new.
b The record is pressed on a beautiful, thick, inflexible vinyl, which was usually used for the first or very early pressings. Usually, the sound on such thick vinyl pressings is full-bodied, vivid, and even dramatic. Do not expect to obtain such a majestic analog sound from a digital recording
c Mono pressing of this title is much rarer, and by far more preferable to its FAKE electronically rechannelled stereo counterpart. We estimate that FAKE stereo copies of this album outnumber monos by a ratio of at least 20:1.
d The record has a deep groove an indent in the label about 1/2-inch from the edge of the label, which on SOME labels is associated with very early or first pressings .
e Of course, this is a full-bodied ANALOG recording, and not an inferior, digital recording
COVER THIS IS THE ORIGINAL, LAMINATED, GLOSSY COVER :
THE COVER IS NICE --- ABOUT VERY GOOD VG .
The following flaws or imperfections are noted on the cover:
